Places
To Live In The
Baltimore Area
Federal Hill: Full of older brick townhouses, many having been
rehabilitated over past 20 years. Only a 10-15 walk from
the "Inner Harbor". Overlooking the harbor from the south side,
convenient access to the waterfront.
Fells Point: One of the trendier neighborhoods in Baltimore,
full of great little restaurants, bars and shops. Many buildings
date back to the 18th and 19th centuries. Located along the north
side of the harbor (Patapsco River).
Little Italy: Still home to lots of folks of Italian descent,
Little Italy is east of the Inner Harbor. You'll find at least
20 Italian restaurants and hundreds of rowhouses.
Canton: Another harbor area neighborhood, just east of Fells
Point. Originally a waterfront plantation (named after the owner's
business relationship with Canton, China), now a thriving community
of townhomes both old and new.
Towson: The largest suburb on the northeast side of town is
also home to Towson University.
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About Baltimore
Baltimore, largest city in Maryland, grew
from it's location on a natural harbor on the Chesapeake Bay
and the availability of nearby water that could be used to power
mills. As the nation grew Baltimore was the most western of the
Atlantic ports and became a hub for transporting goods and people
to and from the west. As with many industrial-oriented cities,
the 20th century wasn't as kind to Baltimore as it could've been.
But the city benefited from its variety of ethnic neighborhoods
and some visionary work in the area of the "Inner Harbor" to
become a moderate success story as the century ended.
Baltimore's commercial life is still centered
on the harbor. There's still a significant amount of goods that
travels through Baltimore's ports each year (and a small,
but growing number of people taking cruises
from Baltimore,
too). Regional banks, insurance companies, and stock brokerages
inhabit the tallest buildings of the downtown
area. Shopping and dining in the Inner Harbor and surrounding
neighborhoods is a major source of retail activity, while individual
neighborhoods of the less well-known parts of the city have thousands
of small storefront businesses.
Cultural activities include the B&O
Railroad Museum, the National
Aquarium, the Maryland
Science Center, the Baltimore
Zoo (aka The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore), the Baltimore
Symphony Orchestra (BSO), and the recently refurbished Hippodrome
Theater, home of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center.
The relocation of the Baltimore Orioles to
Oriole Park at Camden Yards in the Inner Harbor area greatly
added to the vitality
of the downtown. The unfortunate decision to built an adjacent,
much less used football stadium for the relocated Cleveland Browns
served only to make it more difficult to find parking at Orioles
games
- and to deplete several hundred
million dollars from the state treasury. Of course, every major city also has its suburbs.
Communities like Towson, White Marsh, Timonium, Lutherville,
and Catonsville all benefit from proximity to the city while
providing the suburban lifestyle. Travel a very short distance
to the north and northwest of the city and you'll be amazed at
how quickly you're into some very rural country side - and see
some very expensive "horse country" estates.
The city
of Baltimore is governed by a mayor and a city
council consisting of a council president and representatives
from each the city's 14 districts. Unlike every other town
and city in the state, Baltimore is not part of a county (Baltimore
County is an entirely separate entity) and is the equivalent
of a county in the state legislature.
The golf boom of the late 1990's brought the
building of quite a few great
golf courses in the Baltimore area.
Just a few miles north of Baltimore, near Aberdeen and Havre
de Grace, Bulle
Rock golf course is now the host of the annual
LPGA Championship.
View an interactive
map starting with downtown Baltimore.
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Baltimore is Maryland's largest city, home to Johns Hopkins University
and the Inner Harbor and Orioles and Ravens and Edgar Allen Poe - and
the Social Security Administration. Like many older American cities
Baltimore has it's problems, but it also has lots to offer. And you
can always choose to live in the nearby suburbs and have the best of
both worlds.