I thought it would be a matter of prestige and reputation for the country. In most other developed countries, you wouldn’t find crime-ridden cities with declining population so close to their capitals.

44 comments

  1. No. D.C. owes nothing to Baltimore or MD in general. 

    In fact, if DC tried to get involved, I would bet Baltimore would flip them the proverbial bird. 

  2. The government doesn’t exactly just get to send money to where ever it wants. St Louis has a much higher murder rate– why should DC residents get it over St Louis?

  3. Their funding comes from the state and local governments, the proximity to DC is irrelevant.

  4. Lol, you’re kidding right. Most countries capital city has the highest crime and poverty rate. Mainly because such cities attract such things from people trying to make it but can’t afford to due to such places being so expensive and homeless flock to these areas because they have more resources.

    Even Tokyo has a high homeless problem, not that you as a tourist will see it since the government does it’s best to make sure you don’t, usually by moving the homeless away from bus, train stations and parks before the morning rush. You might see them if you go in alleys away from the tourist areas though.

    https://www.homelessnessimpact.org/news/homelessness-and-the-pandemic-tokyo

  5. Not directly. Generally, representatives want to direct money to their own states and districts and as it turns out Maryland is only one of those. It doesn’t help that Baltimore has often been one of the most poorly run major cities in America–the former state’s attorney is currently under indictment for stealing Covid funds, a prior mayor went to jail for bribery and tax fraud and another prior mayor went to jail for, I shit you not,  stealing gift cards. 

    Baltimore’s actually improving a lot the last year or two though now that the leadership aren’t complete morons and the state’s attorney not only works five days a week, he even charged people for crimes. 

  7. Baltimores crime rate is going down and the population is increasing, with lots of former DC residents relocating to Bmore because of housing affordability. When I lived in Bmore (14 years), most the of the new home buyers in my neighborhood moved from DC.

    Both DC and Baltimore are independent cities, with few dealings with counties that surround them. Baltimore city government engages in machine politics and are unabashed about their corruption, so even the state is weary of helping the city for fear the monies will be misused which is an accurate, but shortsighted assessment.

  8. Keep watching The Wire. The point of the show is to illustrate how the issues cities like Baltimore are facing are systemic. As demonstrated throughout the series, throwing money at a systemic problem does little to create positive impact. The solution to systemic issues is systemic change. Keep watching. You’ll see.

  9. Unlike a lot of countries our capital is not the largest nor is it the most important city financially in the country.

  11. DC actually has a crime program itself. It isn’t as bad as it was 10-20 years ago but it definitely isn’t as good as people would think apparently

  12. I mean if this were true, I don’t think there would be tent cities blocks away from the White House.

  13. It isn’t that simple, the problem is multifaceted and to truly gain an understanding about how a city like Baltimore (or Detroit or a dozen of other rust belt cities) could go from a nice city to a nice city with lots of problems you have to go back in time. Back in time to the exodus of black people from the south during the first 1/2 of the 20th century, back to the fight for civil rights, back to urban highways (yes), back to white flight.

    What we did with our urban areas would be criminal if you could pin it on one person. In essence, you ripped out a big chunk of middle class Americans and then paved over cities with urban highways so people could still get into the city at the expense of the people still living there. Add in a healthy dose of union busting, a couple of bust cycles that saw manufacturing moved from America to overseas, and you end up with cities with little tax base and few good jobs for their residents. Even now, with multiple urban renewal projects, the benefits of those project are overwhelmingly geared towards people with money. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it, but damn if Williamsburg of 2024 resembles nothing of the Williamsburg of *A Tree Grows Brooklyn.*

  14. The Baltimore police department budget is almost 600 million dollars for 2024, I don’t think funding is the issue

  16. >In most other developed countries, you wouldn’t find crime-ridden cities with declining population so close to their capitals

    You really, really do though. The Parisian suburbs are prime examples, although not always with declining populations. Also, a lot of the sorts of places you’re thinking of are unitary states. The US doesn’t function that way either politically or culturally. Capital cities are viewed differently in North America than they are in Europe. They’re frequently not the economic and cultural centers of a state or country. Some are but most aren’t.

    Basically this is a bit more akin to asking why the EU allows such a crime-ridden city as Lille to exist so close to the capital in Brussels.

  17. People remember the cool Omar Little side of the Wire the best, but there’s also the all the side plots of corruption that get forgotten.

