What Makes Baltimore Great?, My 3 favorite parts of "Charm City"

Time for another featured discussion...

One of the greatest attributes of being a Johns Hopkins student is the connection you can have with an amazing city -- the city of Baltimore. As a resident of the Homewood campus you will experience the growing college-town of Charles Village, but you will be so close to so many of the other noteworthy neighborhoods that make up Baltimore.

This thread is for us to detail what we love about our city. Each student will list their three favorite parts of living in Baltimore.

Here are mine:

(1) Camden Yards: I am a huge baseball fan, and though I prefer the National League to the American League and I am an avid Mets fan, I can truly appreciate the beauty and majesty of Camden Yards. I must say that it remains my favorite ballpark in the whole country.

(2) Bo Brooks Restaurant in Canton: B'more is known for its crabs and no place in my humble opinion serves them better then Bo Brooks. What a magnificent place -- check them out online: http://www.bobrooks.com/

(3) Fell's Point: One of the truly unique neighborhoods that make up the city. Fell's Point is known for great restaurants, cool shops, and the best place to be for Halloween.

1) The music scene. You probably won't realize it at first, but it's fantastic. Click here to read a guest blog I wrote a year ago about Baltimore's music scene.

2) Homewood Campus. I love this school. Most people will agree that the campus is great. Likewise, Charles Village is currently being re-vamped. The new and improved Charles Village will be much more impressive. Coldstone Creamery, Chipotle, the return of Uni Mini, etc. etc. etc. Great things will be happening soon.

3) Fell's Point. In all honesty, I haven't been down there in a long time. I used to go a lot last year though, and it's a really cool place. Good food and good stores. Halloween down there is always a blast.

What makes Baltimore great?
1. I came from the suburbs where I needed a car to get everywhere. I love living in Baltimore simply for the fact that I can walk to the supermarket. Boy I sound like a country girl now.

2. Hamden is this really cute funky neighborhood about fifteen minutes from Hopkins. It's a great place to go to get unique meals, vintage clothes, or a haircut at an organic salon.

3. Johns Hopkins University. We really make this city a better place. Be it the med school, Peabody, or Homewood campus Hopkins contributes so much to the city. We're not the second largest employer in Maryland for nothing.

Baltimore grows on you. As a freshman, your access to the city might not be as complete until you have been here for a while and begin to see what to see and where to go. I am thoroughly impressed with the city, and I have only been to the Inner Harbor twice and yet to go to the Aquarium: there is alot to explore.

Remember, you live here now (if you are going to Hopkins), this place is your home, not a tourist attraction, and many people forget that. We are in a city and must accept everything that comes with that. We are not in New York or Paris, but Baltimore has great things to offer if you are looking for them.

1. Federal Hill, Fells Point, Hamden- neighborhoods that are filled with people on the weekend. Plenty of fun to be had, and plenty of money to be spent!

2. Small returaunts- this is ambiguous, but the cuisine is probably my favorite part about this city. I love places like Brewer's Art, with its dungeon like resturaunt, Thirsty Dog, that allows you to bring your dog and they have pizzas and their own line of drinks. Dizzy Izzy's, and when I feel like a jerk there is always a full line of fast food and Chilis.

3. Baltimore's has character. It's difficult to describe. You have to live here to appreciate the curving streets, the bumpy roads, the abrupt mixture of neighborhoods the small town neighborhood atmosphere. There are sections with faceless sky scrapers of huge financial institutions and nothing but sterile parking garages, but by and large, it's a neighborhood based community that I have come to really enjoy. Again...I have been here for years. I have routines in the city, James Joyce on Mondays, and Fells Point during the week and Fed Hill on the weekends. (well, it's not clockwork, but you get the idea.)

4. Close proximity of a few schools. Loyola is up the street next to College of Notre Dame of Maryland, UMBC is across town, I don't really know where Goucher is, but I have met people from MICA (dont know what it means), and Baltimore University. Many cities are like that, and Baltimore is no exception.

5. DC is a $7, 45 minute train ride away. I may not want to Live in Baltimore after school, but definately think about DC. A great place for a weekend or just the day. And we are reasonably close to other major cities; Philadelphia, NY?, and Atlantic City!

Baltimore grows on you, and I am pretty stoked to live her over the summer.

Best burger for the best price within walking distance of campus. I LOVE that place.

Well, I am hard to please when it comes to cities...I am from New York, after all. However, I do like living here in Baltimore. These are a few of my favorite things:

1. Hampden: great, sort of off-beat neighborhood within walking distance of campus. Also home to Holy Frijoles, the best Mexican food around.

2. The JHMI Shuttle: The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions shuttle is free and goes to Penn Station and Mount Vernon/Peabody so even if you aren't using it to get to the med school, it's still a great free way to get around.

3. Camden Yards. I like Yankee Stadium, but I LOVE Camden Yards. It's such a nice ballpark and $6 student tickets for Friday home games are great!

So, I've been here for about a year and have to say that I love this place...

1. Hopkins: It is what brought me here in the first place. The campus is beautiful, and the school extends beyond Homewood- it is all over Baltimore. The Hopkins name is everywhere. It's great to know that my school is such a vital part of this great city.

2.The People: This place is filled with a variety of characters; from the hip crowd that bar hops in Fell's Point to those who live for Baltimore sports teams- these people are great!

