19 ms·

The Tragedy of Baltimore

180 points by laurex 8y ago

YinglingLight 8y ago
1. Many of the Freddie Gray protestors were not locals, they were bused in. 2. Police took a hands-off approach after Freddie Gray, causing a predictable increase in crime.
- khm 8y ago
  You're full of shit. I was a Freddie Gray protestor and I lived in the city. There wasn't a single bus from anywhere.
almost_usual 8y ago
>Baltimore City and St. Louis are the only cities in the country not part of a surrounding county and not counties in and of themselves >This fragmentation results in some stunning inefficiencies that have had a profoundly negative impact on the quality of life for residents in the St. Louis region. For example, not only do St. Louis County and City compete against each other for economic development, so do the 90 different municipalities. This results in massive corporate subsidies as municipalities try to outdo each other in order to attract businesses. http://www.cphabaltimore.org/2019/03/a-merger-between-baltimore-city-and-county/ http://www.cphabaltimore.org/2019/03/a-merger-between-baltim...
- beamatronic 8y ago
  That’s not exactly true. In Virginia, cities are not “in” a county. Towns might be, I am not sure.
  - christophclarke 8y ago
    Correct, cities in Virginia are independent [1]. Falls Church, for example, is an independent city, and has the governing power of a county, but is not in and of itself a "county" [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_city_(United_States) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_city_(United_State... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falls_Church,_Virginia#Government https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falls_Church,_Virginia#Governm...
  - i_am_proteus 8y ago
    While this is true, cities in Virginia have governing authority almost identical to counties. Schools, roads, police, &c.
    - CydeWeys 8y ago
      Is this different from Baltimore City though?
      - jrochkind1 8y ago
        Yes, and no. In general in the most overview sense, Baltimore City has governing authority of a county, it is effectively a county jurisdiction. However, Baltimore City actually has LESS autonomy over a variety of things than any other of the several cities I have previously lived in (even those which were in counties) -- the state government in Annapolis controls so many things that I'm used to being controlled much more at municipal level in other cities I've lived in. From liquor licenses, to schools, to the police department, many decisions are made at the state government legislative level. (The Baltimore City council has pretty much NO authority over the police at all -- it's all the state government in Annapolis). I don't think this is necessarily related to Baltimore City being an independent county-level jurisdiction (although it might be). I think there are a variety of historical factors, stretching back to colonial times (when the Maryland colonial elites were in Annapolis, and never intended Baltimore to be a big city or power center at all, and viewed Baltimore's growth as a threat to their power), to Civil War times (the majority of Maryland, and Baltimore, (white of course) elites sympathized with the confederacy, but the union federal government basically took control of the MD state government -- cause if Maryland went confederacy, DC would be surrounded -- and made sure that confederate-sympathizing Baltimore had limited autonomy), to more recent times (white flight, racism and white supremacy, white people don't believe majority-Black Baltimore can be trusted to run itself).
- dmix 8y ago
  I really hope corporate subsidies to businesses become a thing of the past.
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    They should be used to lift up communities that aren't doing well but then they should stop. For example, places New York that are already doing well should never offer subsidies. I guess this should be a general principle. Give subsidies only to entities who need them and take them away once things are better,.
    - lotsofpulp 8y ago
      Why not just spend money from tax receipts to lift up communities instead of giving this easily corruptible power to people?
      - maxxxxx 8y ago
        It's probably the same in the end.
- sureaboutthis 8y ago
  This is why so many articles pick up on "the most dangerous cities" and St. Louis leads the pack but most of these "news" articles are oblivious to the city/county division. Most of the residents who would call themselves St. Louisans do not live in the city of St. Louis but do live in one of the 90 municipalities within St. Louis county--as I do. However, most of the crime statistics come within only the much smaller city limits. There is a movement now to combine the city with the county which would make St. Louis the ninth largest city in America. Crime statistics, obviously, would no longer be headline "news" for tabloid journalism.
cmrivers 8y ago
I live in Baltimore City and have to agree that it's troubled. Another thing that makes it difficult for the city to thrive is the abysmal schools. Middle schools and high schools are not assigned by neighborhood, but instead by a match system. In theory this offers opportunities for children in low-income neighborhoods that would otherwise have a too-small tax base for their local schools. In practice, it means nearly all city schools are horrible. "One-third of Baltimore High Schools in 2016 had zero students proficient in math. [0]" and "In fourth- and eighth-grade reading, only 13 percent of city students are considered proficient or advanced. In fourth-grade math, 14 percent were proficient and in eighth-grade math 11 percent met the mark. [1]" Even living in the nicer, lower-crime neighborhoods isn't enough for families if the school options are untenable. [0] https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-rr-student-test-scores-letter-20180410-story.html https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-... [1] https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/k-12/bs-md-nations-report-card-20180409-story.html https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/k-12/bs...
- throwaway6734 8y ago
  > Middle schools and high schools are not assigned by neighborhood. Also live in bmore. I think this is only for select top high schools like poly and is based on middle school grades and standardized test. Agree tho that schools r shit.
  - cmrivers 8y ago
    All city high schools are assigned by choice/match. I think with middle schools it varies. https://www.baltimorecityschools.org/high-school-choice https://www.baltimorecityschools.org/high-school-choice
    - eitally 8y ago
      FWIW, this is the same as San Francisco: https://www.kqed.org/news/11641238/how-the-san-francisco-school-lottery-works-and-how-it-doesnt-2 https://www.kqed.org/news/11641238/how-the-san-francisco-sch...
maxxxxx 8y ago
I lived near Baltimore until 2012. Back then they were on an upward path. Pretty sad to hear that things have gone down again. It also shows how fragile improvements are. they can get lost quickly.
mjfl 8y ago
"They also gave rise to Martin O’Malley, a city councilman who was elected mayor on an anti-crime platform in 1999. O’Malley set about implementing what was then known as the New York model: zero tolerance for open-air drug markets, data-centric “CompStat” meetings to track crime and hold police commanders accountable and more resources for law enforcement paired with tougher discipline for officers who abused their power. By the time O’Malley, a Democrat, was elected governor of Maryland in 2006, crime rates, including murders, had fallen across the board" Geez, for how maligned it is, broken window policing seems to work - causally so. In this case, put it in and murder rates go down, take it out and murder rates go up.
- stonogo 8y ago
