Talk:Baltimore Voyage Tips and guide

The public transit system in this city is terrible. I'm changing this article.

Go for it!(WT-en) Majnoona 18:47, 22 April 2006 (EDT)

I agree. I have been to numerous cities and they all have better public transportation and I live in Baltimore. I have never ridden the light rail or the subway. The subway goes nowhere near any tourist destinations and the only destination the light rail passes is the baseball stadium.

The Understand section says, "Some of Baltimore's neighborhoods are Canton, Federal Hill, Fell's Point, Little Italy, and Mount Vernon." What makes these neighbourhoods so special? (WT-en) Kingjeff 21:47, 6 July 2006 (EDT)

If you're asking, "Why were those neighborhoods chosen for the Understand section", I can't say. That's not really the format we like for describing neighborhoods, especially if they're worth writing a district article about. If you think there are some other neighborhoods that the average traveller to Baltimore should know, or if you'd like to expand this article in any way, please plunge forward. --(WT-en) Evan 21:59, 6 July 2006 (EDT)

I think the question that should be answered in that section is what make them special. If that answer is added, then it might not be a bad section. But just listing neighborhoods isn't really a productive Understand section. (WT-en) Kingjeff 22:05, 6 July 2006 (EDT)

No, it's definitely not a star Understand section. Much better would be some history, an overview of the city, what makes Baltimore special, and about 10 jillion other things. It's definitely in need of improvement! --(WT-en) Evan 23:29, 6 July 2006 (EDT)

I've removed the external links to soulofamerica.com from this page. We'd love to have more information about African-American heritage, sites, food and events in this article, but we have strict rules about external links. --(WT-en) Evan 15:56, 26 November 2006 (EST)

I see that the tourist board has been editing this web site to make it seem like Baltimore is a safe place for tourists. I have seen too many cases where people in the downtown area were robbed at gun point. Some were hurt. Also, the police are horrible and have arrested tourists for asking directions. They were taken to Central Booking and subjected to body cavity searches and other forms of inhumane treatment. That is a fact! I think any one has got to be a god dammed fool to visit Mob Town.

Those are some serious allegations, can you back them up with information or news articles? -- (WT-en) Sapphire • (Talk) • 16:18, 23 April 2007 (EDT)

Speaking as a native Marylander, muggings do happen in the nice areas of Baltimore, but almost always late at night, as in other cities. I've certainly never heard of police arresting tourists for asking directions! ;) --(WT-en) Peterfitzgerald ^Talk 17:31, 23 April 2007 (EDT)

I most certainly can back those claims up. The mere fact that you have to ask shows you know nothing about Baltimore and aren't fit to edit this page. see - Chantilly couple to file complaint against police after arrest, robbery http://www.examiner.com/a-109257~Chantilly_couple_to_file_complaint_against_police_after_arrest__robbery.html - Mob Town Lawyer. Those are allegations that are not proven at all by your source. I could claim that something like that happened to me in Detroit, even though I have never stepped foot in that city.

Everyone is fit to edit any page. Second, an individual claim does not constitute evidence of a general trend. Got statistics? -- (WT-en) Colin 14:40, 24 April 2007 (EDT)

The description of the Radisson appears identical to here. (The misspelling of Hippodrome tipped me off.) Any reason to believe this isn't a copyvio on the part of an earlier editor? --(WT-en) Jonboy 07:16, 10 May 2007 (EDT)

Thus deleted. Someone should probably check other hotel descriptions. --(WT-en) Jonboy 10:25, 6 February 2008 (EST)

This did some worthwhile cleaning and adding, but also nuked great big slabs of the article, so I've reverted. Somebody who knows their Baltimore might want to through and cherry-pick the usable bits. (WT-en) Jpatokal 12:17, 14 April 2008 (EDT)

Inner Harbor If you are a tourist, you come here. All of Baltimore's excellent museums are here, as are most of its hotels and the magnificent National Aquarium. The harbor views are nice too. But watch out for the tourist trap bars and restaurants!

