"Are there green zones in these cities?"

Don't know about Philly, but you ever been to the Inner Harbor/Federal Hill/Fells Point area?

Btw, some more info on that "Stop Snitching" issue the Yahoo item references:

(link...)

Call it what it is, folks. Martial law.

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Georgia's in Florida, dumbass!

...ever been to the Inner Harbor/Federal Hill/Fells Point area?

Never visited Baltimore. Road Amtrak through/around it one time. Always wanted to visit.

My sisters live in and near Baltimore. There are certain parts of town you just DO NOT go into...even in broad daylight and most certainly NOT after dark...ever. One of those parts of town is where Edgar Allen Poe's house is, which is a shame if you are a Poe fan, cause it's just not safe to stop and take a tour of his house.

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"You can't fix stupid..." ~ Ron White"

"I never said I wasn't a brat..." ~ Talidapali

Sadly, what talidapali said is largely how it stands. And, seeing as I lived for ten years in what most Knoxvillians consider "the 'hood" I don't tend to scare too easily on that kind of thing. Riding my bike through Walter P. from time to time - and Austin before it was torn down - I was always amazed how someone could say "white boy must be lost" with only a smile, shake of the head and slight roll of the eyes...

I was born in Baltimore. I've lived in both the eastern (Highlandtown) and western (Wilkens Ave.) parts of town and after college I lived downtown in Federal Hill for about two years. I still go "home" every year.

The rate of black-on-black murder in the city has always been alarming. It's been that way since the crack epidemic of the 1980s. Now it's heroin. The murder rate in Baltimore city alone (not the metro area) breaks the 300 mark pretty much every year. This is why shows like HBO's "The Corner" and "The Wire" and NBC's "Homicide: Life on the Streets" were possible.

Recently, the city has been using tactics such as bright-lighting drug dealer infested streets at night using those huge halogen lights road crews use. Apparently, it's not enough.

Until the flow of drugs and the appetite for them is curbed, nothing's going to slow down the city's murder rate. Or ANY city's murder rate, for that matter.

I used to walk the downtown streets in the middle of the night when I worked for the Baltimore Sun. I worked swing shifts at the old Calvert St. building and later at the new Sun Park facility in south Baltimore. I never had a problem. I was never mugged, harassed or bothered in any way. Just an occasional homeless person wanting money.

Was I lucky or the norm? I prefer the latter.

Bottom line is: stay out of the drug trade and your chances of being murdered in Baltimore are very, very slim.

On the local front, Alvin Nance has informed me that the state has granted KCDC certain powers in a redevelopment zone that don't apply to the community at large. Powers such as entering a building without a warrant and subpoena powers. I hope someone here with legal knowlege can report on this further.

Here's a map of downtown redevelopment zones:

(link...)

Here are the redevelopment zones for the city as a whole:

(link...)

it has not been updated to include the South Waterfront. When it does the size will almost double.

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Less is the new More - Karrie Jacobs