  I lived there then. The fallen crime rates got him elected, because his campaign was extremely effective in handwaving away the fact that national crime statistics had also fallen at approximately the same rates. It's a cautionary tale in interpreting results in a vacuum.
- tptacek 8y ago
  A fairly detailed review of the evidence for broken windows policing: https://cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/what-works-in-policing/research-evidence-review/broken-windows-policing/ https://cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/what-works-in-poli... It's a lot more complicated than "put it in, murders down, take it out, murders up".
- ch4s3 8y ago
  You can look at a basket of cities throughout the 90s across NA and Europe and they all have comparable decreases in crime regardless of their use of « Broken Windows » policing.
- Marazan 8y ago
  How did crime rates move in cities not using broken window theory policing?
  - lenticular 8y ago
patorjk 8y ago
> She described how bewildering it had been to accompany a friend downtown, near the tourist-friendly Inner Harbor, one night a few months earlier. “The lighting was so bright. People had scooters. They had bikes. They had babies in strollers. And I said: ‘What city is this? This is not Baltimore City.’ Because if you go up to Martin Luther King Boulevard” — the demarcation between downtown and the west side — “we’re all bolted in our homes, we’re locked down.” She paused for a moment to deliver her point. “All any of us want is equal protection,” she said. This rings pretty true to me. The past few months I've taken walks around the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, and Federal Hill in the mornings, and it has never felt unsafe. When I've ventured into other parts of the city it's like I've entered a different world. Also, as an aside, you can get a feel for how safe various areas of the city are by checking out the Baltimore Homicides Map: https://homicides.news.baltimoresun.com/ https://homicides.news.baltimoresun.com/
- twodayslate 8y ago
  Could this be due to the inequalities or demographic differences between the different neighborhoods? https://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-graphic-mapping-inequalities-in-baltimores-neighborhoods-20150504-htmlstory.html https://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-graphic-mapping-inequalitie... http://graphics.wsj.com/baltimore-demographics/ http://graphics.wsj.com/baltimore-demographics/
  - gk1 8y ago
    Yes, of course. In Baltimore there's an area called "the white 'L'", and another area called "the black butterfly," describing how the demographics are shaped throughout the city.
  - roenxi 8y ago
    Inequality has to a symptom of something deeper. It is simply unreasonable to think that my neighbor being 100x as wealthy as me could inspire me to a life of crime. Inequality is just as much a symptom of health as it is sickness in the system - everyone is equal if there is no wealth and everybody is eating dirt. If "inequality" is a euphemism for social stratification it should be called as such, or a pithy word found. Not being able to access wealth through hard work is a huge problem.
dx87 8y ago
Another problem with Baltimore is that the crime starts to leak out into the surrounding counties, so the effective crime rate is actually higher than what is reported for the city. Public transit was added that travels between Baltimore and some malls in the surrounding counties, causing areas that previously had little or no crime to experiencing an increase in break-ins and a couple of murders. You end up with counties trying to shut down the bus and train stations because the residents are tired of people from Baltimore riding out of the city, robbing stores and homes, then hopping back on the train to get away. It's obviously not everyone using the public transport, but it's enough that I don't go to the same malls I used to.
- gamblor956 8y ago
  Baltimore must have wonderful public transportation if criminals are able to use it to make their getaways. In most places you'd need your own car for that sort of escape...
  - Spooky23 8y ago
    Classic suburbia perception. When I lived in a place with a similar thought process, they were putting undercover cops on busses to find the (black) high school kids burglarizing homes during the day. It ended up being a methhead painter who grew up in the neighborhood.
  - web007 8y ago
    I can't speak to murders or other violent crime, but it was called the Loot Rail because of the prevalence of shoplifting after the line was opened into the suburbs.
    - SamReidHughes 8y ago
      Even without a train line, I know of a dry suburban township that got a Walmart -- and its crime rate got much larger just because of all the people driving from out of town shopping at the Walmart.
thorwasdfasdf 8y ago
I watched a documentary about Drug dealers and smugglers operating in Baltimore. They interviewed one dealer who said, ever since Freddie Grays incident and the riots, the city has been busy passing laws that make Crime overall and selling drugs much easier. One of his favorite new laws said that Police couldn't do undercover sting operations anymore. He said the drug business is booming.
- crankylinuxuser 8y ago
  Hmm. So would legalization stamp out most of the problems? If possessing/using drugs weren't a crime, then people would have less to say "I'm already breaking the law, fuck it" You'd knock out most organized crime cause you cut their money from them. If the city was willing to sell at cost (seriously, morphine and oxy isn't expensive to make at all), it would also destroy that economy, and potentially free some back in the hands of the people. And at the bottom, it also looks to me is poverty and suffering, and people using drugs to buy a short while not thinking about it.
  - peterwwillis 8y ago
    No, illegal drugs are just a small part of the problem. If every drug were legal there tomorrow you'd still have entire communities that have no access to a good education, healthy food, jobs, transportation, or affordable housing. Imagine an impoverished village in a 3rd world country, no natural resources, and constant violent tribal disputes. Whether drugs are legal there or not doesn't make a huge difference.
  - 5166cc9c39fa61 8y ago
    > If the city was willing to sell at cost (seriously, morphine and oxy isn't expensive to make at all), it would also destroy that economy, and potentially free some back in the hands of the people. There is a proposal for heroin buyers clubs in British Columbia that has a lot of support: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/heroin-buyers-club-safe-supply-1.5027479 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/heroin-buyer... Legalization not only cuts down crime (from both drug dealers and drug addicts), it prevents overdose deaths and reduces occurrences of medical emergencies and hospitalizations. The city can also collect taxes on the drugs.
cromwellian 8y ago
