<p>I have read in a number of posts and college reference books that JHU isn't in the nest of neighborhoods (or is surrounded by not the best of neighborhoods).</p>
<p>Current JHU students--do you agree?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for your input.</p>
<p>The neighborhood that Hopkins is directly in (Charles Village) is perfectly fine and among the better places in all of Baltimore. A huge percentage of the residents are either students or faculty/staff. It’s sort of its own college town within a bigger city. Just north of campus is an area with a lot of HUGE colorful houses where a lot of professors live, it’s clearly a very affluent part of the city. Hampden is just to the west of campus and is also a very nice area with lots of little shops and restaurants.</p>
<p>From about University Parkway (the unofficial north border of campus) down to 27th street is considered very safe. It’s mostly students. Once you go a little further south towards Penn station things get a bit more suspect. There have been a few isolated incidents over the years in that area. That said, it IS a city…and during the day it’s actually fine. To the east of campus are some shady areas, but there’s really no reason for any students to go that way. There’s a Rite Aid and a few other convenient stores in the Greenmount area which is fine to visit during the day, but I wouldn’t go there at night.</p>
<p>In essence, the Hopkins neighborhood and surrounding areas are much better than their reputation implies. But Baltimore is still a city, and it has its bad areas. I’ve been here for over two years and I’ve never felt unsafe. Just be smart and cautious.</p>
<p>omg i visited hopkins and expected to see the type of stuff from the Wire (ghetto neighborhoods, drug dealers) but the area is actually nice. you dont feel like you’re in a city when you’re n campus. i smelt grass lol.
and the surrounding neighborhoods are pretty nice…i got lost on my way to hopkins so my family drove around mount vernon and somewhere else vintage looking and i saw many high class people.
baltimore definitely has a bad rap</p>
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<p>People are probably getting Homewood and the medical school mixed up. If you go a few blocks south of Hopkins and then go east or west, you’ll be in a fairly dangerous area. The Inner Harbor has a massive cop presence that keeps it somewhat safe.</p>
<p>That’s probably true. The JHU hospital complex is not in a superb area (it’s in southeast Baltimore, about a 5-10 minute drive from the Homewood campus). However, the JHMI shuttle takes students there directly at all hours of the day (including stops at Penn Station and Mount Vernon/Peabody) so there’s no reason to be walking around there. The hospital itself has good security, especially in light of the incident that occurred there earlier in the year. The hospital is really almost its own city…it’s absolutely enormous. It might not be in a great area but once you’ve entered the “hospital complex” you know it and notice a difference. That whole complex is actually quite nice.</p>
<p>A ton more opinions of current students about Baltimore and the Homewood campus can be found here:
[Life</a> in Baltimore](<a href=“http://forums.hopkins-interactive.com/forum/15853/]Life”>http://forums.hopkins-interactive.com/forum/15853/)</p>
<p>In the end, the only way to determine what the neighborhood around the Homewood Campus is like is to visit and make your own conclusions.</p>
<p>I’ll give you a comprehensive review of the environment around Homewood Campus. I’ve lived in Baltimore for 8 years before moving elsewhere and I’m currently a JHU UG student. </p>
<p>If you go North of campus, there are several apartment buildings (housing for upperclassmen) and some neighborhoods. This place is generally safe. If you go a little further North, you will reach Loyola University and College of Notre Dame of Maryland. The area surrounding these two adjacent colleges is NOT safe. This includes their respective sections of York Road and North Charles Street. However, if you go further North, you will be in Towson, which is generally safe. Basically, once you reach the Senators Theatre/Northern Parkway, things get better. So to avoid danger North of Campus, JUST AVOID THE AREAS SURROUNDING LOYOLA UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE OF NOTRE DAME OF MARYLAND, ESPECIALLY THE NEIGHBORHOODS EAST OF THESE TWO UNIVERSITIES.</p>
<p>If you go East of Campus past St. Paul Street, this place is pretty bad. You really have no business here. This place consists of the neighborhoods of Greenmount Avenue, Waverly Park, and the Baltimore City College (this is a high school). So to avoid danger east of campus, DO NOT WANDER EAST ANYWHERE PAST ST. PAUL STREET.</p>