Fells Point (Little Italy, Corned Beef Row) Fells Point could not be more complementary to the Inner Harbor—historic, with great pubs, nightlife, and restaurants, especially in tiny but very authentic Little Italy.

Downtown (UMBC, Lexington Market) An incongruous mix of Baltimore's central business district, UMBC, the overawing Lexington Market, the infamously seedy "Strip," and a host of jewelry shops specializing in grillz.

Midtown (Mount Vernon, Station North Arts, Charles St, Bolton Hill) One of the nicest sections of the city, home to the performing arts district, Penn Station, and a host of other attractions (architecture, the original Washington Monument, dining and wining on Charles St, etc.) that most visitors foolishly pass over.

South Baltimore (Federal Hill, Locust Point, Pigtown, Fort McHenry) Industrial blue-collar South Baltimore is dying, and is quickly being replaced with upscale gentrified neighborhoods like Federal Hill. That's not so bad from a traveler's perspective—some of the city's best restaurants and bars have sprung forth in the booming areas.

North Baltimore (Charles North, Hampden, Johns Hopkins, Mount Washington) Most visitors to the area know only Johns Hopkins University and the always interesting commercial strip along Charles St nearby. But it is unfortunate that they overlook the quirkiest of quirky neighborhoods, Hampden.

Southeast Baltimore (Canton, Patterson Park, Highlandtown, Greektown) A heavily industrialized section of the city, home to several very enjoyable Polish, Irish, and Greek ethnic enclaves, and other surprises.

West Baltimore (Druid Hill Park, Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park, Pimlico) Infamous West Baltimore. If you have watched the Wire, this was where the crime was taking place! But don't be fooled. There are some major tourist draws here, like the Maryland Zoo in Druid Hill Park, Pimlico Racecourse, and Edgar Allen Poe's House. And the endless old Baltimore rowhouses, no matter how rundown, remain beautiful throughout.

East Baltimore (Johns Hopkins Hospital, Clifton Park Golf Course, Herring Run Park) Baltimore's great rivalry between east and west is certainly an example of the narcissism of small differences. Attractions in the east are very few and far between, but things are changing fast as booming Johns Hopkins Medical Campus expands and demolishes in its wake.

I think these districts all make a lot of sense travel-wise, and should all be able to support well-developed articles. With one exception, and that's East Baltimore. I'm not too sure what to do with that enormous swathe of city. It's clearly culturally distinct from its neighbors, and it would seem weird to not have an East Baltimore district, since the name and region are commonplace, but there's just nothing to do there (AFAIK—I guess I haven't ever ventured out into the far northeast). I suppose it could be merged with the Southeast under the name East Baltimore, but the Southeast is a very different sort of place. East Baltimore has a lot in common with West Baltimore (except in that it lacks anything of travel interest), but is on the other side of the city. Maybe we should just charge ahead with it and resign ourselves to one weak article in the districts scheme. Thoughts? --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 05:26, 16 March 2009 (EDT)

I ran this by a friend of mine from B'more, and we had a few minor quibbles with the descriptions, but not with the districts. All the more reason to move ahead so I can edit it! --(WT-en) Jonboy 11:13, 16 March 2009 (EDT)

I tweaked the boundaries a little bit to:

• include Power Plant Live in the Inner Harbor;
• include Charles North in Midtown;
• and include Greenmount West in East Baltimore.

I feel very confident that these changes make sense, but if there is disagreement, I will revert this change and we can discuss to come to a new consensus. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 11:18, 23 February 2011 (EST)

Reference information on neighborhoods-- it's helped me quite a bit and hopefully this is helpful to others as well. (WT-en) psychofish 12:28, 29 June 2009 (EDT)

• City of Baltimore: Official planning and police districts by region
• LiveBaltimore: List of all neighborhoods, By region, Interactive map, PDF map
• Wikipedia: List of neighborhoods
• Incidentally, there's also a large map printed out in the visitor's center at Inner Harbor.

So I've just moved out all the information from the massive "Do" section to the relevant neighborhoods, and updated address/contact/hours/pricing as needed.