I grew up in Baltimore City, born in the 70s. Up until the drug war in the 80s, it was a multiracial working class city. I lived near "Pigtown" one of the poorer areas, but I was never afraid to go out at night. During the summer months when it was hot and humid, I'd sleep during the day, and friends and I would sneak out and walk all over the city in the middle of the night, we were only 11-12 years old. Yes, we hung out on the stairs of our row houses, and on the corners of the streets, and played radios loud, but by and large, violence was confined mostly to bullying. In fact, we had often walked down Pratt street past Martin Luther King Boulevard with no problem from the people living in the projects. Things changed after the drug war started in the 80s. I started experiencing shootings. Kids got shot at my school. I'd hear gunshots all during the night. I even got caught up in a shootout at one point, which sounded like firecrackers going off if it wasn't for the sounds of bullets ricocheting off of the brick houses (thank god old Baltimore rowhouses had real brick facades) Many of my childhood friends became drug addicts, crack houses sprung up around my home. One of the friends I knew who I thought would graduate highschool and college, who was smart and into electronics, ended up as the neighborhood drug kingpin. Older neighbors and others who could, fled the city for the suburbs. Homes were boarded out, and soon, it looked like Mad Max. Our house sprouted bars on the windows. If it hadn't been for my 300 baud vic-modem and Vic-20/C64, I wouldn't have gotten off the streets. I mostly survived by vanishing into the online world, and staying in libraries, and avoiding the streets. To me, the war against crack cocaine is what leveled Baltimore. Not the drug itself, if the government had treated it as a public health problem, things might have turned out better. But the drug war only served to make drugs the most lucrative, most important part of the local economy, and for the losers in that economy, the dopamine it provided became an escape from despair.
- yters 8y ago
  It's curious the difference in response to the current "opioid epidemic". Where is the police crackdown in this case?
  - cromwellian 8y ago
    There's a huge differential in the way the criminal justice system handled black people's drugs (crack), and cocaine (rich man's aspirin). A few rocks of crack got you an arrest with jail time, repeat 3 times, and a fatherless home is created with a new felon in the system. But white professionals who did coke? Slap on the wrist unless they were possessing huge amounts. I don't think it's a stretch to say that the criminal justice system is biased against the poor, and exceptionally biased against poor minorities. Since Baltimore demographics are heavily represented by minorities, it's no surprise things happening differently there vs Appalachia.
peterwwillis 8y ago
This article makes it out like the riots kick-started a new wave of violence. But homicides there had been tracking among the highest in the nation (nee the world) for a decade or more. The article won't give you a deep understanding of the problems Baltimore has been facing, but it's a good recap if you were already in the know. By the way, that whole tangent about whether it should have been called 'unrest' or 'riots' is a false premise. Some of the people were lashing out against the police and symbols of injustice. And then there was the public housing old folks home that burnt to the ground. Or the old lady attacked by an intruder trying to steal a TV. Or the pharmacies that got raided by gangs to score cheap pills, and the subsequent mini-war after the plunge in black market prices. Or the firefighters who were pummeled by bricks and concrete while trying to put out the blazes. Some people were lashing out against a corrupt system, and some just wanted to burn the city down. When my friends were getting attacked in their homes and their cars destroyed on the street, my sympathy for those particular participants evaporated. But even considering all that, I strongly feel our society has completely abandoned a vulnerable population, and fed the flames of conflict that arise when people can barely survive.
qpotlpus 8y ago
This is a remarkably balanced and powerful piece of journalism. Kudos to the reporter and The NY Times here.
slowhand09 8y ago
I used to like Baltimore. I'd take out-of-town company there. I'd take dates to the comedy clubs, pubs, eateries. Years later I worked in Baltimore, also at T. Rowe Price. 4 blocks up from the Inner Harbor, my friend was mugged at an ATM two times in two weeks. I had friends who starting keeping guns in their cars. We'd walk to the Harbor during the day. It felt safe then. Evenings, not so much. The squeegee boyz started harassing you if you stopped at a traffic light. "Give us money to wash your windows" they demanded. You'd nod "no" and they'd start anyway. Soon you figured to pay them Not to wash your windows. If they did wash them, they worse than bad. My friends and I stopped going to any of the bars or restaurants downtown, venturing out only in groups. Same with going to Orioles games, only in groups. My one friend is selling the townhouse he's owned for 25 yrs. He lived elsewhere, kept it rented, but had to renovate every 2 years when deadbeat tenants were finally evicted. He figures he lost $95k in lost rent, legal fees, and renovation. Thats doing the work himself. He figures he should have abandoned it 15yrs ago. I only go to Baltimore now when absolutely necessary, like a visit to Hopkins or such. I feel bad for the residents. And I feel bad for the police. Regarding the extra protection the Inner Harbor and maybe the casino gets, the taxes they pay are a huge part of what supports the city. One more thing - not trying to start a political fight. Baltimore has only had 4 Republican mayors in the last 100 years. Maybe something isn't working ideologically. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Baltimore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Baltimore
- vbtemp 8y ago
  > Baltimore has only had 4 Republican mayors in the last 100 years. Maybe something isn't working ideologically. I'll be downvoted to hell for saying this, but what you point out is an inconvenient truth. Nearly fifty years of blight and desolation, at what point does the other party get a shot? In places like this the Democrats are just a crooked patronage network.. both the source of and solution to their resident's problems... Look at Maryland in general, they elected possibly the most moderate and centrist republican in the nation, and is generally respected across the spectrum. I wonder what would happen if one of these types had a term in the mayor's office. I grew up near Baltimore and go through frequently. It's such a shame that what should be such a historic and interesting is so blighted. There are so many beautiful 19th-20th architectural gems that could provide it with so much character and liveliness, not to mention and proud community
jrochkind1 8y ago
Baltimore is totally routinely unsafe for a great many people who spend time there. I think it's important to remember that it's actually LEAST safe for the people who have LEAST power. Mostly poor Black people, or people in poor Black neighborhoods. As the article hints at, with people who live in poor Black neighborhoods saying they are amazed that the tourist/professional inner harbor is a "normal" place to walk around, while they're scared to go outside where they live. MOST violence is between people who know each other, often drug trade related. Those with the least social power have the LEAST ability to protect themselves from routine violence. Which isn't to say it's not also unsafe even for the powerful. It's like the opposite of "trickle down" though. Trickle up. I think sometimes the powerful can forget that however unsafe they feel, most poor people in poor neighborhoods in Baltimore (and most poor neighborhoods are Black neighborhoods) are EVEN LESS SAFE. The powerful can make it an "us and them" thing, they think they need to defend themselves against the poor and Black, who are criminals. In fact, Baltimore has, for years, been run for the comfort and benefit of people and groups that are already the most powerful. Like probably most cities in the U.S., but Baltimore has it bad. It sometimes seems like the comfort and safety of professional mostly white people is the only thing the city government cares about. (It is a mystery to me why some kind of accountability to the majority population doesn't seem to be necessary for electoral victory by politicians). That's what got us into this, it's not gonna get us out. You can't abandon most of the city to a post-apocalyptic wasteland and not even think about them, and not have it effect the powerful too. (Of course even if it didn't, it would be morally repellent. But it doesn't work that way, chickens come home to roost). This is why rich people in the third world generally live behind walls with armed guards and don't go out in 'ordinary' neighborhoods -- Baltimore is a warning of how the whole U.S. will be if we keep going in third world directions of distribution of wealth and power between the rich who have it all and the poor who have nothing. Can't we figure out to treat everyone as humans instead? I don't think technocratic solutions are going to do it, it's not about who has the best "anti-violence program", it's about integrating the disenfranchised into the economy (jobs) and political power structures, so their neighborhoods aren't like places where society has collapsed Mad Max style. There's no way you can live in (OR next to) such a neighborhood and be safe, and there's no way you can recover such a neighborhood with just the application of an occupying police army, the problem is it's ALREADY a war zone, it doesn't need more fighters (who in Baltimore are INCREDIBLY corrupt and untrustworthy too. Seriously Mad Max over here).
