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Of All The Third-World Cities I’ve Lived In, Baltimore Was The Worst
The Federalist ^ | 09/27/2021 | Emma Friere

Posted on 09/27/2021 9:05:02 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

It only took seven months after my family and I moved to Baltimore in January for us to move out. We’re hardly the only ones leaving — in 2020, Baltimore lost more residents than did any other major U.S. city. At one point, my Brazilian husband remarked, “I thought America was a developed country.”

His observation is particularly telling because, before coming to Baltimore, we spent five years living abroad in two of the most dangerous places in the world – Brazil and South Africa. In many ways, life in those countries was easier than life in Charm City.

The residents of Baltimore pay some of the highest taxes in the country for some of the worst public services. Crime is a constant threat, even though the neighborhood where we lived is usually labeled “gentrifying.” A professional exterminator warned us never to buy second-hand furniture due to the prevalence of bed bugs. Everyone on our block kept a cat – often two or three – to combat the rodents.

After we fled to the suburbs, I was left pondering why life in Brazil and South Africa was easier — particularly South Africa, which has many parallels with America because it reached a fairly high level of development, but ruinous government policies are now driving it backward. Public services in South Africa have been so deeply riddled with corruption and mismanagement for so long, citizens have learned to do without or developed workarounds, something the residents of Baltimore haven’t learned yet.

Ballooning Crime and Ill-Equipped Police

Baltimore and South Africa are both infamous for high crime rates. In South Africa, police are helpless and incompetent. For example, a few years ago, the police cybercrimes unit had to drop hundreds of cases because they forgot to pay for their software licenses. They can also be corrupt; South Africans told me stories about police officers demanding bribes to do routine tasks like writing up a car accident report.

As a result, everyone from the lower middle class and upward pays for private security. In the small city where we lived, a local security firm patrolled the streets like a private police force. Even the police sometimes hire private security to guard their precincts.

In Baltimore, the number of reported homicides reached a record high in 2015 after the city erupted in riots at the death of Freddie Gray in police custody. In the wake of the riots, police became less visible on the streets, and they have not returned. The Baltimore police department operates with around 400 unfilled vacancies. The city’s homicide rate has yet to fall to pre-2015 levels.

While the current condition and recent history of police in Baltimore and South Africa are different, the outcome is the same: criminals run rampant. Neighborhoods and businesses in Baltimore appear to be gradually moving towards the South African solution: private security.

South Africans do not mess around with their safety. In addition to hiring private security, they protect their houses with things like tall electric fences, CCTV, guard dogs, and motion sensors. People in Baltimore are still naïve in that regard. I followed several online groups for city residents. Many of the posts were by people whose houses had just been burgled, who often shared images from their security cameras. I was amazed to note most of them did not even have a fence in their backyards.

Decrepit Public Services

I also found myself surprised that people in Baltimore – and Americans in general – still rely heavily on the U.S. Postal Service. We sometimes only saw our mailman once a week and he often brought us other people’s mail. In South Africa, the postal service has been a disaster for so long that many people have stopped sending mail at all.

Other public services in South Africa were just as bad. Usually, the poor are left with scraps, while those with money usually pay twice: once in taxes for worthless public services and then for a private solution that actually works.

Electricity is very expensive in South Africa because the state utility Eskom is corrupt and mismanaged. Millions of people live without electricity, while those who can afford to pay Eskom’s rates also have to buy generators or solar panels as a backup for the regular power outages.

South Africa’s constitution includes the right to water, but this right is violated all over their country every day. The tap water in the city where we lived was unsafe, so we bought large containers from one of the many local “water shops.” Other people take it a step further by drilling boreholes and installing their own filtration systems. In one city, a group of citizens took over running their local water and sewage plants because they were so badly mismanaged.

Community solidarity like this was common in South Africa, and made the difficulties manageable. South Africans organize private groups to do things like fill potholes, repair or repaint road signs, and collect garbage. They form neighborhood watch groups that partner with professional private security firms.

There are certainly significant tensions between different ethnic groups in South Africa, but within individual groups, I observed a very strong culture of looking out for one another. We lived in a college town, and students in their late teens and early twenties regularly helped us with things like home repairs or running errands. This was already their normal way of life. In a difficult country like South Africa, “going it alone” is not an option.

In Baltimore online discussion groups, people often posted comments like “we have to work together” or “we should stand up.” I agree, but until they turn those words turn into offline actions, life in their city will not improve much.

Baltimore is a particularly bad case. But in many other American cities, crime rates are rising and the quality of public services is dropping. If we have any hope of reversing the decay, we should take note and act now.


Emma Freire is a freelance writer who has lived in Brazil, South Africa, and Europe. She is a 2021-2022 Robert Novak journalism fellow for the Fund for American Studies.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: anarchotyranny; baltimore; bloggers; brazil; crime; culture; dystopia; family; maryland; police; publicservices; safety; secondworld; southafrica; thirdworld
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1 posted on 09/27/2021 9:05:02 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s only going to get worse.


