Jesus Christ how can an entire organization of professionals be so fucking stupid. This will be a PR nightmare.

There's a farm up in Jarrettsville about 30 minutes north of the city that puts on a pretty good production if you have any interest.

They have a tractor pulled hayride you can ride out from the parking area to where the actual trees are, then a little stand where they sell food and hot chocolate and stuff, and I'm pretty sure they have a Santa there and some activities for kids, too.

I'm pretty sure a bit of the proceeds go towards the local sports teams for the kids and things of that nature, too.

The whole "family activity" angle makes it alot easier to justify the cost IMO.

Merging a couple posts together. Here is the article by the Brew about this:

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/local-news/us-patent-and-trademark-office-offers-initial-rejection-of-baltimore-ravens-attempt-to-trademark-charm-city-OQ6QPAAT4VAOXIQNRU2XGNUGCA/

I kinda like it, atleast compared to most city slogans.

Santa's going to turn an ankle on the old railroad track is the problem.

It’s perfect

Dang—they’ve got me paying $100 for internet only. I need to try to figure out how to get on this $30/month plan!

Very slightly.

I would have to be better than a plastic tree from china 20x over, which honestly it still could be.

I like it and you’re a bit off.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1995-07-18-1995199190-story.html

Willie Don convened ad execs and creative directors and asked them to come up with something to promote the city. It wasn’t focus grouped but they put these ads out there.

Man they should have a sit-down with Denise Whiting about how this is probably going to go.

Here we go again

Charm City is a crappy nickname that was made up in a focus group by a PR firm.

Are you the guy who designs those Visit Baltimore ads? Because I am definitely getting that same vibe.

Locust Point?

Went to Home Depot, got an awesome 6ft fir for 35 bucks. Really full tree, maybe I got lucky.

I'm hoping to go back to real when the kids are older but we will see.

Fwiw if you get a local real tree it's not a bad thing for the environment since tree farms are constantly replanting. It's close to a net zero endeavor in terms of the environment and if done right can be a net positive with proper rotation and soil management.

Getting ones shipped from Canada isn't great jist because of the shipping but still likely better than shipping a plastic tree from China.

This masterpiece belongs in AVAM.

The abandoned house issue is actually close to the #1 problem with the city.

Usually those are not just vacant but structurally dangerous and beyond repair. That’s about what it takes for the city to actually evict anyone living there in order to condemn a whole block. And again, if you look at where that tends to happen you’d be placing one improved block amidst a blighted neighborhood. It can be a struggle in those cases because, while the buyers intention may be good, they’re usually greeted with hostility by the community. If the program has a time commitment for private purchasers they’ve just tied themselves to a house in an area typically struggling with crime, lack of services, poor school options, and limited resale opportunities for investment. Professional investors face the same hurdles if they buy the whole block, plus typically community protest for attempting to gentrify or change the neighborhood. I did kind of the opposite, purchasing a house in bad condition in an at the time struggling neighborhood which has since improved immensely. We dealt with break ins and thefts, people using our closed yard as a cut through, random people coming to the door demanding that we rent to them because we were somehow listed as a partial HUD rental and hostility from some of the older neighbors because restoring a truly damaged home while living in it is a slow and painful process. We also noticed that once the city sees you as a target for citations they tend to hit you for everything possible adding $100s if not $1000s to the cost of improvement. It makes me feel like as a home owner here I’m being slowly bled while houses that are literally falling down have nothing happen because there’s no money in threatening someone with no money.

When we got our house and started a family I wanted to do a real tree every year, but each year the trees got smaller and more expensive. Salesmen last year apologized for the dinky trees and price but explained the logistics in getting trees from Canada, which was enlightening. It was hard to justify supporting the practice anymore. Fake trees are plastic and wasteful too, but if we use the same one for the rest of our lives, it has to be a net positive… I hope.

I always did real until I had kids. Now it's pre lit fake all the way.

Nope, but I'm the Gatt Mourley.

Love it send me one

Now that you mention that crab does look suspicious.