mymythisisthis 8y ago
Something cultural happened in the 1980s, I think across N.America. From my perspective, Atari and then, Nintendo killed playgrounds. Culture split into urbran, grunge, and pop. It was weird generation to be in. The Baby Boomers were all settling into their careers (mid-career to retirement). Their children all hitting their teens about the same time 80s/90s. The population was growing older, and quickly. As the two main groups, Boomers, and Gen X, were both transitioning to more mature roles; mid-level managers and teens. The sense of utopia that younger people could feel in the 50s and 60s was gone. People, as a whole, started to worry about retirement. As people get older they get more conservative. As the Boomers left school, the money was cut. The new buildings in the 1950s had worn out. Their children now entering school now had their music programs cut, and saw the cracks in the walls. Everything was just grungy.
- crooked-v 8y ago
  > Something cultural happened in the 1980s, I think across N.America. Possibly also relevant is this graph: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/74298000/gif/_74298891_lead_crime_gra624.gif https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/74298000/gif/...
  - mymythisisthis 8y ago
    https://ktwop.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/baby-boomers.png https://ktwop.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/baby-boomers.png Birth rates for the last 100 years. You can exactly see the 1929, 1979 and 2008 economic crashes; just by observing birth rates. Sometimes we look for complexity, and overlook the boring demographic stats. We need to take demographics more seriously.
    - chocolatebunny 8y ago
      I can't really see anything in your graph that could relate to the 2008 economic crash. I mean, I guess there might be a tiny divot, but it looks pretty small.
    - deathanatos 8y ago
galazzah 8y ago
>>In hindsight, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the riot was probably avoidable — if Batts had had more officers at his disposal, if his officers had been better trained, if there hadn’t been the seeming overreaction to Monday’s swirling rumors. Or... If they didn't murder Freddy Gray.
- leetcrew 8y ago
  that's kinda like saying WWI could have been prevented if archduke ferdinand had taken a different route downtown. it might not have happened that day, but the powder keg was already primed and there are a lot of ways to spark it.
  - rovolo 8y ago
    Sure, if you're looking at the specific event. But you could consider Freddie Gray part of a trend. Maybe the keg wouldn't have caught fire if we hadn't kept putting gunpowder in it?
    - leetcrew 8y ago
      I do consider Freddie Gray part of a trend, a trend that's been going on for a long time in this city. All I'm saying is a keg that's been stuffed full of powder for decades didn't go off just because they killed one guy.
entwife 8y ago
One helpful survival tactic in Baltimore is, if you are an outsider, make sure to nod and say Hello to the porch sitters, the older folks sitting outside on their steps chatting and keeping an eye on things. It gives one a friendly feeling. And, I've been steered away from trouble several times by friendly advice from the porch sitters.
jameane 8y ago
I haven't been to Baltimore, but this book, Ghettoside, tells a story about how the police in Watts and South Central LA, with their hands tied, tried to balance policing, justice and community engagement. So much similarity to what is happening in B'more. Good read. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/11434259/Ghettoside-exclusive-extract-from-the-devastating-true-story-of-LA-crime-race-and-intimidation.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/11434259/Ghettosid...
Golfkid2Gadfly 8y ago
There is a painful but telling postscript to the excellent article about the tragedy of crime in Baltimore and the ineffectiveness if not obliviousness of the city's mayor to stop it. Last night, March 11, during the three hours between 6 and 9 p.m. in Baltimore, four people were shot. This evening, March 12, within 24 hours of these shootings, Baltimore's Mayor, Catherine Pugh, is hosting a birthday party for herself and asking attendees for $6,000 for her re-election. What more is there to say!
utefan001 8y ago
Spaces (like wework) has 3 floors here. This area near Ravens Football stadium is definitely getting better. But it is one of the areas that the city cares about over other areas unfortunately. https://bit.ly/2XRl0fu https://bit.ly/2XRl0fu (google maps)
tomohawk 8y ago
The tragedy of Baltimore is that it has been run by a single party since forever. O'Malley is an exemplar of the kind of leadership the city has had: http://time.com/3841050/the-wires-david-simon-martin-omalley-baltimore-police/ http://time.com/3841050/the-wires-david-simon-martin-omalley...
Amendeson530 8y ago
Wow, great and sad article. I was born and raised in Baltimore. I went to OLGC, FSK 76 and Southern High. I knew pretty early on, after having had the opportunity to visit some other places, that I had to get out of Baltimore - not so much for the crime at the time - but for job opportunities. Otherwise I would be one of those guys I grew up around who graduate high school, get a job, buy a row house, get married, have a couple of kids, and stay put. That was not for me. Thankfully I joined the service out of high school and left. I actually got stationed in Baltimore but lived in the county. My family remained in Baltimore. While growing up, I lived through the 68 riots as well as the inner harbor revitalization. I used to, as part of my job in high school, go downtown to do deliveries and pick-ups (walking). Despite the new buildings going up, as mentioned in the article, if you went a couple of blocks either way, it was a completely different story. I heard a description once (I believe it was about London) that I always thought was appropriate for the Baltimore "renaissance": Like wearing a tuxedo over dirty underwear. I have not been back to Baltimore in years, and since my parents and siblings are gone there is no reason to ever go back. And with a crime rate like that, why would I? Why would anyone?
Shivetya 8y ago
Welcome to the follies of Democratic Party run cities. Where they control about every end of the process for decades, where the party is completely beholden to the Public Employee Unions, especially police but don't leave out educators and fire. When the same unions have rules in the contracts to insure good members can choose where not to work. where the politicians are only concerned about ribbon cutting, reelection, and money to their personal accounts and friends/relatives through PACs and government jobs. Where looking out for political power of your party and self come before those who vote for you.