I have a big question about the LGBT section, as I'm none of those things but still want to remain sensitive to the LGBT travelers we have on the site, and in particular as it seems Baltimore is a very LGBT friendly city. First of all it seemed like a lot of those links that have to do with community centers and support groups don't have a huge relevance on a travel site (though correct me if I'm wrong) and looked more like a yellow-pages style of listing. I've moved the bars and performing arts venues into districts, as those are certainly valuable, and the Baltimore Pride city-wide event remains in the "Do" section, as that should attract a much wider audience than being buried in a strictly LGBT-only section. Everything else is moved to the "Cope" section because it seems to be more fitting than to be in a "Do" section. However, I'll let someone else have the last word on whether or not they belong or if they should be elsewhere, or even revert to the "do" section.

Also, now that the section is just down to two entries, there should be a paragraph or two summarizing the events Baltimore has to offer. Again I must leave that to the hands of folks more knowledgeable than I am. (WT-en) psychofish 19:48, 29 June 2009 (EDT)

I see that the Baltimore area has an overlay plan. Does anyone more familiar with Baltimore than I am know if 10-digit dialing is required to make a local phone call? If so, the formatting of phone numbers listed in the article might need to be changed (from "+1 410 XXX-XXXX" to "+1 410-XXX-XXXX"). (WT-en) Eco84 19:05, 19 August 2009 (EDT)

I think this has been the case for the entire state of Maryland since 443 and 240 were introduced in 1997. I'm always stunned when I go somewhere and I get an error when I dial the area code. --(WT-en) Jonboy 20:45, 19 August 2009 (EDT)

It's a pretty long running practice to format all U.S. phone numbers as +1 XXX XXX-XXXX, so no change should be needed either way. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 23:01, 19 August 2009 (EDT)

The current policy seems to make sense to me. There seems no particularly consistent long running practice to write phone numbers any particular way, as there are more formats in the U.S. articles than you can poke a stick at. It certainly makes no sense to have North American numbers exclusively deviate from at global policy for no apparent reason. --(WT-en) inas 23:39, 19 August 2009 (EDT)

There absolutely is a long running practice to write U.S. phone numbers in the +1 XXX XXX-XXXX format—look at any U.S. star article. Citing the existence of poorly formatted, unmoderated articles is not a convincing argument. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 23:49, 19 August 2009 (EDT)

Well, this big map probably isn't too useful for our purposes here (more useful for Wikipedia), but I thought I'd share this detailed neighborhoods map here in case anyone finds a use for it:

Baltimore is quite far from guide status at this point, but I'm planning to make this my next big project. To get focused, here is the current districts status: --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 18:29, 23 July 2010 (EDT)

Before the last couple of days' inrush of candidates for the Main Page feature I thought to myself that Baltimore would be a good DotM sometime during the spring/summer/autumn of 2016. With a Star district and most of the rest of the districts at Guide status (and even static maps!), this is likely the best major city article we haven't featured yet. Yes, in the district articles, listings need to be checked through and updated (with coordinates) and some of the district articles could perhaps be expanded but unlike some articles no massive cleanup would be needed.

As of now, it looks like North America (especially the northeastern quarter of the US) will be very well represented during 2016. Also, I have a hunch some fellow voyagers would like to see Seattle on the Main Page in a not too distant future. Would it be too much to add Baltimore to the club? What do you think, Andre and Ikan and others? ϒpsilon (talk) 16:19, 9 August 2015 (UTC)Reply

My take on this: I don't know about scheduling, but if you feel like the city is ready, go ahead and nominate it, and if people feel it should be featured, the scheduling can be worked out later.

