back from Baltimore...

and I have to say it was an incredible trip! Just what my imagination needed---another place and society to consider and think about. What is Baltimore? The city of tremendous poverty and danger for those living in the neighborhoods where this poverty exists. But the part of Baltimore I visited---mostly from the train station going south to almost the inner harbor, was placid. Moving south from the train station, one finds about seven or eight streets mostly of brownstones and medium size apartment houses that seem very well maintained. Soon one approaches Peabody, the music institute that is part of Hopkins. Not that many people on the street, yet a true feeling of calm and rest emanates from the area. Then further south towards the inner harbor one finds office buildings for corporations and the city, but to my surprise, near Baltimore Street, many converted office buildings now offering "luxury apartments". Also several new buildings offering the same. How is it when the reputation of Baltimore as a "safe city" seems fairly low, builders are building like made in the area and creating a glut of "luxury apartments"?  Are young business people and artists flocking to Baltimore because of its lower cost of living?  Certainly this is class separation---as if the city is trying to create a neighborhood of only luxury places to be. Still, will all these buildings be filled.?They are all over in the two neighborhoods that I have described. The general atmosphere is one of calm--on Sunday afternoon the neighborhood near Peabody had a decent amount of people moving around---seemingly enjoying themselves. Towards the hotel where the glut of new apartments was strong---nobody was on the street---I saw nobody going in and out of those new apartments. Pied a terres? Away for the weekend to Maryland resort areas? Hard to say. But this is a world totally separate from the working class and poor neighborhoods to the east and the west of downtown..
 I was always aware of this juxtaposition---yet could not help but enjoy the "safety" of the areas that I traveled in.
 So where do we go from here? Not sure---must watch the city carefully. Only felt that I was getting to know it as I left---only one other "scheduled" trip left this summer, to DC in about 5 weeks, but will follow Baltimore closely from newspapers and any other source. Still would have liked to talked to an experienced Baltimore native about this juxtaposition, but did not have a chance.
  Came back to the apartment tired---yet could not sleep much last night---much to my surprise.
Today another BAN meeting and tomorrow, scheduled to go to a reading of a novel that my friend Sarah's husband has just written and is being published. Will report soon.