I think before you go offending people you should maybe take a look at the LOCATION of other schools before throwing statements like that around. Living in Baltimore can, like most other major cities, be dangerous. So can Atlanta. And NY, and LA. The list goes on. The DIFFERENCE is JHSPH is NOT in the most desirable area. If you have ever visited Emory you would know its located in the suburbs. While there is a chance of crime everywhere (cities, small towns, and farms included) some areas definitely have a higher rates of violence and crimes.
I think it's ignorant to ignore factors like crime when deciding on a place to live. Everyone has a different opinion on what is acceptable to them. Berating people for asking these questions doesn't really help the situation or make the city look any better.
On a sidenote: Most of the major cities on the "lists" that go out are highly affected by gang violence/crimes etc. While there are times that this does affect other populations generally unless you end up in an area you don't want to be or don't take simple safety precautions you *should* be fine. I lived in one city that was atop many lists for a few years and in the great state of NJ that houses Camden, former most dangerous city.
A couple of things. 1. JHSPH is not in the most desirable area, I teach children 3 blocks down. However most people who go to JHSPH are not living anywhere near the school itself, they're living in around Charles Village and Mt. Vernon. The purpose of me pointing out the "ranking" was show that the rankings can be faulty, considering that someone previously brought up a "statistic" that Baltimore is the 2nd in crime.
2. If people were thinking critically about what they are saying in terms of crime, they would realize your sidenote, that most of the crime in these cities are amongst people who are committing crime, rarely is it random acts of violence.
However living here and interacting with people who attend JHSPH SoM etc is that this "fear" is a poor attempt to mask living/working/going to school amongst impoverished peoples more so than a fear of actually being attacked/assaulted etc. Or maybe it is a real feel but it's fueled by prejudice, whether people like to admit it or not. You can take that how you feel but I figured I'd put it out there for people to start thinking critically about what they are implying about having serious safety concerns about living in Baltimore.
And I also have no desire to make this city look better. I'm not originally from here, and honestly I don't have any loyalty or affiliation with this city at all. But its annoying and YES offensive to be around and read things on this forum about their "concerns" with the safety of a city that they've probably never been too and most of their knowledge about this city comes from biased media, "ranking" and an HBO show.