(i) Baltimore is very much a city of neighborhoods. Some neighborhoods are very friendly, others less so. I am a bi woman, and have lived in Charles Village/Harwood and Bolton Hill, and found both to be very friendly and comfortable for me to live in. Like when I walk around I feel at home and see a lot of fellow queers. You'll see plenty of pride flags and love is love type signage in both, if that is the kind of thing that makes you feel comfortable. I also have queer friends who live in Hampden and find it pretty chill. That said, there are plenty of neighborhoods that, while probably not unsafe, I wouldn't particularly go out of my way to live in (Fed Hill is basically a giant frat house, for example). So if you start looking for places, I would recommend doing whatever you can to make sure that you can come up here and actually walk around the neighborhood and see how it feels to you.

(ii) People are mostly fine, but I would say that Baltimore is a little less diverse and mixed than NoVA. I work in Alexandria, and being so close to DC I find that it really has that melting pot kinda feel, where there are people from all over all kinda mixing with each other. By contrast, Baltimore is still very segregated (obviously not legally, but so many of the measures that were put in place as official policies- red lining, restrictive real estate covenants and zoning laws, unequal access to the GI Bill in the fifties, and myriad others- in the past have left a legacy of de facto segregation) with the two primary racial groups being black and white. There just isn't a ton of mixing, the two groups seem to operate pretty separately (if you google "White L/Black Butterfly" there is a lot of much more thoughtful, scholarly writing out there about this). There are pockets of other groups here and there (Old Goucher has a small group of Korean residents and a couple of great Korean restaurants, for example, and Fells Point and Highlandtown have robust enclaves of Latin American immigrants) but in general, it's much more siloed than Northern Virginia.

(iii) again, this is pretty neighborhood dependent. My current neighborhood (Harwood/Charles Village) has a really great mix of younger people, families, and older residents who have lived here their whole lives. We have a really robust neighborhood organization that does things like organizing clean ups/dumpster days and neighborhood block parties. And those older residents know everything that goes on and are the best for getting the gossip. And generally speaking, people are friendly in passing. So again, when you start looking at places, check to see if they have any kind of neighbor group and how active it is.

(iv) there's a lot here, though still a bit less than NoVA. In general there's at least one of almost every type of cuisine you could want. I would say our weak areas are Chinese food (even our americanized Chinese takeout style places are mostly kinda meh) and Tex Mex. We have a solid Little Italy, good Korean options, a variety of different strains of Mediterranean ranging from casual kebab type situations to more formal, some solid Middle Eastern options, bunch of pho options, ton of Indian options, etc. Pizza snobs like to complain about the pizza but there are a whole bunch of different types available and unless you're some kinda hardcore New York style absolutist you will be fine. Also if you're willing to travel outside the city a bit, the Ellicott City area (half hour from most parts of the city) has a large Asian population, so that's the place to go for Lotte/H Mart/Korean Bakeries/Hot Pot/restaurants etc

(v) internet is fine? I mostly don't have to think about it, which I think is most people's bar. There is basically a provider monopoly though, so if that will bother you it's something to think about