Bolton Hill

He stood on a West Baltimore corner, a hulking man looming over a black podium on a corner that like so many in this city was the site of a recent homicide. There was no raucous applause, no flurry of "Mitchell for Mayor" signs, no clutch of supporters circling City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. as he hammered away at crime, the cornerstone of his campaign. "Enough is enough," the mayoral contender boomed into the microphone. The television cameras zoomed in on Mitchell. Alone. By all accounts, Mitchell, a three-term councilman, has run an aggressive campaign in his bid to become the city's 49th mayor.

A man arrested Wednesday night in a Bolton Hill apartment building a few hours after police say he ran down two plainclothes city detectives in Waverly has been charged with multiple offenses in the incident, including two counts of attempted murder and narcotic violations, authorities said. Francis Stephen Lee, 37, of the 700 block of Gorsuch Ave., was arrested Wednesday after Detectives Steven M. Mahan, 37, and Gus S. Passamichalis, 42, were run down by a sport utility vehicle in the 900 block of E. 33rd St., in front of a YMCA, as they neared the vehicle during a drug investigation.

Community policing is the strategy for BaltimoreThe Sun has done a good job following the fallout of "zero tolerance" police practices in New York City. This may help officials who have been pushing "zero tolerance" in Baltimore understand that such slogans are not strategies.Instead of drawing conclusions from a superficial look at the New York program, these officials would do well to take a closer look at their own city, where some communities are benefiting from the community policing programs initiated by Police Commissioner Thomas Frazier.

Two men were killed in separate shootings within 20 minutes of each other in adjacent neighborhoods yesterday afternoon.In the first, a 26-year-old man was shot in the head at the intersection of Druid Hill Avenue and Whitelock Street in Reservoir Hill about 3: 20 p.m. He died a short time later at Maryland General Hospital.About 20 minutes later, a 30-year-old man was shot three times in the back at North and Park avenues in Bolton Hill.Police did not report arrests in either shooting last night and had not released the names of the victims.

A 33-year-old Baltimore man was sentenced yesterday in federal court to life in prison for the bludgeoning death of an elderly Bolton Hill man during a 1998 carjacking -- a crime that stunned the mid-town community.The jail term imposed on Robert Lane in U.S. District Court -- which under the federal system carries no possibility of parole -- was part of a plea bargain reached in July, in which Lane agreed to accept the sentence and prosecutors agreed to drop efforts to seek the death penalty in the case.

Martin Caplan, 73, singer, owned cleaning agencyMartin L. Caplan, owner of a Baltimore employment and cleaning services agency and a singer, died of cancer Wednesday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Bolton Hill resident was 73.Mr. Caplan was president and owner of A-1 Household Service Inc., a business he established in 1964. Earlier, he had worked for his father's real estate management firm.He performed for years on stage at Bolton Hill Dinner Theater and in the Paint and Powder Club's annual productions.

Jacqueline L. Kolscher, 68, registered nurseJacqueline LaJune Kolscher, a retired registered nurse, died Wednesday of a heart attack at Sinai Hospital. She was 68 and lived in Hunt Valley.Born Jacqueline Malone in Wichita, Kan., she moved to Baltimore after she graduated from the Philadelphia School of Nursing in 1952. She worked at the South Baltimore General Hospital, now Harbor Hospital Center, in the 1950s and resumed nursing in the 1980s at Sinai Hospital. She retired five years ago.She played golf at the Hunt Valley Country Club and enjoyed games of contract bridge.

NEARLY A CENTURY after it opened as one of Baltimore's most elegant residences, the old Cecil Apartments building on Eutaw Place is about to be reborn for a new generation of urbanites.Silver Spring-based developer Richard Brinker is planning to acquire the vacant, eight-level building at 1123 Eutaw Place and renovate it to contain 64 apartments by early 2001.Brinker wants to attract employees of the nearby state office buildings and other professionals who work in downtown Baltimore and want to live near their offices.

A mugging victim with a keen sense of smell recently put Baltimore police on the scent of a cologne-reeking suspect authorities believe is responsible for 22 robberies on one residential edge of downtown.Credit for catching a suspect with a fondness for Calvin Klein's Obsession goes to city police and a new crime-fighting tool: an e-mail network linking 400 Bolton Hill residents with frequent updates on suspicious activity -- from grand larceny to misappropriated trash cans.Today, police and residents are taking bows for their vigilance -- and the construction of the electronic town crier -- within a historic Baltimore neighborhood of 1870 houses, marble steps, deep windows, lace curtains and corner churches.

Charles E. Kitting, 81, Baltimore Sun truck driverCharles E. Kitting, a retired truck driver for The Baltimore Sun, died Monday of emphysema at Harbor Hospital Center. He was 81 and lived in Hanover.Mr. Kitting joined the publishing company as a chauffeur in 1950 and later drove newspaper delivery trucks throughout Maryland. The former South Baltimore resident retired in 1980.Born in Lewistown, Pa., where he was educated, he came to Baltimore in the early 1930s.He served in the Army during World War II.At his request, no services will be held.