<p>If you go straight South of Campus, this is the worst part of Baltimore. If you happen to travel to Homewood Campus via Martin Luther King Blvd, you will see why this place is ranked number 4 or 5 (I can’t remember) in most dangerous neighborhoods in America. If you go Southeast of Campus, this place is called Charles Village (extending from 29th-25th street). This place is safe and some JHU students and even some professors live here. However, if you go further Southeast (anywhere from 24th street to the medical campus), this vast area, including Penn Station, is NOT safe, especially the neighborhoods around the medical campus (I’ve lived in one of these neighborhoods for 1 year). So, to avoid danger South of campus, DO NOT WANDER IN THE AREA BETWEEN HIGHWAY 83 (JONES FALLS FREEWAY) AND THE SOUTHERN TIP OF CAMPUS AND DO NOT GO SOUTHBOUND PAST 25TH STREET OR INTO ANY OF THE NEIGHBORHOODS AROUND THE MEDICAL CAMPUS. </p>
<p>If you go West of Campus, this place is the safest place in the area, IMO. If you go west on University Parkway, you will be in a neighborhood called Hampden. This is a pretty safe Neighborhood and some JHU professors reside here. (I attended Hampden Elementary for 2 years back when I lived on St. Paul Street) </p>
<p>In general, if you don’t go looking for trouble, you probably won’t get any.</p>
<p>Saying “DO NOT WANDER EAST ANYWHERE PAST ST. PAUL STREET” is kind of ridiculous. North Calvert and Guilford are both east of St. Paul. North Calvert is predominantly students, some fraternities, and families. It’s perfectly fine. I agree that once you go a little further east than that it’s not a wonderful neighborhood, but those two streets are totally fine. If you never go past St. Paul you are severely limiting yourself.</p>
<p>I realize that some frats and students are located a little east of St. Paul street but I don’t see how you are severely limiting yourself by not going past St. Paul street. You can do just fine with the frat parties hosted 1-2 blocks off campus. There really isn’t any business for students to go past St. Paul street.</p>
<p>I live and travel in Baltimore, including around Homewood and JH Hospital campus all the time. The immediate Homewood area is OK, and mostly students. I think that the bigger problem is around the hospital. The two are not together, they are almost on opposite sides of the city.</p>
<p>In general osprey099 comments about the area around the Homewood campus are accurate, however I have to disagree with some of the remarks. I have lived in Baltimore for the past 8 years and watched the entire city get safer each year – no longer ranked in the top 5 most dangerous cities and I actually think we are out of the top 10 (not that those rankings make much sense). In all the time I have been at Hopkins and in Baltimore, the Charles Village neighborhood where the Homewood Campus lies has been known as one of the safest neighborhoods in all of Baltimore. The heightened security force of the JHU HopCops is one of the main reasons for that. </p>
<p>I disagree with the comment that the neighborhood north of campus by Loyola and Notre Dame is not safe. Actually those neighborhoods are much more rural than any other part of the city and once again the heightened campus security makes those areas pretty safe. The area around Belvedere Square is quite nice. Also directly north of Homewood is the Roland Park area of the city which is by far the safest and most exclusive neighborhood of Baltimore. Though a bit or the area around York Road south of Northern Parkway may seem “unsafe” it is by no way a place to avoid. </p>
<p>As far as east of campus I completely agree with JHU2013 assessment. </p>
<p>Claiming that south of campus is the most dangerous neighborhood in America is also incorrect. Though the neighborhoods would seem more unsafe and urban to Hopkins students, the worst parts of Baltimore are nowhere near the Homewood campus. East Baltimore near the JH Medical Institutes is a much rougher part of the city than anything near Homewood. </p>
<p>In the end the conclusion is that Baltimore, like any city, is made of a variety of neighborhoods some good and some bad. Hopkins students learn where to travel in the city pretty quickly and with shuttle systems like the JHMI shuttle, Baltimore Collegetown shuttle, and the Circulator getting to the good places is quite easy and cheap.</p>
<p>I generally agree with AdmissionsDaniel’s observations but will add an additional factor, which is time of day/night. For example, Greenmount Ave, which is a number of blocks east of campus in Waverly, has a number of restaurants and stores which students like to frequent and it is generally safe during daylight hours (although for students raised in the suburbs it may look scary at first–give it some time and you will adjust and learn that although many of the residents may not have a lot of disposable income, the vast majority are very nice). After dark, however, the situation begins to change. In the winter, when it gets dark early, this is an obvious problem but, in general, students are still fine up to 10-11 p.m. provided they are traveling in a group, preferably including a couple of large guys. I would not recommend going to that area after dark if you are alone (this is well outside the area patrolled by the HopCops). And you should never go into that area after 11 p.m. even in a group. While most of the residents are nice, the area does have a drug problem and at night the nice people stay indoors and the creeps begin to emerge. The last thing you need is to run into a desperate junkie or two drug dealers having a territorial dispute. The bad guys are usually looking for an easy mark, not a confrontation, so they will steer clear of a group that looks like it could defend themselves.</p>
