Runner’s World, February 19th, 2019: Baltimore’s so segregated, even Strava shows it. These runners want to change that
Those historically overlooked areas are large swaths of the city that are predominantly black and have been torn apart by decades of failed political leadership, corruption, and unabashed segregation.
To run in them is to run past corner boys calling out the street names for drugs, and scabbed-over addicts. Running past side alleys, you see rats the size of Nerf footballs dart out from piles of busted household appliances, soiled clothing, and all manner of how-the-hell-did-that-get-here trash. These are areas where you don’t run up behind someone without calling yourself out—“Good morning! Runner behind you!”—or moving into the street; if not for your own safety, then as a courtesy to pedestrians on edge about theirs.
To run in those areas is also to run out of them within just a couple blocks, through an invisible wall that turns into white Baltimore—a place that is surely separate, and distinctly not equal in job opportunities, infrastructure, and education.
