Between The Lines

Driven to raise rate

Used to be you could pull up close to the Inner Harbor, plunk quarters in a meter and leave the car for a spell. No longer.

City officials, bugged that the Light Street lot was hogged by meter-feeding workers from area shops and restaurants, raised prices and put it under private control. Just before Labor Day, as it happened, rates at that lot shot up from $1 an hour to $5 for the first hour and $16 all day.

"We don't want employees parking all day long," said Jeff Sparrow, who leads the Baltimore City Parking Authority. "It was creating traffic jams for people waiting to get in there."

Employees may not be willing to pay that much but, the thinking went, tourists would, especially if it was cheaper than other lots and garages. Sparrow said there will be free short-term parking -- 30 minutes, say -- when the new visitor center opens.

Meanwhile, rates have crept down again. As of Thursday, the city charges $3 for the first hour and as much as $10 on weekdays, more on weekends. Unknown is whether those pesky employees will try to retake the lot.

-- Scott Calvert

A positive spin

It came as a shock this month when top officials of the prestigious Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health informed Dean Alfred Sommer that they were leaving to start a biosecurity center for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

It was a blow to Hopkins. The founder of the Hopkins center, Dr. Donald A. Henderson, is a former Hopkins public health dean and a national leader in the bioterrorism field. It didn't help that the University of Pittsburgh center will be based in Baltimore, on Hopkins' turf.

But Hopkins decided the best defense was a good offense. On Tuesday, the day before Pittsburgh was to announce its coup, Hopkins officials rushed out a news release announcing they were creating the Institute for Global Health and Security. The news release said the institute would "encompass" the Hopkins biodefense center.

Only at the end did the news release mention that Henderson and the center's director, Dr. Tara O'Toole, were departing. It did not say that almost the entire staff of the center, and its millions of dollars in grants, would go with them.

-- Scott Shane

A stormy message

Mayor Martin O'Malley sends a weekly e-mail to area business leaders to update them on city happenings, ending it with an inspirational quotation. This week's, from author Louisa May Alcott, was chosen with Hurricane Isabel in mind: "I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship."

-- Laura Vozzella

Shoppers' nirvana

Clothing, jewelry and ... motor scooters? Nirvana, which recently opened on Allegheny Avenue in Towson, sells almost anything that a consumer of East Asian goods would want. Two cousins from Nepal opened the store about two months ago. They import handcrafted items made by family members back home, including silk clothing, silver jewelry and small gold-painted bronze statues. But those Chinese-made motorized scooters on display in the front window were given to them by a friend who sells them and will be on sale for only a few weeks.

"Its about Nepal," said co-owner Sakar Shrestha. "All these items are handmade in Nepal. It's basically our culture and arts." Coming next: a tearoom, which Shrestha said should be ready by the end of this month.

-- David Anderson

Supply wish list

Call it comfort food.

Students, faculty and staff at Calvert Hall College High School in Towson have been collecting money to send a care package to one of their teachers, who has been stationed in Qatar with the Maryland Army National Guard since the summer.

Recently, Dan Thompson, a social studies teacher and 1974 graduate, sent an e-mail saying he and the 10 members of his unit would appreciate any items the school could send.

But there are a few things, Thompson said, that would really be appreciated. Among them: Snackwell's devil's food cookies, Chex party mix, Twizzlers licorice, sunflower seeds, nuts and Crystal Light lemonade powdered drink mix.

-- Linda Linley

Emergency gourmet

As Isabel made her way to Baltimore, some Charles Village residents may have been more concerned with culinary matters than mundane preparation for the coming storm.

A shopper who visited Eddie's Market on St. Paul Street on Wednesday had no trouble finding emergency supplies such as bread, milk, toilet paper, bottled water, batteries, even a flashlight.

The store was sold out of just one item on her list: pignolia nuts.

-- Eileen Canzian