  19. What if more money spent on the things they think would fix the problem would only make the problem worse? You cannot treat disease until you have diagnosed it properly.

  21. Several things:

    * While I’m sure I’ll get shit from somebody complaining that his town’s one horse didn’t get his own airport, America doesn’t have the same center v. periphery privilege as you see in other countries.
    * Crown jewel capitals are more a feature of newer countries. America may be a young nation, but it’s a very old (possibly the oldest) country.
    * Citizens/culture of the capital having a greater amount of pull over policymaking is a feature of authoritarian regimes that can only give ear to their immediate surroundings.
    * America’s culture and economy is split between cities across the country, each with its own set of things it’s dominant in. These can often be fairly fine distinctions, like broadcast film in NY v. theatrical in LA.
    * It’s very common in America for a successful city to have an infanous shithole next door, like Boston and Lawrence, SF and Oakland, Boston and Worcester, Chicago and Detroit, Boston and Rhode Island, New York and Newark, Boston and New York, and Boston and everywhere that isn’t Boston.

  22. I used to live in DC and I will say its closeness to Baltimore doesn’t really come up. Baltimore is def a problem for Maryland but it doesn’t really matter much to the federal government unfortunately. Also, many Washingtonians of my socioeconomic profile only really see Baltimore from out the window of the Acela on the way to New York.

  24. DC had its worst murder rate since 1997 last year, and this is even with all crime in the city being prosecuted by the feds, something no other city has the benefit of. They’re not really in a position to talk about other cities.

  25. Generally, stats are funded by themselves and the fed goverment, anything for baltimore would generally come out of the marylands state government. There was not that long ago a big infrastructure bill passed that sent Maryland 2.6 billion dollars. What is tied to the money or how the state can decide to spend it im not sure about.

  26. DC and Maryland have completely separate local governments, so no. Baltimore is no more important to DC than Detroit is.

    As for the funding issue, Baltimore *does* get tons of funding from the MD state government (not to mention billions in federal aid). The problem is that it has a lot of autonomy in what it does with that funding and it has long had an extremely corrupt government. The state doesn’t really have the ability to help Baltimore beyond dumping money into it, which it does to such a degree that it’s a long-standing political issue in the rest of the state lol. Money is not the reason Baltimore is the way it is.

  30. DC is funded by its own sources, Baltimore its own as well. The federal government can give money to Baltimore through federal programs but proximity to the capital is irrelevant. That’s precisely why the capital is its own separate district, we didn’t want any one state to hold the nation’s capital.

  32. >In most other developed countries, you wouldn’t find crime-ridden cities with declining population so close to their capitals.

    In both France and Germany the capital is the highest crime city in the country

  33. DC was the murder capital of the USA for many, many years, so I’m not sure “real funding” will make much difference.

    Gentrification, on the other hand…

  34. Baltimore isn’t a cesspit from lack of funding. It’s a cesspit because of where that funding goes. Anything that isn’t embezzled by someone is taken by the Baltimore Police, one of the most corrupt Law Enforcement agencies in the country, right up there with the LA Sheriff’s Department.

    Because of this schools are failing, there is no effective public transportation to speak of, and most public infrastructure from Libraries to Parks and Rec, are openly failing.

    Not to mention they put a trash incinerator smack dab in the middle of the city, which is actively making the water and the air dangerous to come into contact with. Which is pretty openly causing all the residents long term health damage, including cancer, asthma, learning disabilities, etc…

  36. Unlike in many European countries, our capital isn’t the center of economy or culture.

    Even if it were, I’m not sure why that would make a difference. Newark, NJ sucks and it’s very close to NYC, and NJ is also one of the wealthiest states.

  39. Not only is it not their job, but portions of DC are pretty bad too. I don’t know *how* bad, but I certainly didn’t feel particularly safe saying in the Carver/Langston neighborhood the last time I was there.

  40. It’s not like Baltimore is a suburb of DC or vice versa. They are two different cities and if you live in one you could easily avoid the other without much trouble at all. Them being the distance they are isn’t much difference than the distance between DC and Richmond or DC and New York City. The cities don’t really bleed into each other at all.

  41. If that helped, then DC would be a peaceful paradise.

    Spoiler, it’s the opposite. A better way to predict crime rate is what the party affiliation of the mayor and city council are.

  42. Baltimore isn’t really that close to DC. I mean, it’s obviously closer than many other cities, but it’s really not relevant to life in DC at all, no one connects any issues Baltimore has with its proximity to DC.

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