If you want to know Baltimore bleakness, be on the receiving end of a .357 magnum bullet which I was, gratis a Baltimore drug user. That bullet killed someone else who was with me. This is a true story. The safest place to park at The Sun when I worked there was along the rail tracks at the jail (no charge after the morning attendants left, with the exception of possibly your life.) The problem was getting from there to Calvert Street. I caution friends many years later from outside the state be careful when they go to Baltimore. They kill there every day whether they need to or not. I'm in my mid-50s and grew up outside the city. I spent a lot of time there as a teen and young man. It's always been like this. Always. It's very sad. I feel for the ordinary people who must live in the midst of this awful violence. There comes a time when you question whether it will ever stop.