Baltimore is an interesting case in the U.S. because it's really the last dense, walk-able city that hasn't gentrified. Philadelphia is similar but it is experiencing gentrification in the core now. All over the country, millenials have been moving to older cities that were planned before cars and are possible to live in without one. I wonder why Baltimore hasn't suffered the same fate as Oakland, Brooklyn, or Philly?
America seems like a tale of two countries at this point. We have cities that are burgeoning with young wealthy types trying to move there like SF, NYC, LA, Seattle, Boston, etc. Over-gentrified until they have become somewhat sterile. If only we could move some of the success of these cities to places that need it like the Rust Belt or Baltimore.
Undoubtedly Baltimore has many immediate issues arising from racial tension, widespread poverty, and failure to rejuvenate industry at a scale necessary to recover from the manufacturing job implosion, but an underlying lack or resources could also be something of a stranglehold on the city.
Which is all quite sad because Baltimore has a lot of nice aspects and sees some wonderful new people largely driven by Hopkins... but I agree with you that everyone just seems to want to leave.
It is a city with many problems, no one can deny that, but like most urban tales told by people who don't live in these places, their understanding are much more urban legend than reality.
I have lived in Baltimore for the past 6 years and I am hopeful about the future of the city. I live in Mt Vernon, one of the more "upscale" neighborhoods, in the time I have lived there, there's been a good deal of development both in the neighborhood and the city as a whole.
I am actually looking at buying a house in Bolton Hill (another quite nice and safe neighborhood)...the property tax rate has given me pause but otherwise I am excited about the future of the city.
I don't want to go on a rant but Baghdad type stories like yours are not helpful.
Baltimore has serious crippling problems and denying that does the city no favors. Outside of very small pockets of often-non-organic gentrification (usually driven by the city or Hopkins), the city is at a nadir. Baltimore is the smallest it's been since WWI (for a few years now, to a rounding error), and the per-capita homicide rate is the highest it's ever been. Two awesome, solid people I know were murdered the last year I lived in Baltimore - in "safe" neighborhoods in unrelated incidents totally beyond their control. The fact that the homicide rate is now 30% higher is terrifying.
That's not quite the full picture. While population has mostly decreased in the last 70+ years, the rate of decrease has slowed substantially in the last couple decades, and is starting to increase.
Actually, Baltimore's population looks like it's just starting to break through PG's "trough of sorrow". See plot at the bottom of this link :
I think the biggest problem, the obvious one, is crime. There are some small pockets of intense gentrification, and even these areas aren't particularly safe. The rest of the city is a no-man's land. Literally within a few blocks of crowded, active areas (e.g. Fells Point) there are extremely unsafe blocks where the chances of a mugging (or worse) are unreasonably high. Then, there are huge contiguous swaths of the city where no one but residents are really advised to enter. I remember going out to a bar in West Baltimore and not a single cab was willing to drive into the neighborhood to pick us up. The patrons of the bar refused to let us walk home ("you're gonna get stabbed!"), and a kind stranger drove us home.
Most people I know who live in Baltimore want out, and many either move to DC or to the suburbs.