Baltimore's True Colors.

So I'm currently on the bus heading back to NY...and we are still stuck in traffic in Baltimore...but I'm fine with that. Why you ask? Because I get to see a LOT of the truth here while being safe behind the windows of this high bus. I can't believe it. I can't believe what this place has become. Then again, I never knew what it once was, but I am SURE at one point it was not this..depressing.

Let me try to break it down to you...As I sit here, I see some of the people who Have money; the ones who have cash to pay for a bus ride, the ones who are sitting right next to me, all of them watching movies on their Macbook Pros. Then I look outside, and I see raggedy old men in wheel chairs, and crowds of people waiting in the cold with plastic bags grasped in their hands. I look past them at the buildings. Its unbelievable how this place was constructed. There are strips, full length roads that occupy hundreds of abandoned houses. And these houses are not regular houses. They are not even houses at all. They are more like pathetic excuses for apartments. And they are ALL COMPLETELY FLAT. It's as if someone chopped off the front or the balcony of these apartments. There is no depth to them at all, no spaces in between. Someone did a great job of striping all of these people and their homes from their individuality. And why not? It's easier to discriminate on a particular group when you dress them up the same. The apartments are All similar in color, and now all boarded up with brown stains dripping from the doors. They have missing concrete steps that store garbage and food underneath, and plastic sheets blowing from the windows.

Then, a few blocks down, I see giant power lines that stand only 50ft away from these mini white houses. Here I see more of a back yard, with grass and dirt. However, its still not much. And still, It's a bloody mess. Chairs knocked over, toys spread over the ground, garbage bags covering the floor, etc.

A few blocks farther, we go back to seeing the strips of flat apartments, mixed with side roads of more apartments. All empty. Even the streets are empty. And I mean EMPTY. No signs of life except for the one or two stranglers that roam the side of the road. Its eery. Some of these have backyards, but only small amounts of them. The backyards are chained off from the public, with overgrown weeds, empty cloths lines, and more garbage bags that line up on the side of the building. Even the few stores that were once alive, are now boarded up with bars covering the windows and adds pasted all over the door.

Another few minutes later, I look out the window again, and this time I see the richer side of town. This side has bright red and blue colored houses, looking like mini leggo blocks, that decorate the streets. They have green front yards and a small green backyard too. Nothing too fancy, but its enough for someone to brag about.


Its so sad really. On one hand we have the ugly truth of what happens when the unemployed are thrown together and turn a city into an adult playground; however, on the other hand, we have the fake plastic sense of reality, with bright colors and still similar looking houses which try to cover up Baltimore's truth. Or at least that is how I see it.

Now its just a matter of getting to these areas, photographing...and not loosing my life. :/