Why Live in Pigtown?
Pigtown isn’t perfect, but it does have lots of reasons for people to move and live there. Here are just a few of them:
- We have a great community association that is dedicated to helping each other and our neighbors live fantastic lives.
- We have an amazing elementary school, George Washington Elementary. It is one of the best schools in the state, with the highest reading scores in grades K-3 and excellent scores for grades 4-5. You can definitely live here and have children!
- We have a local library right on Washington Blvd.
- We have easy access to 3 highways. I-95 and 295 are just a few lights away, 83 is down the MLK. (I live on Barre Street, not in Barre Circle, but close to the MLK. My commute really benefits from the proximity to the highways.)
- We are walking distance to the MARC station and Light Rail. In this gas-based economy, public transportation is a must, not just a perk.
- We are walking distance to a Safeway and biking distance to the Whole Foods.
- We are walking distance to the Inner Harbor for easy retail therapy!
- We are walking distance to Camden Yards and Raven Stadium. (We pregame at home and stumble to the stadiums and walk home while everyone else is stuck in traffic.)
- We are walking distance to some of the most amazing, cheap bars in Baltimore. I never thought I would see the days of $1 beers, but Pigtown has them!
- We have one of the most marketable neighborhood names in the city: Pigtown just screams merchandise, don’t you think?
- We have plenty of resident parking, in comparison Federal Hill, Fell’s Point, Ridgely’s Delight, and Mt. Vernon.
- We have Carroll Park, a perfect place for dog owner to walk their dogs!
The major argument against living in our neighborhood is that there is a lot of crime… but let’s be a little realistic here: it’s Baltimore we’re talking about. There’s a lot of crime in the city and if you really want to complain about the crime without doing anything about it, I urge you to re-evaluate what needs to change: the city or you?
Actually, our crime statistics are much better than those of other neighborhoods. And we have very little violent crime. In the 8 years I’ve lived here I’ve never been a victim of anything other than a burglary. Compare that to when I lived in DC — I was robbed at gunpoint, robbed at knifepoint, and burglarized twice.
I’ll take Pigtown, thanks.
Carol
June 19, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Sorry, I should have said SOME other neighborhoods.
Carol
June 19, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I can speak from experience at least for one of those neighborhoods. I used to live in Mt. Vernon and I love the nightlife there, but in the two years I’ve lived there, I’ve had my car broken in there once. The hubby’s was broken in once per year. And let’s not even get started with the number of times our cars got towed… it was a huge hassel.
In the past three years we’ve lived in Pigtown, Ben’s windshield was smashed once. And that’s it: nothing was taken… I have a feeling that it was a freak accident type of deal. But this neighborhood has taken care of us real well so far.
Pigtowner
June 20, 2008 at 7:02 pm
I have not live in Pigtown since 1993 it was getting bad then but I heard people saying that the place is turning around.I hope that the place becomes a better place to live than when I lived there.
Michael Lantz
August 23, 2009 at 2:24 am