Smalltimore is Fine
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3/15/2007
It's neither a "sh**hole" nor "wonderful", but it's somewhere in between. It's a classic boom-bust east coast city still reeling from the decades-long bust starting in the 50s. Huge tracts of neighborhoods boarded up (pop. in 1950 was 950K, today is 650K). Thanks to the "DC effect" some neighborhoods have experienced a turn-around. The people are quite provincial in their tastes, preferring comfort food to gourmet experiences which leads to a a derth of high quality restaurants; this is no urban mecca, so don't expect anything avant garde. Speaking of provincial, ask someone in Baltimore what school they attended and you'll get the name of their Baltimore high school alma mater whereas a DC resident will offer the name of a distant college.
People are friendly for a mid-Atlantic coast city, which was a pleasant surprise for an outsider and there a ton of museums owing to Baltimore's rich cultural and financial history.
sldk | ,