180 points by laurex 8y ago

1. Many of the Freddie Gray protestors were not locals, they were bused in. 2. Police took a hands-off approach after Freddie Gray, causing a predictable increase in crime.

khm 8y ago
You're full of shit. I was a Freddie Gray protestor and I lived in the city. There wasn't a single bus from anywhere.

almost_usual 8y ago

>Baltimore City and St. Louis are the only cities in the country not part of a surrounding county and not counties in and of themselves >This fragmentation results in some stunning inefficiencies that have had a profoundly negative impact on the quality of life for residents in the St. Louis region. For example, not only do St. Louis County and City compete against each other for economic development, so do the 90 different municipalities. This results in massive corporate subsidies as municipalities try to outdo each other in order to attract businesses. http://www.cphabaltimore.org/2019/03/a-merger-between-baltimore-city-and-county/ http://www.cphabaltimore.org/2019/03/a-merger-between-baltim...

beamatronic 8y ago
That’s not exactly true. In Virginia, cities are not “in” a county. Towns might be, I am not sure.
- christophclarke 8y ago
  Correct, cities in Virginia are independent [1]. Falls Church, for example, is an independent city, and has the governing power of a county, but is not in and of itself a "county" [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_city_(United_States) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_city_(United_State... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falls_Church,_Virginia#Government https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falls_Church,_Virginia#Governm...
- i_am_proteus 8y ago
  While this is true, cities in Virginia have governing authority almost identical to counties. Schools, roads, police, &c.
  - CydeWeys 8y ago
    Is this different from Baltimore City though?
    - jrochkind1 8y ago
      Yes, and no. In general in the most overview sense, Baltimore City has governing authority of a county, it is effectively a county jurisdiction. However, Baltimore City actually has LESS autonomy over a variety of things than any other of the several cities I have previously lived in (even those which were in counties) -- the state government in Annapolis controls so many things that I'm used to being controlled much more at municipal level in other cities I've lived in. From liquor licenses, to schools, to the police department, many decisions are made at the state government legislative level. (The Baltimore City council has pretty much NO authority over the police at all -- it's all the state government in Annapolis). I don't think this is necessarily related to Baltimore City being an independent county-level jurisdiction (although it might be). I think there are a variety of historical factors, stretching back to colonial times (when the Maryland colonial elites were in Annapolis, and never intended Baltimore to be a big city or power center at all, and viewed Baltimore's growth as a threat to their power), to Civil War times (the majority of Maryland, and Baltimore, (white of course) elites sympathized with the confederacy, but the union federal government basically took control of the MD state government -- cause if Maryland went confederacy, DC would be surrounded -- and made sure that confederate-sympathizing Baltimore had limited autonomy), to more recent times (white flight, racism and white supremacy, white people don't believe majority-Black Baltimore can be trusted to run itself).
dmix 8y ago
I really hope corporate subsidies to businesses become a thing of the past.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  They should be used to lift up communities that aren't doing well but then they should stop. For example, places New York that are already doing well should never offer subsidies. I guess this should be a general principle. Give subsidies only to entities who need them and take them away once things are better,.
  - lotsofpulp 8y ago
    Why not just spend money from tax receipts to lift up communities instead of giving this easily corruptible power to people?
    - maxxxxx 8y ago
      It's probably the same in the end.
sureaboutthis 8y ago
This is why so many articles pick up on "the most dangerous cities" and St. Louis leads the pack but most of these "news" articles are oblivious to the city/county division. Most of the residents who would call themselves St. Louisans do not live in the city of St. Louis but do live in one of the 90 municipalities within St. Louis county--as I do. However, most of the crime statistics come within only the much smaller city limits. There is a movement now to combine the city with the county which would make St. Louis the ninth largest city in America. Crime statistics, obviously, would no longer be headline "news" for tabloid journalism.

cmrivers 8y ago

I live in Baltimore City and have to agree that it's troubled. Another thing that makes it difficult for the city to thrive is the abysmal schools. Middle schools and high schools are not assigned by neighborhood, but instead by a match system. In theory this offers opportunities for children in low-income neighborhoods that would otherwise have a too-small tax base for their local schools. In practice, it means nearly all city schools are horrible. "One-third of Baltimore High Schools in 2016 had zero students proficient in math. [0]" and "In fourth- and eighth-grade reading, only 13 percent of city students are considered proficient or advanced. In fourth-grade math, 14 percent were proficient and in eighth-grade math 11 percent met the mark. [1]" Even living in the nicer, lower-crime neighborhoods isn't enough for families if the school options are untenable. [0] https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-rr-student-test-scores-letter-20180410-story.html https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-... [1] https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/k-12/bs-md-nations-report-card-20180409-story.html https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/k-12/bs...

throwaway6734 8y ago
> Middle schools and high schools are not assigned by neighborhood. Also live in bmore. I think this is only for select top high schools like poly and is based on middle school grades and standardized test. Agree tho that schools r shit.
- cmrivers 8y ago
  All city high schools are assigned by choice/match. I think with middle schools it varies. https://www.baltimorecityschools.org/high-school-choice https://www.baltimorecityschools.org/high-school-choice
  - eitally 8y ago
    FWIW, this is the same as San Francisco: https://www.kqed.org/news/11641238/how-the-san-francisco-school-lottery-works-and-how-it-doesnt-2 https://www.kqed.org/news/11641238/how-the-san-francisco-sch...

maxxxxx 8y ago

I lived near Baltimore until 2012. Back then they were on an upward path. Pretty sad to hear that things have gone down again. It also shows how fragile improvements are. they can get lost quickly.

mjfl 8y ago

"They also gave rise to Martin O’Malley, a city councilman who was elected mayor on an anti-crime platform in 1999. O’Malley set about implementing what was then known as the New York model: zero tolerance for open-air drug markets, data-centric “CompStat” meetings to track crime and hold police commanders accountable and more resources for law enforcement paired with tougher discipline for officers who abused their power. By the time O’Malley, a Democrat, was elected governor of Maryland in 2006, crime rates, including murders, had fallen across the board" Geez, for how maligned it is, broken window policing seems to work - causally so. In this case, put it in and murder rates go down, take it out and murder rates go up.

