Just left Mt Washington. Loved it. City and nature all right there

We live in Canton currently and we absolutely love it. A ton of young families with babies/young kids. We have ALL the things you mention wanting in terms of community and then more - especially with a baby, we are loving being so close to restaurants and coffee shops. Parking is actually much easier in Canton than in other urban areas where we have lived (Washington DC), and we have a lovely roof deck and have Canton Waterfront and Patterson Parks for nearby green space. Best of all worlds and no soul-diminishing cookie cutter suburb life.

Agree with folks’ advice here to rent first to feel things out before making a more permanent move!

Dixon, Blake, Pugh, Scott...50% of these went to jail for crimes committed. Our last SA is being federally indicted.. Her husband who is also a criminal is still on the City Council.

Maybe we should be focusing less on recall elections and more on why people want recall elections. How about our politicians stop being lying criminal pieces of shit for at least a few elections cycles before saying "Hey, you shouldn't have the power to kick us out of office when we are lying criminal pieces of shit."

When we moved to Baltimore for work in our 20's we immediately bought what we assumed would be our forever home in Cockeysville. Seven years later we moved into the city and have never looked back.

When considering the commute to UMMC you need to consider how long it takes to get to 83 and whether there will be traffic on 83 at the times that you go. Most homes in Cockeysville are on the other side of York road from 83 and there are frequent accidents on 83 that can greatly lengthen your commute.

We did not really understand what living in true suburbs was like when we moved to Cockeysville and while there are lot of choices for groceries we could not walk to anything.

But the most important reason we did not like Cockeysville is that most of the people, in addition to being older, were born and bread in the suburbs of Baltimore and it was EXTREMELY difficult to meet/make friends. "Old Baltimore" culture is based around where you went to high school.

As some of the other threads recently have hinted at, Baltimore suburbs are very opposed to public transportation. I remember thinking that when they were going to put a bus stop at the entrance to our development that would be a good thing and would expand the number of nannies that I could hire but the neighborhood was universally opposed and the agreement was that the bus would go down the street but not have any stops anwywhere near the neighborhood. The listing comments included concerns that we were too close to apartment buildings, the closest which were over a mile away. Now, if this is the attitude you are looking for you might really enjoy Cockeysville.

We love living in the city..we have a yard that is just big enough for entertaining, and we enjoy being able to walk along the trails in the city and walk to the grocery store, Walgreens, our eating spots occasionally. We have been living in the city for fourteen years. Our neighbors are friendly, work together and are not limited to hanging out with their high school friends.

There are a lot of smaller family homes or townhomes with larger yards tucked away in the north baltimore corridor...Evergreen is close to the Stoney run trail, Miss Shirley's and other eateries and the homes have large enough yards to entertain...all of the neighborhoods listed in this thread are good choices.

You might like Catonsville or Glen Burnie.

I moved to canton from Indiana and I love it here. If you want more space and are expecting children, I might recommend Hampden though. Enough room to have an actual backyard and still right next to the avenue for when you want to go out. Plus tons of other green space near by. You have the enormous Patterson park when you’re in canton but you’re much more on top of your neighbors. Fine for me, but kids may change the equation.

Moved from Denver suburbs to South Baltimore in October. Zero regrets. South Baltimore (federal hill, locust point) and Canton have easy access to i95 which means you’re pretty much two hours from anywhere. There are plenty of hikes, museums, battlefields, beaches, historic sites, major cities, campgrounds, east coast “mountains”, and pretty much anything you’d want to do.

The city speaks for it self. It’s where the action is — theres always something going on. Sports, clubs, a really legitimate ice cream scene, and better than expected food.

The city has its downsides. Noise. Traffic. Basic things like getting groceries are tougher than the burbs. But they’re all pretty much things you can plan around.

Try to find a rental with a parking pad/spot in the alley behind the house. Find a rental on a non main street

UMMC is easy access from Elkridge area (just south of town). It's Howard County, which has exceptional schools, incredible parklands, bike trails, and it's not as expensive as Ellicott City. I'm a Baltimore City boy, and proud city booster, but time has softened my views on County life. Catonsville is also just a fantastic place to live and raise kids! WELCOME!!!

We moved to Baltimore from AZ in December and got a long term Airbnb while we house hunt. I don’t love having all of our stuff in storage while we’re in limbo, but I’m so glad we waited and have had the chance to scope neighborhoods around the city and neighboring ‘burbs. You really, truly cannot understand the vibe of a neighborhood until you see it for yourself. I think that’s even truer here than out west where it’s pretty homogenous.

