A few years ago I was attending a conference in Toronto. During the usual small talk around the lunch table a typically nice and polite young Canadian gentleman asked where I was from. When I said "Baltimore" he looked at me like I had two heads, well as much as a polite Canadian could. "But, um, is it really like I see on The Wire?" Just about any traveling  Baltimorean has suffered this scenario.  
The Wire was fantastic television. I was one of the few people who actually watched every episode when they originally aired on HBO. The combination of great story telling and seeing local film-making talent shine made me look forward to every episode.
The show has become more popular since it went off the air, both here and abroad. As a result a narrative of Baltimore as some sort of post-modern hellscape has emerged in the ensuing years. Thoughtful consumers of The Wire certainly understand the show was commenting on America in general and Baltimore served well as a backdrop. For too many people, however, the despair and dysfunction has become The Narrative for Baltimore itself.
The stock answer Baltimoreans say,"It's really not that bad." We try not roll their eyes and our internal dialogue is something like, "You know that show wasn't a effin documentary, right?"
So, really it is not that bad here in Charm City. This blog will try to show some what's going right in these parts.