What do out-of-towners know about our problems?

Reading the “Readers Respond” section of the Baltimore Sun is mildly infuriating. It’s great to know that the Baltimore Sun has readers from such diverse places such as Orange, Va., and Glen Arm, Md. (“Helping people clean their alleys should not be viewed with so much suspicion,” Aug. 9).

What is confusing, however, is that these people who have likely never stepped foot into West Baltimore seem to have all the solutions to the ills that face the city.

When I read through the paper, it’s glaring how solutions and opinions on Baltimore from readers that are published in The Sun seem to regularly originate from far outside the city limits. How is it that The Baltimore Sun can publish the thoughts on Baltimore from readers who are from everywhere BUT Baltimore?

Kindly inform these readers that while they are entitled to their opinions on Baltimore, nobody who lives here really cares about what they think anyway.

I’m glad that the conservatives from outside the city feel good about a large group of themselves spending a day cleaning up a blighted neighborhood, but they are delusional if they think that by doing so they’ve helped the citizens of Baltimore affect a meaningful or lasting change.

If they are really interested in providing solutions to the city, they can move here, bring businesses here, mentor youth or even just regularly visit the city and support local businesses.

Sadly, these people who are so willing to offer their opinions will also be the first to tell you that the city isn’t safe for them to visit, and they’d rather drop dead in the safety of their suburban enclaves then take the risk of strolling around the harbor on a beautiful summer evening.

Ben Harris, Baltimore