Dangerous vs. Smelly

When I was younger, my cousin and I used to have arguments about which city in the US was the best.  He lived in Brooklyn, NY and so was a strong advocate of NYC while I, as a native of Baltimore, supported my own city.  Being young and not knowing much about our hometowns, we didn’t have much to debate except which sports team was better – Orioles vs. Yankees.  The key point I always made was that NYC smelled.  He consistently retorted that at least New York wasn’t as dangerous as Baltimore.  Even at a young age, we had this idea that Baltimore was a city full of crime though we had not had any direct experience with it ourselves.  Many of the adults’ views I hear are relatively similar to this oversimplification we had as children.

I think the connection we feel with others who are from our hometown should emerge through pride in our city and not self-deprecation.  Freshman year of college, I visited a high school friend at College Park and we had a conversation with a random guy in a coffee shop.  The reason I remember this conversation is that he asked us where we were from and when I said Baltimore he went on to dwell on the negative aspects of the city.  I felt as if this man was trying to commiserate with us that we were both from ‘poor, dangerous Baltimore.’  This was not the first time that I’d met someone who almost seemed proud of the poverty, crime, or poor public education system in Baltimore.  People sometimes get almost competitive about it and make references to the TV show The Wire.  While I think it is good for people to feel connected to others who are also from their same hometown, I think this connection should encompass the whole city in all its richness and diversity and not just the negative aspects.