Recent comments in /f/baltimore

S-Kunst t1_j6mf0dj wrote

Reply to Thinking of moving to Baltimore. Are there any corporate accounting opportunities there? Like large insurance or investment firms? My background is in corporate accounting and I didn't see much when I first looked by [deleted]

Our main money machines are in medial centers and colleges which scalp customers. We also have a great industry of slum-lording, and owning decayed properties for money laundering. Perfect if you worked for the likes of a Steve Manuchin.

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S-Kunst t1_j6meign wrote

Reply to Would be awesome if the JFX and Jones Falls river could be converted like this by Cunninghams_right

Our mode of planning does not follow with great civic ideas or input. Its all commercially driven. A conversion like this was possible 40-50 yrs ago, when what we see now was hatched. Charles Center & State Center example of this bad thinking. In those days there was an excitement, by city planners to wipe out all of the historical fabric and build "modern" I think they realized that the Baltimore suburbs were not going to be building large urban landscapes, but continue to be flat and spread out, so they allowed bland flavor of the day buildings to dominate Baltimore. No real attempt was to make it a town for people. After all the people who mattered (to them) had left for the county. They thought they could mimic NYC. It was a false idea and one which ruined a large amount of what would have been a people city, with a natural flow of newer architectural ideas, as one went from the old city center to the outer edges. Today, basic services are impossible to get right, so mega ideas are just a pipe dream. Add to this, I have not seen a single city official who has shown any knowledge of architecture or city planning skills. For them, its all about hiring outside visionaries as a quick fix. Remember the Car race idea for downtown?

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sxswnxnw t1_j6mbkio wrote

Reply to Ringing or low frequency, is anything me else hearing a ringing or low frequency noise in your ears right now, Remington/hampden. My wife and I both hear it and it’s terrible. by Objective-Jury3502

Recently someone in South Baltimore, maybe around Violetville, was talking about how she or a neighbor who are older use a device to keep young people believed to be involved in criminal activity or loitering away from private property. It emitted sounds at a frequency that can only be heard by younger folks with good hearing.

Perhaps it is something like that, aren't there still some old-times-were-good timers up there?

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sicknutz t1_j6m5owj wrote

Reply to Would be awesome if the JFX and Jones Falls river could be converted like this by Cunninghams_right

Wouldn’t that be NIMBYs dream scenario? Making it difficult for city residents to access the county while adding another route along which to run and bike for exercise?

These urban transformations are awesome but American cities (all of them) are entering a period of rapid decline and it’s hard to imagine this being viable here.

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Skontradiction OP t1_j6m1n6z wrote

Reply to Scott confirms talks with BGE amid more criticism of his conduit plan by Skontradiction

Some key quotes:

> In his statement, Scott said that “if these negotiations are successful, BGE will make a historic commitment of more than $100 million in capital improvements” over the next four years. > >Absent from the statement is the fact that BGE would otherwise be expected to pay $124 million in lease fees ($31 million x 4) between 2023 and 2027.

In an interview with Sheila Dixon: > She said she was concerned about the effect of the draft agreement on city efforts to bring internet access to underserved Black neighborhoods. “I didn’t see any commitment to where that would continue,” she said.

>Indeed, the agreement would allow BGE to use funds to extend capacity to places like Kevin Plank’s upscale Port Covington (recently rebranded as “Baltimore Peninsula”) , while avoiding expenditures in East and West Baltimore.

>Dixon said it was also troubling that the agreement would excuse the company from MBE/WBE requirements.

Zeke Cohen: > “I’m also concerned that we have the ability to provide municipal WiFi, but this pretty much forecloses our opportunity to provide it.”

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Cunninghams_right OP t1_j6luagd wrote

Reply to comment by Shiny_Deleter in Would be awesome if the JFX and Jones Falls river could be converted like this by Cunninghams_right

I wish we could convince more people that cars don't make cities better.

cars, all things being equal, make an individual's life a bit easier/better, but each car subtracts from everyone around them. the result is that individuals choosing car-centrism results in an overall massive negative to everyone.

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Cunninghams_right OP t1_j6lu3cv wrote

Reply to comment by z3mcs in Would be awesome if the JFX and Jones Falls river could be converted like this by Cunninghams_right

I'm generally torn. I very much wish we could transform Baltimore into a less car-centric, more livable city. however, there are a LOT of different groups who oppose such things.

the worst of both worlds tend to have loud voices:

  1. one group being the people who want to preserve their car-centric lifestyle (like when they modified the monument street bike lane just to make a few more parking spaces for church, one hour per week), or people who just commute by car everywhere.
  2. the other voice is one that is delusional and wants transit modes that are not cost effective (streetcars), and when presented with their poor cost performance simply declares "just raise taxes" as if that's the way out of the problem.

that leaves me with a feeling that I can't really cause the kind of change that I think makes sense, so I just try to help people see how much better things could be if they just didn't make everything about cars.

the hard truth is that Baltimore's transit is completely failed. the operating cost per passenger mile is above the cost of just ubering everyone everywhere, and the most efficient and effective mode (bikes, scooters, rental bikes, rental etrikes, etc.) is not even considered because prevailing the culture sees it as such a foreign concept that they can't even imagine taking an ebike anywhere.

I wish I could magically take every Baltimore resident, one at a time, to Amsterdam or Copenhagen for 2 years and let them live a life where they don't need a car and let them see how much money they could save and how much more pleasant it is to have most people moving by bike. unfortunately, I can't do that, so I have to live in a city where people think arguments like "what about bad weather" are valid at all compared to the lived experience of people around the world.

basically, every day I'm beaten down, between various urban planning, transit, Baltimore, etc. subreddits where I'm to the point that I doubt I can change anyone's mind with real-world cost and ridership data. the logical thing to do seems foreign and wrong, so we keep doing the familiar BS that has turned the city into a less livable place (car centrism).

when I feel like fielding arguments, I'll post about cost/benefit of different modes, but people REALLY don't like honest, objective analyses of transportation because the logical conclusion is that bikes are the most important and should be funded in the tens of millions of dollar per year range (similar budget to our light rail line), and private companies like Uber and Lyft should be contracted by the city and MTA to provide the glue/feeder service into the rail lines, and the rail lines should be automated as soon as possible (currently possible for the metro, and only a couple of years away for the light rail).

so I just post more general "wouldn't it be cool" posts, hoping to convince people that maybe the status quo isn't ideal, rather than actually present them with a real alternative (which they will criticize without knowledge)

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