Talk:Baltimore

Lake Trout?

Surely there should be a section about Baltimore's greatest culinary achievement: lake trout. I think this article has been whitewashed, removing all references to lake trout. Lake trout is an important part of Baltimore history and a staple of Baltimore cuisine and commerce. My suspicion is that the Crab Fisherman's Consortium (CFuC) has intentionally altered this article to remove any reference to its only major competitor in the Maryland seafood industry. Can we have a poll on whether lake trout should be in the article's intro? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.104.27.36 (talk) 16:20, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Mayor Dixon

Surely it would be possible to find a better photo of Mayor Sheila Dixon. It looks very little like the Ms Dixon I know162.66.50.4 (talk) 15:47, 3 January 2008 (UTC)PeterB

What picture are you talking about? There aren't any on this page! If you're referring to the three pics on the Sheila Dixon page, well, you may be right. The problem is that Wikipedia can only use images that are (a) in the public domain or (b) released under some other license that allows for free reuse (like the GPL or the Creative Commons license). This means that you cannot do what most people's first instinct is, which is to just find a good picture on the Internet and use that -- someone has the rights to that image and may not want you to do it!

Many of the pictures on Wikipedia are taken by editors and contributed to the project under appropriate licenses. Two of the pics on the Sheila Dixon page fall into this category. (The third was taken by a US Federal Govt. employee on the job and is thus in the public domain.) If you know Mayor Dixon, why not take her picture and then contribute it? --Jfruh (talk) 16:34, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

The name/history

Is it worthwhile to also note that the name also means "Baltic Sea" in Russian? I am thus casting doubts whether the original name history (Baltimore, County Cork) is correct. Alepik (talk) 01:34, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Baltimore is named after the British family that held the title Baron Baltimore; these were the first proprietors of the Maryland colony. Their title in turn dervied from the city in Ireland. This is all very well documented; I'm not sure why you would doubt it. --Jfruh (talk) 16:16, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

OK but a web search doesn't make it clear whether the first Baron Baltimore took his title from some informal placename in County Longford (where he was evidently granted land) or from the seaside village in County Cork (where he evidently had no land). Jack Waugh (talk) 14:07, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

I question the use of the term 'Baltimore City.' I lived in Baltimore briefly and I have never heard the city referred to as 'Baltimore City.'Deedeebee (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 22:48, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

As the article states, it is only used sometimes, when a clear distinction from the county is desired. —Adavidb 13:19, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

I live in Baltimore and have for five years and I hear the term used all the time. You'd use to distinguish between the city and the county, but in that context it's quite common. --Jfruh (talk) 14:07, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Google Earth Model

I have tried to add a Google Earth model of Baltimore City Hall but the "Wiki Police" keep reporting it as spam. Can someone instruct me on how to add this model without it being reported as spam? Should I create a new page specifically about Baltimore City Hall? Can I host the model on Wkipedia somehow so there is not a link back to my website to avoid the spam violation? It is also hosted on the 3D warehouse...should I link it from there? I cant imagine that 3D models are not wanted on Wikipedia.

Baltimore City Hall at Google 3D Warehouse —Preceding unsigned comment added by 3Doogle (talk • contribs) 22:23, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

site's been taken down. if this weren't a talk page i would have just removed this as a dead link.Toyokuni3 (talk) 03:36, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

see your talk ccwaters (talk) 15:44, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Architecture

Would be nice to update the further information link so it goes to Baltimore Architecture, rather than Baltimore Neighborhoods - - is there such a page?... (for architecture) --Teda13 (talk) 02:55, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

mention definitely needs to be made of the german influence in the residential architecture of b'more, AND mention should be made in the body of the article (not just the 'see also') of the famous(infamous?) formstone of east b'more, hamden, etc.Toyokuni3 (talk) 15:37, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Etymology of name

there is debate on the Baltimore, County Cork page as to whether it is correctly 'baile an' or 'baile na'. an is the definite article, while na is the preposition 'of'. na would seem to me more liokely correct. however, the reference cited is to place names in northern ireland , where cork very definitely is not.Toyokuni3 (talk) 15:15, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

the irish derivation of the name IS pertinent, and its deletion will be reverted every time.Toyokuni3 (talk) 23:28, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Baltimore overhaul

Hi all. I just wanted to let you guys know that I plan on starting a rather significant overhaul of the article to try and get it up to WP:GA standards. I will be taking the following actions:

1. Removing dubious uncited information and trying to find references for other facts. Anywhere a source is needed I will either add a {{fact}} tag. If you happen to find a WP:RELIABLE source for that information, please provide it! To this end, please do not be offended if I remove information from the page that you believe should be included: nothing is gone forever and can always be re-added later with a proper source.
2. Cleaning up lead to match WP:LEAD
3. Moving long sections (e.g. History) into their own dedicated sub-articles and then revising down the information left on the main page per WP:SUMMARY
4. Transform lists into prose form, and creating sub-lists for other information that is unneeded on the main page (radio and TV stations, former sports team, etc.)
5. Editing sections to match the recommendations of WP:USCITY
6. Revising prose for clarity and to match WP:MoS

Please feel free to help make changes, or provide your comments here. If you do plan on helping with the overall. I ask that you please use the Sandbox, and make edits to particular sections only in order to reduce the chances of encountering edit conflicts. Thank you for your help. Best, epicAdam (talk) 21:44, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Nicknames

Can we decide on which nicknames are actually going to remain in the infobox? Of the ones listed, I think "Charm City" is really the only one that is still in use; "Mob Town", "The City of Firsts", "Monument Town" are all rather archaic. "B-more" and "B-town" aren't really nicknames as much as they are abbreviations. As for the mottos, there is typically only one official motto designated by the local legislature. "The Greatest City in America" and "Get On It" aren't mottos as much as they are advertising slogans for tourists. There has to be a decision as to which names are actually listed in this article.

"Mobtown" (usually written closed up) is a still a fairly well known nickname, usually used in a derogatory or ironic sense these days, but probably recognized by most Baltimoreans. Yes, I'm a local and am basing this on my own personal experience (i.e. it's Original Research, not a Reliable Source), but I would just urge you not to toss that one out of hand like the others you list, which I think are genuinely moribund. To provide a few examples of contemporary use, a pretty well known local blog, the Mobtown Shank, uses the name, as does the Baltimore City Paper's Mobtown Beat column. --Jfruh (talk) 03:15, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

History

You removed a cite and then placed a on a sentence that is convoluted (has several ideas) but that seems neither controversial nor relevant to this article (and if true is surely resolved on the pages of the people linked). What specific item there needs sourcing? DMacks (talk) 00:04, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Sorry about that. My internet connection went out between making that change and posting a correction, which should be up now. I do like to find references for all "hard facts" (e.g. dates, numbers, statistics) even if they may be uncontroversial, since it greatly aids readers who use Wikipedia as a research tool. I took out those particular fact tags as I am lining up sources. I'll be continuing to work on the article section by section in my personal sandbox so any changes I make will typically come in batches from now on as I find proper sources and work them into the text. Best, epicAdam (talk) 01:27, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

A squared C squared

i really don't think anne arundel community college belongs in the list. anne arundel county (other than perhaps glen burnie, brooklyn and linthicum) feels every bit as much allegiance (rightly or wrongly) with metro dc. moreover, you don't list aa county as a contiguous suburb. further, if you're going to include aacc, then why not the naval academy and mcdaniel(in carroll county, which borders on baltimore county). maybe even hood. just not part of baltimore. comments?Toyokuni3 (talk) 20:03, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

I am in agreement that AACC doesn't belong with this article. —ADavidB 06:29, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

While I agree that AACC should not be on the page - don't underestimate Anne Arundel County's allegiance to the city. You would be surprised at how connected the population along Route 2 (north of annapolis) is to Baltimore city - it's the cultural center for all of central Maryland.

Requested move

There is currently a proposal on the table to amend the Wikipedia naming conventions for US cities to follow the AP Stylebook's suggested names. This would effectively move a number of US city articles currently on the list, so Baltimore, Maryland would be moved to Baltimore. To comment on this discussion, please go here. Dr. Cash (talk) 16:47, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

Infobox update

Summary of changes:

• added flag
• added pushpin map to better illustrate Baltimore's geographic position in a wider context.
• added city council members, city delegation, and congressmen - something I saw at the Sanfrancisco page.
• added demonym.
• added named for.
• corrected incorporation year.
• corrected area per U.S. Census Density Using Land Area.
• corrected coord data: removed seconds because the were overly precise, removed geodata template redundant with coord in Infobox, and switch from city to city(pop).
• corrected population data: Metro=CBSA and Urban=MSA. Compare say San Jose and Oakland which are in the same CBSA but separate MSAs. Updated MSA and CBSA to 2007.

