My busy day in Baltimore yesterday got me wondering what it is about the city that makes me love coming here so much. Even before my job required frequent trips down here for training and conferences, and way before I started reading the Baltimore-based novels of Anne Tyler, I enjoyed taking that trip down I-95 into Charm City. Even before I started following the Orioles (my American League team of choice), I was rooting for the team's home city.
Why is that?
In many ways Baltimore is a lot like my home city of Philadelphia. It's a historic port city that's visitor-friendly. It's a major city, but it doesn't always get the respect a major city should get (and sometimes does stupid things that makes them unworthy of that respect). Not being a major urban player is a good thing when it means not having to deal with the problems NYC and DC have to deal with, but it's a bad thing when it means constantly struggling to keep your population and tourism numbers up. Either way, both cities have a underdog feel to them, and I'm a sucker for the underdog. As much as I love living near Philly and try to be a cheerleader for the whole Philadelphia region, like most people I have a problem with appreciating what's great in my own backyard. Visiting Baltimore gives me the opportunity to enjoy a city much like my own through fresh eyes.
Secondly, and probably the key to why I like Baltimore so much, is that they do planning right. Inner Harbor in downtown Baltimore is an unbelievable success - attracting a good mix of tourists and business workers. Meanwhile, back in Philly, plans to do something to attract people to our own harbor, Penn's Landing, have been written and re-written about a hundred times over the last thirty years, and yet very little has been done. In Baltimore, they were smart enough to see the benefit to placing their sports complex downtown (not to mention their ballpark being retro before being retro was cool). Philadelphia stuck their sports fields in the warehouse district in South Philly, ensuring that no one would be walking to a game or, God forbid, spending money outside the ballparks. In Baltimore, everything seems to have been shaped by their planning department; in Philly, it feels like the planning rules are bent to match plans.
[My intent here wasn't to slam Philly (too much). I studied Urban Planning and I understand that Philadelphia has unique problems and Baltimore has unique opportunities. I also realize that I'm not familiar with the political underbelly of Baltimore like I am with Philadelphia, which also makes me a little more jaded towards Philly. Philadelphia isn't as bad as it is in wild west towns like Houston, where anything goes when it comes to planning but, to me, Baltimore just seems better at thinking before building than Philadelphia.]
Lastly, Baltimore is both a southern and Mid-Atlantic city, without being too much of either. It's an interesting combination: it's got a southern charm without being "the South" and at the same time has a pace of life closer to the one I'm used to in Philadelphia (I think if I were ever to move to somewhere like Louisville - where the in-laws live - the slower pace of living would be the hardest thing for me to get used to).
So that's about it. I know there are other smaller things I love about Baltimore (lots of brew pubs, Fells Point, that ballpark), but now you have the big three.
Back to those exciting workshops for me!
i'm thrilled that you had a great time down there in b-more. going to school in dc for 3 years, i couldn't stand b-more the few times i went. maybe after a few years away i can give it another try.
Posted by: albert | 2005.05.14 at 06:46 PM