Mr or Ms Respect to Charm City...
I actually don’t have a problem with any part of this posting. Contrary to belief, I reserve twisting my panties in a wad with DCist’s Baltimore postings to a very narrow set of circumstances. This post is obviously relivent to the residents of Washington, as it is about an advertising campaign targeting Washingtonians. There is no backhanded snotty faux-inclusion in the post. Nothing in the post pisses on either Baltimore or Baltimoreans. There is no false information in the post itself. At no point does the post try to claim Baltimore culture as being Washingtonian culture.
Of course, many of the commenters are douchbags, but what can you do?
I cannot say the same thing about the Examiner article. The article stated that:
“According to the latest census figures, between 1990 and 2000, the number of Baltimore residents who made daily trips into the D.C. region rose 26 percent, from 106,000 to more than 133,000.”
Bullshit! I was so taken aback by this false claim, I found the study they were referencing:
That’s the Baltimore metropolitan area, asswipes, not Baltimore city. Baltimore has a metropolitan area of approximately 2.6 million. How exactly is 133,478 26% of 2.6 million?* (whoops, I actually buggered this up. See below for details) That is not reflective of two integrated economies. Your reporting sucks, Washington Examiner.
And to David Garrison, that Brookings Institute guy, sociologists and urban planners and market monopolists have been trying to lump Baltimore and Washington together for fifty years, to little or no avail. We were told this would be one big happy metropolitan area by 1980 at the latest. Yet, as the GMU Center study shows, even though we are only 35 miles apart, there is only about a 7 percent integration in our respective economies.
Update: Upon further examination, I see that the overwhelming majority of the 133,478 commuters within the Baltimore PMSA listed were commuting from southern Howard and Anne Arundel Counties. Also, the overwhelming majority of the increase of approximately 26,000 between 1990 and 2000 is attributable to growth in those two counties. The only thing surprising to me about these figures is that the number of commuters from Howard and Anne Arundel Counties to the Washington Area (including commuters into neighboring P.G. and Montgomery Counties) is so low. I’ve always assumed that those counties were far more D.C. than the numbers indicate.
Furthermore, average daily ridership for the entire MARC system was less than 30,000. That is the ENTIRE system, including the Brunswick line, which at no point even enters the Baltimore area. Although I cannot find the figures, I suspect the MARC ridership boarding at the Penn, Camden and West Baltimore stations numbers less than 10,000. Now, if I generously estimate that an equal number of commuters drive to Washington D.C. as ride the MARC train, that means that Baltimore City has less than 20,000 D.C. commuters, from a city of more than 640,000 people. That is less than 3.2%. My my, 3.2% is certainly a smaller percentage than 26%, wouldn’t you agree Washington Examiner? Although admittedly, I’m sure that figure would go up if you consider Baltimore commuters that work in Montgomery and P.G.. Counties, but certainly not to anything remotely resembling 26%. Also, I think a time may come when Howard and Anne Arundel Counties official status as part of Metropolitan Baltimore in their entirety may have to be reconsidered. But I think the true figures support what I’ve been saying all along, Baltimore is in no danger of becoming a D.C. suburb any time in the near future. It looks like we’re two separate metropolitan areas after all. Things only get muddled in the suburbs that we share, which isn’t surprising, as our two metropolitan areas do actually touch.
* As Valentine pointed out in the comments, my interpretation of the Washington Examiner article was equally as buggered up as the article itself (see comments for details). I incorrectly misread that article as stating ..."to 26%." That doesn’t make the article any less wrong, but it certainly does deflate my ranting against it. Consider myself humbled.
Of course, many of the commenters are douchbags, but what can you do?
I cannot say the same thing about the Examiner article. The article stated that:
“According to the latest census figures, between 1990 and 2000, the number of Baltimore residents who made daily trips into the D.C. region rose 26 percent, from 106,000 to more than 133,000.”
Bullshit! I was so taken aback by this false claim, I found the study they were referencing:
Trends Alert
Number 5
September 2, 2003
GMU Center for Regional Analysis
Commuting Trends and Patterns in the Washington Region
...There was also significant commuting between the Washington and Baltimore metropolitan areas in 2000, with the commuting from Baltimore to Washington more double the Washington to Baltimore commuting. In 2000, there were 53,232 Washington metropolitan area residents commuting to jobs in the Baltimore metropolitan area, while there were 133,478 commuting from Baltimore metro to Washington metro....
[source]
That’s the Baltimore metropolitan area, asswipes, not Baltimore city. Baltimore has a metropolitan area of approximately 2.6 million. How exactly is 133,478 26% of 2.6 million?* (whoops, I actually buggered this up. See below for details) That is not reflective of two integrated economies. Your reporting sucks, Washington Examiner.
And to David Garrison, that Brookings Institute guy, sociologists and urban planners and market monopolists have been trying to lump Baltimore and Washington together for fifty years, to little or no avail. We were told this would be one big happy metropolitan area by 1980 at the latest. Yet, as the GMU Center study shows, even though we are only 35 miles apart, there is only about a 7 percent integration in our respective economies.