Sunday BUTCHERS HILL HOUSE TOUR: The tour runs from noon to 5 p.m. and begins at Patterson Park's White House at East Lombard Street and South Patterson Park Avenue. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 the day of. Call 410-522-6773. JEWISH HISTORY BIKE TOUR: Get fit, learn some history and enjoy the great outdoors all at the same time. The bike tour rides through South Baltimore, East Baltimore and Bolton Hill to uncover remaining Jewish sites. The trip leaves from the Jewish Museum of Maryland, 15 Lloyd St., at 10 a.m. Riders must be at least 12 years old. Tickets are $20. To register, call 410-732-6400.

The police patrol area is called the Central District, implying center of the city, or downtown. But its borders stretch far beyond, north of North Avenue into Reservoir Hill, west of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard past the trendy enclave of Bolton Hill and up the Pennsylvania Avenue drug corridor. City cops list 19 neighborhoods within this urban footprint, but that doesn't begin to explain the diversity of the area's night life, club scene, red-light strip, restaurants, shopping areas, waterfront attractions, upscale hotels, hospitals, universities, corporate headquarters, the convention center and City Hall.

The Police Department ousted its top leadership yesterday in the Central District, a move that comes amid violent attacks in the downtown area and one day after The Baltimore Sun reported that officers had failed to properly handle the robbery of a nanny in Bolton Hill. Maj. John Bailey, a 35-year veteran, and his second in command, Deputy Maj. Avon Mackell, a 21-year veteran, were stripped of their command positions after what sources described as a particularly heated exchange with department leadership after a woman was choked and robbed of an iPod while she walked with a baby Monday afternoon.

Robert Jean Thieblot, an attorney who championed Baltimore's architecture and neighborhoods as a member of the city's preservation commission, died of cancer Thursday at his Bolton Hill home. He was 76. Born in Teaneck, N.J., and raised in Hagerstown, he attended Georgetown Preparatory School and Mercersburg Academy before earning a bachelor's degree at Princeton University. He was a graduate of Harvard Law School. Mr. Thieblot read widely in classical studies, political history, architecture and natural philosophy, said his brother, Armand Jean Thieblot of Baltimore, and turned his love of learning into a sweeping historical novel published in 1997.

Is it my imagination, or are restaurants much quicker to pull the plug on a chef or a menu that isn't working in this economy? A couple of weeks ago, I ate at Meridian 5 4 (845 S. Montford Ave., 410-522-0541) in Canton. I thought the food was very good if a bit complicated, and I bemoaned the fact that the place was so empty. Why did you never see the review? Three days after I ate there, chef Russell Braitsch left, to be replaced by Tom Friend. Many of the entrees will stay, but the elaborate side dishes have been pared down.

In Bolton Hill, the neighborhood pool is the summer social nucleus. In winter, there's the Soup Group. It began as an informal get-together of a few families over soup. The host would make the soup, and the guests would bring wine and other dishes. Adults would visit and eat, while the kids watched videos and ate pizza or some other kid-friendly food. Over time, the Soup Group became a well-coordinated effort that takes place every three weeks in the winter months. "I love having soup nights built into my winter social schedule," says member Jessica Dailey.

The Rev. Clinton Clair Glenn Jr., a former pastor of Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church in Bolton Hill whose activism resulted in the establishment of several educational facilities and housing for the needy, died Feb. 4 of cancer at his Lutherville home. He was 75. Mr. Glenn, the son of a laborer, was born and raised in New Castle, Pa. After dropping out of Pennsylvania State University, he enlisted in the Navy. After being discharged in 1956, Mr. Glenn worked in sales and service for the elevator division of Westinghouse Electric Corp.

John C. Taliaferro III, a retired vice president of sales and international operations at an upstate New York pump manufacturer, died Nov. 7 of pneumonia at Union Memorial Hospital. He was 91. Mr. Taliaferro was born in Baltimore and raised in Bolton Hill. He was a 1935 graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., and earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Harvard College in 1939. When he was growing up in Bolton Hill, one of his childhood acquaintances was Thomas Garrison Morfit III, who later earned fame as Garry Moore on radio and TV, and as host of the TV game show I've Got A Secret.

When it comes to home decor, Halloween is the time to let your imagination run wild. From eerily spooky to fancifully playful to utterly elegant, there are endless fun themes for every age and taste, and endless resources with which to execute your ideas. This is the time to let the kids get involved if you're going the tyke route, or the time to indulge in your grown-up fantasies whether ghoulish or upscale. Whichever direction you decide to go, you don't have to spend a fortune for fabulous results, though you can acquire fun new props.

The live-in boyfriend of a Bolton Hill woman whose 7-year-old son found her dead in February after he and his cousin returned home from school has been charged with her killing. Gregory Barber, 23, was picked up last week on a warrant charging him with first-degree murder in the death of 25-year-old Kermia Hair, who was found stabbed and beaten Feb. 7 in her apartment in the 1800 block of Bolton St. A woman who identified herself as Hair's sister told The Sun in February that her nephew and his cousin found Hair, whose first name is spelled "Kamea" in some records and who was known as "Mia," unconscious in a first-floor room.