stonogo 8y ago
I lived there then. The fallen crime rates got him elected, because his campaign was extremely effective in handwaving away the fact that national crime statistics had also fallen at approximately the same rates. It's a cautionary tale in interpreting results in a vacuum.
tptacek 8y ago
A fairly detailed review of the evidence for broken windows policing: https://cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/what-works-in-policing/research-evidence-review/broken-windows-policing/ https://cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/what-works-in-poli... It's a lot more complicated than "put it in, murders down, take it out, murders up".
ch4s3 8y ago
You can look at a basket of cities throughout the 90s across NA and Europe and they all have comparable decreases in crime regardless of their use of « Broken Windows » policing.
Marazan 8y ago
How did crime rates move in cities not using broken window theory policing?
- lenticular 8y ago

patorjk 8y ago

> She described how bewildering it had been to accompany a friend downtown, near the tourist-friendly Inner Harbor, one night a few months earlier. “The lighting was so bright. People had scooters. They had bikes. They had babies in strollers. And I said: ‘What city is this? This is not Baltimore City.’ Because if you go up to Martin Luther King Boulevard” — the demarcation between downtown and the west side — “we’re all bolted in our homes, we’re locked down.” She paused for a moment to deliver her point. “All any of us want is equal protection,” she said. This rings pretty true to me. The past few months I've taken walks around the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, and Federal Hill in the mornings, and it has never felt unsafe. When I've ventured into other parts of the city it's like I've entered a different world. Also, as an aside, you can get a feel for how safe various areas of the city are by checking out the Baltimore Homicides Map: https://homicides.news.baltimoresun.com/ https://homicides.news.baltimoresun.com/

twodayslate 8y ago
Could this be due to the inequalities or demographic differences between the different neighborhoods? https://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-graphic-mapping-inequalities-in-baltimores-neighborhoods-20150504-htmlstory.html https://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-graphic-mapping-inequalitie... http://graphics.wsj.com/baltimore-demographics/ http://graphics.wsj.com/baltimore-demographics/
- gk1 8y ago
  Yes, of course. In Baltimore there's an area called "the white 'L'", and another area called "the black butterfly," describing how the demographics are shaped throughout the city.
- roenxi 8y ago
  Inequality has to a symptom of something deeper. It is simply unreasonable to think that my neighbor being 100x as wealthy as me could inspire me to a life of crime. Inequality is just as much a symptom of health as it is sickness in the system - everyone is equal if there is no wealth and everybody is eating dirt. If "inequality" is a euphemism for social stratification it should be called as such, or a pithy word found. Not being able to access wealth through hard work is a huge problem.

dx87 8y ago

Another problem with Baltimore is that the crime starts to leak out into the surrounding counties, so the effective crime rate is actually higher than what is reported for the city. Public transit was added that travels between Baltimore and some malls in the surrounding counties, causing areas that previously had little or no crime to experiencing an increase in break-ins and a couple of murders. You end up with counties trying to shut down the bus and train stations because the residents are tired of people from Baltimore riding out of the city, robbing stores and homes, then hopping back on the train to get away. It's obviously not everyone using the public transport, but it's enough that I don't go to the same malls I used to.

gamblor956 8y ago
Baltimore must have wonderful public transportation if criminals are able to use it to make their getaways. In most places you'd need your own car for that sort of escape...
- Spooky23 8y ago
  Classic suburbia perception. When I lived in a place with a similar thought process, they were putting undercover cops on busses to find the (black) high school kids burglarizing homes during the day. It ended up being a methhead painter who grew up in the neighborhood.
- web007 8y ago
  I can't speak to murders or other violent crime, but it was called the Loot Rail because of the prevalence of shoplifting after the line was opened into the suburbs.
  - SamReidHughes 8y ago
    Even without a train line, I know of a dry suburban township that got a Walmart -- and its crime rate got much larger just because of all the people driving from out of town shopping at the Walmart.

thorwasdfasdf 8y ago

I watched a documentary about Drug dealers and smugglers operating in Baltimore. They interviewed one dealer who said, ever since Freddie Grays incident and the riots, the city has been busy passing laws that make Crime overall and selling drugs much easier. One of his favorite new laws said that Police couldn't do undercover sting operations anymore. He said the drug business is booming.

crankylinuxuser 8y ago
Hmm. So would legalization stamp out most of the problems? If possessing/using drugs weren't a crime, then people would have less to say "I'm already breaking the law, fuck it" You'd knock out most organized crime cause you cut their money from them. If the city was willing to sell at cost (seriously, morphine and oxy isn't expensive to make at all), it would also destroy that economy, and potentially free some back in the hands of the people. And at the bottom, it also looks to me is poverty and suffering, and people using drugs to buy a short while not thinking about it.
- peterwwillis 8y ago
  No, illegal drugs are just a small part of the problem. If every drug were legal there tomorrow you'd still have entire communities that have no access to a good education, healthy food, jobs, transportation, or affordable housing. Imagine an impoverished village in a 3rd world country, no natural resources, and constant violent tribal disputes. Whether drugs are legal there or not doesn't make a huge difference.
- 5166cc9c39fa61 8y ago
  > If the city was willing to sell at cost (seriously, morphine and oxy isn't expensive to make at all), it would also destroy that economy, and potentially free some back in the hands of the people. There is a proposal for heroin buyers clubs in British Columbia that has a lot of support: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/heroin-buyers-club-safe-supply-1.5027479 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/heroin-buyer... Legalization not only cuts down crime (from both drug dealers and drug addicts), it prevents overdose deaths and reduces occurrences of medical emergencies and hospitalizations. The city can also collect taxes on the drugs.

cromwellian 8y ago

I grew up in Baltimore City, born in the 70s. Up until the drug war in the 80s, it was a multiracial working class city. I lived near "Pigtown" one of the poorer areas, but I was never afraid to go out at night. During the summer months when it was hot and humid, I'd sleep during the day, and friends and I would sneak out and walk all over the city in the middle of the night, we were only 11-12 years old. Yes, we hung out on the stairs of our row houses, and on the corners of the streets, and played radios loud, but by and large, violence was confined mostly to bullying. In fact, we had often walked down Pratt street past Martin Luther King Boulevard with no problem from the people living in the projects. Things changed after the drug war started in the 80s. I started experiencing shootings. Kids got shot at my school. I'd hear gunshots all during the night. I even got caught up in a shootout at one point, which sounded like firecrackers going off if it wasn't for the sounds of bullets ricocheting off of the brick houses (thank god old Baltimore rowhouses had real brick facades) Many of my childhood friends became drug addicts, crack houses sprung up around my home. One of the friends I knew who I thought would graduate highschool and college, who was smart and into electronics, ended up as the neighborhood drug kingpin. Older neighbors and others who could, fled the city for the suburbs. Homes were boarded out, and soon, it looked like Mad Max. Our house sprouted bars on the windows. If it hadn't been for my 300 baud vic-modem and Vic-20/C64, I wouldn't have gotten off the streets. I mostly survived by vanishing into the online world, and staying in libraries, and avoiding the streets. To me, the war against crack cocaine is what leveled Baltimore. Not the drug itself, if the government had treated it as a public health problem, things might have turned out better. But the drug war only served to make drugs the most lucrative, most important part of the local economy, and for the losers in that economy, the dopamine it provided became an escape from despair.