Update: Upon further examination, I see that the overwhelming majority of the 133,478 commuters within the Baltimore PMSA listed were commuting from southern Howard and Anne Arundel Counties. Also, the overwhelming majority of the increase of approximately 26,000 between 1990 and 2000 is attributable to growth in those two counties. The only thing surprising to me about these figures is that the number of commuters from Howard and Anne Arundel Counties to the Washington Area (including commuters into neighboring P.G. and Montgomery Counties) is so low. I’ve always assumed that those counties were far more D.C. than the numbers indicate.
Furthermore, average daily ridership for the entire MARC system was less than 30,000. That is the ENTIRE system, including the Brunswick line, which at no point even enters the Baltimore area. Although I cannot find the figures, I suspect the MARC ridership boarding at the Penn, Camden and West Baltimore stations numbers less than 10,000. Now, if I generously estimate that an equal number of commuters drive to Washington D.C. as ride the MARC train, that means that Baltimore City has less than 20,000 D.C. commuters, from a city of more than 640,000 people. That is less than 3.2%. My my, 3.2% is certainly a smaller percentage than 26%, wouldn’t you agree Washington Examiner? Although admittedly, I’m sure that figure would go up if you consider Baltimore commuters that work in Montgomery and P.G.. Counties, but certainly not to anything remotely resembling 26%. Also, I think a time may come when Howard and Anne Arundel Counties official status as part of Metropolitan Baltimore in their entirety may have to be reconsidered. But I think the true figures support what I’ve been saying all along, Baltimore is in no danger of becoming a D.C. suburb any time in the near future. It looks like we’re two separate metropolitan areas after all. Things only get muddled in the suburbs that we share, which isn’t surprising, as our two metropolitan areas do actually touch.
* As Valentine pointed out in the comments, my interpretation of the Washington Examiner article was equally as buggered up as the article itself (see comments for details). I incorrectly misread that article as stating ..."to 26%." That doesn’t make the article any less wrong, but it certainly does deflate my ranting against it. Consider myself humbled.
posted by dcistgohome at 10:59 AM
11 Comments:
I suspect that the staff of DCist and their Kool-aid drinking readers dump on Baltimore because at the end of the day they must know that D.C. is not one of the great cities. Your average dcist reader has an enormous ego, and it must pain them to know deep down that D.C. pales in comparison to cities like Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Boston.
Oh yeah, I've made that point time and time again. And as I said before, if they were simply dumping on Baltimore, I wouldn’t really have too much of a problem with that. We’re in insular and provincial people. If any one city in this country truly doesn’t care what the world thinks of it, that city would be Baltimore. It’s dumping on Baltimore on one day, claiming Baltimore as a quirky subset of their city’s metropolitan area on another day, and then pretending that Baltimore’s quirky culture is their culture when they want to pretend they have a culture on the next day that truly gets my goat.
But, meh, DCist hasn't been crossing the line too much lately. I wouldn’t have even bothered writing this post if the Washington Examiner article hadn’t buggered up the stats so badly. At the very least, I think the editorial staff now understands the Baltimore position on the issue, which they didn’t have a clue of prior to me entertaining myself with this stupid little blog. The Baltimore-Washington area, if it is to be perceived as a single metropolitan area, is one with two separate identities, and DCist can only be a voice for their share. If they want to justifiably change that, it would involve making changes to their site that they know damn well that they’re not willing to make. They don’t want to be THAT associated with working class Baltimore, they only want to sometimes claim Baltimore as theirs when it serves their whimsy; and for Baltimore, that is a completely unacceptable position.
I don’t even think that the contributors to DCist necessarily have a hate on hard on for Baltimore or anything like that. But all publications, print or digital, will write to appeal to their readers, and their readers are largely the type-A schmucks who like to dump on Baltimore for the very reasons you just mentioned.
of course, sir, your interpretation of the GMU study is faulty as well. commuting patterns alone to not tell us how integrated the economies of the two cities are. if 7% (or 10 or 50%) of the residents in each city commute to the other one for work, that says nothing of the amount of actual fiscal interaction between the two cities. i don't know if it's higher or lower than the commuting numbers, but i know that you can't draw a straight line to regional economic integration directly from commuting patterns. there have to be many other factors taken into account, i'm sure.
imgoph, admittedly, you are absolutely right. It would be much tougher to measure the economic connections that have nothing to do with personal income. I am sure there is financial interplay between the two cities. Baltimoreans shop a Giant Food stores. Washingtonians use Black & Decker products, and wear Under Armor, and use McCormick & Company spice, and drive cars imported through the Baltimore port. Baltimore has military bases that are dependent on decisions made by congress and the Pentagon. Baltimore has several Marriott hotels. But are these connections significantly stronger than those between Washington and New York, and between those of Baltimore and Pittsburgh?
"that says nothing of the amount of actual fiscal interaction between the two cities"
Actually, it says a great deal about actual fiscal interaction. But yes, it isn't the whole story.
