It's too close to other major cities to die off. As real estate prices drop, gentrification will start to take place from people that want to get more for their $ vs living in DC. It may never regain its full glory, but I doubt all hope is lost either.
I was looking back through older pages looking for a particular post and saw this one. In light of the recent Twitter war, I had a chuckle. Lock it you feel it needs to be.
In reply to captdownshift :
Are you with Under Armour Whiskey? For the life of me I can’t remember the name.
As someone who spent a lot of time working in the less pleasant parts of Baltimore none of my thoughts about the place are positive. The few places they throw assloads of cash at don't make up for the rest of it.
All I could think of was Hairspray. Not proud of that.
In reply to Daylan C :
Ricki Lake or the other one? Your answer will affect how much not proud you should have.
In reply to Grizz :
The 2007 version. It's bad enough I don't know if I'm brave enough to try the 1988 version.
In reply to Daylan C :
The 88 version would have been acceptable.
Randomly related note, Ricki Lake is a stone cold fox in her older age. It's strange.
In reply to AngryCorvair :
I'm with Baltimore Spirit Co.
Plank's company is Sagamore, one of us actually distills in Baltimore, the other has never blended mash in the state and ships barrels in from Indiana to age.
I have very little interaction with Baltimore but in the couple of times I've driven through it recently ( at night ) it seems to have far better bones than D.C.
Of course it doesn't have the patronage of 300 million taxpayers but neither does Fairfax and all the other rich ass suburbs.
Canton looked great if a little pokey.
Coming off a pkwy onto W. North Ave and N. Fulton St. I was struck by how majestic that area could be.
Instead it looked like a bombed out E36 M3-hole. I saw two cop cars on my way to Resevoir Hill ( looks great there ) which blew my mind coming from D.C. BTW I don't consider a single one of those armed security guards around the city to be cops despite what's on their cruisers.
There was however these little blue lights high up on every single block which I took to be crime cameras ( someone confirmed ).
Then the last time was again very late at night. I turned from a super sketch intersection where I attracted the attention of a drug dealer and turned onto Groveland Ave which I later googled to be in the West Arlington neighborhood.
It stunned me the size of these houses on large lots that would easily sell for over a million in D.C. on penny parcel lots.
On realtor.com houses for sale in that 'hood were around the $1/4 million mark tops and then in tip-top fully refurbished multi-bedroom/bathroom condition.
That's my limited take. Now I'm going to go back and read the other comments.
I don't hate the Orioles but I don't like lawyers. Angelos is a lawyer. I hope the team stays even though I ignore professional sports outside of Rallying. 
p.s. Matter of fact I regret staying in D.C. somewhat and will take a little time during the depths of winter to re-check Baltimore in detail.
In reply to bentwrench :
Someone tried this past week. Set app. 6 houses and trashcans on fire in West Baltimore. These were occupied houses. 
In reply to nutherjrfan :
Arson is a fun pass time in the city as of late, although a lot of the time it's done to cover up a more serious crime.
In reply to captdownshift :
PM’ing you now
I work in the Riverside/ Locust Point area of the city. Lots of beautiful, expensive new apartment buildings going up. So there's money here. Or at least the expectation of money.
Then again, some lady got mugged a few blocks from here the other day. She was pregnant, it was 1:30 in the afternoon, and the guy pulled what turned out to be a BB gun on her. 
i saw LA Guns at the original Hammerjack's. that may have been Baltimore's peak.
also, John (sp?) Waters is brilliant! I saw a magazine ad (IIRC advocating support for public libraries) that said something like:
Women of the world, if you want to solve illiteracy in our lifetime, please please please, if you go home with a guy and he doesn't have any books, don't berkeley him!
Baltimore has suffered many setbacks, none as bad as what happened in 1995. The Ravens and their roster of wife-beating and obnoxious players forced many people to flee their once-beloved city just to avoid being associated with the team. In 1997 alone, 12,000 people moved West to seek tech jobs and Terrible Towels.
