<p>Do students at JHU spend much time off campus? How easy and safe is it to travel to the downtown or Inner Harbor area or perhaps to do research at the medical school? Does the city subway system go the the Homewood campus or do students have to take public buses if they do not have a car?
Thanks.</p>
<p>A few things:</p>
<p>-The subway does not go to Homewood.
-There is a shuttle that runs between Homewood and the medical school campus.
-The city's MTA buses are of limited use to students. Most of the time students get around by taking the Collegetown shuttle, which runs between Baltimore colleges, the Inner Harbor, and the mall at Towson.
-Places closer to campus may be accessible by fixed route shuttles or on-demand, point-to-point vans run by the Security department.
-FlexCar has just set up shop in Charles Village. You can register for the program at the discounted student rate, which gives you access to any of the four hybrid vehicles in the FlexCar fleet at Hopkins.</p>
<p>I have a good number of friends who often go to the medical campus to do research. The Towson mall is another well frequented spot. How often people leave campus depends on a lot of factors. There are some people who feel discouraged by the gritty facade of the city and won't venture out beyond the bounds of Charles Village. It's too bad, because Baltimore is an interesting city, if you care enough to explore it.</p>
<p>As a note, the inner harbor is very safe, as is the Charles Village neighborhood, where Homewood is. The medical school itself is pretty secure, although the surrounding neighborhood is quite bad. I know many people who do research there though, and they've had no problem. Also, there are many neat (and safe) neighborhoods in Baltimore like Mount Vernon (where Peabody is) the are on Charles Street from Mount Vernon to the Inner Harbor, Fells Point and Little Italy. </p>
<p>I'm here for the summer, in fact, and just yesterday me and some friends took the Hopkins shuttle to Peabody, went to a few museums, walked to the inner harbor (about a mile) and little italy. Then we walked back and took the shuttle to the medical school (because they're from other colleges and wanted to see it) then went back to Homewood, all without feeling scared or in danger.</p>
<p>I took the city bus to work downtown every single day last summer, and since then have become quite comfortable using them to go downtown and back along Charles St. You can read my Hopkins blog post about public transportation here: <a href="http://hopkins.typepad.com/michellet/2007/03/more_than_marc_.html%5B/url%5D">http://hopkins.typepad.com/michellet/2007/03/more_than_marc_.html</a></p>
<p>There is an entire discussion thread on the Hopkins Interactive Forums dedicated to questions/discussions about Living in Baltimore:</p>
<p>While that story posted by posterx is true and frightening, it should be noted that it's the first attempted abduction near the JHU campus that I can remember (four years). </p>
<p>There certainly are dangerous things that happen in the city of Baltimore, nobody's joking about that. But generally, using good judgment like walking with someone else at night and being aware of your surroundings as you should in any large city, goes a LONG way toward preventing those things from happening to you. The only instances I know of personally where people were assaulted or someone attempted to assault them were instances where the individual was walking along late at night (not to say that's always the case - just in my experience. Clearly, this incident at 9am could not easily have been prevented that way - but it is an anomoly in the grand scheme of things).</p>
<p>Agree -- Good advice.</p>
<p>Just to let everyone know, it's no picnic, despite some assurance you <em>may</em> run into. I was mugged very badly, with a friend no less, in broad daylight, just 3 blocks away from campus. Took me 4 days to get out of the hospital. I should note the News-Letter gave it just a one liner, too. Mind you I love JHU, just so you guys know what can be out there.</p>
<p>Similarly, you can find reports of the same magnitude in any campus paper for an urban campus (Penn, NYU, Columbia, Harvard, etc). This is not a Hopkins problem, this is the problem of living in an urban center wherein there lies socioeconomic disparities. That's reality. </p>
<p>There are colleges which can completely remove you from a city environment and they can be EXTREMELY safe - the problem is they are often very, very isolated and offer nothing BUT the college.</p>
<p>Oh my gosh, littleimage...when did this happen and where? Were you in Charles Village???</p>
<p>Happened fall semester, midway through. It was on 33rd street, barely past charles commons. I will say the police response was good, of course, being so close, but they still never caught any of them. At least I got my wallet back, thanks to the efforts of a HopCop.</p>
<p>At the station, the police told me that the groups were "getting bolder" or some such.</p>
<p>I should say that the reason I ventured out "so far" was based on the assurance I got that Baltimore isn't so bad if you know how to approach it, especially around JH. You hear a lot about our beautiful city in the admissions packets. I invite a reader to take something from the fact that the big, fancy pictures of the inner harbor are literally miles away from here. I now volunteer with city organizations after this, and recently heard the mayor speak in an open forum. The amount of violence residents just a couple blocks away reported was staggering. The chief of police was there, too, and said it's a truth. Don't let anyone, any blog, any admissions rep say anything different, my friend and I looked at it through the overly prevalent rose-colored glasses and were taught a real lesson, courtesy of a baseball bat. This is a DANGEROUS city, and the scars on my hand remind me that every day. </p>
<p>Just so everyone knows: The reason I mention it here on CC is just to let people know. Yes, it is a BIG exception, and I don't want to turn people off in any way. Once again I love JHU, and do very well here. I just say, if you want a nice walk, go up north charles to the rich area, or hang around notre dame.</p>
<p>Yeah, I never walk east. Only North, West and occasionally South.</p>
<p>Best advice - stay very aware of your surroundings, even for several blocks in every direction, don't be afraid to randomly turn around and run the other way, and don't try any heroics, e.g., what this guy in Charles Village did this weekend: </p>
<p>"A 27-year-old Annapolis man was recovering at Johns Hopkins Hospital yesterday after he was stabbed three times in the stomach while trying to save someone from being beaten in Charles Village."</p>