3.Collegetown Network: Because there are so many schools in Baltimore; what really keeps us together is the Collegetown Network. Shuttles run between schools everyday of the week and make it easy for you to get around, which is nice when you want to get off of campus for a breather.

check this out:
Baltimore Collegetown

1. Johns Hopkins University - It's what got me in Baltimore in the first place. I also like the fact that there's more to the university than the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering at the Homewood campus; there are many academic opportunities through Hopkins's different divisions.

2. Mount Vernon - It's a beautiful neighborhood with several cute shops and restaurants. (I'm fond of Sascha's 527 Café, which has jazz performances on Thursday nights from 8 to 10.) Mount Vernon's a pretty cultural district. Some places that call Mount Vernon home are the Peabody Institute, MICA (i.e., the Maryland Institute College of Art), and the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performs. The BSO has a "5 for $25 Student Pass," in which you could reserve five tickets for the season - one for five performances of your choosing - for only $25! Another college student discount is its "$10 Student Rush," in which you could purchase a ticket on the day of a performance for only $10.

3. Proximity to Washington, D.C. - It's only 45 minutes away. Baltimore can already stand on its own as a city. Add the fact that it's close to an even bigger city. What's bad about that?

This post has been edited by JHU_Kate on Apr 15 2007, 02:27 PM

Apparently, while I was typing my post and looking for links to go with it, Blake put an answer whose first item about Baltimore sounds a lot like mine. Waaah, now I sound like a copycat!

This post has been edited by JHU_Kate on Apr 15 2007, 02:31 PM

(1) (Multi)CULTURAL-From museums to restaurants, music to boutiques, Baltimore is definitely an eclectic mix of everything. I didn't really expect to learn so much about other cultures, and my own, when I left Florida, but since being here, exploring the city and all that it has to offer has definitely opened my eyes. Visit the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum , the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History and Culture , the Walters Museum of Art, or stop by theBMA (just steps away from campus)
and you'll see what I'm talking about.

(2) FOOD. I've eaten AUTHENTIC Italian, Thai, Ethiopian, Jamaican, Pakistani/Indian, and Lebanese food, and am still looking for the next restaurant to try out.

(3) COLLEGETOWN VIBE-I had reservations about leaving my Edenic-like suburban settings for the grit and grime of the "Big City," but Baltimore is the closest thing to a CollegeTown I think any "big city" can get to. Not only are there a lot of schools concentrated within the City, the Collegetown Shuttle brings you everywhere you want to be.

This post has been edited by JHU_Jermaine on Apr 15 2007, 02:39 PM

1.) Being so close to so many places, like DC. Baltimore is great because its right in the middle of everything.

2.) Fells point, Fed Hill- great places which are only about a 10 min cab ride.

3.) The inner harbor- great places to eat and hang out on the weekends. The inner harbor has to be one of the nicest placest to spend time at.

1) Camden Yards- I love the ability to go to a baseball game for so little. Honestly, you can just show up and get tickets, something I'm really not use to as a Red Sox fan. Also, Camden Yards is a really pretty ballpark I'm a tough critic and I really enjoy it, it's a ton of fun.

2) The Food- There are some really great restaurants with authentic food. Whether I'm getting jugos in Hispanic Fells Point or going to Vaccaros in Little Italy to get gelato, the food is great. You just can't get the authentic restaurants back home in Connecticut.

3) The Neighborhoods- I really love the whole neighborhood set-up. I love Hamden which is so close and has amazing antique shops. I love vintage clothes and jewelry so Hamden offers a lot. It also has some great places to eat in between shopping. Also, they have beautiful clip-on earrings and since I don't have my ears pierced I think its kind of perfect.

(1) The neighborhoods/ethnic enclaves - you can experience something different & unique everywhere you go. The ethnic festivals that abound during the summer are AMAZING - with great food and music, too.

(2) The weather - although I tend to get rather agitated during the hot, sticky months of summer, I really like that we get all four seasons here...the mild winters appease Southerners, but the random snow storm makes me giddy. Fall is beautiful, and the flowering trees in spring are fantastic. Plus, occasional hurricanes (I'm pretty sure Baltimore is one of the only places where your school can have both snow days and hurricane days off)?? Yes!

(3) The geography - I love being in the mid-Atlantic "not quite northeast and not quite south" area. Baltimore natives are extremely friendly & the overall attitude is fairly laid back (hello, Preakness!), but the vibrant business & industry influence give a big northeast city feel when necessary.

1.) Its SUPER easy to get anywhere on the East Coast. Well most of it. DC, New York, Philly... YAY!!!

2.) Have you looked outside in the springtime?!!? It's BEAUTIFUL!! Yay for Cherry Blossoms!!

3.) Hopkins is Here Soooo, it is pretty much amazing. =)...
oooo and the Baltimore Museum of ART!!! Which is RIGHT NEXT TO CAMPUS and Is beautiful and amazing and hosts a FANTASTIC collection of Matisse.

(1) Location: Baltimore is it's own small little city, which I love, but also if I ever want to get to any of the major cities it's not too far away (i.e. DC, NYC, etc.)

(2)Inner Harbor: It's my number one get away spot here in Baltimore. It's gorgeous to go to at night...filled with stores, ESPN Zone, Baltimore Aquarium, Science Center (haha I'm a nerd), and Little Italy (a chain of Italian restaurants)

(3)The College Scene: Hopkins isn't the only college in Baltimore...we're close to many other colleges nearby (Loyola, Goucher, Towson, etc.) so it's definitely fun living near so many college students. And the collegetown shuttle helps with transportation to and from various colleges.