The above phrase is reportedly the new city slogan that Baltimore paid a half million to create and will unveil this week, so, uh, get used to looking at it. Considering the city's current housing boom and rising cultural currency (thanks to things like Bmore club music and The Wire), it's kind of an appropriate choice, but still, you really can't help but shake your head. John Waters, ever the resident voice of reason, translates: "What they're saying is, come celebrate real estate porn." But hey, at least it's too vague to be as laughable as previous park bench eyesores such as "The Greatest City In America" (which, as much as I love Baltimore, is hyperbolic to say the least) and "The City That Reads." The BELIEVE movement is still going strong, but I guess that's more of a campaign than a slogan. But let us not forget that, as C Love recently pointed out, "Charm City" was similarly coined by an advertising firm in the '70s, and that one has stuck around resiliently over the years, even if these days you're just as likely to hear the less flattering variation, "Harm City" (or for that matter, "Bodymore, Murdaland," "Bmore Careful," etc.). One interesting thing about that Sun article is that someone actually tries to blame David Simon's TV shows for Baltimore's bad image, as if a show as deeply steeped in real life and true stories as Homicide or The Wire is more responsible for that perception than, well, reality, on some real chicken/egg shit. But until the murder rate drops, I think city hall's gonna have to live with the fact that no upbeat catchphrase they come up with is gonna be as pervasive a t-shirt slogan as "Stop Snitchin'."

Labels: comedy

This entry was posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 at 9:36 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.