I'm kidding our course, I love the Inner Harbor and Baltimore in general and it is truly sad to see what is happening. All I can say is that it reminds me of Pittsburgh in the 70's, I hope it looks like Pittsburgh today at some point in the not-to-distant future.
STM317 said:It's too close to other major cities to die off. As real estate prices drop, gentrification will start to take place from people that want to get more for their $ vs living in DC. It may never regain its full glory, but I doubt all hope is lost either.
I don't know the area at all so I just mapped it. Seems like only an hour from Baltimore to D.C. Heck, we have people commuting that far from Atlanta easily every day. Why aren't the D.C. folks snapping up Baltimore property left and right? I know a high price lawyer with an office in D.C and he lives 3+ hours away so he can keep his sailboat on a deepwater dock.
slefain said:.I don't know the area at all so I just mapped it. Seems like only an hour from Baltimore to D.C. Heck, we have people commuting that far from Atlanta easily every day. Why aren't the D.C. folks snapping up Baltimore property left and right?.
1 hour is probably doable at 8pm on a week night. But, it can take 4 hours to circuit halfway around the beltway during rush hour, and that’s not including dealing with all the NE yahoos blowing through on ‘95 to SC/FL
or snow. DC gets enough that it’ll Berkeley everything up if 6inches falls, the same way 1/2” of snow will in ATL
There is also the option of the train, MARC runs a commuter rail between Baltimore and DC. The train stations in Baltimore are generally packed on week days and they're expanding them and adding more service.
And these aren't pokey Amtrak trains. They hit 125 mph on a couple of stretches.
There's 7200 horsepower right there.
I got out of the Army in 2015 at Fort Meade and moved north into Baltimore. It's been interesting. I've met some of the most amazing people ever here. The arts and music scenes are wonderful (and I'm in a band myself so I appreciate that.) It's a great central location to go exploring around the country. There's so many genuine positives to Baltimore. I'm lucky enough to work in Fell's Point, on the water. My wife works by the aquarium. We have a favorite French restaurant that's only a 10 minute drive from home. Good times.
But we have had a string of extremely corrupt mayors that have done nothing to help the city, and our governor doesn't help either. The crime is so incredibly rampant - Baltimore has, in the past couple years, been voted the murder capital of America as well as the most dangerous city and Allstate Insurance voted Baltimore as the city with the worst drivers. The housing is extremely expensive up here, and the property taxes ridiculous - my monthly mortgage payment on my cheap house, almost half of it is property taxes. And unless you can afford $25K/year for a private school, the schools here are terrible. Many of the inner city schools get closed regularly because they don't have heat or a/c. My wife and I can't wait to leave here and move down to Florida.
I've read about Baltimore's upcoming tech boom but I don't think it'll help the city any. It'll make about 1,000 people richer, a handful of great jobs, and the rest of the city will still be crime and trash infested. And unless there's a big change with the leadership, I don't see things getting better for a long time. It's really a shame, because for all my negative words, I love this city. It's so beautiful. I bought a house here, I met my wife here, I formed a band here and got a record deal here, I've made my best friends ever here. But I have no future here. I will always miss Baltimore and the people, but I'll be very glad to leave.
I will say the B&O Railroad Museum is awesome if you like trains. Not cheap, but you’ll see locomotives there you won’t see anywhere else. You will get to see some of the less scenic areas getting there. Strangely, Towson (north of Baltimore inside the loop) is the county seat and a very nice area.
infinitenexus said:My wife and I can't wait to leave here and move down to Florida.
It must be bad..
I used to visit Baltimore as a kid. Had a really cool great uncle who had retired from Bethlehem Steel at Sparrows Point. Was a decent place back then.
Bring the jobs back, re-open Sparrows Point making American steel and ships like back in the heyday! That'd fix it up.
Last time I was in the Bethlehem Steel plant in Allentown, PA, it housed a casino. Won a few bucks that night. Ah, well.
In reply to slefain :
Because the smart ones buy a house on Kent Island.
I knew a cop that said Baltimore was great if you were okay with your house being broke into whilst at your job in D.C. 
You'll need to log in to post.
