>That is not what I observed in Baltimore.
Baltimore has tried to gentrify and mostly failed, no? Under the Yalie mayor Schmoke? Inner Harbor and all that?
The problem with American cities, exaggerating slightly, is that they're either ravaged dumps or playgrounds for the rich (to quote Iggy Pop). It's the urban physical manifestation of the polarization in the U.S. socioeconomic structure.
Doug