If you looked at crime statistics for Baltimore, you probably wouldn’t be too encouraged, but if you lived here, you’d know there’s plenty of places that have had a great run for the last 10 years and seemed to have reached a critical mass of safety and sustainability. But, they’re all OLD neighborhoods that were designed for a time with more foot traffic.
When they were built, they were built so that everyone in the neighborhood could walk to the can company and make cans.
Now, the Can Company is actually a Whole Foods, a furniture store, a wine bar, a coffee shop. People might be walking to “consume” rather than “produce” but they’re still out and about.
So, I don’t know if there’s any part of Baltimore you’d call a vibrant urban core, but there are definitely very livable parts.
Federal Hill, Hampden, Canton, Fells Point, Oakenshaw have all become livable, walkable, shoppable (grocery, hardware, flowers, some clothing). Even parts of Waverly and into Lauraville.
Charles Village and Mt. Vernon are more “city living” as much as Baltimore can do that.
Like Cal said, downtown isn’t really residential. To me, it’s more “deserted” than “scary” at night, though. They’ve sort of connected Fells Point with Little Italy now, and they seem to be working on vitalizing the space where the inner harbor meets Little Italy but I think they’ve made some bad decisions right there. I think the mindset is “how can we make the suburban big box model work in the middle of the city”.
What that area is getting is people coming in from the burbs, making one right turn onto Pratt St. and staying entirely within their comfort zone while technically getting to answer the question “what did you do this weekend?” with “I got into the city.”
What that area lacks is outdoor spaces where people can walk and gather, or viable options for crossing roads. They’re putting in luxury condos, but my sense is that that is simply attracting an insular crowd looking for the next hot property.
Anyway, the Inner Harbor is what people will hear about, but it’s not where the real success in Baltimore over the last decade has come from.