As Randallstown residents crawl back and forth along Liberty Road, with its jammed fast food drive-throughs and aging strip malls, they have increasingly cast an envious eye north to Owings Mills -- a place where a family can sit down for dinner at TGI Friday's, where the under-caffeinated can drink a Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks, where moviegoers can gaze unobstructed from stadium seats.

They're not exactly the Ritz, but symbols of the pretty-good life loom large in this part of suburbia, where Baltimore County's booming black middle class finds that its community's reputation and the new businesses there haven't kept up with its growing wealth.

U.S. Census numbers released this month bolster their cry for respect: The median household income in Randallstown is among the highest in Baltimore County, ahead of that of Towson, Pikesville, Perry Hall, Catonsville and, yes, Owings Mills.

A typical household in the community of 30,000 on Baltimore County's west side earns $58,686 a year, 23rd-highest in the nation for a black-majority community. Residents there say they want what other top-tier suburbs have: stores such as Target, Staples and Best Buy, and restaurants such as Applebee's and Chili's at the least -- ideally, something nicer.

"We've been talking with some of the property management companies about putting a first-class restaurant in Randallstown, but they have in their minds that it can't be sustained in this area," said Ella White Campbell, a longtime Randallstown community activist. "The fine restaurants in Pikesville and Owings Mills are patronized by Randallstown residents. If you put a top-class restaurant, the patronage will come from the community, because this is anything but an impoverished community."

Private and public economic development officials are trying to send the message that the community is in good shape, aiming as much at Randallstown residents as to outsiders. They point not only to the strong housing stock, but also to the millions of dollars the county and private sector have spent over the past few years to spruce up the Liberty Road corridor.

Andrea J. Van Arsdale, the county Economic Development Department's director of commercial revitalization, said those who criticize Liberty Road need to look on it with fresh eyes. In the past several years, shopping centers up and down the road have been refurbished, and small businesses are thriving.

Many of the large vacant properties are the result of landlords unwilling to improve their properties for rent or of bankruptcies of national companies, she said.

Meanwhile, other improvements are being made, Van Arsdale said. Northwest Regional Hospital is expanding, and there's a new post office, two new Walgreens stores, new grocery stores and other businesses.

"I would say revel in what you do have. What you have is locally owned restaurants that offer a wide variety of choices. They should rediscover what is already in their back yard," Van Arsdale said.

'We just don't have it'

Residents don't buy it.

"Are you serious?" asked Dena Jackson, who has lived in Randallstown with her husband, Darion, for 10 years. "I had one of my neighbors say to me that whenever they leave their development to go to shop or to the grocery store, they go to the left, they head toward Eldersburg" in Carroll County.

"There's really nothing there in Randallstown. We have plenty of drugstores and plenty of supermarkets, but as far as restaurants and novelty shops and that kind of thing, we just don't have it. We should revel in what we have, huh?"

County officials note that other commercial corridors in affluent communities have their share of fast food and strip malls. But there's no question that other corridors have more markers of top-tier suburbia.

Reisterstown Road has a Target store, two Staples stores, a Wal-Mart, a Sam's Club and a Home Depot. Liberty Road had a Kmart until the company filed for bankruptcy protection. Owings Mills has eight restaurants listed in the Zagat guide. Randallstown has two. Owings Mills has two movie theaters with a total of 26 screens. Randallstown has none. York Road from Towson to Hunt Valley has many of the stores Reisterstown Road has and a 12-screen theater with stadium seating.

Louis Adams, a spokesman for Brinker International, the parent company of Chili's and Macaroni Grill restaurants, said the company and others like it are looking for a strong residential base to fuel the dinner crowd and offices to supply diners at lunch. A strong retail base is also crucial, Adams said, to help with both.

"Probably you know from your own experience -- it doesn't have to be us at Chili's, it could be TGI Friday's or Bennigans or whatever -- when you see us you see a Barnes and Noble booksellers nearby or a Gap or an AMC movie theater or a Wal-Mart or what have you," he said. "You want to be where the retail traffic is."

Growth areas

Randallstown has the residential part of the equation but is lacking in the other two, which are found in Towson, Owings Mills, White Marsh and other places. Interviews with community, business and county leaders suggest that observing that difference is simpler than explaining how it came about.

"The county 20 years ago designated Owings Mills as a growth area and has basically directed businesses, particularly white-collar types of businesses, looking for space to the Owings Mills area," said Henry M. Weisenberg, executive director of the Liberty Road Business Association.

