RADAR 6 - Road Trip Publication Date: July 1, 2003 Road Trip: Edinburgh, Scotland Scotland's wealthiest city, Edinburgh is opposite Baltimore on the city spectrum–touted as a center of arts and culture, home to the Edinburgh International Festival, encased by lolling green hills, and crowned with a thousand-year-old castle. Many consider it the world 's most beautiful city. During my first weeks here, I jolted awake to explosions–a frequent nightly sound in Edinburgh, where fireworks are legal and guns aren’t. I now sleep peacefully. Scottish police don’t even carry guns. Edinburgh has everything Baltimore could want. And yet…apart from groups of (generally) mirthful Scots, who tend to sing as they swagger home from the pubs, Edinburgh is sleepy. Where Baltimore has a tangible vibe, Edinburgh feels more sterile. After ten months, I still cannot find a public forum for poetry. There are good art galleries and lots of live jazz, but it seems there’s more happening in Baltimore. Do Baltimore’s troubles give it its funky edge? Struggle isn’t always bad, after all. With about two-thirds of Baltimore's population, Edinburgh is overwhelmingly white. When different cultures converge, there is potential for beauty as well as conflict. Perhaps, like the U.S. as a whole, it is Baltimore’s struggles that have provoked so much creativity. M. Jane Taylor