Hope rises as the wrecking balls fall

October 4, 2008

Is the future of a new East Baltimore becoming evident on Washington Street just north of Johns Hopkins Hospital?

Recent columns

• Hope rises as the wrecking balls fall

  October 4, 2008

  Is the future of a new East Baltimore becoming evident on Washington Street just north of Johns Hopkins Hospital?

• Oh, the tasks of homeownership

  September 27, 2008

  This country's home mortgage crisis reminds me of the advice my neighbor, Grace Darin, once gave me. Darin, who gave Charles Village its name and fought for the neighborhood and homeownership, warned me against buying the house I now own.

• More memories of Edmondson Village

  September 20, 2008

  Thanks to Bob Heaton and other Ten Hills-Hunting Ridge-Academy Heights readers for adding to the popular traditions surrounding the Edmondson Village Shopping Center.

• Memories of 'the Village,' as it used to be

  September 13, 2008

  What is it that has etched the Edmondson Village Shopping Center in our collective memories? Could it have just been the presence of three soda fountains - at the old Arundel, the Tommy Tucker or the Whelan's?

• Following the clothesline back to a greener future

  September 6, 2008

  When will the green movement embrace the outdoor clothesline that stretched along so many of Baltimore's backyards and alleys? Last week, I arrived home with bags of laundry from 14 days at the beach. After about an hour in my gas dryer, when a beach towel refused to dry, I declared the appliance all but dead.

• The MTA finally gets its maps right — now let's talk about those buses ...

  August 23, 2008

  I was caught off guard, pleasantly, on a recent visit to the Maryland Transit Administration's downtown office.

• Old-time Baltimore was green long before living green was fashionable

  August 16, 2008

  Every time I hear about how we need to live more green, I chuckle. Nothing new. I was raised that way - and so were many fellow thrifty Baltimoreans in the 1950s.

• Site for new law school was once a center for the sale of automobiles

  August 9, 2008

  The parking lot at the northeast corner of Charles Street and Mount Royal Avenue is due to become the University of Baltimore's new law school building. Attorney and Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos has made a major gift to the school, and the Abell Foundation is backing an architectural competition for the very visible crossroads.

• Book records West Baltimore's heritage, neighbors' devotion to Gwynns Falls

  August 2, 2008

  Could a bunch of West Baltimore neighborhood activists ever win a battle against a huge national highway? In the early 1970s, I sat in a West Forest Park Avenue living room and heard Carolyn and George Tyson speak of their work in a group called Volunteers Opposed to Leakin Park Expressway. Their ideas sounded convincing.

• Brief job at banking house 40 years ago brings to light a long-buried secret

  July 19, 2008

  The recent merger of two Baltimore financial institutions, Brown Advisory and Brown Investment Management, brought up memories of a period 40 years ago when I enjoyed a brief career with the old Alex. Brown & Sons.

• Memories of old Bolton Hill continue to live on among Baltimore residents

  July 12, 2008

  David Roszel was on an evening walk along Lafayette Avenue in Bolton when he spotted me last Saturday night. In a subsequent conversation, he presented a version of the events that led to the Howard Street Bridge's construction in the late 1930s, a topic discussed in this column a few weeks ago.

• Hippo's opening another night to remember

  February 14, 2004

  AS MY CAB turned south on Eutaw Street on Tuesday night, I asked the driver, "Where are the moving lights?"

• Hoping B&O Museum is able to maintain pieces of history

  February 22, 2003

  I’VE OFTEN thought that Baltimore possesses three truly great object collections: the Cone sisters' canvases, the treasure of Henry and William Walters and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Yes, the rail museum at Pratt and Poppleton, which suffered such a direct hit from this week's snowstorm, is this country's knockout stable of iron-horse history.

• Saturday nights in 'Perry Mason's' courtroom

  February 17, 2001

  THE TELEVISION shows of 45 years ago were fairly tame fare compared to what the networks and cable deliver today. But certainly when this medium was relatively new - and the arrival of a fresh set in the neighborhood was still something of a novelty - gathering around the black-and-white screen was an event.

• Chief medical advice from family: Get better

  February 10, 2001

  IHEARD this week from my sister, the mother of the twin girls who just turned 3. All her children (she has three) are down with the sort of childhood maladies that arrive in the late winter. Her washing machine is working overtime. The children just aren't themselves. Or are they?