GcSwRhIc (talk) 18:44, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

Unreferenced material

I have downgraded Baltimore's WikiProject Cities Assessment because the article contains a lot of irrelevant material and requires substantial cleanup, especially in finding citations. I will try to find references for the uncited material in this article wherever possible. However, per Wikipedia:Verifiability, I will go through and purge the article of "pseudo information" for any material I cannot verify. Additional editors' help in finding appropriate references would be much appreciated. Best, epicAdam^(talk) 18:10, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Island South of I-695 Bridge

Can someone tell me what the island in the mouth of Baltimore harbor is, just south of the I-695 bridge is? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.2.92.82 (talk) 04:06, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

The "island" you're referring to is Fort Carroll. (You can find information like that by using Google Earth and checking Wikipedia under Geographic Web in the layers section of the sidebar.) DAK4Blizzard (talk) 07:39, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

Climate

Ok. I have watched the small edit war over the climate data, specifically over which source to use. I personally believe that the Weather Channel (and NOAA)'s source for downtown is ridiculous. Just think about it. This is a Mid-Atlantic city located on the Chesapeake Bay, and has an average July high/low of 91/73? That seems ridiculous compared to Washington's more realistic average of 88/70 in July; this is a difference of THREE DEGREES in BOTH the High and Low. Not so sure about the data for the winter temps, which does seem credible right now. Mathpianist93 (talk) 23:34, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

You might want to check out the archived talk page on the subject, as this is an edit war with a long and stupid history (even earning a spot on the lamest edit wars page!). To be succinct, the pros and cons of using the downtown weather station are:

• CON: Downtown weather station is in Baltimore's urban heat island, artificially boosting the numbers
• PRO: All other available weather data comes from stations that are not in Baltimore proper; Baltimore has specific boundaries, and this is an article about Baltimore, not the Greater Baltimore Area or something like that.

But I've only been a horrified/amused viewer of this edit war, not a participant, so perhaps others have something to add. I will say that I live in Baltimore City and it does get pretty hot in the summer. --Jfruh (talk) 23:56, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Ah. Wow. this edit war has been somewhat pointless. Mathpianist93 (talk) 00:46, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Demographics

Why are white americans spoken about first in the part about the population? It looks odd whites 34% blacks 64%, natives 0.1% etc...is there a logical reason for this? vap (talk) 20:53, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Baltimore/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Dana boomer (talk) 03:51, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi! I'll be reviewing this article for GA status.

First, all of the cleanup banners and tags need to be fixed. There are two major cleanup banners, multiple dead links and over half a dozen fact tags from as long ago as August 2008. Major cleanup banners are a quick-fail criteria, but I am willing to give the article a couple of days to see if things are resolved. There are also multiple other areas that need references that aren't marked with citation needed tags, more dead links not marked by dead link tags (see here), and a lot of really short paragraphs that should be combined with others or expanded to make the article more readable.

I will leave this review open for a few days to see if work is being completed on the above issues. If it is, I will then take another pass through the article to complete a full review. Please let me know if you have any questions. Dana boomer (talk) 03:51, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

Comments (this is not a full review, just some quick observations):

• As a courtesy I went and fixed the bare links. All the references, except a few dead ones, should be reasonably formatted now.
• The article is quite long. IMHO, the length is not justified. Some suggestions of things to cut down on:
  • History: maybe a tad long. Regardless there are some extraneous details (e.g. National Register of Historic Places)
  • Tallest buildings: Link to the list article if you like but these are details that are not important in this article.
  • Neighorhoods: Some good content but definitely does not need to be this long.
  • Culture: Again interesting but a bit too much detail. E.g. the discussion on Baltimorese is too detailed for this article.
  • Government and law enforcement: Merge these sections and tighten up a little. Don't need to mention every agency and don't need to mention current office holders.
  • Education: Get rid of the lists. Discuss the main universities and community colleges. Primary and secondary education should be discussed in broad strokes without getting into every school (unless there are particular schools that are exceptionally notable).

Hope that helps.

--Mcorazao (talk) 23:13, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

As very little work has been done on this article (other than the reference formatting, with thanks for that going to Mcorazao) during the period of the review, I am failing this article's GA nomination. I look forward to seeing it back at GAN once the above issues have been addressed. Dana boomer (talk) 19:33, 9 January 2010 (UTC)