"But are these connections significantly stronger than those between Washington and New York, and between those of Baltimore and Pittsburgh?"
you make a good point. on a personal level for some people, they are most likely MUCH stronger connections, but that's those who commute back and forth. otherwise, it's hard to say. i'd wager that the entire american economy is so intertwined that it's touch to say what's really connected to what if you have no background in economics (and i don't).
“ i'd wager that the entire american economy is so intertwined that it's touch to say what's really connected to what if you have no background in economics (and i don't).”
Nor do I. On a related note to this article, Ryan Avent put up one of his “why the reality is different than an abstract ideal” weekend posts addressing this whole issue. On one level, one could say he reinforced what I’ve been saying all along; specifically: “While the metro areas squish together, the respective poles stay apart.” Again, like the last DCist posting on this issue, I have absolutely no problem with anything he said. He actually provided a link to a 2000 Census excel chart with the raw figures. It turns out my guestimates of 10,000 and 20,000 were far too generous. Here are the figures:
Baltimore (640,000+) commuters to:
AA County: 13,640
Howard County: 8,415
PG County: 2,917
Montgomery County: 1,764
Washington D.C.: 3,038
Alexandria: 196
Arlington: 249
Fairfax: 410
Total number of Baltimore City residents to Metropolitan Washington in 2000: 8,574.
The converse, D.C. residents to Baltimore, is roughly between a third and half of that figure, as are the figures of Metropolitan Washingtonians commuting to Metropolitan Baltimore.
These numbers do not indicate a large amount of economic interplay.
"...number of Baltimore residents who made daily trips into the D.C. region rose 26 percent, from 106,000 to more than 133,000.”
You use words like "dumbass" to rant against DCist. Too bad you are the one that is stoopid (and I'm spelling it that way so you might recognize the word): the article ISN'T claiming that 26% of all B-more residents commute to DC, but rather that the number of residents that commuted (in this case, 106,000 from the year before) INCREASED by 26% (multiply 106,000 by .26 and add that number back to the original). Fourth grade math. Math to leave a tip. Basic, basic math to figure out a sale price. Geez.
If you (and you're staggering level of ignorance) are any indication of the average resident up there (and no, I haven't visited because I feared that everyone in Baltimore would be uneducated, angry freaks...oh wait, just like you), thanks heavens that it isn't really 26% of the entire Baltimore population that commutes down to DC. Baltimore can keep all the ignorant, arrogant blowhards for themselves.
heh. whoops. I just looked over the article again. You’re right, my reading comprehension failed me. But the article did state that 133,000 “Baltimore residents” commuted to the “D.C. region.” 2000 Census indicated that the correct number would have around 8500. Not to negate my own error, after all, dumbasses shouldn’t be throwing stones at asswipes, but as the article was specifically addressing living inside Baltimore, I think it is fairly save to assume the Washington Examiner made a blaring error (and in a lame attempt to justify my error, without doing the math, ballparking 4 times 133,000 landed me in the ballpark of the Baltimorean population. That doesn’t make my error any less wrong, but I see where my logic failed me).
But, you’re right.
“and no, I haven't visited because I feared that everyone in Baltimore would be uneducated, angry freaks...oh wait, just like you”
I can assure you, the citizenry isn’t angry. And I’m not nearly as angry as this blog would indicate. Uneducated? Well, yeah, Baltimore is uneducated, and my above fuck up does not leave me with much latitude to defend my own education. But I can assure you, this city is definitely much better off without you visiting, if that is your position.
For what it is worth, your response was surprisingly gracious, given the vitriolic tenor usually employed.
Also, perhaps when people say "Baltimore" they are employing the usual "and surrounding areas" metric. (When we lived in Denver, we were counted as residents even though our address did not actually say "Denver" but since we were only eight miles from the city center it certainly makes sense that we are a part of that community. Census usually breaks it as the population of the city itself versus the "metropolitan" area.)
While I disagree with the vituperative style on this site as an effective method to sway readers that don't already agree with you, your response points toward an open and agile mind.
I’m not too proud to admit when I’m wrong. Besides, as you pointed out, I write this from a prick perspective, as I think that perspective is the most effective for my objective. If I’m going to dish it out, I damn well should be able to take it when it is served on my plate, especially when I raspberry like I did above.
Had the Washington Examiner article been about a growing Washingtonian commuting population in the Baltimore “area,” I would have been more forgiving of the mistake. But as the article was specifically about people living inside Baltimore commuting to the D.C. region the error, either intentionally or mistakenly, was grossly misleading. As I’ve pointed out above, and as Ryan Avent pointed out this weekend, the overwhelming majority of those 133,000 are from Howard and Anne Arundel Counties. Washingtonian suburbs in those counties have not been news since James Rouse founded Columbia 40 years ago.
“While I disagree with the vituperative style on this site as an effective method to sway readers that don't already agree with you, your response points toward an open and agile mind.”
I’m not trying to sway minds. I’m trying to make DCist contributors and editors to pick their words and their content very carefully once they cross the line out of our shared suburbs and into area that is exclusively Baltimorean.
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