Baltimore, like New Orleans, is a dirty and gritty blue collar city with a lot of tourism, but it's not the loss of industry that makes the projects hell holes. The people who live in the projects themselves are what make them hell holes. They are lawless people living chaotic lives, and only the most desperate are unfortunate enough to live there anymore. Anybody who has any gumption or instinct for self preservation has moved on.
I don't know what industry Baltimore ever had but the port. Which was ranked #10 in dollar value on the most recent statistics I've seen (2000) and #19 in tonnage (2001).
LA and New York are tops in dollar value, Louisiana in tonnage (oil and gas).
Why use Baltimore? Other than to ship closer to mid-Atlantic, and apparently Norfolk does a better job at that. Charleston is also busier than Baltimore, which should tell you something. We visited Charleston earlier this month, it's out in the middle of nowhere, really.
Not like Baltimore, which is on I-95 which is the backbone of the eastern seaboard, close to Washington DC, Philadelphia, not far from New Jersey and New York. The port ought to be doing better. No idea why it doesn't. |
