on murder
What societal problems is your region known for and do they affect you?
I live in Baltimore, Maryland. It's known for it's high homicide rate, even thought it's gone down considerably in the last few years.
how the city's reputation affects me
Its reputation affected me as soon as we started getting serious about our move here. My mother-in-law declared it the worst city in America. Most people said "isn't it dangerous?" or just "huh, why?".
It's been a struggle to get anyone to visit. Most people know Baltimore through sports fandoms or TV shows about our murder problem: The Wire and Homicide: Life on the Streets. We have been here a year, and if we want to see anyone, we come to them. Nobody comes to us.
And beyond its reputation, homicide is a real problem here.
I teach in one of the poorest areas of the city, and almost every child knows someone who has died from gun violence. For many, it's their dads they've lost. I have a student whose uncle murdered his father. Many have dads, uncles, brothers, and aunts locked up across the state for murder. As one could imagine, these kids are completely disregulated. They are in acute grief while being expected to go to school and deal with the behavior of other disregulated kids on top of regular middle school hormones and drama. And they are taught by people like me, who don't know what it's like.
There is also a history of blockbusting and redlining in this city that coincided with the collapse of the steel industry and the port/rail industries that supported it. White flight happened in a big way here, and the city went from a population of almost a million at its highest in the 1950s to 566k today, with a very very slight increase over the past year. The population that moved to the suburbs is terrified of the city - that most of them work in! - and that fear is stoked by right-wing news outlets like Sinclair and the Baltimore Sun that have people convinced that random white people are being murdered left and right for daring to go to a Ravens game or something. That's not happening.
I live in an extremely safe neighborhood with almost no crime at all. It's the safest place I have ever lived in my life. And my fellow teachers that live in the suburbs - who work with me in the poorest and most dangerous parts of the city - will not come to my house, out of some kind of fear that their car will be stolen parked in front of it during a game night. I wish I could make this up. People are afraid of what they don't know, and because they don't know my neighborhood, they won't come.
The murder rate is also changing drastically. We're now #14th for homicide, which is a huge jump from #4 just a few years ago. A lot of this is due to interventions by peers - people who have been in the life, locked up, and released - who are hired by an organization called Safe Streets that is heavily funded by the city.
I know people have very legitimate Channel 5 and Andrew Callaghan, but I strongly recommend watching his Baltimore video if you're curious about what this looks like in practice. He also touches on the media environment around Baltimore's reputation pretty accurately. Just skip past the first dumb minute.
jury duty
One way the city's reputation shows up in real life is through jury duty. If you live in the city, you will get called almost once a year, and it's often for a murder. One of the great equalizers in the city is having to suffer through the jury duty movies they play until you get called for selection - and they are usually terrible. (Someone made a Baltimore City Jury Duty Canon on Letterboxd if you are curious!)
I was summoned for jury duty in the last couple weeks. The movie they played all week was Daddy Daycare, which we walked by each day to get paid what would barely cover parking.
I don't want to talk much about our trial for obvious safety and privacy reasons, but it was a murder with several other related charges. The clerks and judges were professional and courteous, and one of the clerks said outright "my work life is mostly about murder, that's what we tend to do on this floor."
We were the best jury the judge could ask for, she told us. We all approached the responsibility with the seriousness it demanded - both for the victim and the defendant facing a life in prison. We were all skeptical of policing and the justice system in our country, and we took the high bar for conviction seriously. We hear about murder in this city, but seeing the crime scene and autopsy photos, wailing family members, body cam footage, and testimonies from witnesses and experts has hung with me. We did ultimately convict, which has sat well with me considering my very strong convictions about the carceral system in this country. It was hard and I am glad it is over.
I think of a friend who was a capital defense attorney. She took on clients who plead guilty, but were looking to avoid being put to death by the state. She said the one thing they all seemed to have in common was a lack of emotional regulation, or an ability to see beyond blinding rage to what would happen on the other side of the killing. She never had an evil, calculating client. And if everyone around you has guns, you become a sitting duck without one. It's a cycle that is really hard to break, especially in neighborhoods where carrying is standard.
rent-lowering gunshots
With corporations and commercial interests hesitant to invest in Baltimore, it's made the city cheap for people who are working for the employers who are here (hospital, hospitality, unversities, social services). I don't think there's another east coast metro city with as much available housing, and this is a city in desperate need of taxpayers - those people in the suburbs take their Baltimore paychecks and pay property taxes outside of the city. We love a newcomer who sees the good in the city.
The reputation has kept away corporate gentrification while allowing middle-class people to come in and fix up a row house and live modestly despite the high state and city taxes. It's created a vibrant music, art, and theatre community. It's allowed a lot of cool weird shit to happen.
But as someone who toggles between majority-white art communities and an all-Black school community, those "rent-lowering gunshots" are hitting real human beings with lives and families. You'll see bumper stickers with rainbows and a gleeful "Baltimore: There's More than Murder Here!" that I see so differently now after having to see autopsy photos.