Belair

On February 18, 2007 MISS BIAS. Visitation 2140 N. Fulton Ave. Thur. 3-8PM. Family will receive friends at Church of Christ, 9420 Belair Road Fri. 10:30 AM funeral to follow at 11:00.

One hundred years ago tonight, Marylanders gasped at what The Sun described the next morning as a "brilliant shower of aerolites" -- meteors that seemed to fall all around the region shortly before 10 p.m. The bright flash "outshone electric lights along the streets" and "made its rays noticeable in brightly illuminated rooms." A city patrolman said one object hit the roof of the Belair Market, leaving only "small clouds of smoke." For more on this curious event, visit the Weather Blog at the URL below.

Belair-Edison activists work hard to maintain a strong communityOn behalf of the residents of Belair-Edison, I want to comment on Dan Rodricks' statement, Belair-Edison has a lot of committed people, and theirs is the kind of neighborhood that needs vigilance ("A shiny new mayor brings a tiny ray of hope to the killing streets," Dec. 8).Mr. Rodricks is correct when he talks about committed people. Just this year, many residents have come together and developed a strategic plan for the neighborhood.

Planners and activists throughout Baltimore are hopeful that a unique development plan designed to boost property values, image and community togetherness can help revive the city's struggling working-class neighborhoods.In a few years, they should see results in the east-side neighborhood of Belair-Edison.There, a small community nonprofit group is in the first stages of implementing the Healthy Neighborhoods concept, an aggressive strategy gaining national attention after redeveloping severely blighted neighborhoods in Battle Creek, Mich.

Belair-Edison area was ill-served by Sun's recent articleHaving lived in Belair-Edison for almost 50 years and been connected with the community organization for most of that time, I feel not only qualified but obligated to comment on The Sun's recent article about the neighborhood ("Rebuilding, block by block," Nov. 17)The article, while promoting efforts to improve the area, over-emphasized what is wrong with it, sometimes erroneously.The article suggested that the neighborhood has a reputation for rising crime.

Amazing' concertHear a unique, live rendition of "Amazing Grace" as 188 Maryland singers and musicians take the stage Saturday in Patterson Park. Musical acts including Deanna Bogart, the Charlie Parker Band, Fat Apple Band, Lloyd Marcus, Sir Rod, Toby Hurwitz and others, joined earlier this year, in the name of charity, to record a 3 1/2-minute version of "Amazing Grace" that incorporated rock, gospel, country, pop, rap and jazz singing.All of the original performers will play their own music in the concert in Patterson Park and then join together for a stirring finale of "Amazing Grace."

Spring in Belair-Edison is synonymous with azaleas.The flowers bud throughout the square mile that constitutes this Northeast Baltimore neighborhood, their vibrant pink clashing with the more sedate red brick used to build most of the homes.From the neighborhood's major intersection, where Belair Road and Erdman Avenue meet, rowhouses march outward until they bump into Herring Run Park to the north and east, Clifton Park Golf Course to the west and Sinclair Lane to the south.A sprinkling of single-family homes and duplexes -- about 1.5 percent of the neighborhood's 6,900 homes -- sit in a clump by themselves.

WHILE NO ONE was watching, the city Department of Housing and Community Development got merchants in Old Town Mall and those in the adjacent Belair Market to stop shouting at each other. A year ago their arguing (mostly whenever reporters were around) over whether a supermarket should be part of the project threatened to jeopardize the planned renovation of the three-block shopping strip.Now all but one property to be demolished and replaced has been acquired by the city, and condemnation procedures will soon bring the last one into the fold.

NO REALISTIC person expected all the problems facing Baltimore's public markets to disappear once their operation was turned over to private boards. That some merchants in the markets still have complaints means those boards have unfinished work. It does not mean the privatization effort should be abandoned.In 1979, management of Lexington Market was turned over to a nonprofit corporation. Last year, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke announced that a newly created Baltimore Public Market Corp. would run the Broadway, Hollins, Belair, Northeast and Cross Street markets.