2 posted on 09/27/2021 9:08:45 AM PDT by brownsfan (For conservatives, we have taxation without representation.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Interactive Baltimordor murder map.

https://homicides.news.baltimoresun.com/


3 posted on 09/27/2021 9:09:54 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: SeekAndFind
Randy Newman's Baltimore.
4 posted on 09/27/2021 9:11:17 AM PDT by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: SeekAndFind

The big difference between the US cites and those cities in the real 3rd world is there poverty and despair in 3rd world cities but no hate. In US inner cities you can feel the hate, the fear and loathing. It’s in the air.


5 posted on 09/27/2021 9:12:32 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: SeekAndFind

Former Mayor of Baltimore

Current Mayor of Baltimore.

6 posted on 09/27/2021 9:14:27 AM PDT by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: SeekAndFind

One area of Baltimore called Fells Point. It’s filled with lots of bars and restaurants. The area is historic. It used to be a safer area, As the rest of Baltimore, violence crept in. This past Spring it got so bad that a few dozen restaurant and shop owners wrote/signed a letter to the mayor stating that if they do not start patrolling the streets and protecting the area, they would stop paying taxes.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-fells-point-letter-20210608-k3gjlrsnzbhnzjrcnh6h2tcdii-story.html%3foutputType=amp


7 posted on 09/27/2021 9:15:29 AM PDT by HollyB
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To: SeekAndFind

Another Democrat lead utopia…


8 posted on 09/27/2021 9:17:19 AM PDT by Made In The USA (Ellen Ate Dynamite Good Bye Ellen)
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To: Jim W N

Neither of which you would hire if you owned a Dairy Queen.


9 posted on 09/27/2021 9:19:05 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (I am 287 days away from outliving Andrew Gold)
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To: SeekAndFind

He didn’t mention one problem, if citizens stand up to protect themselves as he is urging, they will be prosecuted as criminals. Sad but true.


10 posted on 09/27/2021 9:22:51 AM PDT by Williams (Stop Tolerating The Intolerant)
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To: HollyB
they would stop paying taxes.

And they will just auction the property to a wealthy insider to provide low cost housing with the rent sibsidies paid by the city.

11 posted on 09/27/2021 9:25:24 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: brownsfan

Agree. Baltimore is awful but many other American cities and urban areas are not far behind. This is going to be a long term, if not permanent, problem which explains the exodus out of the blue areas.


12 posted on 09/27/2021 9:25:53 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: HollyB

I am curious what happened...a quick search found a podcast where Baltimore Police flooded the area, but I doubt they prosecute anyone.

I am near Philly, with a daughter at one of the center city schools working on a real degree, and she returned after Christmas break to find a bullet hole thru her office window.


13 posted on 09/27/2021 9:27:05 AM PDT by Geoffrey
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To: HollyB

The Stadium/Inner Harbor/Little Italy/Fells Point areas used to be heavily policed and safe to visit. Then the Freddie Gray fiasco happened and the police were neutered. It’s been all downhill since then.


14 posted on 09/27/2021 9:29:23 AM PDT by throwthebumsout
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To: SeekAndFind

The question is: “Why did they choose to live in Baltimore to begin with?”

I’ll give the answer in 30 minutes.


15 posted on 09/27/2021 9:30:36 AM PDT by BobL (I shop at Walmart and eat at McDonald's, I just don't tell anyone, like most here.)
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To: SeekAndFind
"Good Morning, Baltimore!" - updated version.
16 posted on 09/27/2021 9:35:13 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (Joe Biden takes the "em" out of empathetic)
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To: BobL
The extra credit question is "Besides murder and crime, what do South Africa and Baltimore have in common?"

17 posted on 09/27/2021 9:38:58 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (LORD, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.)
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To: SeekAndFind

What did they expect in democrat run cities?


18 posted on 09/27/2021 9:40:28 AM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: AndyJackson

I don’t think it’s possible in that area as it’s historic. One bar is the oldest continuous run saloon since 1775.

https://www.thehorsebaltimore.com/


19 posted on 09/27/2021 9:42:34 AM PDT by HollyB
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To: SeekAndFind

Indianapolis is headed that direction. We have a second term democrat mayor and a majority democrat city council. Our murder rate is soaring. Places that used to be considered safe aren’t any longer. Our downtown is one of those areas. Our beautiful canal area that we spent millions of dollars building has now had two murders and many unsolved assaults. Even the people who live in the expensive condos don’t sit outside at night. And the allure of the area being walkable is a joke after dark. But we support BLM, teach CRT in the public schools, have a big Pride parade every year supported by the city and major employers, and have a large LGBTQ representation on our city council. So I guess it’s all good.


20 posted on 09/27/2021 9:47:41 AM PDT by redangus
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