Streeter: What I hope President Trump saw when he visited Baltimore

Thanks for visiting, President Trump!

This wasn’t your first trip to Dundalk, where you appeared at Tradepoint Atlantic to promote a new submarine manufacturing facility expected to create over 3,000 jobs. It looks like you met some Ravens. You said some nice things about Lamar Jackson’s mother. Your White House also had Gov. Wes Moore barred from speaking at the event in his own state, which was not nice.

And you have been to Baltimore City before, including jaunts to Fort McHenry and the Army-Navy game at M&T Bank Stadium. Still, the city is a place you’ve characterized in the past as “a hellhole” and “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” That’s not cool.

But we’re trying to be positive here. I don’t know how much more of the area you saw, but I hope you did what those of us who love this flawed, proud place ask of our critics — that they give it a chance.

Here’s what I hope you noticed.

How much safer it is here

When Moore invited you last year to come here and walk through the city with him, you turned him down until he dealt with Baltimore’s “crime disaster.” The thing is that the city has largely done that. There are still too many deaths, too much violence, and too much tragedy for us to stomach. But Baltimore, under the guidance of Mayor Brandon Scott, has brought our homicide rate down, hitting another historic low in June. Maryland and Baltimore County are also seeing a drop in violence, which you know because the White House took credit for it in a subsequent social media post Tuesday. I don’t know how much you had to do with that, but at least we agree about the effort being made.

How hard we work

Your visit was to Tradepoint Atlantic, the huge site that sits in the former home of Bethlehem Steel in Sparrows Point. That plant was an integral part not only of Baltimore’s contribution to our industrial history, but a reminder that we have always been a tireless group of dedicated people who built things. You yourself said yesterday that the “workers of Baltimore, and the shipyard here, and Sparrows Point, have been a vital part of the American industrial strength for literally over 100 years.”

So you know that we are, at our core, not “a horrible deathbed” like you called us last year, but a place that’s still forging ahead. Like forging steel. See what I did there?

How friendly we are

I know you didn’t have a lot of time here outside of your official duties at Tradepoint Atlantic, but I wonder if you got a chance to look outside the car window as it drove around and locked eyes with a Baltimorean. We’re look-you-in-the-eye people, waving people. The kind of folks that ask strangers how they are and actually wait for the answer. We’re also straight-shooters, like you are. I think you might like us.

How we’re making the city prettier

The rat thing is something I’m not proud that we’re known for. Your hometown of New York is known for them as well, like that one that ate the pizza. But we’re working to beautify the place, all over the place, from the concerted effort to reduce the number of vacant homes, to the newly renovated Rash Field Park, which with its pickleball courts and urban beach is revitalizing the Inner Harbor area. There are so many beautiful things here that are intentionally being created. I hope you saw some of it.

How smart we are

I know that your administration is dismantling protections and standards for all levels of education, from public schools to limiting loans for students studying certain majors — like social work and cosmetic certification programs — many of which are largely pursued by women. So I don’t know if you’d want to check out the many colleges, universities and well-regarded high schools in the area and see how those students are the future for our area and our world. There’s the Johns Hopkins University, which has faced cuts under your administration, and the Baltimore School for the Arts, which have spawned legendary minds — and is another academic concentration you want to limit funding loans for. That’s such a shame. Our great artists and thinkers are what’s going to make America great again, if only they’re given the chance. I wish you could have met them.

I don’t know when you’re going to be back in town, but when you are, the above could serve as a guide for your next visit. I don’t expect you to ever fall in love with Baltimore. We aren’t for everyone. I just want you to see more of it before you tell the world who we are.