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*sigh* it makes me sad how this show shows only the ugly parts of my city and reading this "great town for a shootout" is crazy.

That makes it sound like some old Western movie set in a gold rush town. Heh.

I purchased a brick rowhome in Northeastern Baltimore City seven years ago. No marble steps though as it was built in 1954. Love my neighborhood. Love the city.

It makes me sad to see the city portrayed in such a negative light (on the Wire). As with every major city, there are issues here, but The Wire literally airs our dirty laundry.

"Is it really that bad in Baltimore?"

In my travels around the US, whenever I tell folks where I live I can never escape the questions. The Wire never fails to make it's way into the conversation. Having to always try to combat the negative picture people of Baltimore makes me sad.

I learned a lot from the Kilduffs website. Thanks.

I am a big fan of the series & am, it seems, in the minority of people who do not think of Baltimore as a bad, mean place because of the show. I guess I don't believe everything I see on TV.

On a more positive note:

The picture of the rowhomes above is awesome! However, rowhomes in my neighborhood have covered porches, front & back lawns. Beautiful mature trees line the street at the base of almost every front lawn. Most of my immediate neighbors enjoy gardening as I do. Nothing beats the warm summer nights we spend outdoors chatting, sipping and enjoying the sweet scent of the many blooms that adorn the gardens in which we work so hard.

Only downside....mosquitoes!

Baltimore is a lovely city with many great neighborhoods and lots of attractions, but it does have a very rough side. There are parts of Baltimore I will not set foot in. The architecture in the city is fabulous though. They don't make buildings like that anymore.

I live in the Reservoir Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, and I can't help but roll my eyes at the hand-wringing about The Wire's portrait of the city.

Yes, parts of it ARE that bad, and because of the patchwork nature of the city, a sketchy neighborhood is almost always a short walk away. The REALLY sketchy neighborhoods are less common, but they're more desolate than dangerous. Baltimore should be a city of 1 million , but there are about 650,000 people here. Since it is impractical for individuals to try to rehab houses in the middle of 10-square block vacant/rundown areas, we tend to nibble away at the edges of those areas instead.

Regardless, the thing that no one ever seems to remember is that the first season was about half ghetto and half West Side Redevelopment/CenterPoint, and the second season was half Locust Point, and the third was half Inner Harbor...

I used to practice landscape architecture in Baltimore. We got many contracts for ghetto rehabilitation projects which involved rehabbing every abandoned row home block by block of west Baltimore. Needless to say, I spent more time than I wished walking through the streets and back alleys in that part of town. It was truly sad. Back yards filled 6 ft. high with trash, gutted cars, syringes, crack pipes, weaves, chained up dogs, bullet shells, fresh blood, etc. The reason why many left me alone was because they often thought I was a detective investigating a murder that had happened next door the day before. It really jades your perspective on life when you're confronted with those sorts of things on a daily basis.

Anyway, to get to my point, I remember the marble steps. They truly are everywhere. So many in W. Baltimore were torn up in disrepair. Often times the space under the steps were used as trash cans. Such beautiful slabs of marble were just wasting away. I wished there was more I could do to preserve the wonderful architecture there, but it always seemed to decay quicker than we could rebuild.

I have an apartment in Mount Vernon, which is just north of downtown near all of the major cultural institutions. I'm not originally from Baltimore and the thing that most surprised me about moving here is the diversity of the neighborhoods, both demographically and architecturally.

Example: the first picture is the corner I live on, and the second is just 3 blocks east.
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/6615/p4120506at0.jpg
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/4939/p4120468ui0.jpg

As another fan of the Wire, I really feel what bueller mentioned. I ride the bus down Druid Hill Ave. and see all of the marble steps and 3- and 4-story rowhouses that have been left to rot and gather trash under the marble steps. But everyday when I ride that bus, I see the people who ride and my hope and optimism grows for the city. Those rowhouses might be vacant and neglected, but they've lasted this long and will probably last longer than those newer homes that are being built in the 'burbs.

It's also how funny TV shapes our thoughts. I also live in Res Hill, like jwer, and everytime I walk/bike past the Riviera/Chateau apartments, I imagine the balcony scene in the 5th season with Omar, Snoop, Chris and Michael.

Only in Bmore!!

Baltimore representing on AT!

I live in the suburbs of Baltimore County, 20 minutes north of the city, but have worked in Baltimore City all my life. My mother worked for Johns Hopkins University for 40 years, working at the downtown site as well as the University site. I can proudly say that the pictures do not reflect all of Baltimore City. Where are the photos of Charles Village? Fells Point? Hampden? Guilford? There are so many neighborhoods of Baltimore that make a great city. All cities have their rough sides. Please remember that!

Didn't Homicide really represent Baltimore on TV first?

bodymore, murderland.

watch out for the big girl. "whats up whats up" the "wait a minute mr postman" one..


id have more to say, but i dont watch tv, and i come from portland.. where all the "bad" parts of town have recently been gentrified to the point of total whiteness.. condo style.

Face it, fellow Baltimore people - we do have a crime problem and the "rough" or "problem" areas of the city far outnumber the nice ones. The portrayals of Baltimore in Homicide, the Corner, and the Wire are accurate and that's why they bother people so much.

