This morning I went to a client consultation in Baltimore. While there we wandered for a bit around the Fell’s point district in addition to the neighborhood where the client’s property is (near John’s Hopkins Medical Center). I have to say, that my opinion of “Charm City” is not necessarily a good one.
This is my third trip to Baltimore, and while tourist areas like the Inner Harbor are clean and well maintained, I have a hard time liking them and the city as a whole. The clean-ness feels forced, especially in comparison to the rest of the city, which feels like the bastard child of Philadelphia and DC. The streets are wide like in DC, but there is very little green buffer between the buildings, the sidewalk and the street, like in Philadelphia. The neighborhoods and streets seem to quickly merge from one indistinct area to another, and while doing so they don’t really seem to retain any sort of character, unlike the distinct neighborhoods of DC. In Baltimore everything just feels grimy. This is not to say that the Fell’s point district wasn’t lovely. It just seems to not quite be lovely enough for such a posh neighborhood.
In addition, the Preservation movement and gentrification have come late to Baltimore. There are large parts of the city that seem destined to crumble in on themselves, and with the near housing collapse I have to wonder if these areas will ever get a revitalization boost. That is not to say that there isn’t architectural wonders to be found here, because there are. But they will need a good deal more rehabilitation than most areas of DC. This is not helped by the general lower standard of living in Baltimore than DC and the relatively poor mass transit system.
Maybe I just haven’t been in the right part of town.
I’d only add that the “bastard child” effect is only heightened by the intermarriage of Washington’s “Northern charm and Southern efficiency” with the general mean-spiritedness and grimy collapse of Philadelphia.
I have to agree with you. We went to the Fells Point festival thing yesterday, and it shocked me to see some of the seedy discount stores mixed in with the bars and restaurants and art galleries. Granted, I think Philly is a complete dump (I believe “Detroit with a Liberty Bell” is how I described it years ago), but Baltimore just doesn’t seem to be able to get its act together.