590,479
Population
Sunny Days: 213
90100 Affordability
77100 Schools
75100 Diversity
65100 Safety
Baltimore, Maryland
It's Not The Wire
Baltimore Skyline
Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Credit: Brendan Beale
Flower Mart at Mount Vernon
Charm City Bluegrass Festival
LookyLOO Review of Baltimore
The Seafood Scene!
Okay, it’s not Boston, but it’s the unsung hero of the East Coast Seafood Scene. From lobster rolls to crab cakes, oysters on the half shell, and more. Baltimore has the food and drink scene on lock. If you want the best options, opt to live near the waterfront and in neighboring Fell’s Point. It might be a popular stop for visitors, but it’s a staple for locals as well!
Also, this city is not the Wire, okay? Baltimore is far from being the intense crime drama portrayed on TV. That said, it’s not the safest city in the world, either. Baltimore is a wonderful city with grit, charm, and way friendlier strangers than DC or NYC. But it’s important to keep in mind the same rules you hear about most cities: stay alert at night, be aware of your environment, and, like any good city-dweller, never leave any valuables in your car.
Lifestyle
While DC gets most of the attention, Charm City has a lot of options of its own for residents to enjoy. The beautiful Baltimore Museum of Art, going out on the water, and enjoying the city’s seafood scene are just some of the lifestyle staples of Baltimore. The 135-acre Maryland Zoo and a variety of other museums are a few of ways that Baltimore provides families with a long list of options to pass the time.
Baltimore is also home to almost twenty different colleges and universities, and is unsurprisingly a growing hub for younger people as well. A plethora of professional sports teams both within Baltimore and in nearby DC have lively fan bases that provide the athletically inclined with communities aplenty to enjoy the city. A great public transportation system makes it convenient to get around and a good option for those not excited about paying for a car and the gas costs that come with it. Baltimore is also just a train or car ride away from DC, Philly and NYC, so those looking for a new adventure have that well within their grasp.
Check out all the happenings in Baltimore in the calendar of events, courtesy of the Baltimore Sun.
Worklife
Due in large part to the presence of institutions like Johns Hopkins University, healthcare, medicine and biotech are king in Baltimore. Charm City is regarded as one of the top spots to move for those looking to work in health or medicine. Baltimore is also home to Fortune 500 companies such as Black & Decker, Constellation Energy, Legg Mason, and T. Rowe Price, and financial services as a whole are also on the rise. To nobody’s surprise, education is also big in Baltimore with its 17 different colleges and universities. The city itself is committed to continue innovating and diversifying its employment options, and that will likely continue to be possible as more and more younger residents begin to call Baltimore their home.
Schools
Baltimore City Public Schools receives a "C+" on niche.com with higher grades for clubs/extracurriculars and diversity.
You see a mix of high and low scores for school performance throughout the city with some better scoring density on the north-central swathe. We found a review of the city schools that captured a lot of the local sentiment:
*Don’t listen to all the naysayers. I speak from personal experience.
I grew up in Baltimore City and attended both public and private schools in the city. I went to Midtown Academy (public), Baltimore Montessori Public Charter, Friends School (private), and Baltimore School for the Arts (public) for high school. While the public schools do have significant funding issues, I can say that I enjoyed my time overall at public school a lot more than at private. In the end, school is more about what you learn outside the classroom, and public school taught me to be an accepting, openminded person. There are so many amazing people I would never have met had I been shut away in the insular world of Baltimore private schools for my entire experience. In the end, super fancy facilities won’t get you very far. It’s the dedication of teachers and the culture that is instilled in you that really matter.
Baltimore School for the Arts is an especially amazing school. It really changed my life. Baltimore Montessori is also good, but like a lot of the charters, the lottery is very competitive. If you live near Canton, Hampstead Hill is a great school and so is Patterson Park Public. I second the mentions of Thomas Johnson, Fed Hill Prep, and also Francis Scott Key. City Neighbors in Hamilton is also very good. Mount Washington School is also known to be good and has an IB program, as does the Baltimore International Academy (a language immersion school).
Roland Park is probably the best public school in the city, especially for middle school (the magnet ingenuity program draws from the whole city).
For High School, I would agree that City (humanities), Poly (STEM), and BSA (arts) are the only three worth going to, at least right now. Going to city schools did not scar me, and I can say for sure that it made me into a better person. So many great teachers and people.*
Why You Should Move Here Now?
It’s better than DC
Baltimore is definitely an underappreciated East Coast city. It is growing and well-loved by the locals who call it home. And as a city that has access to some of the most significant cities in the region, it’s worth the 45 minute train commute to DC to well….not live in DC.
Reviews of Baltimore from Locals.
It's a Real City
DonLunafan51
Living in Baltimore
3y ago
✭✭✭✭
I have lived in this city all of my 53 years of life. I have had the pleasure of living in eight different neighborhoods in that span of time. Baltimore will make your heart swell, and give you a migraine, sometimes in one day. There are annual street festivals like Artscape, SoWeBo, Fell Point Fun Fest that bring people together and give you a chance to sample food and wares made by locals. Our transit system (I am carless) has many flaws, but if you can learn to be patient, it will get you where you are going. We have a ton of deeply ingrained, systemic problems that do not have easy answers. Redlining in the fifties pushed many affluent whites out to suburbia, as their fear of people that didn't look like them outweighed their love of our city. But if you take a walk through Mount Vernon on a sunny day, you'll see architecture, statuary, and walk the same streets as F.Scott Fitzgerald, Etta and Claribel Cone, Gertrude Stein, Cab Calloway, Eubie Blake and so many others. In short, Baltimore is a place to fall in love with, even though she might not always love you back.
For more reviews of Baltimore from locals check out: The Reviews.
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Living in Baltimore
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The Area
Baltimore is an hour’s drive northeast of Washington DC and two hours southwest of Philadelphia along the east coast. The city center is on the Patapsco River, close to where it empties into Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is a city with a bypass around the city (also called a Ring Road or loop). The streets inside the city are organized in a grid pattern. Because of its close proximity to DC, it is known and often used as a commuter city.