<p>As you go north on Greenmount, it turns into York Road and the neighborhood slowly improves until you get to Towson, when it is fine. If you go south on Greenmount, the neighborhood quickly gets worse and generally should be avoided. There is not much there of interest to students anyway [except of course, for Greenmount Cemetery where Johns Hopkins and John Wilkes Booth are buried!].</p>
<p>If you have (or develop) some urban street smarts–you will be safe enough (no place is perfectly safe; there have been murders at Dartmouth College and it is hard to imagine a place that looks safer than Hanover, N.H.) and will discover that Baltimore has a lot of little known charms. A surprising number of new Hopkins’ grads find Baltimore sufficiently nice that they decide to stay after graduation–at least for a while. Also, unless you plan on living in the suburbs or on a farm for the rest of your life, the street skills you develop will serve you well in the future. Consider it part of the education.</p>
<p>IMO, the restaurants/stores on Greenmount Ave that bonanza mentioned are not worth the risk, even at daytime. Drugs and gangs do exist in that area and although the tend not to come out at day, they are still there. If you really want to go to a restaurant or go shopping, just take the free buses to either Towson town center or the Inner Harbor. You will find much better restaurants and shops in these areas without the risk of getting harmed.</p>
<p>There are lots of black people in Baltimore.</p>
<p>Did I say something Racist? </p>
<p>Directly to the north of Hopkins are the neighborhoods of Roland Park and Guilford. These are old money neighborhoods with beautiful houses and luxury parks outside. Can you guess what color of people DON’T live inside? I’ll give you a hint, I like coffee this way. These neighborhoods are extremely dangerous, due to the fact that the population is almost exclusively white and rich, and everyone knows that rich old white men are the most likely of all people to be rapists, psychopaths, mass murderers, child molesters, etc. Not to mention the fact that rich old white men are “oppressors” by their very nature, so if you are a minority, I would suggest you avoid this area entirely, due to the inherent prejudices associated with class and race that infest the neighborhood. Here, you might become a victim of “racism”, which is probably much worse than getting mugged by a poor gangster black person (and in this case, he isn’t at any fault, the mugging could most certainly be attributed to discriminatory institutions, leaving him no other choice, but to mug you, a well-off Hopkins student), because as the saying goes, sticks and stones break my bones, but words hurt the most. </p>
<p>To the west of Hopkins is Remington, a kind of industrial neighborhood that isn’t very pretty, but some students do live here, and it is not THAT unsafe. Also to the west is Hampden, which can be best characterized as a neighborhood that has a quirky combination of proletarian and hipster influences. White, of course. It is a little run down, but generally safe. </p>
<p>To the south of campus all the way to Penn Station is the remainder of Charles Village. There are lots of students living in the Northern part from 27th street on up, but as you progress south, the locale becomes blacker and blacker. What happens to a typical Hopkins student who walks beyond this point is a matter that is best discussed behind closed walls. I will briefly describes the psychological process that occurs when a Hopkins student ventures into this vast unknown of blackness. People are by their very nature, sinful. This is one of the fundamental tenets of Calvinism, absolute depravity, theologically speaking. And one of the greatest sins of our post-modern times is “racism”. And all white people (and Asian people, to a greater extreme) are by their very nature racist. Thus what happens when their corneas detect multiple black people in the vicinity is regrettable. Racism is deeply instilled into our minds, and when they see black people, the “fear” mechanism is activated. It is unreasonable, and uncalled for, but it happens. It is just the way the world works. The area is NOT DANGEROUS, but is frequently perceived as dangerous due to ingrained racism. But what can you do to cure yourself of racism? Fortunately, Hopkins offers many classes in social justice to remedy these prejudices. If that isn’t enough, Hopkins also has a Office of Multicultural Affairs, where you can attend a thought reform session. I highly recommend going to one of these. Additionally, there is a student organization called Students Educating and Empowering for Diversity, which specializes in ridding people of all kinds of prejudice. </p>
