“Greatest City in America” is just the typical kind of propaganda that you would hear from any big city mayor, or any PR firm they’ve hired to promote tourism.
Baltimore is the birthplace of Babe Ruth, and the home of two great stadiums, an excellent downtown shopping district near a beautiful harbor, one of the most respected hospitals and research universities in the world, the nation’s oldest Roman Catholic seminary, Fort McHenry (where soldiers fought off the British who had just ransacked D.C.) and the National Aquarium. Like many major cities, there is also too much crime and some serious social problems–housing fraud, drugs, etc.
The stretch of I-95 between Baltimore and Washington is rather horrendous, as is much of the D.C. beltway. Rush hour traffic in the D.C. area tends to be worse than in the Baltimore area.
We had some out-of-staters from Kansas visit once, and they claimed to “love” seafood, especially crabmeat. We took them to Ocean Pride in Lutherville for steamed crabs. When the waiter brought the first batch and dumped them on the table, our guests were shocked. “Why are they all dirty?” they asked. “What is all that dirt on them for?”
). But I just tell folks “it builds character” (and, that it will provide a valid excuse for having to drink a lot of beer – which was the argument that finally did it for me).