Without Johns Hopkins, where would Baltimore be? The struggling post-USA industrial city which boldly wrote "The Greatest City in America" on its benches scattered throughout the greater metro area clearly did not foresee the shrewd business sense of the 3rd world in the latter three quarters of the last century when factories and production began to disappear from American soils and from Baltimore pavement. Like Adele and unlike so many other cities in the United States at that time, Baltimore kept chasing pavement after manufacturing; unwilling or unable to cope with the decline of the most prosperous modern era in US history (thus far that is - let's wait and see what happens when AI computers become smart enough to design technologies).
Though manufacturing is attempting to make a comeback in the US as of late with some help from the current pro-jobs, anti-pollution government, the city is not the place for manufacturing anymore for the most part as young folks move in even to Baltimore at astounding rates attracted to the subtle artistic side of the city as well as the "cool factor" of living in cheap old row homes and a town that will let you paint the entire outside wall of an abandoned building with a giant Elvis mural or huge alligator. Without giving too much away, both those murals are near my neighborhood. But that's neither here nor hopkins.
Clearly I got creatively side-tracked as I started my article to say that Hopkins has made some interesting choices when it comes to its powerful yet conditional relationship with Baltimore. Instead of having parents of students come through town from the closest airport, BWI, the university tells them to drive around the beltway and down through Towson, Loyola University and through the rich, sexy neighborhoods to the mostly undergraduate Homewood campus. If parents rebel and follow their GPS, they would drive right through my neighborhood, many abandoned homes and notice the generalised sketchiness characteristic of many Baltimore neighborhoods not well off enough to provide the curb appeal many high-tuition paying parents would be looking for on their way to their payee's establishment.
If you take a look at the current route for the Circulator, it could easily come up north from Penn Station to hit up at least one stop a few blocks north to Homewood campus. This would save students a mile walk to get to the main public transportation hub of Baltimore City. Instead, the prince of Baltimore pioneers its own van system which takes kids wherever they want to go locally whenever they call on it. A sort of free taxi on call. Free after you pay $40K in tuition that is. Unless you've managed to get straight A's growing up in the Baltimore City public school system, in which case Hopkins has generously agreed to pay your way. I'm not sure even a call to Vegas could help you calculate those odds though I do know a few residents with kids currently on their way and looking promising.
A similar situation happened years ago in a small town north west of town called Owings Mills which sported a hip and trendy mall with a subway stop on Baltimore's half-hearted subway system. The result: inner city ruffians hitching rides for $1.60 to the Owings Mills mall to rob well-off suburban consumers. The other result: the mall is now mostly closed and the town suffered for it on all fronts. Is Hopkins learning from the mistake and therefore avoiding a Circulator stop at their Homewood campus just north of the nearest stop by a mile or so? If they are, it sounds wise but unfortunate. After all, it is a central strategy to the success of their business to protect their students and parents and their students' and parents' perception of the Prince of Baltimore and its reputation.
Unfortunate but true as reputation is everything for a university, even more so as tuition prices are rise toward a college bubble which would only burst if student dept finds its way to a nation-wide default and old money from the time when US cities like Baltimore were bubbling over with manufacturing opportunity and small neighborhoods like mine couldn't be filled fast enough with cheap, just-big-enough row homes filled with blue-collar working families dries up.
Whether or not a Circulator stop will be found at Homewood campus, the cracked sidewalks will soon know and if a stop is built. A familiar comfortable bench proudly bearing the slogan, "The Greatest City in America" will surely be placed alongside and local Baltimoreans, tall and short, black and white, rich and happy alike will enjoy the convenience and acceptance of the Baltimore way of life signified by its bold statement, humorously homely and somehow humble.
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