Looking to the North -- Baltimore #2

On Sunday and Monday the Baltimore Sun reported on the increase in violence, particularly murders, in the City of the Baltimore and the impact on residents and perceptions of the city in terms of revitalization. See "Unnerved by the violence: Fear grips neighborhoods unaccustomed to attacks" from Monday.

This article is about violence leaking into improving areas such as Charles Village, which abuts Johns Hopkins University true and nicer neighborhoods to the north, but on the south abuts rougher areas.

Johns Hopkins students (from left) Abad Main, Judy Yang, Patrick Kay and Brian Seo walk north in the 2600 block of St. Paul St. in Charles Village, near the Homewood campus. In the foreground is a post alerting residents and passers-by of a recent attack in the neighborhood. (Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron)

The Sunday article is Losing the streets.

Sometimes I am not too sympathetic about this because when I first moved to DC in 1987, the crime rate, particularly murder, was very very high--in excess of 400 murders/year, and with dozens and dozens each year within just a few blocks of where I lived.

In any case, Elijah Anderson's books Code of the Street and Streetwise are particularly good discussions of some of the issues.