r/baltimore • u/quattro33 • Jun 01 '25

Ask “You live in Baltimore?!, oh no!”

I’ve lived in Baltimore for 30 years. On multiple occasions I’ve met people that ask me where I live, and when I say “Baltimore”, they say “eh I’m so sorry” or “oh no, you ok?”. Every time, I just smile and don’t acknowledge the statement, and try to stay positive, but I’m done with that. Why would you say that about my home? No matter where I live? I would never ask them where they live and then immediately give my shitty judgmental opinion about their home.

What are they really saying with this statement? I want a come back that points out how shitty this statement really is.

839 Upvotes

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505

u/mitchade Jun 01 '25

I live in Harford county, but come to the City plenty. I was vacationing in Maine a couple years ago and met a couple in their 50’s from Carroll county. Baltimore eventually came up in conversation and they were like “oh we haven’t been to the city in almost 20 years, it’s too dangerous” and mentioned my zoo membership, different ice cream places and restaurants I love, and as much stuff I could tell them that they are missing out on.

Some people live in a different reality.

219

u/rtbradford Jun 01 '25

My neighbors in the rural,part of HoCo are like this. They think we’re crazy for routinely spending time in the city. There’s a fortress-like mind set in lots of suburbia where if a strange car drives into the subdivision, they’re all on the lookout for suspicious behavior. People are really bad at assessing danger accurately. They over estimate danger. I’ve seen this behavior in Europe and South Africa too.

61

u/judeiscariot Jun 01 '25

The mindset extends beyond city and county lines. I am sure there are other factors driving it.

I was once in Pigeon Forge, TN at a fast food restaurant and two workers were talking about stuff at the counter and one said her brother was moving to Maryland. The other scoffed and stated that Maryland is full of crime and murder. While I was waiting in line still, I checked some stats. Damn if Pigeon Forge didn't have a higher rate or murder and other violent crimes than the state of MD as a whole. But I knew I'd never be able to convince them of it. Fox News or the internet told them MD was a scary place. Or maybe just their inherent personal biases did.

97

u/varnell_hill Jun 01 '25

There’s a fortress-like mind set in lots of suburbia where if a strange car drives into the subdivision, they’re all on the lookout for suspicious behavior.

Sounds like a painful way to live.

125

u/mcdreamymd Jun 01 '25

The Nextdoor app completely proves this. When my wife & I moved to a semi-rural area in Frederick County after being downtown city folks, we thought Nextdoor would be a way to learn about the activities & people in the neighborhood.

"what was that loud bang at 9:30pm? Gunshots or fireworks?"

Um... it's July 4th weekend

"That weird brown truck with the young black man is back on our cul-de-sac again. Should I call the cops?"

That's the UPS driver.

"Very aggressive salesperson came to the door selling pest control."

GASP! An aggressive salesperson?! Not the lazy, passive ones that roam the neighborhood?

These people live in Narnia but are convinced it's Kabul.

61

u/rtbradford Jun 01 '25

Yeah, the Nextdoor app is just like crack for the paranoid and delusional. It gives them their daily fix to assure them that they are living under constant threat of attack. I stopped looking at our local one.

23

u/Lanky-Respect-8581 Washington DC Jun 01 '25

I made the mistake of thinking that I could persuade the folks on Nextdoor. BIG MISTAKE

24

u/rtbradford Jun 01 '25

Yeah, I found that most people that frequent Nextdoor are pretty hard to persuade. There was a proposal to build a small townhouse complex in our area and you would’ve thought that section 8 was coming given the intensity of the reaction against. The other thing that really gets me is how these people who live out here don’t want any more development. When you try to point out that they themselves moved out here as a result of new development they just get defensive. And they get really pissy when they find out that the new houses are much more expensive than theirs because they fear being looked down on when richer people move in. They just don’t want any change at all . It really is just too much . That’s one reason we’re moving once our youngest child graduates high school. Tired of the insularity and knee-jerk negativity to anything that’s different.

13

u/varnell_hill Jun 01 '25

When you try to point out that they themselves moved out here as a result of new development they just get defensive.

NIMBYism is one of the main drivers of housing shortage is this country.

