THE STREETS OF BALTIMORE.

Well, they’re certainly quiet now at time of writing. Just like other world streets during this crisis. However, the city is almost synonymous with the song ‘The Streets of Baltimore’ a bittersweet and heavily-covered country song written by Tompall Glaser (1966), although Gram Parsons’ version features on the HBO series The Wire, hugely popular series which, through its portrayal of social inequality, the illegal drug trade and corrupt police really rips the cover off the American Dream. Just like the present crisis – in an entirely different way – seems to be destroying that dream. Framed as a crime drama, Wire is lauded for a brave exploration of American society and politics together with an expose of badness in high places.

But is the city anything like HBO’s production? It’s hard to say for unless someone can come forward with a broad knowledge of the heroin trade (that’s to say very few people) we have to accept the series for the entertainment that it is. What is for sure though is that Baltimore has one of the highest black unemployment figures in the US. Coupled with that is the highest per capita homicide counts of any US city – more than NYC, more than Washington DC, for example.This is a real-life statistic – not something from The Wire.In 2019 Baltimore had 248 murders out of a metro population of 2,319,000, whilst NYC had 311 murders for a population of 8.3 million. (1)As Americans like to say – ‘you go figure.’

The lowest point was probably the 2015 death of a young black guy, Freddie Gray from massive injuries apparently inflicted by Baltimore police officers culminating in rioting, looting and burning which was only stopped by deployment of the National Guard. Brought to the attention of the world press, this one event seemed to signify all that was wrong with the city’s decline. Filmed by an onlooker, footage of Gray’s arrest showed him being held down on the sidewalk screaming in pain.The City State Attorney eventually announced criminal charges against officers involved in Gray’s arrest, but after many months of proceedings none of the officers were convicted in court. So was there police brutality and judicial corruption? Perhaps we’ll never find out.


This is all incendiary stuff and protests over Mr Gray’s arrest spawned the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement in Baltimore to expose a city and neighbourhoods failed not just by police, but by local and federal governments. Over decades the city had segregationist polices in housing – evidently some white residents were appalled by ‘the presence of a negro school near a white neighbourhood’ (2).And maybe it was the run-down of manufacturing in Baltimore which was the last straw in its decline, the process called de-industrialisation which began in the Reagan-era and still continues.

But it hasn’t always been this way and the Inner Harbor, a historic seaport, tourist attraction and landmark was described as ‘the model for post-industrial waterfront development around the world’ (3). Throughout the 1960’s and ’70’s industrial wasteland and rotting warehouses were transformed into award-winning parks, plazas, hotels and office buildings, a process which is ongoing today. Added to this was the National Aquarium, Maryland Science Centre and Baltimore Convention Centre and it is fair to say that the Harbor Centre success influenced hundreds of other worldwide cities – including Liverpool’s Albert Dock.

The numbers of people employed at Inner Harbor top 3000, although figures are patchy on how many of these replaced manufacturing jobs.And a spur to the Harbor Centre’s development was that large ocean-going vessels could no longer use the inner harbour (container ships have deep draught) so again it is unclear just how much employment was lost and gained there.

These days shipping and docks are now located on Fells Point, an historic waterfront neighbourhood which also receives its fair share of tourists to antique, music and other stores as well as coffee shops, bars and restaurants in what has historically been home to immigrant populations of Irish, German and Polish nationalities.On the National Register of Historical Places in the US, cruise ships do call at Fells Point, but not in the same numbers as to NYC or Miami.

For sailors, one of the best music joints in Fells is ‘Sherrys’ at Broadway’ which has been open since 1967 and well-known for its live music.Very much identified by its neon-blue Pabst beer sign outside it’s a honky-tonk type of bar with food and live bands, but referring back to Baltimore’s high crime rate I never recalled any anti-social behaviour; indeed similar bars in Fells tell the same story of a neighbourhood which welcomes seafarers and tourists alike.And certainly Hollywood likes Fells Point too: scenes from the 2009 movie He’s Just Not That Into You, as well as Sleepless in Seattle were filmed there – The Wire elsewhere in the city.

With only 4.0% unemployment and a median household income of US$46,167, Fells is a fairly prosperous area which, along with Inner Harbour creates a lot of service industry wealth. So it’s timely to contrast there with the poorest Baltimore neighbourhood of Sandtown-Winchester, just a few miles away.

So along the street where cops arrested Freddie Gray, abandoned houses were once used as crack dens. At almost 45% unemployment and a life expectancy of ten years less than Baltimore’s average, citizens fortunate enough to work earn just US$25,000 p.a., far less than Fells Point residents. (4)The Washington Post notes that as a destabilised labour market, i.e., de-industrialization hit Sandtown hard, the jobs market diminished and, in turn, the drug market flourished. (4)However, many analysts believe that despite financial assistance of some US$130 mn to ‘turn things around’, Baltimore, as one of America’s most segregated cities will be hard-pressed to do so – evidently decay is so deep and internalised.

Citizens do fight back though. A local movement known as Safe Streets of Sandtown-Winchester has demonstrated an ability to reduce confrontation in the wake of the Freddie Gray riots calling for peace with signs that read ‘Stop shooting, start living’. So far, dozens of Sandtown streets have signed up to this crusade.

But these are grim statistics indeed and no-one would deny that Baltimore is a very unequal city, thus demonstrating that Sandtown-Winchester isn’t a place a sailor or a tourist off a cruise ship would want to go wandering off alone. 

So what’s the future for Baltimore? I’m sure most residents would say that, yes, we’re open for business and that crime rates have been exaggerated by a hysterical media; indeed, as in Baltimore, NYC or even Liverpool – as we know in Britain, Liverpool is one of the safest cities in the UK – it’s not crime which is spooking people, but the very fear of crime.

American cities have a great track record of reinventing themselves and watching The Wire on television doesn’t necessarily give an accurate insight into Baltimore’s problems. Instead what it really does is to confirm some of our worst fears and prejudices.Having a sense of purpose – where are going?, how do we foresee our cities? – which applies here in the UK too, is better than just throwing money at a problem.

Stay safe, shipmates!


1) The Economist (29.06.17) ‘Crime and Despair in Baltimore’, p,12, (accessed 15.04.20)
2) Baltimore Sun, (11.05.01) ‘Schools….’, (accessed 14.04.20)
3) www.baltimorewaterfront.com (accessed 15.04.20)
4) Washington Post (02.05.15) ‘Why Couldn’t US$130 mn….?’, p.3, (accessed 15.04.20)