what is your opinion on

Hereford(?)

Towson / Lutherville

Catholic HS of Baltimore

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5918999&forum_id=2#50233925)

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1152-Monkton-Rd-Monkton-MD-21111/36376934_zpid/

i like this house.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5918999&forum_id=2#50233935)

Columbia =/= Howard County as a whole. It was a planned new community explicitly designed to be diverse from the get go. Look up James Rouse.

Always been weirdly suburban shitlib.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5918999&forum_id=2#50234592)

Midsize, managed declining American city that carries above its weight cultural and professional institutions, meaning for the upper middle classes it can be genuinely a land of pleasant living with relatively affordable housing and good private schools at a fraction of the cost of DC or NYC or CA. And parts of Baltimore (city proper) is beautiful neighborhoods after beautiful neighborhoods. Small and compact metro area means getting around is easy, everywhere is seemingly no more than 20 minutes away.

Flip side is extensive decaying to outright post-apocalyptic areas that stretch for miles after miles, with entrenched urban poverty that never improves. The transformation of the city from 1950 to present is something to behold. Politics is dysfunctional, the politics of people who want no change and the city will be a Democratic fiefdom longer than cockroaches surviving a nuclear bomb. Maryland is weirdly Democratic state, it's dominated by the Democrats who talk the talk but govern moderately, it's no Massachusetts despite similar voting breakdowns. I attribute this to the black voters, who are the biggest bloc in Maryland politics. They just want their share of the grift and aren't interested in progressive issues, so ultimately it's not a bad state for Republicans to live.

Like many midsize cities, Baltimore is intensely local. People tend to be from Baltimore. Where you went to high school, public or private, is still asked of elderly people. Parochialism is intense. There is no energy or dynamism. People say Baltimore has the personality and culture lacking of Phoenix or Atlanta or Dallas, but Baltimore also has no growth, no real economy of any note. It's a place to live, it's not a place to achieve things. That may matter to you, it may not. The one exception is Hopkins.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5918999&forum_id=2#50234426)

Edit: thank you very 180

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5918999&forum_id=2#50234433)

Towson is different. It's older, built around an existing county seat and commercial core, has a range neighborhoods from some of the most expensive in the region to more middle class 50s housing, altogether the classic east coast suburbs of an older city. Columbia is all post 1960s master planned cul-de-sacs and seemingly a long way from anywhere.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5918999&forum_id=2#50234478)

I wouldn't call it rural properly but it's exurban. Can be genuinely pastoral. There's a popular bike trail that goes through beautiful valleys. New development is now heavily controlled.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5918999&forum_id=2#50234560)

used to be a far-flung dc exurb but is kind of a suburb now.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5918999&forum_id=2#50234593)

I gather it's diversified a lot. 20 years ago the county would have been solid red between the rural population and the exurban Bush Republicans. Now it's pretty solid blue. Town itself has lots of Hispanics, who are now all over those small central MD and Pennsylvania towns. But if you're aiming for an affordable suburban lifestyle with newer shiny housing and with easy access to good nature and some hiking, Frederick isn't a bad option. The town itself has some eateries and breweries if that's your thing.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5918999&forum_id=2#50234604)

I don’t want to actually live in West Virginia.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5918999&forum_id=2#50234948)

I agree that it's provincial but I think the "where'd you go to school" question is a bit overplayed. I've never really felt excluded from any professional circle or whatever just because I'm not a native. To the contrary it's been a welcoming place for me work wise. I've no doubt that some of this is I just never had an interest in pushing my way into old boys networks or whatever, but it hasn't been an impediment to doing what I want or making money. It's no more local than any other city outside of NYC/DC/LA/SF.

Energy or dynamism - I'm not really sure what you mean by that, it's an unhelpful blanket statement to make about a city. It's not NYC, but everyone knows that. There is incredible research going on at places like Hopkins, NIH, Applied Physics lab. Big defense contractors (both legacy and new) have major operations in the area. It's got a good, really robust economy compared to most midsize cities in the US. A lot of it is tied to DC or outside of Baltimore proper, but it's a true urban conurbation with very little to differentiate between metros.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5918999&forum_id=2#50234967)

I live in LA and spent many years in London, Dubai and Singapore, and my role has me also spending a goodly portion of the year at various offices in the bigger cities across the US as well as London and elsewhere. There are personality differences between Baltimore and up and coming middle cities like Phoenix or Dallas. Corporate cities tend to be highly meritocratic, there's lots of opportunities and a focus on growth. You see this reflected in the metro area population. Baltimore's metro grew from 2.5M in 2000 to 2.8M today, a growth of 300k new residents. Compare that to 2.2M in greater Atlanta in the same time period, or 3.3M in Dallas. Even Tampa added 1M new residents in 25 years. No college kid says I want to move to Baltimore.

I had the Hopkins disclaimer at the end of my post. My father taught at Hopkins for decades and like most Hopkins folks, it was why he came to Baltimore. But as you conceded, parts of Hopkins like the APL is closer to DC, as are the defense contracting firms south of the city. It's a different world than Baltimore proper or the northern suburbs. Is it fair to say someone moving to Howard County to work for APL and a spouse who commutes to DC or Fort Meade is living in Baltimore? I don't think it is.

I would never say there's very little to differentiate between Baltimore and DC, another city I also spend a lot of time in due to work. They are structurally and economically different entities with wildly different demographics and purposes.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5918999&forum_id=2#50235105)

- Baltimore is still a top 10 port

- all of the U. of Maryland professional schools are here and in particular the UMB/UMSOM research complex is massive (although dwarfed by Hopkins, the largest academic research engine in the world)

- Baltimore City (not Annapolis) is the largest operational hub for MD state gov offices

- The steel plant and GM are gone but the redevelopment of Sparrows Point is exciting and dynamic

- A friend works for a company <10 people that builds drones in Balt City for the military to skeet shoot. Startup costs are low, expected salaries are reasonable, and there's ample access to light specialized manufacturing in the area

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5918999&forum_id=2#50235114)

maybe the worst thing about bmore is its residents have a huge chip on their shoulders and act like it's a better city than dc, which is absolutely retarded. it's a dangerous shithole.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5918999&forum_id=2#50234579)

Baltimore = Houston or rather San Antonio

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5918999&forum_id=2#50234598)