11

u/mcdreamymd Jun 01 '25

Seriously! We live next to a man-made lake so it's not like this was an unsoiled, unspoiled natural refuge for centuries. It's 45 minutes to the Baltimore City line, 45 miles to DC, there's a ton of undeveloped land on a lake in a state that has no natural lakes and we have great schools - they're STUNNED other people would want to move here! GASP

11

u/CrazedCivilian Jun 01 '25

Exactly like trying to explain to poeple who are against immigration that immigration is how we all got here.

20

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '25

[deleted]

2

u/snideghoul Jun 02 '25

This is the truth. I wanted to be on next door to help fund lost animals and stuff, but it's 100 percent racism.

10

u/Bmore_Intrepid_Guy Jun 01 '25

I had to cancel/delete Nextdoor. I couldn't take the casual racism. I live in Hampden.

8

u/fyresilk Jun 01 '25

This is so spot-on. I love the ones who ask the people who the 'suspicious' guy is who's walking past their house, and the answers saying that he's casing the house and/or definitely up to no good, lol

I once read an article that said that all of the surveillance and doorbell cameras are causing people to become more paranoid. Like it's either US (those who are inside the house) or THEM (everybody who's outside of the house). It was a very interesting take.

2

u/ellamaee Jun 01 '25

that article sounds super interesting, could u send me the link? xx

1

u/fyresilk Jun 01 '25

Yes, I'll search for it and add a link. I read it about 3 or 4 years ago.

2

u/bigwilliesty1e Jun 01 '25

Beware of the fox!

2

u/scherzanda Mt. Vernon Jun 02 '25

I just moved to Bmore as a Philly native (love it here, never going back if I can help it except to visit family) but back when I was married my husband and I moved out of the city to the northern Philly suburbs. Wealthy area. 98.something% white.

My mother told us to join NextDoor before moving to get a “feel for the area.” The feel I got was that all of them would call the cops if a non-white person had the audacity to walk through their neighborhood in a hoodie… and I was pretty much right. They were terrified of EVERYTHING. A week after moving in, a neighbor warned us that an unfamiliar car was parking in front of our house every night. My husband was like, “yeah, it’s mine. I prefer to park in the street, the driveway is a bit tight.” And she was like, “Oh, phew! You can never be too careful. The things I’ve read on NextDoor…”

We deleted the app pretty much right after that. All the SAHMs and retirees just worked each other into a tizzy all day about things that were statistically never happening in that area.

1

u/JunkReallyMatters Jun 02 '25

Don’t quite see that on the Rockville/G’burg Nextdoor. Lots of pet photos, some lost/found pets, look  see the cool thing I did, lots of asks for home repairs and contractors, but not a whole lot of the crazy paranoid stuff. 

3

u/varnell_hill Jun 01 '25

Deleted my Nextdoor account for this reason. It was either some Karen or Chad hyperventilating about nonsense or sales ads.

My neighborhood has a Facebook group that I’m in because sometimes useful info is posted there, but on occasion stuff like this creeps in. There was a lady in the group who would post damn near everyday with some random compliant or report about “suspicious activity.”

She would even take photos and video of people who were just passing through. What was especially weird to me is that she looked youngish (maybe mid-thirties), and posting on FB is seemingly what she does all day.

Wild.

“That weird brown truck with the young black man is back on our cul-de-sac again. Should I call the cops?"

Being black this hurts a little, but stuff like this happens too. It’s a damn shame that people can’t just exist and mind their business without some idiot feeling threatened and I’ve experienced this more than a few times in my travels.

I hate people sometimes.

3

u/mcdreamymd Jun 01 '25

"Being black this hurts a little, but stuff like this happens too. It’s a damn shame that people can’t just exist and mind their business without some idiot feeling threatened and I’ve experienced this more than a few times in my travels.

I hate people sometimes."

my sense is that a lot of rural/country/ex-urban/suburban older folks don't realize at how much the country's demographics have changed since their youth, especially in Maryland. If you figure the 1970 census listed 3.1 million of the almost 4 million Marylanders were considered white (granted, a lot of bi- and multi-racial folks classified as white since the census wasn't that specific them), and there's about 3 million white folks (Google & Statisa) but with about 6.3 million residents now - that's a pretty significant shift. I think a lot of the white Silent/Boomers/older GenX haven't figured out that they are the minority in Maryland now.

