Baltimore

The post-industrial american city.
I studied Baltimore because of one of the first interventions of renovation of the urban waterfront in the 70s at the inner-harbour, which has been transformed in a sort of theme park, with shopping malls, an aquarium and a walking district. The innovative idea spread all around the world in the past 30 years and from Barcelona to Genova, from Sydney to Buenos Aires (see my post on the argentinian capital from last february) this become a widespread model of urban regeneration. What I have not studied in the books was so much the context of Baltimore. After spending some time in New York and Washington I was very surprised by the fact that this was reputed as a violent city. I was amazed by the amount of nice old buildings which are simply shut down and by the peculiar juxtaposition of the various neighbours and ghettos. I got the impression that this was a real snapshot of deep urban USA. Such a different atmosphere compared to the bureocracy of Washington D.C. and the Hipster life of New York City.

(from wikipedia)
According to crime statistics there were 276 homicides in Baltimore in 2006, the second-highest homicide rate per 100,000 of all U.S. cities of 250,000 or more population. Though this is significantly lower than the record-high 353 homicides in 1993, the homicide rate in Baltimore is nearly seven times the national rate, six times the rate of New York City, and three times the rate of Los Angeles. In addition, other categories of crime in Baltimore have also been declining, although overall crime rates are still high compared to the national average. The rate of forcible rapes has fallen below the national average in recent years; however, Baltimore still has much higher-than-average rates of aggravated assault, burglary, robbery, and theft.