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NoImpact3813 t1_iwc102n wrote

two things can be true at once, and i think that gets lost around the conversation of baltimore.

is the crime and violence absolutely heartbreaking and terrible? yes.

are there good people here trying to bring the community together? wonderful businesses and culture? also yes.

and to your point, when the media only shares the one side of violence and crime, it seems people think of the city as a hopeless cause.

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perceptron-addict OP t1_iwc1si7 wrote

>and to your point, when the media only shares the one side of violence and crime, it seems people think of the city as a hopeless cause.

I think you summed up the problem I'm trying to describe. Media only shows one side of Baltimore. Other cities like New York, DC, Chicago, etc. have reports on both violence and fun/exciting things. Baltimore seems to get mostly negative or nothng from the national press.

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myislanduniverse t1_iwc79sv wrote

This is also the case for Detroit, which in many ways reminds me a lot of Baltimore.

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bluejegus t1_iwd8yeh wrote

I was just laughing at a Detrioters bit earlier today that gave me big Baltimore vibes.

A scene where two of their out of town friends are exploring the city and ask if an area is safe. The Detroiters scoff and say "it's not a damn warzone" then the friends ask if it's ok to walk there and they immediately change their tone "well God no don't do that"

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FrancisSobotka1514 t1_iwdlbej wrote

I felt way safer in detroit ,And its a ghost town downtown at night.

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VolumeViscount t1_iwgzhix wrote

I’m a transplant from Detroit, definitely felt safer there as well, and it was less horrible to drive through than Baltimore, but I also hate city driving in any city so there’s that. Anecdotally, I’ve known way more people to have been victims of violent crime (self included) in Baltimore than in Detroit, but there are confounding factors for that that I don’t necessarily want to get into so just take it as you will.

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FrancisSobotka1514 t1_iwh8o2k wrote

Im still trying to figure out how to get a pizza from pizza papalis shipped to me .

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savethewale t1_iwcoe7w wrote

I don’t know if you are aware, but there is a common thread amongst locations you have listed. The cities people call “war zones” are majority black cities. News media/suburban America is more than happy to shit on majority black cities while seemingly giving more leeway to places like Philadelphia, NYC, even when levels of violence/crime are comparable.

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LR_DAC t1_iweu0dq wrote

Murder or homicide rates for...

Baltimore: 58.27 per 100,000

Philadelphia: 22.47 per 100,000

NYC: 5.5 per 100,000

US: 4.5 per 100,000

Sources:https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/murder-map-deadliest-u-s-cities/10/https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/violent-crime-statistics-for-every-city-in-america/https://www.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_planning/historical-crime-data/seven-major-felony-offenses-2000-2021.pdfhttps://www.nyc.gov/site/planning/planning-level/nyc-population/nyc-population.page

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savethewale t1_iwjiffs wrote

This isn’t the gotcha moment you think it is. However, it is a good way to bring up the inherently tricky nature of reporting crime statistics. For example, if you search cities by murder rate, you don’t always get the same top results due to methodology; New Orleans is sometimes listed as the top city. However, you can also list cities by violent crime rates. Little Rock Arkansas, Milwaukee Wisconsin, Cleveland Ohio, & Kansas City Missouri are frequently listed in the top ten on these lists, but they are not frequently described as “war zones” in the media. Incidentally, they are also not majority black cities.

Additionally, this methodology is also predicated on an assumption that per capita is the best way to report crime. However, if you look at total homicides, for example, Philadelphia had 561 homicides in 2021 compared to Baltimore’s 337, almost double the amount of homicides. Put another way, an average day in Philadelphia has almost double the number of murders compared to Baltimore. NYC had 485 (depending on source) You can also look at it by area. If you use Philadelphia’s 561 murders and divide it by 142.7 square miles, you get 3.9 murders per square mile compared to Baltimore’s 3.66 per square mile or Milwaukee’s 1.99.

Using the term “war zone” is also sensationalist and disingenuous. For example, the current death toll in Ukraine is north of 200,000. All that is to say, more than one thing can be true. Baltimore can have a high crime rate and still have cool things that the media doesn’t report on, other large cities can have cool things and lots of crime that isn’t focused on as much in national conversation.

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krupke t1_iwccm5s wrote

Same situation in New Orleans

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RayeofMoon t1_iwd1m19 wrote

My coworker and I recently went to New Orleans and were saying the same thing. Baltimore does have culture and is a cool city with the potential to be a tourist destination especially given it’s proximity to big east coast cities. NOLA is shown as a destination for music, food, culture, etc even though they also have a lot of crime. Obviously Baltimore isn’t as special as NOLA and we don’t have Mardi Gras, but I think if local businesses, art, and other things unique to Baltimore were funded and allowed to thrive then Baltimore could definitely be a tourist destination in its own way.

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krupke t1_iwd5o5f wrote

Yeah, it’s funny because living in Nola, I feel like the negative gets mentioned so much, but you’re right that we do get a bit more love on the tourist front. My wife used to live in Baltimore and is always singing its praises, for what it’s worth!

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Timmah_1984 t1_iwdfdet wrote

NOLA actually has a bigger crime problem right now. They defunded the police department and as a consequence are short on cops. Response times are over an hour and that’s if they don’t downgrade your call and show up the next day to take a report. Baltimore has its own issues with the police but at least they’re funded. Hopefully with the new states attorney we can get crime rates down again. It sucks for both cities because there’s a lot to love and I do think the leadership means we’ll. Unfortunately a lot of bad policy gets passed and the people bear the brunt of it.

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Notpoligenova t1_iwg5ipg wrote

This!!

I was in Germany with a group of students and had to almost pull out a PowerPoint to explain why Baltimore isn’t a shithole city where everyone gets murdered. I also had to do this to people in Munich as well.

It’s a massive shame people can’t see the history and culture the city has and instead focuses on the crime that, let’s face it, every major city has.

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