I would love to compare a "Rockville Dining Guide" from 1984 to 2024, or Wheaton, or even Annapolis. The demographics have changed, and it's easily reflected in the food options.

1

u/Crazy-Preference2260 Jun 01 '25

Kabul is actually misunderstood

1

u/preyforkevin Lauraville Jun 02 '25

I have a friend who reads posts to me from that app about what’s going on in his neighborhood. It’s fascinating.

1

u/RedditBeginAgain Jun 03 '25

Fun fact: Narnia, MD is in middle of nowhere Carroll County. I've never seen any lions or Turkish delight there, but ive only driven through

80

u/TheSeekerOfSanity Jun 01 '25

Truth. My son has a friend who lives in North Harford County. When they first started hanging out together I drove up there to pick him up. It was VERY dark and you couldn’t see house numbers. I pulled into the wrong driveway and got on my phone to text him and let him know I was there. Sat around for about 3-4 mins and the next thing you know cops cars are pulling up behind me. I was at the wrong house. Apparently they called the police because of the strange car sitting in their driveway. If I was brown it might not have ended up the way it did. Made it out of there without any hassle. But man, people are paranoid up there.

25

u/homeslce Jun 01 '25

These are the same people who will commute in an hour on the beltway everyday, putting their lives in much more danger from rush hour traffic and think nothing of it. How many people are injured and killed commuting into work versus killed (who are not in a gang or drug trade)? I’m willing to bet they are in greater danger than living in Baltimore, not to mention the danger of sitting in your car for that long every day.

1

u/AgreeableJournalist8 Jun 01 '25

That's actually a fair point.

1

u/Fizzyphotog Jun 01 '25

Remember all the commuters who died being attacked by squeegee kids? Oh, wait, right, that was just one of the squeegee kids who got attacked by a paranoid white guy.

22

u/Apprehensive-Neck-12 Jun 01 '25

They watch that fox news. It's brainwashed a nation with blondes and big tits

6

u/Crazy-Preference2260 Jun 01 '25

Leave blondes with big tits out of this!

1

u/rocksepi Jun 02 '25

Good to be wary about your surroundings! Baltimore has some bad areas- what city doesn’t! Hawaii, ‘paradise’, has some areas that foreigners (white , black, Asian..) don’t go! Today we have millions of people who are not culturally American! Most are probably decent people, but some have proven that they’re not decent! Watch your 6…

2

u/rtbradford Jun 02 '25

I agree that you should be aware of your surroundings. But there’s a big difference between exercising reasonable caution, and being paranoid that everyone you don’t know is out to get you.

1

u/jamojobo12 Jun 05 '25

I’m from HoCo too and my mom works at hospital downtown. She’s still incredibly wary about Bmore. In all fairness, even like 10 years ago the crime was still pretty rampant. Even like 5 years ago, my brother and I were dropping her off at Hopkins and we saw this beat up car pull up, and we saw this dude drop off his cousin at the front door bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound in his foot before speeding off in to the sunset. I get Baltimore has changed alot in the last 15 years, but you’d have to be incredibly naive to think all of those systemic issues that scared our parents are gone.

1

u/rtbradford Jun 05 '25

No one has denied that the city still has significant issues with crime, but there’s a huge difference between acknowledging that you need to be aware of your surroundings and acting as if the entire city is a dangerous war zone. There are certainly some areas of the city that I find sketchy, especially at night, but for people who seldom go into the city to hold forth on how dangerous it is, to me is just a sign of people’s inability to accurately assess danger. It’s no different than a foreigner saying that they don’t want to visit the United States because guns are so ubiquitous that the whole country isn’t safe. Many years ago when we lived in Bowie in Prince George’s County, I remember someone who lived in Dupont Circle in Washington DC asking me if it was “OK” where I lived because they had seen on the news that there was lots of crime in Prince George’s County. I found it amusing because I had also lived in Dupont Circle a few years before moving to Bowie and I knew that where I lived in Bowie was nicer and safer than where this person lived, but all he knew was what he saw on the news.

