Basement

Haven't paid your city property taxes? Then you're on the city's list of owners whose properties could end up in tax sale this May, along with nearly 27,000 others who (as of last week) were behind on taxes, water bills or other city tabs. That's more than 10 percent of city properties, located in neighborhoods as varied as Poppleton and the Inner Harbor . If previous years are any judge, many owners will pay up quickly and avoid tax sale altogether. Here's an interactive map that shows where all the properties are. You can click on the dots for more details, including the address, who owns and how much the city says they owe. (Keep in mind that some may have paid already -- and at least one is an error .)

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It seems strangely fitting that some of the Baltimore area's best bars are a few steps below the rest. Charm City doesn't have many basement bars, but the few that are scattered across the city and region are standouts. The boxing-themed Venice Tavern in Highlandtown has been in the same family for generations, Dionysus is a Mount Vernon haunt steeped in character and the Quarry House in Silver Spring has an excellent beer list and live music lineup. Here are three of the area's best basement bars.

Don't worry, it won't be the type where they do bad covers of Adon Olam. Eutaw Place, housed at the bottom of Beth Am Synagogue, is catering to singer-songwriters. It's scheduled to open in late April. The idea came together last summer, said producer and booker Ellen Kahan Zager, 56. She likes coffee-house types like Jammin Java in Virginia and adult contemporary getaways like Rams Head on Stage in Annapolis. But didn't find any in Baltimore. Though she didn't have any experience in the business - "My husband and I just love music," the graphic designer says - she approached the rabbi of her new temple, Beth Am, with a proposal: "Would you consider a music venue in the lower level of the synagogue?"

Invited over to help celebrate his son's first birthday, 25-year-old Hari P. Close III had been a no-show. But overnight Tuesday, Close crept into the home where his son lived and climbed into bed with the boy's mother, records show. On Wednesday morning, 1-year-old Dalyire Damion McFadden was missing, and he was later found by police wrapped in a deflated air mattress in the basement. He had been stabbed in the neck, police say. Close, who was an aspiring male model, was charged Thursday with first-degree murder in his son's death and was being held without bond.

Don't worry, it won't be the type where they do bad covers of Adon Olam. Eutaw Place, housed at the bottom of Beth Am Synagogue, is catering to singer-songwriters. It's scheduled to open in late April. The idea came together last summer, said producer and booker Ellen Kahan Zager, 56. She likes coffee-house types like Jammin Java in Virginia and adult contemporary getaways like Rams Head on Stage in Annapolis. But didn't find any in Baltimore. Though she didn't have any experience in the business - "My husband and I just love music," the graphic designer says - she approached the rabbi of her new temple, Beth Am, with a proposal: "Would you consider a music venue in the lower level of the synagogue?"

A body found smoldering in the basement of a vacant Southwest Baltimore home may have been intentionally set on fire, police and fire officials said. Firefighters were called at about 9:40 a.m. to a home in the first block of S. Monroe St. in the Booth-Boyd neighborhood on Wednesday, officials said. Upon arriving, firefighters found "no visible fire, just very very light smoke" and the individual was pronounced dead at the scene, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a fire department spokesman.

Real estate agents might tell you otherwise, but the most important room in the house is not the bedroom with a balcony, or the bathroom with the skylight, or even the kitchen with its high-tech island. It is the basement.The basement tells you the secrets of a house. Where the floors are sagging. Where the leaks are. Where a previous owner has jerry-rigged a wiring job. A glance at the paint cans hidden in a corner offers clues on what has recently been repainted.Long ago when I was house-hunting, I always made it a point to visit the prospective basement.

Once upon a time, a starry-eyed young couple fell in love and got married. To save money, they rented a tiny apartment with barely room for two, except for the basement, which they intended to use as a bedroom. They placed their mattress on a plywood island near the furnace, water heater and racks of clothing, and resolved to clean up . . . or something . . . as soon as they returned from their honeymoon.Unbeknown to them, their friend and fairy godmother, designer Cheryl Duvall, could not bear to allow the newlyweds to return to the basement as it was. As a surprise wedding gift, she and six friends from Duvall/Hendricks, an architectural and design firm, pooled resources, and talents, and spent four weeknights and one Saturday waging a successful battle against the basement uglies.