Owings Mills was developed largely in the past 20 years as one of the county's two designated growth centers, along with White Marsh. Not only does that mean buildings there are newer and designed in more contemporary style, but the county has steered business there overtly and implicitly through infrastructure improvements.

Now the county has planned a $220 million town-center development for the Owings Mills Metro station, including restaurants, shops, residences, offices and public uses.

A consequence of the way Owings Mills was planned is that as the county has become a major employment center, many of the jobs have gone there and few have gone to Randallstown, said Kenneth N. Oliver, a former Planning Board chairman who is running for the County Council from the area.

"Unfortunately, Liberty Road happens to be between Reisterstown Road and Security Boulevard and Route 40, and in the past our forefathers have looked toward those areas for more economic development and employment development, and they did not look at Liberty Road," he said.

More office development would have a trickle-down effect for businesses and restaurants by creating more commercial activity during the day, said Councilman Kevin Kamenetz, a Pikesville-Randallstown Democrat.

Traffic, red tape

But getting it has been difficult because the community isn't as accessible as many others. The trip from the Beltway to Owings Mills runs along a zippy Interstate 795. The trip to Randallstown takes motorists along a clogged four-lane commercial road.

Besides location, a liquor license is an all-important criterion for restaurant developers, Adams said. Restaurants such as Chili's won't build where they can't get one.

"It's just not smart business," he said.

In Baltimore County, getting a liquor license is difficult, Van Arsdale said. An individual or corporation is not permitted to hold more than three licenses, so chain restaurants must choose their locations more carefully, she said.

Questions of race

The X factor in all of this seems to be race. Randallstown is nearly three-quarters black. Owings Mills is a third black. Most other communities in the county don't come close to that percentage.

Penny McCrimmon, another candidate for the County Council from the area, said the community doesn't get a fair shake in development, infrastructure, schools or almost anything else, despite its high-income populace. There can only be one explanation for that, she said.

"People move to Baltimore County for a certain lifestyle, and they're really grumbling because they haven't received it," she said. "It's got to be race."

Dunbar Brooks, a demographer at the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, said such problems are notorious in middle-class black neighborhoods.

"Many times as neighborhoods go into a [racial] transition ... some businesses that were mainstays leave, and because of whatever ideas or perceptions, many times businesses, even though there is a market there, don't come back into that neighborhood," he said.

Prince George's model

Prince George's County, despite its renown as the wealthiest black-majority county in the nation, has had similar problems attracting businesses, said Joseph J. James, president and chief executive officer of the Prince George's County Economic Development Corp.

In recent years, the county has reversed many of those problems through aggressive marketing, he said. Developments such as Bowie Town Center are doing well, but they didn't come about on their own.

"Retailers are risk-averse," James said. "They're followers, not leaders, and unless you can demonstrate to them somebody else has found a way to make money in your community, they will always take the easiest nearby alternative, especially when you're looking at a community that's demographically different than what they are used to."

What Randallstown needs, Weisenberg said, is a concerted effort from the top of the county government.

"It requires political leadership and vision at the highest levels so that a real working relationship can be forged that believes that all things are possible for all people, because we know from the example in Prince George's County that they are," he said. "The county executive can pick up the telephone and make a call."

The 'little guys'

The solution might lie within the community. Although outside developers haven't shown as much interest as some residents would like, about 35 small businesses have opened in Randallstown in the past three years.

Symone's, a soul food restaurant specializing in smothered pork chops, ribs, fried chicken, collard greens and macaroni and cheese, was opened two years ago by Aubrey and Lisa Reveley, neither of whom had restaurant experience. It has become one of the hottest places in town.

"When you come in to Randallstown now and you want to sit down and eat with your family in a nice, clean environment with quality product, there's not a whole lot of choices. For breakfast, you've got the International House of Pancakes, and for lunch and dinner you've got us," Aubrey Reveley said. "If you want a nice sundae ice cream, you've got to go to Owings Mills."

The Reveleys are working on that. Next month, they'll open Sweet Treats, an ice cream parlor, next to Symone's.

Aubrey Reveley said he and his wife recently heard from major developers -- the Rouse Co. among them -- that are interested in expanding their concept to other locations.

He said he and his wife aren't ready for that yet, but it seems like a way for Randallstown to improve: Small-business owners take the early risks, iron out the details and prove the strength of the market, then the big developers and retailers will come.

"They can use us as a model -- if you come in and do it right, the people will support it," Aubrey Reveley said. "It's up to a lot of little guys right now."