Why would anyone move to Baltimore, anyway?

Russ Smith, who apparently is a fellow Baltimoron, asks Why would anyone want to move to Baltimore now? in today's WSJ OpinionJournal.

Most of the article deals with the Baltimore Sun suit against Governor Ehrlich for banning a couple Sun reporters who he felt represented him unfairly. They claimed First Ammendment violations, and lost. Of course, getting interview's with the governor's staff is a privildge, not a right. Claiming that losing those privlidges is a first ammendment violation would be like me accusing girls of gender discrimination for not going out with me.

He is right, though, that the Sun is a horrible paper. I do admit to buying it once a week (the early Sunday edition on Saturday nights), but only for the circulars, coupons, and real estate listings. The news part goes in the trash. I remeber a Sun headline a while ago, front page Sunday, comparing the war in Iraq to the Vietnam war. This was about 4 days after the fighting started. No jumping to conclusions there.

So why did Mad Anthony move to Baltimore, anyway? College first, and then a job at said college. But he is right that the city of Baltimore doesn't do a whole lot to attract intellegent, middle-class residents (something I plan to look at in a future post) and that Baltimore has a lot of political problems. While the city has been improving in a lot of places, it still has a lot of growth to do - and it would be nice if it had a more balanced government. When I voted for city councilperson for my district, my choices were between a Dem and a Green - no Republican even bothered running. (I voted for the green, figuring correctly that the Dem would win by a huge margin anyway). A single party in power leads to corruption and stagnation, and Baltimore has been going through a number of scandles of late - a school board president who was paying a chauffer $100,000 to drive her to work, a police chief who was using tax money to fund his mistress, and the like. I bet having a second party would balance that out, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon.