Just when the Hollywood intelligentsia start gearing up for the movie premiere of Hairspray (the Broadway musical version), Baltimore City’s crime problem blazes out of control. The last time the city took this much heat was The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904. Well, maybe not that far back, but close. I wonder if Brittany Snow plans to attend the premiere without her bodyguards.
The streets of Pigtown are out of control. Mayoral candidates now bandy about the idea of marshall law. Marshall Freaking Law for cripes sake! Are these people brain dead?
I’m a born and buttered Baltimoron, and the first to crack wise about her hometown roots. Hons, dem O’s, seafood, Preakness, the Inner Harbor, Nipper the dog, the Bromo Seltzer Tower…I have a symbiotic relationship with all things Charm City. Baltimore is who I am and what I love about America. It’s a big city comprised of many neighborhoods and community groups, a small town that simply got too big for its britches. There’s a feeling of belonging in Baltimore I can’t put into words. I haven’t really found that anywhere else and believe me I’ve tried.
But Baltimore sure has its problems — rampant deadly crime for one. It’s gotten pretty darn bleak out there. I’m genuinely afraid to walk around my neighborhood at night. And I live in Baltimore County.
Complaining isn’t going to change things, but maybe it will help open a dialogue. This town needs some practical solutions, not drivel from vote mongering political candidates. Perhaps if residents cared more about civic pride than partying on city streets and killing one another, this little town could turn itself around. Like that little engine chugging and puffing, “I think we can…I think we can…”
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Filed under: Charm City, Violence in America
