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perceptron-addict OP t1_iwbxb07 wrote

Reply to comment by Apprehensive_Neat418 in Making Baltimore look good on the Internet by perceptron-addict

Keeping assholes out = good

perception as warzone = bad

Right? Or is it worth the negative perception because the city stays affordable, lively and interesting? I think there must be some middle ground to be had

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[deleted] t1_iwc98o3 wrote

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rockybalBOHa t1_iwdguey wrote

>We’ve had so many high profile attacks and random violence, plus everyday obvious nuisances like the squeegee folks, that it really drives home the “war zone” image

Re: random violence, though I have no way to prove this, my perception is that we do not have more random violence on a per capita basis than other cities. My hypothesis is that our bloated crime statistics are due to Baltimore having a high percentage of people who are simply up to no good or who live in a world where violence in a reasonable problem solving strategy. I know all cities have such people...I just think Baltimore has relatively more.

To illustrate what I mean re: random violence - NYC has had 22 instances of people being pushed onto subway tracks this year alone. These are about as random as it gets. Imagine that happening even once in Baltimore in a five year span. We'd never be able to live that down.

I do agree that the squeegee boys have a HUGE HUGE HUGE effect on public perception. When people I know tell me they won't go into the city, it is more likely they will mention squeegee boys than murder.

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[deleted] t1_iwegblk wrote

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rockybalBOHa t1_iwh12ob wrote

In a weird way, the increase of violence in cities across America has helped Baltimore. We no longer seem to be an outlier. There is horrible shit happening everyday all over the country. Cities that had stellar reputations -like San Fran and Portland -get drug through the mud on a daily basis. Even NYC which has statistically much lower crime than the vast majority of cities has a horrible perception problem right now. The NYC suburbs are almost entirely responsible for flipping the House to the GOP. And crime is the reason why.

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No-Success7693 t1_iwnqvda wrote

I must say, I don't get San Francisco's stellar reputation.

That place sketched me out worse than almost anywhere I've been on the East Coast.

Just felt chaotic and aggressive.

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J_Sauce t1_iwgwjm9 wrote

Yeah, I agree on the random violence part. Seems to be on par with other cities we usually get compared to. Actually, since the yuppie hordes haven’t taken over Baltimore’s majority-AA neighborhoods, there’s probably less of the stuff of the genre you hear about in DC- where fans are literally getting shot outside Nationals games and the like. (Can you imagine if that happened here? The reaction would be so different.)

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Apprehensive_Neat418 t1_iwbzaky wrote

poverty is definitely a problem and that causes violent crime. But that isn't just a Baltimore problem. Is it worse here ? i dont know (tbf i live in the county)

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J_Sauce t1_iwdjh2v wrote

Baltimore has a poverty rate of 21.2%, comparable to Columbus (19.5%), Houston (20.5%), Pittsburgh (20.5%) and Atlanta (20.8%), and less than Philadelphia (24.3%) and Cleveland (32.7%), to name but a few. All of those other cities have significantly lower violent crime rates than Baltimore.

Even “safe” East Coast cities have a lot of poverty- see Boston (18.9%) and NYC (17.9%). source: US Census Bureau 2021 and FBI Crime Data 2019).

There aren’t consistent or serious penalties for criminal behavior in Baltimore, which means the culture bred by poverty has an outsized influence on the lived experience here. We just let our problems fester more than other places with a similar proportion of miserable assholes.

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thethighshaveit t1_iwm930d wrote

It's not just poverty, but wealth inequality that creates desperation and breeds violent responses. When it seems (or is) unjust that others have what you know you never will, it's easier to justify antisocial behavior to survive. If, instead, we developed and invested not just money but our own time and humanity in collaborative, humanizing, prosocial solutions, the justification for antisocial behavior would begin to evaporate. Instead, we treat antisocial behavior with antisocial punishment, increasing antisocial behavior.

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bmore_conslutant t1_iwc81rh wrote

i mostly don't give a shit that idiots think we're a warzone

it's mostly fox news types anyway

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pk10534 t1_iwcew2v wrote

The perception that Baltimore is very unsafe doesn’t tend to be exclusive to one political party.

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bmore_conslutant t1_iwci5fx wrote

i've never heard a liberal call it a warzone unironically

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pk10534 t1_iwcigen wrote

A war zone? Yeah me either, I’ll grant you that. But I still get the same looks when I tell progressives in DC or NYC I live in Baltimore lol. They may be PC enough not say it, but they definitely don’t think it’s a safe place to live

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pestercat t1_iwg2jxw wrote

War zone, no. A lot of careful "but are you sure that's safe?", however, yeah.

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