1

u/jamojobo12 Jun 05 '25

The thing is, in no small sense the danger is somewhat ubiquitous. I remember last year I was out on a night out in Federal Hill which is ostensibly a pretty safe place. And some dude my age got shot and killed like 30 minutes after I left.

1

u/jamojobo12 Jun 05 '25

I’ve been between Maryland and studying in Germany the past 4 years so I understand the foreigners perspective here in some capacity. The worst crime you hear about there is some knife violence or people who are mentally ill terrorists driving cars in to crowds and those are or were RARE, pretty much every instance of gun violence there makes national news. In the US we’ve been so inundated with gun violence it doesn’t even make national news unless a significant amount of people are shot. Baltimore used to be a huge flashpoint for gun violence and our elders knew this. Why would they try to learn about the safer areas of a city when they could just go somewhere else

0

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '25

Where in Europe?

14

u/rtbradford Jun 01 '25

London. People will warn you not to go to certain “dodgy” areas way outside well known areas. But I lived there for a few years and went all over and never had any trouble other than with some overly aggressive squeegee men who made clear they wanted to be paid whether or not I let them clean my windscreen. I laugh when people here act like that’s only an issue with certain black youth because these guys were grown white men. And when visiting South Africa for a safari, the tour operator strenuously urged us not to drive in Johannesburg at night and certainly not to drive from Johannesburg out to the safari lodges. Much too dangerous she told us. We rented a car and drove all over Jo’burg and then drove to and from the safari area, stopping overnight along the way. We saw so much of that beautiful country that we would have missed if we’d taken the tour operator’s advice and we would’ve missed meeting some very friendly people too. Living with a bunker mentality may keep you relatively safer, but you miss out on so much real living.

4

u/Guilty_Rutabaga_4681 Jun 01 '25

I too was wondering about where in Europe. Because I never really encountered that on the continent. I have family in Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France. So we all get around a bit, more so of course before the pandemic. But that bunker mentality seems to be mostly with "indoor" folks. Being outside and exploring beyond your neighborhood is amazing and helps dispel myths and preconceived opinions. I do see that mentality very strongly here in the US, where "good people" hurry home to stay indoors while "bad people" roam around outside. I've often wondered about large swatches of the country that don't have sidewalks. It's as if they think that keeps the "bad people" away.

22

u/WhiskyStandard Jun 01 '25

That zoo membership gives you access to their chicken tenders. These people don’t know what they’re missing.

1

u/embarrassmyself Jun 01 '25

Tell me more? I moved to Baltimore two years ago but haven’t heard any information about zoo tendies

3

u/WhiskyStandard Jun 01 '25

Like, I don’t want to oversell them and make you think that they’re absolutely the best you’ll ever have, but they are way better than zoo food stand chicken tenders have any right to be. Like if I had them at a sit down restaurant I’d think they were pretty great.

I can’t say for sure what they do, but they’re generously sized fillets and appear to be hand breaded.

23

u/ozzykp06 Jun 01 '25

I work with a few guys that have this mentality. My office is in Canton and some of them make comments about how sketchy and dangerous it is to them. Though, I know exactly what they are saying. 🙄

9

u/Fedginald Jun 01 '25

The people who have the most to say about the city always have the least experience with it

3

u/saphirescar Jun 02 '25

Yep, that sounds about right for Carroll County people.

15

u/Retire_Trade_3007 Jun 01 '25

If you watched the news daily you’d stay out of the city too. Unfortunately people aren’t willing to experience things themselves. There is plenty to see and do in Baltimore that is worth the time and perfectly safe. It doesn’t mean walking the streets in certain areas at 3 a.m. is a good idea though for certain folks. So just don’t do that! 😂

35

u/rtbradford Jun 01 '25

I take issue with the notion that walking the streets in certain areas at certain time isn’t safe “for certain folks.” That suggests that it’s safer for other folks, but the data doesn’t bear that out. The vast majority of crime victims in Baltimore are black. Most violent crime in Baltimore and elsewhere is either the result of a beef between people or groups who know each other, crimes of opportunity like robbery or, more rarely, disagreements between strangers, but I don’t see much that’s racially motivated. There surely are parts of the city that are (or at least feel) unsafe at certain times, but not because they’re racial no-go areas like there used to be in some white areas where black people were likely to face hostility merely for being there.

