Leaving Baltimore City a Real Possibility

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later.  After eight years of living in Baltimore City, my wife finally uttered the words I've been expecting:  "Maybe it is time that we move out of the city."

I was not shocked but I was a little surprised.  I've brought the subject up several times in the last year or so, but my wife always said she loved our little rowhouse in our little neighborhood and she wanted to stay.

I live in Violetville, a stable community in southwest Baltimore.  

We purchased our house for a very affordable price.  Yes, our property tax is astronomically high, but still, our monthly mortgage is about half of what it costs to rent an apartment in most places in the Baltimore metropolitan area. 

Our neighbors are great.  Some of them have lived in their homes since they were built in the 1950's.

But the community is beginning to change for the worse.  The main problem is that people who can not sell their homes are turning them into rental units.  

Too many rental units is the death knell for any community. While there are many responsible renters, the fact is that renters change the characteristics of a neighborhood. 

Another factor that is having a huge impact on Violetville (which makes people want to sell their homes in the first place) is that we now have a rat problem.  Old timers in the community say they've never seen rats.  I can say that for the first six years or so that I've been here, I never saw a rat either. 

But that changed when the city started the Single Stream recycling program, which reduced the number of regular trash collection days to once a week.  Many people simply do not know how to properly manage their refuse and, with more renters in the area, many don't seem to care that their trash is attracting rats.

Of course Baltimore City does little in the fight against rats.  As on several occasions, the 311 system does not seem to be effective in addressing citizen concerns regarding sanitation violations.

Crime is also a reason my wife is beginning to feel uncomfortable in the city.  Thankfully, Violetville has been spared any headline grabbing criminal activity.  But, despite repeated proclamations from the mayor and police officials about crime being on a major decline, there is still way too much violent crime in this city and it begins to wear people down.

We decided to move into Baltimore City because then Mayor Martin O'Malley seemed truly concerned with making Baltimore a safer and better place to live.  I do not know what the statistics say about how successful he was, but his enthusiasm was enough for my wife and I to give the city a chance. 

But that enthusiasm has waned under mayors Dixon and Rawlngs-Blake.  I don't question their love for the city or their good intentions.  But I have lived with the results of their policies and I can report that I have become disheartened and now, apparently, so has my wife.

Violetville is what I call an anchor community.  It is not wealthy or poor.  It is lower middle class.  But the people in Violetville go to work every day, pay their bills, and keep their homes well tended.  If Baltimore City begins losing the anchor communities like Violetville, they will have no chance of saving the rest of the city.  And, I am sad to report, they are beginning to lose the fight here.

I don't know if we will finally decide to move out of Baltimore City.  But if we do, it will not be because we did not like city living.  It will be because the benefits of staying were smothered under by a growing mountain of negativity and distress.  We will leave just like hundreds of thousands of others have left before us - shaken, disappointed, and not looking back.