Baltimore: is it more friendly than Philly?

[cazort]

I have a strong impression from my time in both Philly and Baltimore that Baltimore is a much more friendly place. Is this due to my own preconceived notions, a self-fulfilling prophesy, or is it true in a more objective sense

Comments

Baltimore's an awesome "friendly" scene

[anonymous]

Hey there,

I agree, Baltimore's a great friendly city, especially swing-wise. Of course, they do have Dory and Sommer leading the scene, and everything they run has a relaxed party vibe. Maybe it's all of Dory's cussing on the microphone. Organizers can make a huge difference to how a scene interacts with each other.

I haven't danced much in Philly, so I don't know anything about their scene, except with their bal nights occasionally, which are full of friendly people, though I might encounter a different side of people since I've been friends with a lot of them for a long time. They may treat newcomers differently, for all I know.

Anyway, I hope you get to enjoy more great nights at Baltimore dancing.

[anonymous]

It's funny you write about this as I was very much ready to move away from Philadelphia until I started swing and blues dancing. I had been in Philly for 7 years and not felt that I was ever going to find the kind of kind and meaningful friendships that I had back where I grew up in Ohio. Everytime I go dancing in another city (which is now very often) I am always reminded how lucky I am to have such an amazing group of friends that I found in the dance scene here in Philly.
I imagine that there are places more friendly, but does it really matter? If I have a billion dollars does it make sense to compare it to 5 billion dollars? At a certain point it become moot. Ya know? I have met a bunch of people from Baltimore and they are all super friendly...and I cannot wait to go dance there....but I still am incredibly happy with Philadelphia. :)
cheers!

[cazort]

What you wrote resonates a lot with my own experience...I think the Philly dance scene is remarkably friendly given that it is Philly. It's like, if you put it in context of the culture of the city it's in, it's pretty amazing.

But maybe that's just me? Maybe I just see Philly as an unfriendly place because I am an outsider and have some sort of major cultural barrier to fitting in there.