people feel plenty safe going to Ravens games, but not Orioles?

Two things happened in the late 90s and early 00s that wrecked the O’s fanbase. The Nationals took away most of the fan base to the south. And the Ravens took away the portion of the fanbase with limited disposable income. A lot of the money spent on the O’s in the 90's now goes to the Ravens.

695 is worse than ever. maryland’s traffic infrastructure is not keeping up with the population growth.

yeah, the area is getting built up like crazy. its doing the opposite of deteriorating.