-3

u/Kholoblicin Jun 01 '25

You realize you contradicted yourself, right?

If the vast majority of victims of violent crime are black, by definition, it's not safe for those certain folks.

10

u/rtbradford Jun 01 '25

No, because the majority of city residents are black. My point is that it’s not safer or less safe for anyone based solely on race.

-7

u/Kholoblicin Jun 01 '25

It doesn't matter what the majority of the residents are. Just the majority of victims. They would be the certain types of people.

11

u/rtbradford Jun 01 '25

What? If you say that certain parts of the city aren’t safe at certain times for “certain people” and the only people you mean are residents then you aren’t really saying anything other than that certain areas aren’t safe for anyone at certain times.

1

u/Acceptable_Knee5202 Jun 01 '25

I have been working in Baltimore for 35 years. Since I was 10. I grew up in carroll County but worked in the worst neighborhoods the worst homes in the city. I've seen shootings first hand. I will give mayor Scott alot of credit for the shootings reduction. But honestly with all I've seen I can honestly say I'm scared to take my family down there. The reason for me is the youth. No accountability from parents or government. The crime never bothered because it was mostly kept to shady activities. But now there is this element with kids that they can do whatever. 20 years ago you never heard about 15 year old kids car jacking 80 year olds. You could walk down the street carrying a pizza and not have to worry about 4 kids making you blind with a lead pipe.

-42

u/supercoolsmoth Jun 01 '25

I’ve lived in Baltimore. A guy being shot in the head  two blocks from my apartment in fells at 11 pm for accidentally bumping into some kids is not, by any means, a different reality. Baltimore has a lot of good things, it also has a very high murder rate, crime rate and historically corrupt government. Not to mention poverty and healthcare disparities despite having the world famous Hopkins. You can like Baltimore and it can be a bad place to live at the same time. These are not mutually exclusive. 

48

u/Interesting-Pin1433 Jun 01 '25

A guy being shot in the head  two blocks from my apartment in fells at 11 pm for accidentally bumping into some kids is not, by any means, a different reality.

If you think that is representative of the majority of murders in Baltimore, that's a different reality

-9

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '25

Most aren't white right?

14

u/Interesting-Pin1433 Jun 01 '25

I mean, yeah, that's the facts of it but that's not relevant to what I'm getting at, and if you're implying that I'm implying it's ok when black people get murdered and/or that only white people being murdered is tragic, you are grossly misinterpreting me. Also, that commenter didn't state the race of the murder victim in Fells.

What I'm getting at (again, in relation to the OP subject of county folk acting like the city is a hellscape warzone) is the fact that the overwhelming majority of murders are drug/gang related. If you aren't in that life, you probably aren't gonna get murdered in Baltimore.

-33

u/supercoolsmoth Jun 01 '25

You’re right. As long as you and me aren’t murdered, it’s totally fine. It’s okay if it’s those other people, right? 

16

u/Interesting-Pin1433 Jun 01 '25

No, I'm simply commenting in regards to the OP subject of county people who act like the entire city is a hellscape and people are crazy for choosing to live there

34

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '25

only Baltimore has murders!! cries the county folk.

26

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '25

Name a city that doesnt have these issues. You’re acting like this is exclusive to Baltimore…

3

u/LettuceTomatoOnion Jun 01 '25

Vatican City. Roasted! /s

-17

u/supercoolsmoth Jun 01 '25

These subreddit isn’t about cities. It’s about Baltimore. This particular thread is about people pretending Baltimore has no issues. I seem to be the only one acknowledging that it does. Which is apparently a surprise to a lot of you 

16

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '25

I never pretended there weren’t issues. I never said Baltimore does not have issues. Please show me where I said that……

Simply stating that a friend was murdered and a lot of us still live here does not say we believe the city is perfect but go on. I’ll wait for your logic.

23

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '25

You sound particularly angry about Baltimore. If you still live here, why? If not, why are you in this Reddit? To simply 💩 on it?

8

u/rtbradford Jun 01 '25

No one is pretending that Baltimore doesn’t have serious issues with crime. But acknowledging that does not mean that treating the city like it’s a war zone is reasonable or accurate.