An article in yesterday's editions about the Belair-Edison neighborhood in Northeast Baltimore incorrectly stated the date of the community's open house. It is from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. today at 3412 Belair Road.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 4/28/96

Katherine R. Colvin A memorial service will be held at The Shrine of The Little Flower Catholic Church, 3500 Belair Rd, Baltimore, Md on Saturday, March 21, 2009 at noon.

Suddenly on February 22, 2009, MARIE O. (nee Amos), beloved wife of the late Robert T. Shaffer Jr., devoted mother of Theresa Shaffer, Carol L. Shaffer, Barbara S. Schnock, Karen R. Shaffer, Robert T. Shaffer III and John W. Shaffer. Also survived by nine grandchildren, Andrew, Owen, Alexandra, Eric, Justin, Lukas, Clare, Lily and Anna. A Christian Wake Service will be held at the E.F. Lassahn Funeral Home (Kingsville), 11750 Belair Road, on Thursday at 4pm. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at Saint John's Catholic Church, Long Green, Friday 10 A.M. Interment Belair Memorial Gardens.

On January 9, 2009 Angela M. A funeral service will be held at the Lassahn Funeral Home, Inc., 7401 Belair Road on Wednesday at 11:00 AM. The family will receive friends on Tuesday 2-4 & 7-9 PM. Interment Parkwood Cemetery.

On Nov. 19, 1884, a large crowd of Democrats gathered for the "Barbecue at Belair," celebrating the presidential election of Grover Cleveland. The barbecue was threatened by persistent rains, but 400 to 500 people came to the fairgrounds. Everyone was well fed, and "many of them after polishing the bones carried them home as souvenirs of the first democratic barbecue. ... After the feasting was over the crowd was called to order in the main exhibition hall and addressed by Misters Thomas C. Weeks, Herman Stump and J.T.C.

On November 18, 2008, Raymond Joseph Ratajczak, Jr. A Memorial service will be held on Saturday at 1 P.M. at Miller-Dippel Funeral Home, Inc., 6415 Belair Road, Baltimore, MD 21206. Interment private.

A community leader and a church pastor in a tiny section of Northeast Baltimore's Belair-Edison known as the "Four by Four" are convinced they know who is responsible for crime on their streets. John T. Shannon Jr. wants to make it clear: The East Baltimore residents displaced by the sweeping redevelopment around Johns Hopkins Hospital are, by and large, good, hardworking people and fine neighbors. He's the president of East Baltimore Development Inc., the nonprofit organization in charge of transforming acre upon acre of crumbling rowhouses north of Hopkins into a biotech park, and he took exception to my recent column about complaints from residents of Belair-Edison about the number of east-siders who moved there.

On October 17, 2008, Sanjaya Will Alston. Friends may call at The CHATMAN- HARRIS FUNERAL HOME EAST, 4210 Belair Road, Friday 1-8 p.m. a.m. a.m.

On October 19, 2008, Dorothy Valeria Jones. Friends may call at THE CHATMAN- HARRIS FUNERAL HOME EAST, 4210 Belair Road, Thursday, 1-8 p.m. a.m. a.m 410-488-5947.

Anthony Dawson has a list. It is handwritten and scrawled on a notebook-size piece of paper, and it records his efforts to eradicate drug-dealing and crime from a small part of lower Belair-Edison in Northeast Baltimore. In February, he wrote, "Created good neighbor walks." On July 11, Dawson noted a community cookout at which he talked to city police about drug dealing at St. Cloud and Lyndale avenues, in an area known as the "4X4" off Belair Road across from the Lake Clifton school complex.

On July 27, 2008, CLARENCE W. VINCENT, SR., of E. 31st Street. On Wednesday, friends may call at HARI P. CLOSE FUNERAL SERVICE, P.A., 5126 Belair Road from 4 to 7 P.M.