Maryland has a governor who's not afraid to belt out: "With me wack-fol-the-do-fol-the-diddle-idle-day." Nor is Martin O'Malley shy, in the title song on his new CD, about singing an ode to Irish horse racing at a time when the Maryland racetracks he vowed to save with slots are in bankruptcy. There's even an image of a horse and jockey on the front of Galway Races, the O'Malley's March CD released yesterday. Perhaps the product placement on the CD's back cover will lift another local industry; O'Malley is shown from behind, one ripped arm aloft, in an Under Armour muscle shirt.

A Baltimore firefighter was injured Sunday evening battling a blaze in a vacant, two-story rowhouse at 304 E. 24th St. in north Baltimore's Barclay neighborhood. According to the Baltimore Firefighters Union, the fire was reported around 8:08 p.m. and consumed most of the structure's second floor. The firefighter was injured after he fell through a hole in the first floor of the building into the basement, according to a city fire department spokesman and union representatives.

Pingpong has long been considered a "basement sport," but for those who don't have the luxury of buying their own table, there are a few places to play and at least two clubs to join in the Baltimore area. The Baltimore Table Tennis Club, which has been in existence for 40 years, meets three times a week at Old Court Middle School. Typically, the club gets together Monday and Thursday nights from 8 to 10:30 and Saturday or Sunday mornings from 8 to noon. The club is run under the umbrella of the Liberty Road Rec Council.

First off, the game's table tennis; please don't call it by the antiquated name pingpong. And if you think it's easy to play just because you can beat your siblings in heated basement matches, you could be in for a rude awakening. "People just dink around for the most part," says Richard Lee, president of Rockville-based North American Table Tennis and head of the North American Teams Table Tennis Championships, which volleys its way into the Baltimore Convention Center this weekend.

Filene's Basement warned state regulators Monday that it expected to close its Baltimore and Rockville stores in January, laying off 68 people. The discount clothing retailer and its parent, Syms Corp., filed for bankruptcy protection last week and asked for court approval to liquidate their assets. Filene's Basement told the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation that layoffs would affect 31 employees at its Inner Harbor store and 37 employees in Rockville. Both locations are expected to shut down Jan. 9. jhopkins@baltsun.com twitter.com/RealEstateWonk Text BUSINESS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun Business text alerts

Syms Corp., the owner of Filene's Basement, announced today that both companies have filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11. Rather than reorganize its finances and continue operating, though, Syms said it concluded that liquidation was the best move for shareholders. The 102-year-old Filene's had been in bankruptcy in 2009 when Syms, founded in 1959, acquired the retailer's assets in a bankruptcy auction. But a turnaround wasn't possible. In a statement, Syms CEO Marcy Syms said: “This has been a challenging time for Syms and Filene's Basement.

Invited over to help celebrate his son's first birthday, 25-year-old Hari P. Close III had been a no-show. But overnight Tuesday, Close crept into the home where his son lived and climbed into bed with the boy's mother, records show. On Wednesday morning, 1-year-old Dalyire Damion McFadden was missing, and he was later found by police wrapped in a deflated air mattress in the basement. He had been stabbed in the neck, police say. Close, who was an aspiring male model, was charged Thursday with first-degree murder in his son's death and was being held without bond.

Where should you locate the laundry facilities when you're building or remodeling? Didn't used to be a question: Washer and dryer went in the basement. If the house didn't have a basement, they went into a separate laundry room, usually somewhere near the back door.Then designers and builders thought, hey, the biggest part of laundry is linens, and where are the linens? Where the bedrooms are. So why lug heavy sheets and towels all over the house; why not put the washer and dryer on the second floor, or near the bedrooms?

After four days without power, my family returned to the 21st century Wednesday night, but that wasn't the worst experience of the storm. As I snuggled up on the couch Saturday to weather Irene with my family, I had no idea what was in store. I suspected a lot of hype and substantial rain, but nothing to write home about. Around 10:30 Saturday night, power went out in our neighborhood. A short time later, I went to bed, only to be startled awake at 1 a.m. by my mother who told me I had to come downstairs.