I read with interest Eileen Pollock's essay about retiring to Baltimore ("Why I'm thinking about retiring to Baltimore," Feb. 17). My hat's off to her for espousing Baltimore's strengths instead of the usual (and frankly, tiresome) complaint about the city's high taxes.
Look at what downtown Baltimore alone has to offer: Four colleges and universities, easy proximity via MARC train to the District of Columbia, museums, symphony, wonderful restaurants, two major sports stadiums, four Circulator bus routes providing free transportation (see if you can find that in Manhattan), squeaky clean light rail for transportation to the suburbs (anyone who rides the filthy overburdened New York subway on a regular basis can appreciate that) and wonderful and affordable housing choices overlooking the water or in historic neighborhoods like Mount Vernon and Bolton Hill.
To me, the taxes are a fair trade-off. The hardest decision I have to make when I retire is which Baltimore neighborhood to choose.
Jennifer Shapiro