<p>"The stabbing is the latest in a string of violent assaults in the neighborhood that borders the Johns Hopkins University."</p>
<p>Baltimore is a dangerous city, and it's not getting better. Just don't walk around that neighborhood, off campus, at night. And most importantly...from just living here my whole life...many of these instances can be prevented by just not acting afraid. Lots of people will start walking faster when someones following them, or keep glancing back. Just making eye contact is enough to keep half of these thugs away, act confident. But like littlemage was told, they're getting bolder...so it's never a sure thing.</p>
<p>As you know, I am a huge fan of Hopkins. Nevertheless, I am very concerned about the heightened crime level in Charles Village. At least according to that article in the Baltimore Sun, it seems that the police are not doing their jobs as well as they should. Maybe Admissions Daniel could shed some light on what has actually been happening in terms of the rise in crime. Is this accurate? If so, what is being done about it? There are lots of entertainment venues and fraternities in the area being spoken about, so obviously this is a huge concern for Hopkins parents.</p>
<p>"many of these instances can be prevented by just not acting afraid. Lots of people will start walking faster when someones following them, or keep glancing back."</p>
<p>I'd say the opposite. While of course it helps to look confident and not look like you are "lost", it's also very good to "keep glancing" around because it will give you the opportunity to walk faster, walk the other direction, or run away as fast as you can. You should be "glancing" 2-3 blocks in every direction, ideally, and staying at least 10 feet away from alley entrances, street corners, doors and cars so you can't be jumped/surprise-attacked as easily. If there is a bad guy out there, he is stalking/watching you very carefully so you had better do the same to him. There's nothing wrong with doing a 180 and running away from a group of neighborhood kids walking towards you on the other side of the street, even if it's the middle of the day and you feel like a racist/scared person for doing so. Besides that, just watch what neighborhoods/streets you are walking in. If you don't know where you are going, you might want to consider jumping into a bodega and calling a taxi until you figure out which streets are OK and which aren't -- often the "bad" streets are right in the middle of otherwise great neighborhoods and vice versa. Trust me, I'm a veteran of Baltimore! </p>
<p>Oh and whatever you do, don't take a job as a pizza deliveryman.</p>
<p>So far I've found the only <em>best</em> route is N. Charles, but even now...as posterX drew attention to, the Charles Village area is getting hit even more. What got me (scrolling thru the reports) is that Wyman Park area attempted abduction of a JHU grad student. </p>
<p>Quote:
"And in early July, two men attempted to abduct a 29-year old Hopkins graduate student at the edge of Charles Village near Wyman Park."</p>
<p>One of the only 24 hr. restaurants (Paper Moon) is along the way, along with apt. buildings and some routes to the University. I guess anyone who's been there on a Sat night knows what I mean when I say sketchy.</p>
<p>As for what's being done about it, I've seen the actual interior of the new security base at Remington. The USS Enterprise would be the closest comparison. It's very impressive, with the many new high-tech cameras they installed. Still, that doesn't do much for any areas beyond, say, Homewood apts. I know the range pretty well.</p>
<p>Frankly, though, where to get info is a big concern. I think the last place to ask for elucidation is the admissions people. Go straight to JH security or the direct police reports, they have nothing to sell and don't mind telling it like it is (know a lot of them personally). For a very sad example--I just attended one of those tour intos at Shriver, just for the heck of it (nothing to do, and had an interested brother visiting) and boy did I hear some unrealistic blathering, given what I know now. Keeping tabs on what students and parents know is important, but do you honestly think they would outrightly mention the stuff like attempted abductions and muggings? Far easier to say "approach the city carefully, etc. etc.," which is what they do (and did). Kind of nebulous advice, anyway. Didn't help me much, and I followed every guideline. Strike that, didn't help me at all.</p>
<p>I like what people have said about the extent to which you have to watch out for yourself, I think keeping a third eye out is good. It's good hearinf from someone that lives in Baltimore. And, lastly, let me say that it happens FAST. One minute, you're walking, the next, they're all over you. Check out that video of the shooting on posterX's site to see how fast a gun can be drawn...</p>
<p>Thanks for keeping the thread alive, let's all keep people informed.</p>
<p>I am always concerned about over-exaggerating the Baltimore urban legend. I guess that is because I am a New Yorker, born and bred, and I understand crime in the big city. Believe me...Although New York is considered to be a very safe big city, as I posted before, there is still plenty of crime, even in upscale neighborhoods. One must always be vigilant. That being said, I do believe that Hopkins parents and students must continue to expect nothing but the best in terms of safety. I, personally, would like to see more Baltimore police walking the beat, 24/7, throughout Charles Village. The visual presence of police, not just monitoring from a high-tech center, has been a wonderful deterrent in New York. I would like to see more of that on the outskirts of Hopkins, if a new problem is rearing its head.
When I visit Hopkins, which is pretty often, I see a beautiful campus, in a beautiful and vibrant area. Let's hope it stays that way...and even improves.</p>
<p>Totally agreed. The center is a good step, but nothing beats actual officers. I do have a question, though, why the majority (AB) are not allowed to engage, or even carry "weapons," in a sense. Still, seeing them around is great.</p>
<p>Great words on the campus, gabriellaah, I think we all like to view it as an "oasis of safety" (for lack of better words), during the time that even now the rest of the area is being worked on.</p>
<p>As for any exaggeration, I agree. I'll be the first to say that what I know of, and went through, is an exception, at least in terms of direct crime with JHU students. I can't speak for the rest of the city...but, as I see it, you can never have too much info.</p>