the frog comes north

[rootofnewt]

My brother is moving up to the Baltimore area. He'll be working near Ft. Meade. He's lived in Florida since graduating from college, so he knows nothing about the area. He's trying to figure out where he wants to live and would like pointers/warnings about any of the following areas. Comments about amenities (restaurants, bars within walking distance of residential areas, nearby shopping, distance to beaches on the bay) would probably be appreciated, along with relative cost of living. Anyone up for suggestions? Here are the areas he'd like information about:

Burbs:

Columbia
Elkridge
Severn
Laurel
Catonsville

City:

Canton
Fells Point
Butchers Hill
Federal Hill
Locust Point

Comments

[flynnk.livejournal.com]

A couple of things...

Columbia has shopping (there is a mall and various burb-like shopping centers), but it is pretty soul-less. It is also *very* conservative. The white flight flees there, and it seems (to me at least) to be getting worse. (We have a client up there, and have to go up fairly frequently.) Columbia is also all about cars--there is no such thing as walking around there, at least as far as I know.

Laurel is on the other end of the white flight-o-meter. Laurel was nicer when I lived there; it is in something of a downward spiral in my opinion. They have knocked out most of the shopping and replaced it with crappy chains (build an interesting restaurant? Nah, let's put up a chik-fil-a). As you know, Main Street is probably the best place if you want to do the walking thing; everything else is car-land. My problem when I lived up there is that the housing developments can be VERY deep--it can take 5-10 minutes just to get out to a main road, something I find rather odd.

Neither Columbia nor Laurel has much of a bar scence. Both are bedroom communes.

Laurel is obvious to the East, but the whole of PG County turns into a parking lot on Friday during the summer as everyone tries to go to a beach of some sort. This has gotten worse in the last couple of years. It's gotten to the point that the Friday summer night traffic goes on until past midnight. We generally avoid driving during those times, and I don't really know what the beaches are like on the weekend, but I doubt it's as nice as he might be used to.

In the end, PG burbs (and border burbs) suck around here. I'd recommend something closer to the city, as it might actually posess a nice restaurant or a bar.

[flynnk.livejournal.com]

Oh, and cost of living in Columbia is probably higher than anything towards the city (Baltimore that is)... Laurel has higher cost of living than it's worth; nice apartments go for north of a thousand a month.