Quote:
Originally Posted by Poppinjay
Hence the Ravens.
It's a beautiful place, it's a god-forsaken hell-hole. Sounds like the conversations I have with people about eastern North Carolina.
I live a mile from the MD state line, so I should know more about Baltimore just from the media alone, but DC TV pretty much focuses on crime.
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Actually, it's both.
Downtown is gorgeous, and the surrounding neighborhoods are in their gentrification stages, but there are areas where you REALLY don't want to make a wrong turn. And it's worse at night.
I don't know what you are really looking for as issues. Really, its the same as most big cities.
- Crime and drugs, and the interrelation of the two.
- Urban poor vs. gentrification and redevelopment. Plus, the racial issues from one group being largely black and the other largely white.
- Increasing traffic and the lack of any decent mass transit (did you know Baltimore has a subway? Most people don't, because if you look it up, it's a single essentially worthless line.)
- Environmental issues, especially with so much of not just the economy but the very soul of the region based on the Chesapeake Bay.
Plus, there is a very heated political debate right now over the constitutional amendment on this year's ballot legalizing slots.
The city itself might have the best hospitals in the world (keep your violence jokes to yourself, please
); Johns Hopkins is the most well-known, but University of Maryland MC is great and others always end up on the top lists.
Johns Hopkins University (not affiliated with the hospital, which most don't realize) is a top college, and all of the UM's professional schools are in the city.
Not sure what else you want to hear
I wish you luck. This really is a nice city, and I can try to answer questions if you have them.