<p>I did all of three of these treatments and can now walk around in any part of Baltimore without feeling afraid. And you know why? I am an enlightened anti-racist and bystanders can always detect a progressive aura surrounding my torso when I walk by. I swear a couple of black people were just about to mug me, but then stopped, because they realized I was part of their misery, a fighter for their quest for racial justice and equality, then gave me a respectful nod, as I moved on to save the world from white people. </p>
<p>To the east of Hopkins is a neighborhood known as Waverly. Here there are lots of black people as well, so the above psychological process also comes into play. Waverly is a lower-middle class mainly black neighborhood that has a lot of ghetto type shops (this is an improvement over the real ghetto from The Wire, where are there are almost no shops, because they would get robbed). Shoe City, Hair Braiding, Lake Trout, “Chinese” Food, Liquor, can all be found in this wonderful shopping district. It is intimidating for most people not used to an urban environment, but perfectly safe during the day, and reasonably at night (when black people are camouflaged and stealth).</p>
<p>If a neighborhood is sketch/dangerous, it is simply dangerous or sketch (which is clearly the case, if crimes have been reported in the area or if crime is clearly visible and expected in the area). Race doesn’t have to be a factor. As a counterpoint to the comments on whites being dangerous (honestly, every ethnicity is dangerous, humans are dangerous. And then one could argue whether it’s necessarily the more privileged whites committing such crimes most of the time), it’s not like white people walking around in some of the wealthy areas of Prince Georges County in metro D.C. would say, “look at all these wealthy black people and their large beautiful homes and cars, they must have built their lives on stealing or selling drugs, and thus this area is more dangerous than it looks.” The same could be said for many areas of Atlanta metro (both Atlanta and DC area are apparently among the very top places for wealthy and middle class blacks). Sketch, more dangerous areas, black or white look far different (and tend to have more alarming activity that occurs at higher rates and is reported at higher rates) from more wealthy, surburban or even “hip looking” areas. I would guess that people would have a similar “sketch alarm” turned on if they walked through a trailer park. I think the perspectives on what is considered a “sketch area” to some are more class related than race related. </p>
<p>And yes, I ,as a minority (the color that you like your coffee), would much rather be mugged for the little money I have than to have an annoying/offensive word or gesture thrown my way (sarcasm). How about more general advice? Humans are potentially dangerous, stay alert, period.</p>
<p>It’s kinda expected how a discussion about campus safety at JHU would lead to a lecture on racism and human nature. </p>
<p>Just avoid East of St. Paul, Everything South and East of 27th Street, the area between the Southern tip of campus and Highway 83, Everything on Martin Luther King Drive, the part of York Road next to Loyola and College of Notre Dame, and the areas on Route 40 that come into Baltimore.</p>
<p>^^^^^^^
You are a racist. Martin Luther King is a saint and great liberator. How dare you defile his holiness by telling people that a road named after him is unsafe??? Any road named after him is perfectly safe for people with progressive political inclinations who support school integration and above all, absolute racial equality in the fullest. It is only unsafe if you are a MEAN person.</p>
<p>^^^^^^^
■■■■■ alert. Nonsense. No, matter the name, if it’s(the road) dangerous, it’s dangerous. You know this. You’re just trying to rile people up (seriously, calling someone racist for saying a road is dangerous?) and be facetious (surely calling MLK holy is sarcastic regardless of if he was a positive influence overall). No point. People who go here and have experience w/those areas say those areas are dangerous, so they probably are. No need to bring other aspects into it or sugarcoat. I’m done. I don’t even belong over in this thread. I just found your comments entertaining and wrong, and now playtime is over (don’t know why I made the first reply, ■■■■■■ don’t use logic. And a person w/a screen name Iamright will hardly consider other viewpoints). You’re a flamer and I know better than to play w/fire :)</p>
<p>Iamright, have you ever been on Martin Luther King Dr? Take a walk on it (even during the day) and you’ll realize how stupid your comments are.</p>