I'm always fascinated by the latently-racist claims that public transit brings crime. There's never been any evidence for it, but that doesn't matter.

You call crime racist? I used to work in Owings Mills also. And the mall was the bomb. it was nice, clean, had every store you could want. I'd walk over for lunch regularly. After a few years... nope. Last time I walked thru that mall I was afraid of being mugged in daylight. 1/2 the stores closed. Somebody was killed between the mall and the light rail when it was just a path. While this was going on, the local business base increased. More companies moved in. More housing was built. But the crime overtook that. Everyone I knew that lived there sold and moved out. They kept their jobs there, but they left after work.