So, my SO and I just finished watching all five seasons of The Wire. I am now terrified of Baltimore. My question: just how far off IS the portrayal of Baltimore in The Wire? Are you often in danger of getting shot, high, or wiretapped? Thank you for educating me on this topic. Maybe someday I will go back to flying through BWI.

I love The Wire. It is extremely realistic- the cast consists largely of Baltimore residents who've experienced life in low-income Baltimore neighborhoods. Our real mayor has appeared in the show several times. I think that's pretty cool.

Baltimore is a crime-ridden city. It's also a ton of fun to live in. Most of the crime in Baltimore (shootings, assault, etc) is related to the rampant heroin trade here. Heroin is truly an epidemic. When I drive downtown (about 15 minutes from where I live), there is a stretch of road on the way into the city on which there are heroin dealers standing on every single corner (maybe 20 blocks?). They will literally YELL to you at red lights that they are selling heroin. It's unnerving, but they don't harass your or anything. The sad thing is, they often employ children (13-15) to carry the product because police aren't allowed to search minors without the presence of a parent/guardian, and most of these kids' parents are addicts. The police do almost nothing about it because it's so rampant. Some neighborhoods have been successful driving dealers out by calling the cops every single time they witness something shady. A strong, active police presence seems to make a difference. And expensive real estate. That also makes a difference.

There are currently more than 60,000 heroin addicts in Baltimore. One of my best friends from high school is an addict, as is his older brother. Evan threw his life away for it- he left for the University of Delaware in the fall of '05 on an engineering scholarship, and came home after a week because he got so sick, he couldn't stay. It's heart wrenching. And no one understands how strong and painful a heroin addiction is unless they've been close to it. Kids here try it one or two times and they're in the throes of a full-blown heroin addiction before they even realize it. It's unlike any other drug in that way. It hits me so close to home in so many ways that I get really emotional about it. My friend Evan is still alive (struggling with hepatitis and chronically infected injection sites, but still alive). But the life he's likely going to lead for the rest of his days makes one wonder if he wouldn't be better off dead.

There's so much cool stuff in Baltimore (Charm City Cakes, National Bohemian Brewery, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the Shot Tower, the Inner Harbor where the national anthem was written, etc. etc.). I would say the portrayal of this city on the wire is absolutely realistic, but really one-sided. For almost every single shitty, crime-ridden neighborhood here, there's an upper-middle-class neighborhood that sees almost no crime. Yes, walking in some neighborhoods will put you in danger of being shot. Sometimes you have to drive through those neighborhoods, but you are fine if you just lock your doors and keep driving without staring (I'm only kind of kidding). A lot of people get mugged, etc, but I wouldn't say that kind of stuff is that much more common here than anywhere else.

Let's just say, it's super easy to get high here or shot here if that's what you want to do. But it's not like you CAN'T come here and NOT get high or shot. It's actually pretty easy to avoid .

I figured I'd chime in a tiny bit because I'm from Annapolis, which is about 30 minutes from Baltimore. The ghettos and the nice areas are pretty distinct and the entire city isn't a giant ghetto, like The Wire makes it seem. But their job is to portray what happens in the ghetto, and I appreciate that they don't try to gloss over things. Baltimore needs the attention. The crime is so so so so bad. When I drive there, I stick to certain roads because I don't want to be a female by herself turning down the wrong street! There's some streets the police don't go down unless they need to. And I'm not making it up...my good friend's brother is a Baltimore cop.

Besides all the crime and drugs and unmentionable things that occur in the ghettos, there are nice places like Inner Harbor and such that Frenchy mentioned. Inner Harbor is the shiz, with ESPN Zone, Hard Rock Cafe, the Baltimore Aquarium, our own World Trade Center (it is much smaller), and other sweet places to visit within walking distance. Another good friend of mine's aunt owns Cafe Hon which is in the older but middle-class area. It's a funky city, with all sorts of different people.

End of babbling. Just wanted to say, if you ever get a chance, try some Natty Boh

Haha, I will have to politely disagree with SB's suggestion to try National Bohemian- any beer that costs $1.00/can (yes, can) at the bar should be used strictly for watering plants.

A little anecdote about the police's perception of crime in Baltimore:

A friend of mine's family owns one of the largest meat processing plants on the east coast, which happens to be located in a pretty bad part of Baltimore. He works there 6 days a week, so knows the area relatively well. One day, he left to get lunch around 1pm. As he pulled out of the parking lot, he noticed he was being followed by a cop. 10 seconds later, the cop puts his lights on and pulls him over. Cop asks what he's doing in this neighborhood, etc. Friend tells him that he's getting lunch. Cop says "no one gets lunch in this neighborhood, what are you doing here?". Friend insists he's just getting lunch at the Subway a block or so away, and that he works in the processing plant. After a few minutes of grilling, the cop lets him go, then FOLLOWS him to Subway, waits outside while friend gets a sandwich, and FOLLOWS him back to work. Says something along the lines of "white people don't come to neighborhoods like this to buy sandwiches".