Thirding. Most of the areas off the main drag feel suburban but there are all kinds of amenities within walking distance. Tons of young families. The farmer’s market is awesome. Check out Hamilton-Lauraville Mainstreet.Hampden might fit your criteria but definitely has more of the issues that come with “city life”.

Eta: maybe check out Medfield? Walking distance to Hampden, close to multiple grocery stores, but a little more residential and quiet.

Rodgers Forge neighborhood right over the city line. Plenty of young families and couples. Row homes with small yards but people are always entertaining. Easy to meet people. Some walkable shops but easy drive to grocery shop etc.

The suburban apartment complexes are like the worst of all worlds, trapped with people and their noise through the walls while lacking any kind of street life, community feeling or conveniences at the same time. Hampden, Waverley, Mt Washington, Catonsville and Hamilton are younger, more sociable and neighborhoody. But like I said if you want a good place you have to have feet on the ground, do your homework and be able to jump on it. Committing sight-unseen is not smart, what works for an older relative may not work for you.

I’m partial to living in the city. Born and raised in the suburbs but baltimore really isn’t a big city. It’s called smalltimore for a reason. Wasn’t long before we could walk into any place and know at least one person. We were in butchers hill. Still miss it. But we have kids now and wanted a yard.

I live in Lutherville Timonium and it is indeed sleepy. We moved here in 2019 and lived a year in the city (Butcher’s Hill). Personally I never wanted to live in the suburbs but we have two young children and the schools are much better here than the city, which was the deciding factor for us- that and property taxes cheaper in the county. People are friendly here but yes most have children and you have to create your own opportunities to meet people for the most part (although I’ve been told pre-pandemic there were more block parties). I wish you all the best in this decision and hope you find something that meets your needs.

Thirding this, it's great here. You might also like Waverly or Beverly Hills, Northwood, Govans etc. Just throwing neighborhoods out there. I love Baltimore bc you can live in the city but have space for BBQ, gardening, etc. The rental market on the NE side is not great, but you could eventually buy a house here. Look around Morgan State University, there are more rentals in the student neighborhoods

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Sounds like your mind us already made up and it's in the suburbs somewhere. I recommend Pikesville, or Mt. Washington.

Yes! I live in Hamilton and have the house/yard with a nice blend of people with kids, people without kids, and easy access to the city life. I love it here.

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Recall elections would be a disaster for a city that already can’t get anything done.

You have to book a few weeks out with Amtrak to get a low price. They use this weird bucket system to determine the price. Id wish they would switch the corridor trains over to a fix price depending on the distance traveled like they do in NC or Cali Amtrak...

We're in Lutherville and I work at UMMC as well. We're at the top of the JFX and I'm downtown in 10 minutes and walking into the hospital in about 20. The area is great for having some space for your family but always being close to the city. Welcome to Baltimore and the University of Maryland Medical System.

Just curious, can you explain why walking to stores if you live in the city would stress you out? I feel like finding parking, driving to/from your destination would be more stressful than say...walking a block or two.

Cockeysville/Timonium is very suburban so yea you'll just be experiencing more suburban life. There are other suburbs that have "city-like" features; Catonsville and Ellicott City come to mind and the commute from there to UMMC will be easier than from up north since you get to avoid 83 and downtown traffic. There's also Mt. Washington that's within city limits but very suburban-like and has a small main street and other small strips with restaurants, bars, shops, and a Whole Foods. Mt. Washington is also easier to access downtown since there's a light rail stop and you could use that for commuting if you wanted to as well.

Otherwise, there are some places in the city that will give you some more outdoor space but it's going to be dependent on your budget. Hampden (anything north of 37th street) has some homes that have decent sized yards. Otterbein is a nice community that's really close to downtown and has a lot of shared outdoor space. Along the same vein with shared outdoor space, anything around Patterson Park might work too. You won't have much "private" outdoor space save for maybe a small patio/offstreet parking pad and maybe a roofdeck though.

Really the appeal of living in the city is being able to walk to so many things if you want so you'd have to figure out if that is something that's really going to stress you out or not. Also I know very few people that live in the city and don't drive to go get their groceries still. If you're lucky enough to live within a few blocks radius of a grocery store it's probably not a big hassle, but otherwise everyone I know that lives in the city (Canton, Fed Hill, Patterson Park, etc.) drives to their grocery store(s) to get groceries. Or there's always the option to get them delivered.