Listen, I grew up in Baltimore and know it well unlike those who didn't get to know Baltimore until the last 10 years or so. It is not the same city that it once was by any means. A few places have gotten better but, as a whole, the place has gotten so much worse, mostly because of vastly increased crime and political corruption.
For privacy reasons, I will not write about some of the things that I know of that would piss anyone off that have gone on just in City Hall alone that affect the entire city. I know, or have known, lots of people who work/ed there and have heard some horrible tales of insider corruption. BTW, most of these people were in middle or upper level management positions. Not just some courier or lower level employee.
Also Sonick, you may have gotten by unscathed but I have had more than my share of negative experiences here, mostly all in the past 10 years. Worse yet, I've known way too many people who have had bad experiences that were even worse than mine, including death. One of my long time friends was murdered in Bolton Hill by a couple teenagers in broad daylight during a robbery. This kind of stuff has greatly increased in the past decade or so for reasons I won't elaborate on now. It's for many more reasons than just drugs.
Most of my personal experiences, though not all, were within the public school system. Now, you might say something like, "Yeah, but that's different. Everyone knows how bad the schools are." But the thing is, those schools are part of the city and I was usually in the very worst of them. They are real and they are horrendous and those kids who the system allows to get away with the worst behavior you can imagine are taking it right out to the streets and the cops aren't allowed to stop them either. So, consider yourself lucky so far and continue to take your street smarts with you. And make sure you watch out for your girlfriend and not be so cavelier about how tough and street smart she might be because a bullet can stop all that thinking in an instant. BTW, dodging bullets was sometimes par for the course on a typical trip to and from school...or even just getting through the school day.
Finally, for the record, I don't live in Baltimore City proper. I'm north of there in a nice neighborhood maybe akin to what Reston, Chantilly or Woodbridge would be to DC. I love my apartment, have a fantastic and peaceful view and lots of room for much, much less than what I'd pay in any of those areas. So, unless I can find a worthwhile job in the DC area that would allow me to afford something similiar, I'm not that quick to move. The downside is that I rarely go out anywhere in the Baltimore area since most of the places I prefer are in DC. One trade off for the other.
