Baltimore
"The Greatest City in America"
"The Greatest City in America"
By Connie Tsang
Having suffered a mammoth economic blow after its industrial hey day of the 1950s, Baltimore struggles to fight through not only the current recession, but its notoriously high violent crime rate, an ongoing battle with racial segregation, and consequently, an inferiority complex that’s hard to crack.
But with marketing help from television series The Wire; the civic pride of local cult filmmaker John Waters; a bubbling independent art and music scene featuring Beach House, Animal Collective, and Dan Deacon; as well as a prettied-up waterfront to attract those too afraid to wander into unsafe territory, the city is a charming off-the-tourist-map destination for those who give it a chance -- a great snapshot of a rust belt city full of good people just trying to shake off their past and take each day as it comes.
Having suffered a mammoth economic blow after its industrial hey day of the 1950s, Baltimore struggles to fight through not only the current recession, but its notoriously high violent crime rate, an ongoing battle with racial segregation, and consequently, an inferiority complex that’s hard to crack.
But with marketing help from television series The Wire; the civic pride of local cult filmmaker John Waters; a bubbling independent art and music scene featuring Beach House, Animal Collective, and Dan Deacon; as well as a prettied-up waterfront to attract those too afraid to wander into unsafe territory, the city is a charming off-the-tourist-map destination for those who give it a chance -- a great snapshot of a rust belt city full of good people just trying to shake off their past and take each day as it comes.