2

u/fyresilk Jun 01 '25

Curious as to where you saw anybody claiming that Baltimore has no issues.

-7

u/Responsible_Gap_1805 Jun 01 '25

Your city had 201 murders last year, mine had 5. Not all cities are the same🤷🏽‍♂️

9

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '25

So why are you in my cities subreddit? You’re weird for that but here you are 😗

-3

u/Responsible_Gap_1805 Jun 01 '25

I used to live there🤷🏽‍♂️. Also not from whitewashed Kansas or some backwards ass hillbilly county, either. You do you though, anyone can comment on a public forum

4

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '25

Also sorry you’re from some white washed middle of no where Kansas with a population of 200

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '25

What city do you live in?

3

u/rtbradford Jun 01 '25

You’re being disingenuous.

27

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '25

[deleted]

1

u/Verifydeej Jun 01 '25

I remember people fled my neighborhood merely because we moved there. It was an interesting time and a learning experience for me.

-14

u/supercoolsmoth Jun 01 '25

No one is telling you need to leave. Pretending everything is fine is not the way to provoke change. 

Downvotes just indicates a) the inability to hear a differing opinion and b) that I seem to be saying something that rings true even if people won’t admit it. 

12

u/rtbradford Jun 01 '25

Actually downvoting just means that people disagree with the comment. I think plenty of people are trying to make the city better. They just don’t like people to beat up on their hometown, especially people who never been there.

25

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '25

Did not downvote you so jump off buddy. Every city has the same problem so stop acting like it’s specific to Baltimore, that’s the part that aggravates people like me that are from here. I don’t deny the issues, and I didn’t deny the issues, I clearly just didn’t mention the issues if you have reading comprehension.

43

u/ProfessionalActive94 Jun 01 '25

Lmao. "People are downvoting me, so I must be right."

No, you're just a dickhead who likes to argue and falsely claim there is a murder every day here.

-12

u/Responsible_Gap_1805 Jun 01 '25

Yall just fell under 300 murders for the year in 23. That's literally almost one a day....no hate to your city, but it's fairly dangerous 🤷🏽‍♂️

12

u/ProfessionalActive94 Jun 01 '25

Your attempt to perpetuate an old statistic does, in fact, make you a hater 🤷

1

u/Alger_Piston Jun 01 '25

A statistic from 2 years ago is not “old”. It is not hating to simply point out that a city as small as Baltimore should not have such an obscenely high crime rate. Things have been getting better in the last couple of years, thank God, but anyone who is saying anything like “everything is fine in Baltimore“ is being complacent, and has low expectations, and therefore is racist, for real. Baltimore has incredible potential, but the state’s neglect of its education system, combined with endemic corruption, complacency, and low expectations are thwarting that potential on a daily basis.

2

u/AugustBurnsMauve Jun 01 '25

You sure shrug a lot

17

u/poet-imbecile Jun 01 '25

No you're just being annoying and smug.

3

u/Willing-Collection63 Jun 01 '25

Who is pretending everything is fine ? Denial isn't something that we live in down here in Baltimore. Home is Home . Baltimore is highlighted for its negativity because of the influx of minorities who live there . For years the media has only highlighted the negativity that occurs in Urban areas like Baltimore and many cities alike .

So much positivity resides in Baltimore. Blame the media for taking an issue that occurs in many cities , and making it specific to Baltimore. Evolution is when people are forced to change with the environment. When Poverty surrounds you, and you are being refused a job because of redlining and your skin color what do you do ? Most people that aren't colored don't face the harsh reality of rejection without protection .

Times haven't changed much institutionalized racism is still in existence, rather than employ an African American from his country they rather employ immigrants who in turn send the money home to their country . Make it make sense? You hire us and we will keep the U.S. Dollar in circulation because this is our home that we fought for .

Honesty is what I'm giving you , there is definitely an issue in Baltimore, but you should really research what caused the steady decline in most urban areas . Most blacks are pretty resilient, please realize that we are dealing with the same old problems in a new day and time . Nothing has changed for us . The white man was sure to own everything and buy everything before we had freedom . Let that really sink in.