By the way, another fairly major US city that is close to being featurable is Nashville. I think it still needs some work, though. Ikan Kekek (talk) 20:13, 9 August 2015 (UTC)Reply

Ikan, Ypsi: The way the summer 2016 schedule is shaping up - Indianapolis as DotM in May to coincide with the Indy 500, Palmyra (New York) as OtBP in July to coincide with the Hill Cumorah pageant, Washington, D.C./Anacostia as OtBP in September because there's no room for it anywhere else - it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to shoehorn in any more U.S. destinations as either DotM or OtBP while avoiding both a) having any two of them on the Main Page simultaneously, and b) running any two of them in the same column back-to-back. Even if we did find a place for one, I wouldn't be too comfortable featuring two destinations in the same year that are as geographically close to each other as Anacostia and Baltimore. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 21:10, 9 August 2015 (UTC)Reply

OK, I guessed that. Fortunately we have a lot of good articles from Europe and elsewhere. But the FTT section maybe would have room for one or two American itineraries? :) ϒpsilon (talk) 18:37, 10 August 2015 (UTC)Reply

Hello! I think the current banner is not so great. Here are a few options to choose from or not. --ButteBag (talk) 18:25, 27 April 2017 (UTC)Reply

Great job! I love the library and City Hall and have a lot of trouble deciding which one I like best of the two. Ikan Kekek (talk) 18:40, 27 April 2017 (UTC)Reply

Thanks! Yeah, those are my faves too. Formal compositions usually seem to work best with extreme aspect ratios. --ButteBag (talk) 18:55, 27 April 2017 (UTC)Reply

Bump, anyone else care? I might go with the library. --ButteBag (talk) 14:17, 7 May 2017 (UTC)Reply

I like all of them, including the current, except #4. Powers ^(talk) 00:02, 9 May 2017 (UTC)Reply

Great! The Library is the most arresting although the Harbor gives me a real feel of the city. City Hall would come third (although also a nice banner) --Andrewssi2 (talk) 00:27, 9 May 2017 (UTC)Reply

There are a lot of city articles at Baltimore County that have very little content, and only a few entries. At Talk:Central_Maryland#Sub-regions, we're considering merging them, and a lot of them would probably be merged into the districts of Baltimore. If there are objections to covering neighborhoods outside the city limits, now's the time to speak up. Emmette Hernandez Coleman (talk) 01:41, 19 August 2017 (UTC)Reply

Apparently it has just collapsed. I presume this will cause significant disruption for a few months at least – should we mention something about it? I have not been to Baltimore and know very little about this bridge's importance. --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 07:21, 26 March 2024 (UTC)Reply

All I'll say is that thankfully it happened at 01:40 and not during peak hours. The search for 7 missing persons is still on so the disruption to this area is significant. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 11:02, 26 March 2024 (UTC)Reply

Key Bridge isn't really in any of the districts we have for Baltimore. Possibly you'll find an appropriate place to mention it in the Baltimore County article.

The bridge collapse is mostly going to impact truck traffic to the port and industrial areas of Dundalk/Sparrows Point. Most travelers like you and me would use the Fort McHenry Tunnel or the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, both of which are unaffected. Mrkstvns (talk) 18:34, 26 March 2024 (UTC)Reply

Given that it's not actually in the city, is a caution box appropriate and necessary? It's not like it's a temporary thing. It will be out of service for quite a while. Plain text would be more appropriate, I think. Ground Zero (talk) 20:52, 26 March 2024 (UTC)Reply

I prefer a cautionbox for maintenance purposes. --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 03:05, 27 March 2024 (UTC)Reply

I'd also say that traffic will settle down and find alternative routes in a month or so, after which the text can be removed altogether. --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 03:19, 27 March 2024 (UTC)Reply

Something like {{w:Update after}} would solve that. I have seen use for it before too. The template on en-wp seems to require a lot of external code, the one on sv-wp significantly less. Should we try to import or write our own? –LPfi (talk) 07:04, 27 March 2024 (UTC)Reply

We already have {{show by date}} – maybe it can be applied on this article to expire in 45 days? --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 07:31, 27 March 2024 (UTC)Reply

Yes. Ideally the "after" text would include a maintenance category. That way it would have the functionality of {{w:Update after}} – but it seems nothing like this is needed here any more.. –LPfi (talk) 08:32, 2 May 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Ground Zero, Mrkstvns: Given it's been a month since the incident, I think it's safe to say traffic patterns would have adjusted by now; I've removed the caution box entirely. --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 00:39, 2 May 2024 (UTC)Reply

Good call. Mrkstvns (talk) 13:16, 2 May 2024 (UTC)Reply