That being said, I wouldn't trade the nice parts of Baltimore for DC or any of the suburbs.

Yay! I'm waiting for an AT Baltimore! The architecture in Baltimore IS interesting. All of the neighborhoods have a very distinct style and feel. I live in a part of town that looks like the very first postcard-- only, imagine two windows across the top floor and a big, arched window on the first floor.

So, a bit of information for those not from Baltimore (and even those who do live here but just don't know). The marble used on all of our steps (assuming its original) came from the same quarry that the marble for the monuments in DC came from. There are some great photographs by A. Aubrey Bodine (a Maryland photographer) of people scrubbing their steps-- they were loved at one point in time.

Also, aside from our own unique architectural styles, we also have buildings designed by Mies van der Rohe (2 that I know of) and I.M. Pei (though I don't think it's one of his more impressive buildings). Recently MICA (art school) has been introducing some interesting buildings on their campus as well.

Also, Baltimore is littered with warehouses, which have become really popular living qaurters. Unfortunately many of them are in sketchy areas. But they are gorgeous! Especially on some of the 5th floors which have huge arched windows. *sigh*

The Wire is, I think, a very true representation of SMALL PARTS of Baltimore City. People actually do live in depressing blocks (or series of blocks) just like that. However, as JWER and others said, Baltimore has so much more. It has blocks and blocks of historic rowhomes with colorful front doors on cobblestone streets with trees and parks. It has uber trendy mod condos and shops. In addition to Wire'fied areas, it also has very blue collar white areas with descendents of Polish etc. immigrants whose families have lived in those areas for decades. I live in Otterbein, near Federal Hill. Very ritzy, and historic, according to Bmore standards, but a hop away is dilapidated Section 8 housing and drug dealers. Do they bother me? No. Generally it is true when the mayor says that the vast majority of the crime is kept amongst the criminals. Sad for them; ok for the rest of us. Baltimore has so much character. I am impacted on a deep level that kids like those in The Wire live such a drastically different life than me just miles away. This is also shown in an HBO documentary about a Bmore high school (Douglas High School, I think). Anyway, very true about the slow rehab of the very abandoned areas. It is so sad to see the humongous once gorgeous mansions in Resevoir Hill just sit there boarded up. None of the people who live in that area can afford the ton of $ that it would take to rehab such mansions and grand row houses, and those that can afford it are reluctant (very) to create something wonderful in the midst of what is a mess. I hope in the next decade more can be done to Resevoir Hill. So many gems waiting. But I'm doubtful. : ( Love Baltimore though! Great great city (and with DC just 40 minutes away as well!). Best of all worlds.

And I am glad that the city hasn't been totally gentrified, white and condo-style as the poster above said Baltimore is interesting and diverse. And that has great value. People are living all sorts of lives here. True though about what JWER says - the city population is far under what it should be. I do see empty nesters coming in, but the city is definitely underpopulated as a whole with certain areas entirely abandoned. This results in us having ridiculously high property taxes, which pisses me off! I'm locked into my house - a lovely one thankfully - because if I move (and spend phat cash in the city) I lose my Homestead Tax Credit and will have like a $14k annual tax bill just for a $600,000 home. Ok venting over!

STYLeyes --- unless the show's cast and crew are coming to your house and hanging out your dirty laundry, you should probably try learn the difference between "literal" and "figurative." Thanks.

It's like they're telling stories about Baltimore piece by piece. First came the television show Roc. I think Homicide came after that. The Corner, The Wire. I hope there's another, more optimistic, story to be told.

I don't think of the show as airing our dirty laundry at all. I consider the world lucky that this story is told. These people, in many respects, live life as if they are in a different world. I am so glad the story is told. Besides being a damn good drama, we all need to be more aware of what inner city life is like for some people. Actually, any peek into the lives of others is always great. That's why I love documentaries.

Are there optimistic crime shows? The story may be based in Baltimore but the writers are taking years of crime and urban decay and compressing it into a shorter time frame and exaggerating some details for entertainment purposes. I don't look at CSI and assume the police there deal with a constant stream of weird freaky murders.

I enjoyed the show and appreciate that it was showing another side of America. Not everyone lives in NY or LA, not everyone is middle class or rich. Unfortunately every child does not grow up in a stable safe environment and attend the best schools. It is shameful that in a country as powerful as America there are still so many who go without.

The repetitive facades of Baltimore row homes can house some beautiful, colorful, and unique interiors. Don't judge a book by its cover! The home featured belongs to my cousin and her boyfriend, on E. Baltimore just north of Patterson Park.

Thanks Griffin. You're right. "Figuratively" is the word I should have chosen. Let me assure you that I do know the difference.

Love seeing Baltimore on AT!

I just bought a Baltimore row home and am in the middle of a money pit style renovation. I think Baltimore has a lot to offer and has some really nice parts. I would like to see the leadership in Baltimore City go to other cities and see how they deal with issues like trash, rodent problems, graffiti, public transportation - all the little things. (A great example Chicago) As the Tipping Point pointed out fixing these things have a positive impact on a city and help boost crime efforts and civic pride. With the right mind set in place I believe it could be only up from here for Baltimore!