Oct 28, 2009
From Mobtown to Braintown: Daily Beast names Baltimore America’s 10th smartest city
Baltimore from the air: so shiny, so....smart! (Photo by Greg Pease)
No, no, we’re not murderous, we’re studious. We’re not kitschy, we’re brainy.
That’s our shtick today, anyway, as The Daily Beast ranks America’s 55 biggest cities from most smart to least-smartest.
Their methodology? They included educational attainment levels, percentage of eligible voters who voted in the last presidential election and ratio of educational institutions. They also used non-fiction book sales, courtesy of Neilsen Book Scan. (Why non-fiction? Apparently, reading Dan Brown makes you a lightweight, but Glenn Beck or Mitch Albom is the sign of high-order thinking. Go and figure.)
Guess which city was the smartest, which the dumbest and which Baltimorean was quoted in this salute to our towering intellects?
Raleigh-Durham was Number 1, Fresno was Number 55 and Mayor Sheila Dixon was quoted saying this:
” We are very blessed to have wonderful schools [and] universities,” says Sheila Dixon, Baltimore’s first female mayor, “but ultimately it is the engaged, educated, and active citizenry in the City of Baltimore that deserves the recognition.”
Somehow, New York scored lower than Baltimore. Considering that’s where this goofy list came from, perhaps the rating is fair enough.
- Aerial photo in Ye Beaste was shot by local photographer Greg Pease. http://www.gregpeasephoto.com/
Where in the world does this article come from? Baltimore is not the 10 nor the 50th smartest city in the US. In what world does a city filled with rampant drug use, school dropouts, and illiteracy rates that are through the roof get to be the top 10 smartest city? If this doesn’t smack of some type of real estate or city promotion, what does. The criteria for rating Baltimore was not only outlandish, it was a basic fiction. My God if any city doesn’t read, its Baltimore. Name me more than one large bookstore in the city? There is one. How many are in New York, Philadelphia, or Washington, DC? There hardly any bookstores since most either go out of business or become niche stores with specific clientele that may not even live in the city. Why do people write such outlandish fictions about Baltimore? Not only does it make the city look bad since its obvious to anyone that lives here, it also hides the true strengths that the city offers. Baltimore is an historical city with a diverse population that is struggling to deal with long term poverty, illiteracy rates, and very high teen pregnancy rates. Of course, one reason why the article might be overlooking such facts is that the readers being address are Caucasian suburbanites that don’t even live in the city or are the affluent few in Rolling Park. Baltimore is more than its 5 percent wealth areas north of the main city area.
To David Blue: Spoken like someone who really hasn’t ventured past the Inner Harbor. Baltimore is pock-marked by places of low and high income, as opposed to the neatly defined “bad quadrants” that many other cities have, such as DC’s southeast areas. This can be intimidating to newcomers. As a resident for the last year, however, I can name 4 major Baltimore bookstores off the top of my head (2 Barnes and Nobles, a Dadelus, and Red Emma’s). Naturally, there are issues with poverty, illiteracy, and crime, as there are in any major city, but Baltimore stands out in its efforts at gentrification in all sections of the city, not just the ones that are already half-decent. Moreover, the cultural aspects of Baltimore continue to astound me, from the opera house and symphony hall in Mt. Vernon, to the art museums and college campuses (plural) near Charles Village. Baltimore is a working city; it does not try to pretty itself up for the benefit of the passer-by, but the density of culture and higher learning is apparent to anyone who looks close enough.
And also…it’s “Roland” Park, not Roling Park.
i live in baltimore and im a teacher… and my students are really smart… infact we are one of the top 300 highschools in the United States!
yes baltimore is improving!!! i can attest to that