yters 8y ago
It's curious the difference in response to the current "opioid epidemic". Where is the police crackdown in this case?
- cromwellian 8y ago
  There's a huge differential in the way the criminal justice system handled black people's drugs (crack), and cocaine (rich man's aspirin). A few rocks of crack got you an arrest with jail time, repeat 3 times, and a fatherless home is created with a new felon in the system. But white professionals who did coke? Slap on the wrist unless they were possessing huge amounts. I don't think it's a stretch to say that the criminal justice system is biased against the poor, and exceptionally biased against poor minorities. Since Baltimore demographics are heavily represented by minorities, it's no surprise things happening differently there vs Appalachia.

peterwwillis 8y ago

This article makes it out like the riots kick-started a new wave of violence. But homicides there had been tracking among the highest in the nation (nee the world) for a decade or more. The article won't give you a deep understanding of the problems Baltimore has been facing, but it's a good recap if you were already in the know. By the way, that whole tangent about whether it should have been called 'unrest' or 'riots' is a false premise. Some of the people were lashing out against the police and symbols of injustice. And then there was the public housing old folks home that burnt to the ground. Or the old lady attacked by an intruder trying to steal a TV. Or the pharmacies that got raided by gangs to score cheap pills, and the subsequent mini-war after the plunge in black market prices. Or the firefighters who were pummeled by bricks and concrete while trying to put out the blazes. Some people were lashing out against a corrupt system, and some just wanted to burn the city down. When my friends were getting attacked in their homes and their cars destroyed on the street, my sympathy for those particular participants evaporated. But even considering all that, I strongly feel our society has completely abandoned a vulnerable population, and fed the flames of conflict that arise when people can barely survive.

qpotlpus 8y ago

This is a remarkably balanced and powerful piece of journalism. Kudos to the reporter and The NY Times here.

slowhand09 8y ago

I used to like Baltimore. I'd take out-of-town company there. I'd take dates to the comedy clubs, pubs, eateries. Years later I worked in Baltimore, also at T. Rowe Price. 4 blocks up from the Inner Harbor, my friend was mugged at an ATM two times in two weeks. I had friends who starting keeping guns in their cars. We'd walk to the Harbor during the day. It felt safe then. Evenings, not so much. The squeegee boyz started harassing you if you stopped at a traffic light. "Give us money to wash your windows" they demanded. You'd nod "no" and they'd start anyway. Soon you figured to pay them Not to wash your windows. If they did wash them, they worse than bad. My friends and I stopped going to any of the bars or restaurants downtown, venturing out only in groups. Same with going to Orioles games, only in groups. My one friend is selling the townhouse he's owned for 25 yrs. He lived elsewhere, kept it rented, but had to renovate every 2 years when deadbeat tenants were finally evicted. He figures he lost $95k in lost rent, legal fees, and renovation. Thats doing the work himself. He figures he should have abandoned it 15yrs ago. I only go to Baltimore now when absolutely necessary, like a visit to Hopkins or such. I feel bad for the residents. And I feel bad for the police. Regarding the extra protection the Inner Harbor and maybe the casino gets, the taxes they pay are a huge part of what supports the city. One more thing - not trying to start a political fight. Baltimore has only had 4 Republican mayors in the last 100 years. Maybe something isn't working ideologically. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Baltimore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Baltimore

vbtemp 8y ago
> Baltimore has only had 4 Republican mayors in the last 100 years. Maybe something isn't working ideologically. I'll be downvoted to hell for saying this, but what you point out is an inconvenient truth. Nearly fifty years of blight and desolation, at what point does the other party get a shot? In places like this the Democrats are just a crooked patronage network.. both the source of and solution to their resident's problems... Look at Maryland in general, they elected possibly the most moderate and centrist republican in the nation, and is generally respected across the spectrum. I wonder what would happen if one of these types had a term in the mayor's office. I grew up near Baltimore and go through frequently. It's such a shame that what should be such a historic and interesting is so blighted. There are so many beautiful 19th-20th architectural gems that could provide it with so much character and liveliness, not to mention and proud community

jrochkind1 8y ago

Baltimore is totally routinely unsafe for a great many people who spend time there. I think it's important to remember that it's actually LEAST safe for the people who have LEAST power. Mostly poor Black people, or people in poor Black neighborhoods. As the article hints at, with people who live in poor Black neighborhoods saying they are amazed that the tourist/professional inner harbor is a "normal" place to walk around, while they're scared to go outside where they live. MOST violence is between people who know each other, often drug trade related. Those with the least social power have the LEAST ability to protect themselves from routine violence. Which isn't to say it's not also unsafe even for the powerful. It's like the opposite of "trickle down" though. Trickle up. I think sometimes the powerful can forget that however unsafe they feel, most poor people in poor neighborhoods in Baltimore (and most poor neighborhoods are Black neighborhoods) are EVEN LESS SAFE. The powerful can make it an "us and them" thing, they think they need to defend themselves against the poor and Black, who are criminals. In fact, Baltimore has, for years, been run for the comfort and benefit of people and groups that are already the most powerful. Like probably most cities in the U.S., but Baltimore has it bad. It sometimes seems like the comfort and safety of professional mostly white people is the only thing the city government cares about. (It is a mystery to me why some kind of accountability to the majority population doesn't seem to be necessary for electoral victory by politicians). That's what got us into this, it's not gonna get us out. You can't abandon most of the city to a post-apocalyptic wasteland and not even think about them, and not have it effect the powerful too. (Of course even if it didn't, it would be morally repellent. But it doesn't work that way, chickens come home to roost). This is why rich people in the third world generally live behind walls with armed guards and don't go out in 'ordinary' neighborhoods -- Baltimore is a warning of how the whole U.S. will be if we keep going in third world directions of distribution of wealth and power between the rich who have it all and the poor who have nothing. Can't we figure out to treat everyone as humans instead? I don't think technocratic solutions are going to do it, it's not about who has the best "anti-violence program", it's about integrating the disenfranchised into the economy (jobs) and political power structures, so their neighborhoods aren't like places where society has collapsed Mad Max style. There's no way you can live in (OR next to) such a neighborhood and be safe, and there's no way you can recover such a neighborhood with just the application of an occupying police army, the problem is it's ALREADY a war zone, it doesn't need more fighters (who in Baltimore are INCREDIBLY corrupt and untrustworthy too. Seriously Mad Max over here).