I cannot decide whether the above comments make me want to visit Baltimore more or less!

Honestly, I am totally surprised that the Wire's portrayal is so realistic (even though I've heard it time and again, I needed it from the horse's mouth, so to speak). The two cities I am most familiar with are Portland and Seattle, and the concept of heroin dealers standing out on the street yelling??! SO does not happen here, nothing remotely close. 'Course P & S are pretty homogenous and basically, yuppy-ville, so I suppose I should not be as surprised as I am ...

I wouldn't come to MD to visit Baltimore. I'd visit Baltimore if you came to MD for something more important.

And Frenchy, it's cheap because it's local.

Frenchy, this summer I got lost in Baltimore, trying to find 95! It was scary as shit!

But the aquarium is awesome. It was my favorite... I also saw lots of Johns Hopkins haha

Maybe you can put in a good word for Caylie?

HAHAHA.

SB- It might be cheapER because it's local, but I'll stick to something with a bit more flavor. There are a ton of great microbrews in Baltimore that shouldn't even be put in the same category as natty boh. But I do concede that actually visiting the factory is a lot of fun!

ETA: If anyone ever comes to Maryland, definitely, definitely visit Baltimore. I will take you out for a drink and point you in the direction of some AWESOME places to eat (tapas? Indian? Lebanese? Don't even mention that we have a GREAT Little Italy...).

How far is Baltimore from DC? I am more likely to visit DC in the near future than Maryland proper. Would it be worth it to fly into BWI, spend a night or two in Baltimore, and then head to DC? Although I have trips actually scheduled to Boston, and probably (unless I can figure out some way to get out of attending a wedding) Maine again in 2010. So probably wouldn't be visiting DC until 2011.

Oh, hey Rummy ... want to go to a wedding with me?

If you can get Southwest from where you are, DEFINITELY worth it to fly into BWI, cheaper and easier than the DC airports. I'm pretty sure you can be to DC in under an hour from Baltimore.

Baltimore is about 45 minutes from DC if you drive, which I almost never do because of the traffic/navigation issues in DC. I take the DC metro which is shockingly clean and extremely convenient for areas surrounding DC. I worked a lot in DC last fall, and it usually took me about 1 hr 10 minutes to get into the capital district. *I* think a day or two in Bmore is totally worth it. This hotel is absolutely awesome, but can be a little pricey (totally worth it, though): http://www.harbormagic.com/AdmiralFell/adm...guest_rooms.asp . Turn your sound off when you click on that. It's in a great neighborhood called Fells Point which is right on the harbor and has a ton of great bars, restaurants, and some super duper breakfast places. Also, if you ever watched the show "Homicide: Life on the Streets" (haha throwback), the police department used for filming is across the street. I worked in Fells Point for a year, and love the atmosphere.

For what it's worth, here is my favorite hotel in DC:http://www.monaco-dc.com/index.html . It's right across from the Verizon Center and really convenient to Chinatown, so there's a lot to do in the area. Plus, it's right across the street from a great metro stop, so everything is really accessible. Again, pretty pricey, but worth every single penny.

I go to Hopkins and so live in the "nice" area of Baltimore. I also work down near Hopkins Hospital in the "extremely shitty" area of Baltimore (I work at Public Health on N. Broadway and at a youth center on 1212 Wolfe).

I actually think Baltimore is a great city. It might have more bad areas than some cities (but also, I'm from Trenton, so...) but it's a ton of fun to live in if you're young and can explore it. There's a couple great neighborhoods, especially Fell's Point like Sam said.

I've never actually feared for my safety, but I don't walk around alone at night. I don't think it's worse than any other city I've been in (but then again, the cities I have the most experience with are Trenton, Camden, and Philly haha).

It doesn't have a lot of what you'd call "tourist attractions" (like how Philly has the Liberty Bell, the different historical sites, etc) but there's a lot of great places to visit off the beaten path, as it were. The American Visionary Art Museum is worth a visit, there's great neighborhoods like Hampden and Fell's Point, and there are amazing restaurants. My favorite is the Helmand, which is right near Penn Station. Little Italy is great; they have a dessert restaurant which offers all-you-can-eat on certain nights.

I wouldn't walk around, drunk, by yourself, in East Baltimore at night. But I think that goes for any city and Baltimore has actually been a great place to live in