Expat from MoCo here. Been in Balt city 39 yrs.

Thinking of moving to Balt City? Great, there are a number of things you should to prepare yourself so as not be thrown off

- Forget comparing your present experiences, in NoVa, to what you will find in Baltimore. Baltimore is not a good fit for people who are expecting a lot of city services or up-to-date amenities. People who are looking for resort like accommodations are often disappointed. There are neighborhoods which have a more suburban vibe or sheik city vibe, but still not what you have come to expect in the DC burbs.

Baltimore is more gritty, more old 1950s working class, and has much history, with many firsts for the US, though much is not gentrified or sanitized.

Your bio fits many who are here, but those in the professional class and those who are always climbing the corporate or social ladder are fewer in number.

There is an image problem which the city has. Much has to do with outsiders reading into and exaggerating what they hear others saying. Many of the problems are within certain neighborhoods and within certain communities.

The best way to know Baltimore is to move here, rent, and spend time actively visiting neighborhoods. Far more people here are local with long family ties to the city. There is a friction between the city and the surrounding counties, with many outside the city having relatives who live in the city or once did.

Unlike the DC area Baltimore is more real, and less about mining the riches of the area, though many outsiders do mine our riches and never give back.

1. LGBTQ+ is smaller than DC and spread out, traditional gayborhood is Mount Vernon but there's gay and queer friendly bars throughout the city. Plus we have a Stonewall League. No one cares.
2. Can't answer from experience but general sense is no one will give you trouble for being non-American.
3. If you make an effort to know your neighbors you can find all sorts of fun stuff. City's called Smalltimore for a reason.
4. Yes
5. My internet is pretty good, but it also isn't something I tend to notice.

1. Pretty queer friendly in my experience.
2. Very accepting.
3. Easy to make connections here.
4. Lots of good international food (especially in the metro area).
5. Comcast sucks but the service is generally fast and consistent.

I’m straight but I’m a transplant so I’ll give my 2 cents -

(i) I am not part of the LGBTQ+ community but I do have friends who are part of it. As someone else said Mt Vernon used to be the “gayborhood” but I don’t think it’s so centralized there anymore. Everywhere I go I see & meet new people, some who I’m sure are queer. Idk I don’t ask anyone their sexual orientation because I don’t care. I think most people here don’t care, as long as you’re not an asshole, you’re good!

(ii) The majority of my friends are people who moved here from elsewhere. Between the military, hospitals, and schools, there are people from everywhere. You won’t stick out and you’ll be accepted.

(iii) I think just like everywhere else it’s a little column A, a little column B. It was very hard for me to make friends when I first moved here because I am an introvert and have a lot of social anxiety. Through the years I’ve gotten more comfortable, now consider myself a local, and have gotten to meet a lot more people. I try to meet someone new every time I go out. I don’t need new friends but I do like to be friendly and make connections. It’s a small city and you never know who you’re going to see again.

(iv) you won’t be disappointed with the food

(v) xfinity has a monopoly in the city so that’s your provider unless you’re going to go with tmobile or Verizon 5g. I don’t usually have any problems.

(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

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Not what you asked but there are no good places to buy gunpla unless you drive like an hour away.

1. The city and surrounding areas are very LGBT friendly but there are still assholes out there.
2. Unless it's a sports rivalry thing people don't really care where you're from.
3. Some people are friendly and outgoing. Others just want to keep to themselves. It will depend on your neighbors and where you hang out. Every dive bar will have a handful of chatty regulars.
4. It's not as much of a foodie city as other cities in the NE but there are restaurants that serve everything you asked about.
5. We just have fios. It almost never goes out. When it does it's usually a severe wind thing and it's back up within hours.

Have you considered Frederick? Two good gunpla shops and a pinball arcade

I WFH with Comcast and I never ever have any trouble. It’s overpriced for sure but fast and consistent. Also, so many great food choices here. The LGBTQ+ community is smallish but very friendly.

This might not answer your questions completely but I think may be helpful.

My boyfriend and I also recently moved from Arlington to Baltimore, although it was more for my work. My BF is a graphic artist and works fully remote. We moved here a month ago and live in Fed Hill.

2. I'm Asian and I haven't had a negative experience here. TBH I find that the people here are a lot nicer than people in NOVA, and I don't feel super judged based on how I look and whether or not I am someone worthy to network with.

3. I haven't found food culture to be super great - although I just moved a month ago so I haven't been able to explore much. There isn't a whole lot of Asian food, not compared to say Annandale or Fairfax. But I do think there's a variety of food to choose from. Again take this answer with a grain of salt because I literally just moved here.

4. My boyfriend is WFH and we have Verizon. We haven't had issues with Internet - just make sure they install it correctly haha

As to your hobbies and interests, there are some arcade bars in Fed Hill that seem fun! I haven't been able to go yet, but definitely things to do that aligh with your interests. My bf and I are nerds in the sense that we cosplay - I think there's a baltimore comic con that might have things you're interested in.

I moved here from NoVA a few months ago. I'm glad I did it.

Internet is mostly Xfinity. I haven’t had issues with them but it’s largely dependent on location and infrastructure, but they generally cover the entire city. You can in some places find other services, dependent on address so look for coverage maps.

Verizon 5G home internet has a coverage map here: https://www.verizon.com/coverage-map/

Which lets you zoom down to street level. If you’re next to a tower, it’s purportedly fast af. If not, it might be subpar to Xfinity.

So far as vibe, I have lived here 2 years and I love it! No one seems to care about one’s orientations, afaik, at least no one cares about mine, and there are some local LGBTQ+ communities and organizations, though likely less than in NOVA/DC. There’s a few less things to do, but a LOT more that’s walkable. A mile walk (about 20 mins or so) from where I live in the Highlandtown neighborhood and I can access literally hundreds of restaurants, coffee shops, and bars, some nice parks, 3-4 breweries, several smaller grocery stores, at least three libraries, and a wonderful set of art galleries, a creativity center, etc. and as such, a quick Uber to any of those places is pretty cheap. Anything else I want is a short drive away.

We have great Asian fusion, though not much for traditional Chinese. Great Indian and middle eastern, south/central Asian food, good (and sometimes amazing) Latin food. And pizza and wings literally everywhere. Some of my favorites are Tandav, Indoviet, Bambao, Ekiben, Francesca’s, Lighthouse (for wings!! And great beer) and (my opinion) Fillipo’s.

Oh, and that 1 mile also includes at least one game shop with an amazing selection given its small size, and a playroom in the back, and there’s a few more in town that I haven’t been to yet. Did I mention, Baltimore also hosts Astronomy on Tap? Who doesn’t want to drink a pint while watching astronomers who are also drinking while talking about space??

The housing costs a lot less, even in safer neighborhoods. Lots of great townhomes in the $350-500k range in these areas, though parking may or may not be present.

If you’re looking for charming, slightly gritty urban vibes, this is it. If you’re looking for modern, chic, new, vibes of expensive apartments on top of high end shopping centers like in Reston, Tyson’s, or Arlington, well there’s a little of that too, though less developed and a bit less upscale (McHenry Row, Brewer’s Hill, and a few others come to mind). Baltimore shines for those who like more historic homes (that might need some lovin) and walking around to dive bars and neighborhood coffee roasters.

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