The year's last week begs a backward look, an assessment of what happened around town during 1994. The urban skeptics will say that the last 12 months were tough, that Baltimore continued to lose jobs, population and confidence. The optimists see it the other way.
This was the year that the bulldozers moved into Reservoir Hill and cleared the south side of drug-plagued Whitelock Street at Brookfield Avenue. The old shops, once the commercial heart of the neighborhood, are gone. But on a mild December afternoon, the drug dealers remained, brazenly selling their wares.
A sweeping change transformed the neighborhood around Greenmount and 22nd streets. Drug pushers were cleared out in the spring. Initial reports seem to indicate a lasting improvement.
Residents began vacating the Lafayette Court (near the main Post Office) and Lexington Terrace public housing high-rise buildings. The city plans to raze these failed ventures.
The most noticeable visual change downtown was the lighting of the upper floors and Mansard-style roof of the NationsBank Building at Light and Redwood streets. Local gilders climbed a huge ring of scaffolding this past summer and applied 23-carat gold leaf on this magnificent landmark's pinnacle.
The form of the Christopher Columbus Center took shape on Pratt Street near Market Place. Observers still don't know what to make of its unconventional design. Some think it looks like a big insect.
The addition to the Convention Center is well under way; the old Festival Hall came down. Workers are also lengthening the platforms at Camden Station, Baltimore's old rail terminal that has seen increased traffic since Oriole Park opened.
On Key Highway, at the eastern base of Federal Hill, the American Museum of Visionary Arts started to take shape. And venerable Key Highway, battered after long workhorse years as a route for heavy trucks, is being rebuilt.
After what seems like a decade, work is nearing an end on the Baltimore Metro extension.
The Baltimore City Life Museums has begun work on its large expansion behind the Carroll-Caton Mansion. Look for the cast-iron facade of a 19th century building to be installed on Front Street.
Attractive new housing rose at Baltimore and Caroline streets in East Baltimore. It's a component of a long-time effort to rebuild the Washington Hill neighborhood.
A large block of new homes came to Federal Hill at Montgomery Square.
The Mount Vernon neighborhood saw the Annie Casey Foundation move to the corner of Monument and St. Paul. There's nothing like having new jobs and money to help a neighborhood's confidence.
Construction moved along -- slowly -- on the new parking garage plaza at Pennsylvania Station. And as use of MARC's commuter trains increased, more than one rider wondered if Baltimore isn't becoming a commuter suburb of Washington.
The Penn Station neighborhood saw several changes. The Charles Theatre got new life and the Everyman Theatre opened up the street. And the old Royalton Apartments, Maryland and North avenues, were very attractively renovated by the Baltimore Housing Partnership, the same group that remade the former SS. Philip and James Parochial School in housing for senior citizens at 27th and Maryland.
Some of the most vigorous activity happened in the Jones Falls )) corridor in the neighborhoods of greater Hampden-Woodberry. Artists moved into old textile plants, loft and foundry buildings.
In Northeast Baltimore, the grounds of the Montebello Filters off Hillen Road were dug up and work begun on an expansion to that part of the city's water system.
There's a new fast food chain in Baltimore called Checkers -- on North Avenue, at the Westside Shopping Center, Reisterstown Road and Coldspring Lane and Ritchie Highway. Customers rave about the fries.
Who said the retail shopping picture is completely bleak? A new Home Depot made its debut at Kane Street and Eastern Avenue.
And Fran Curran opened her own lunchroom on Eastern Avenue near Conkling Street. Her former employer, Woolworth's, closed its counter and store in Highlandtown early this year. Mrs. Curran said the people of the neighborhood needed a place to drop in for a cup of coffee and hot roast beef sandwich. In April, she provided it.