mymythisisthis 8y ago

Something cultural happened in the 1980s, I think across N.America. From my perspective, Atari and then, Nintendo killed playgrounds. Culture split into urbran, grunge, and pop. It was weird generation to be in. The Baby Boomers were all settling into their careers (mid-career to retirement). Their children all hitting their teens about the same time 80s/90s. The population was growing older, and quickly. As the two main groups, Boomers, and Gen X, were both transitioning to more mature roles; mid-level managers and teens. The sense of utopia that younger people could feel in the 50s and 60s was gone. People, as a whole, started to worry about retirement. As people get older they get more conservative. As the Boomers left school, the money was cut. The new buildings in the 1950s had worn out. Their children now entering school now had their music programs cut, and saw the cracks in the walls. Everything was just grungy.

crooked-v 8y ago
> Something cultural happened in the 1980s, I think across N.America. Possibly also relevant is this graph: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/74298000/gif/_74298891_lead_crime_gra624.gif https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/74298000/gif/...
- mymythisisthis 8y ago
  https://ktwop.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/baby-boomers.png https://ktwop.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/baby-boomers.png Birth rates for the last 100 years. You can exactly see the 1929, 1979 and 2008 economic crashes; just by observing birth rates. Sometimes we look for complexity, and overlook the boring demographic stats. We need to take demographics more seriously.
  - chocolatebunny 8y ago
    I can't really see anything in your graph that could relate to the 2008 economic crash. I mean, I guess there might be a tiny divot, but it looks pretty small.
  - deathanatos 8y ago

galazzah 8y ago

>>In hindsight, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the riot was probably avoidable — if Batts had had more officers at his disposal, if his officers had been better trained, if there hadn’t been the seeming overreaction to Monday’s swirling rumors. Or... If they didn't murder Freddy Gray.

leetcrew 8y ago
that's kinda like saying WWI could have been prevented if archduke ferdinand had taken a different route downtown. it might not have happened that day, but the powder keg was already primed and there are a lot of ways to spark it.
- rovolo 8y ago
  Sure, if you're looking at the specific event. But you could consider Freddie Gray part of a trend. Maybe the keg wouldn't have caught fire if we hadn't kept putting gunpowder in it?
  - leetcrew 8y ago
    I do consider Freddie Gray part of a trend, a trend that's been going on for a long time in this city. All I'm saying is a keg that's been stuffed full of powder for decades didn't go off just because they killed one guy.

entwife 8y ago

One helpful survival tactic in Baltimore is, if you are an outsider, make sure to nod and say Hello to the porch sitters, the older folks sitting outside on their steps chatting and keeping an eye on things. It gives one a friendly feeling. And, I've been steered away from trouble several times by friendly advice from the porch sitters.

jameane 8y ago

I haven't been to Baltimore, but this book, Ghettoside, tells a story about how the police in Watts and South Central LA, with their hands tied, tried to balance policing, justice and community engagement. So much similarity to what is happening in B'more. Good read. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/11434259/Ghettoside-exclusive-extract-from-the-devastating-true-story-of-LA-crime-race-and-intimidation.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/11434259/Ghettosid...

Golfkid2Gadfly 8y ago

There is a painful but telling postscript to the excellent article about the tragedy of crime in Baltimore and the ineffectiveness if not obliviousness of the city's mayor to stop it. Last night, March 11, during the three hours between 6 and 9 p.m. in Baltimore, four people were shot. This evening, March 12, within 24 hours of these shootings, Baltimore's Mayor, Catherine Pugh, is hosting a birthday party for herself and asking attendees for $6,000 for her re-election. What more is there to say!

utefan001 8y ago

Spaces (like wework) has 3 floors here. This area near Ravens Football stadium is definitely getting better. But it is one of the areas that the city cares about over other areas unfortunately. https://bit.ly/2XRl0fu https://bit.ly/2XRl0fu (google maps)

tomohawk 8y ago

The tragedy of Baltimore is that it has been run by a single party since forever. O'Malley is an exemplar of the kind of leadership the city has had: http://time.com/3841050/the-wires-david-simon-martin-omalley-baltimore-police/ http://time.com/3841050/the-wires-david-simon-martin-omalley...

Amendeson530 8y ago

Wow, great and sad article. I was born and raised in Baltimore. I went to OLGC, FSK 76 and Southern High. I knew pretty early on, after having had the opportunity to visit some other places, that I had to get out of Baltimore - not so much for the crime at the time - but for job opportunities. Otherwise I would be one of those guys I grew up around who graduate high school, get a job, buy a row house, get married, have a couple of kids, and stay put. That was not for me. Thankfully I joined the service out of high school and left. I actually got stationed in Baltimore but lived in the county. My family remained in Baltimore. While growing up, I lived through the 68 riots as well as the inner harbor revitalization. I used to, as part of my job in high school, go downtown to do deliveries and pick-ups (walking). Despite the new buildings going up, as mentioned in the article, if you went a couple of blocks either way, it was a completely different story. I heard a description once (I believe it was about London) that I always thought was appropriate for the Baltimore "renaissance": Like wearing a tuxedo over dirty underwear. I have not been back to Baltimore in years, and since my parents and siblings are gone there is no reason to ever go back. And with a crime rate like that, why would I? Why would anyone?

Shivetya 8y ago

Welcome to the follies of Democratic Party run cities. Where they control about every end of the process for decades, where the party is completely beholden to the Public Employee Unions, especially police but don't leave out educators and fire. When the same unions have rules in the contracts to insure good members can choose where not to work. where the politicians are only concerned about ribbon cutting, reelection, and money to their personal accounts and friends/relatives through PACs and government jobs. Where looking out for political power of your party and self come before those who vote for you.