a new arena ? are you serious ?
will all the white people that go to it be attacked because of their color ?
Or would it be more efficient to just attack us on the way to the arena, on the MTA bus for instance ?

Mr. Rodricks:

Re: you're 10:40 a.m. update -

This is not, as far as I can see, "racism." This is a legitimate and very real concern people have regarding the city. You, your colleagues, your newspaper and city politicians wouldn't discuss such things in a million years because it doesn't fit your liberal template, but the simple fact is that the city is never going to grow in any substantive or positive way until people in the "wealthier, more stable suburbs" feel comfortable spending an appreciable amount of time in town, much less living there. This will not be accomplished until the black people who comprise, I believe, about 60 percent of the city, can stop the murders (largely of each other, to be sure) and hatred of white people. I'd be stunned, Mr. Rodricks if you haven't been the subject of (at least) verbal assault after dark in the city. If you haven't, I implore you to try and understand it's likely because you're recognizable. We more anonymous folk don't have the luxury of the brothers biting their tongues when we're in "their" neighborhoods.

Hey Anonymous,

People like you said the same thing when Abe Pollin decided to build his arena in what was then a crime-ridden part of Washington, DC (Chinatown). Maybe you should take a trip down there one day and ask the business owners and residents who plunked down seven figures on a condo if they would have invested down there had the Verizon Center not been built.

Dan
I know that you have to spout the Sunpaper line. But the truth is, Baltimore is now a BLACK city and
white's who venture out do so with the the chance of a beating or worse, while Dixon et al look th othe way.
The shoe is on the oter foot wit a vegenance.

Hey Dan

Thanks for your good works and belief in my adopted -6 years now, and we plan to be here at least another 10-city.

I'm not going to BS anyone that Baltimore is perfect, but all big cities have issues.

And to Anonymous,

I'm a white woman living in the city. I've never been attacked. Neither has my equally white husband. We've been to the arena for three different shows now- walking from our home each time- and NEVER had a problem.

Sure, there's pleny of beggars around downtown, but I've found that if I just keep walking, they don't even follow me. In fact, the only two people to ever really scam us were white. Every person is different, and not all differences are dangerous.

Lee,

Do you ever venture outside your suburban utopia (besides to attend your John Birch Society meetings)? As Little Italy Restaurant Visitor said, Baltimore is not perfect (what major city is???), but there are many nice neighborhoods where black, white, and Hispanic people live together and contribute to the well being of their communities. I'm not dimissing the high level of crime activity as unimportant, but if you use a little common sense you most likely will not be a victim.

Seriously? This is how suburban white people think?

I'm a white male, born and raised in Baltimore, in Hampden. As a kid, I was jumped, but by other white kids. I earned a college degree, lived in New Orleans for a while, moved back. If anything, the city is safer now than when I was a kid. New business, new people, new ideas meshing with old. I love the city, and I'd never more to the suburbs because, honestly, fear and ignorance are the rule there.

Honestly, I would be more scared as an African-American male visiting Baltimore than I would ever be a white guy. Most white people (and many African-Americans) live or visit Baltimore "A." Baltimore "B", where the drug economy rules, is the issue. But then, people from the suburbs wouldn't want us to REALLY tackle Baltimore "B"s issues in a practical manner. That would just be unseemly, wouldn't it. I mean, treating drug addiction as a disease? Taking the profit out of drugs? Egad.

Truth, I'm as conservative (and white) as they come (woulda voted a third term for Nixon), which is probably why Baltimore is a good fit for me ... I know a lot of blacks who are equally conservative, equally fed up with the violence, and equally committed to making things better. And they (we) will. Well off people are moving into town (my 81-year-old father just moved into a new apartment and walks around town almost every day)

One thing I like about the arena proposals is that most just aren't about an arena; they're about infusing a lot of different activities into either downtown or an area near it. If it goes to Gateway South, we'll have the beginnings of a second Inner Harbor.

In response to Anonymous,
I have worked downtown all my life and have never even been approached, much less attacked. Furthermore, I worked for the opera for 18 years and as a rule didn't leave the rehearsal hall or Lyric until well after 11 PM. Again, I was never even approached, much less attacked. Someone who ambles along, watching his or her feet, is much more susceptible to attack than someone who walks upright, purposefully, and surveys his surroundings as he goes. Perhaps that's Anonymous' problem...afraid to look around him?

When ignorance meets technology, things get ugly. (Thank you, comments section!)

FACT: Baltimore is not a "black city". The ratio of blacks to whites is about 60%-40%. Look it up.

FACT: The city's population decline has not only stopped, it's reversed - the city is GAINING residents. Guess what color they are? (Hint: take a stroll through Canton, paranoid white suburbanites.)

FACT: Baltimore currently has BILLIONS of dollars of development projects slated for construction/completion within the next 5 years. Because there's demand from those with the money to affect such things.

FACT: You can safely walk from Lexington Market to Charles Village to Greektown as a white person living in Baltimore City. I have never had an issue because of my race. I have never been robbed. I have never been assaulted. I walk everywhere.

Stop taking the exceptions (MTA attack) as the rules - or best to keep your ignorance out in the "safety" of suburbia. Ignorance truly is bliss.