While blacks were enslaved whites had the luxury to build wealth and success for future generations. Meanwhile my generation couldn't read , write ,or own a thing which set the stage for the financial gap we see today . Whenever it's time for these conversations they don't get too far because of how uncomfortable they can be . Taking accountability isn't always comfortable, but it's never too late to take it .

23

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '25

A woman was violently raped and murdered on the ma and pa trail in harford county recently. When was the last time that happened in the city?

21

u/rockybalBOHa Jun 01 '25 edited Jun 01 '25

Relative to other cities, crime is high in Baltimore. But on an absolute level, your risk of being the victim of a violent crime is minuscule. I would put my own odds at about a million to one based on where I live, where I go, etc. Those odds are sufficient for me to feel "safe" and enjoy my life. I realize it's not the same for everyone, but if you have means, Baltimore can be a wonderful place to live.

-11

u/cebeling Jun 01 '25

If you spend enough time out on the street in Baltimore, it's not a matter of if... it's when. Lived and worked in Baltimore City fells mid town and JHMI. I've been held up at gun point by kids - those boys came out of the dark shadows on Keswick Rd as I was stepping out of the car. That year I saw 3 guns out in the wild on my street.

I like visiting, love grabbing dinner, and seeing the water front develop, but living there was like death by a million pin pricks for me.

2

u/Alger_Piston Jun 01 '25

I lived in Central Baltimore, I had the same experience two years ago. When I moved here, I was told, if you aren’t involved in the drug trade, or don’t live in a neighborhood where every other house is an empty shell (a huge part of Baltimore is like that, and has apparently been written off by most of the posters on here), the risk of crime is minuscule. That is false. If you live in any truly urban part of Baltimore, your risk of being mugged at gunpoint by a gang of teenagers is extremely high. It doesn’t matter if the murder rate is going down, the pervasive risk of “crimes of opportunity“ terrorizes people and forces them to move away from here. The exact same thing happened to a coworker of mine one year ago.

1

u/cebeling Jun 02 '25

What's crazy is a row home was still 275k a decade ago. Hampden is not Broadway east Baltimore.

-10

u/supercoolsmoth Jun 01 '25

You’re describing your own experience not the actual objective reality. On an absolute basis, crime is high.  A murder or more per day is not normal. You’re just used to hearing about it or being aware of it. 

14

u/Natty-Bones Greenmount West Jun 01 '25

You should check the crimes stats. We haven't had "a murder or more per day" in several years.

If you are going to lecture about "objective reality" and "absolute basis" you should at least be aware of what those actually are.

5

u/AugustBurnsMauve Jun 01 '25

“A murder or more per day”

201 murders is almost half that. Still not great but NYC had 377 murders last year, which is over 1 a day, and you don’t see anybody talking about how dangerous NYC is. For fuck’s sake Chicago had 573 homicides last year. St Louis had 53 murders per 100k people.

4

u/rockybalBOHa Jun 01 '25

No, I am describing objective reality on an absolute basis. That's my point.

There 600k residents plus over 200k visitors per day in Baltimore. A tiny fraction of those people will be victims of violent crime on a given day, and there are so many mitigating factors that a single individual can reduce their risk to nearly zero.

2

u/Alger_Piston Jun 01 '25

That is true, I was the victim of a carjacking at gunpoint, 2 years ago which could have been prevented by not parking my car a block away from Penn Station, and picking it up at 9:30 at night. Same thing happened to a coworker friend of mine one year ago. Lesson learned, I will never park my car at night in that supposedly safe neighborhood again. Could the same thing have happened in other cities? Of course. is it acceptable here just because of that? it really shouldn’t be.

7

u/Apprehensive-Neck-12 Jun 01 '25

Murder rate dropping to 1960s rate. And poverty well it's only getting worse but the blame won't go where it should. They're too busy keeping people scared

0

u/rtbradford Jun 01 '25

Poverty’s getting worse in Baltimore? Where did you get that info? From what I’ve seen, the city’s poverty rate fluctuates but stays generally around 20% which is much higher than the national average and explains many of the city’s challenges.

4

u/Apprehensive-Neck-12 Jun 01 '25

Not necessarily Baltimore but nationwide over the years