Chicago has an extensive and infamous history of gang warfare, New York is so overpopulated that anybody could be consumed in the masses, and Los Angeles is filled with scary-looking people just back from the plastic surgeon. Detroit is, well, Detroit. Baltimore has a high murder rate, a lot of heroin, and some other issues that make it look like a much scarier place than it is. If you live in Baltimore, you don't talk about it that much, because chances are you know which places to avoid and which to be careful in. And you probably know what is true and not true about how the media has portrayed Charm City.

On television, there was the popular show Homicide: Life on the Streets, which took place in Baltimore. The name says it all--Homicide. For the purposes of the show, it was a great title. However, the show wasn't exactly called, Hey, Homicide happens everywhere, we just wanted to do it in Baltimore because it was cheaper and the per capita murder rate is pretty high. What the show may have lent to the city's image was an edge, an element of fear that distinguished it. At the very least it was compelling.

Same with The Wire. A lot of people know about The Wire, an HBO show based on the Baltimore drug trade. In some cases it might draw people to the city, from morbid curiosity or fascination or a like for the setting depicted in the show. For some people, it fictionalizes the city to a degree, as if Baltimore is some kind of fantasy TV set where the show took place. The Wire might have scared some people off, creating or reinforcing the idea that Baltimore is a dangerous place.

Last year, the Freddie Gray riots got a ton of media coverage. People all over the world saw the CVS in downtown Baltimore being looted, saw the line of police officers, saw the people yelling and destroying property in the streets, saw Ray Lewis telling kids to go home, just go HOME! Of course they saw the 'Hero Mom' taking her son off the streets for trying to riot. Now, with Charlotte rioting and the rest of the country somehow caught in the midst of a hate-cop race fight, the focus is off Baltimore.

What effect did that focus have is what many here are wondering. Are people outside of the city looking at it like it is even more of a disappointing and dangerous place? Is Baltimore now a place for the rats to thrive and humans to suffer, or is it the same city it ever was, dealing with the same problems that every city in the world faces. One thing is sure, it is a place where the morbid and creepy thrive, and that may not always be a bad thing.