I hadn’t planned on writing an April Fool’s column this week. One got written for me anyway, thanks to the satirical publication The Onion. Last week, it ran a piece on how Baltimore is targeting young professionals with an edgy new ad campaign. It’s a quick read if you haven’t already read it. Here’s my quiz. How did you react to reading about Baltimore’s “You Get Used to It” marketing campaign?

A. It was funny

B. Who cares

C. It was upsetting

D. It was truthful

E. I didn’t bother to read it

Diffidence. On the heels of being the only East Coast city not invited to Amazon’s HQ2 incentive drenched cotillion and of Baltimore suffering the second highest population flight among U.S. cities, arrives The Onion article. In its own sardonic way, it speaks truth. The Onion raises a painful question that we dance around far too frequently. Why do we allow our expectations for Baltimore’s future to fall so short of its potential? Poor Bill Cole, head of the city’s economic development operation, is misquoted as saying “’after a while, they are able to adjust their expectations to a point where they can live with what this place has to offer.’” The irony of the Onion’s insight is that the indifference suggested isn’t, in fact, among the newly arrived; it’s entrenched among some of us who already live here. The reality is that employers have a difficult time attracting to Baltimore the talent they need to grow because that talent can choose from among many vibrant, safe, healthy, livable, diverse cities.Why would any community allow malaise to become so entrenched that it ends up being the butt of a joke?

Fair to Middling. Cole is also misquoted as suggesting that the key to survival in Baltimore is to “’let go of some of the big dreams you came here with.’” Of course Cole doesn’t feel this way; I know that from the years he has dedicated to fighting such attitudes. The Onion used our struggle with attracting Millennial talent as a foil to how we see ourselves. The Onion piece arrived on the eve of the 50^th anniversary of the Baltimore riots following the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. This spring also marks the third anniversary of the unrest following the death of Freddie Gray. Many of our same neighborhoods which witnessed this history continue to struggle. The Onion reflected the reality of Baltimore’s two worlds by “’Cole confirm[ing] the ad campaign will also emphasize that Baltimore has a small handful of areas that young professionals will feel safe walking through.’” Humor has a sobering way of speaking truth – who in their right mind would rationalize such normalcy. Don’t most of us do so every day? I was reminded this weekend of how we can suspend disbelief by a shootout in my own neighborhood; why is gunfire in one neighborhood an accepted reality while in another a cause for great concern and action?

Two Worlds One Future. This April Fool’s column took me away from what I wanted to write about this week – which is how other regions are combining different worlds into one. There are regions where the economic development focus isn’t simply on massive developments such as the one unfolding at Port Covington in Locust Point, but on developments for their most disadvantaged communities. Ironically to little fanfare, the Mayor announced her commitment to find a way to invest $1B in our distressed communities, starting with the neighborhoods between Harbor East and Hopkins Hospital. The business community should do everything it can to support this profoundly transformational effort. It will not be easy, but if we’re willing to walk that road, we will all be better off. As I discussed in my last few columns, it is the road that Cincinnati chose for its Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, though with some cautionary lessons. For those regions which get the pieces right, such redevelopment has resulted in faster and more inclusive growth. I only hope that when The Onion returns to pick on Baltimore, they’ll be stuck writing about our quirky festivals, toilet races, dialect, and affectation to marble steps, formstone and painted screens, not on what’s leaving us behind. Whether we admit it or not, the destinies for all Baltimoreans are intertwined. Yet, as long as we implicitly condone two Baltimores, we will never realize our fullest potential for either one. Happy All Fools Day.

With more than 30 years’ experience in law and business, Newt Fowler, a partner in Womble Bond Dickinson’s business practice, advises many investors, entrepreneurs and technology companies, guiding them through all aspects of business planning, financing transactions, technology commercialization and M&A. He’s the past board chair of TEDCO and serves on the Board of the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore. Newt can be reached at newt.fowler@wbd-us.com.