Camden Street

With just over a week before Opening Day at Camden Yards, concern about fan safety is again threatening to restrict where streets vendors can peddle their wares.The Maryland Stadium Authority wants to keep pushcart entrepreneurs from operating on the south side of Camden Street next to the stadium because of concern for the throngs of fans who use that walkway area to enter the stadium.Moreover, state regulations prohibit the street vendors from selling their merchandise on state property, the Stadium Authority said yesterday, and a recent land survey found that the south side of Camden Street is owned by the state.

City officials concerned about fan safety yesterday restricted street vendors from hawking food and merchandise at two spots outside Oriole Park at Camden Yards, a move that drew a venomous response from the pushcart entrepreneurs.But as night fell over the stadium, the city's Department of Public Works announced that a compromise had been forged that will allow vendor access without interfering with fan traffic on a portion of Camden Street and a slice of Howard Street near the light rail line.

Here is the way Mike Bordick fielded the final ground out of the ninth inning Sunday and threw to first base at Oriole Park at Camden Yards: hurriedly, as though he'd waited far too many endless summers for such a moment and feared it might yet get away from him; urgently, as though the laws of baseball had been repealed and the Seattle Mariners batter had hailed a taxicab to first base and would somehow beat the throw; frantically, as though the Orioles of...

Orioles owner Peter Angelos presented a $1 million check yesterday to the future home of the Babe Ruth Museum's exhibit at historic Camden Station, where city officials have high hopes for a major tourist attraction.Angelos called the museum's planned exhibit "a unique and unmatched tourist attraction" that will complement the historic baseball feel of Camden Yards."We have great hopes for this wonderful museum," said Angelos, standing in front of the future site of the Babe Ruth Museum's Baseball Center at Camden Station.

Like a manager reshuffling his lineup, Orioles fans may want to adjust their travel strategy this season.Rest assured, Camden Yards hasn't changed locations. It remains one of the most accessible major-league sites in the nation, served by the Central Light Rail Line, Metro, local and express buses and Maryland Rail Commuter trains.But the nearby Baltimore Convention Center expansion and some changes in the transit schedules could affect thousands of fans. Even pedestrians will be affected, with some sidewalks closed this season.

Kelsie Sigmon has a contention with the Convention Center.The Edgewood resident drives down Interstate 95 each day, through the Fort McHenry tunnel and along Interstate 395 into downtown.Going north on I-395, which turns into Howard Street, she makes a left onto Camden Street, turns right on Paca Street and then eases into the Marriott Hotel.But since construction on the $150 million Convention Center expansion began last month, her path has been blocked. The left onto Camden is prohibited.

Numerous streets and intersections will be closed temporarily Sunday as Baltimore celebrates the opening of the baseball season.The activity begins with an 8-kilometer footrace from Memorial Stadium to Camden Yards. Later in the morning, areas of the downtown will be blocked off for the Oriole parade down Pratt Street.The following intersections and streets will be closed to all but local traffic for the duration of the race from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.:* Westbound 33rd Street at Loch Raven Boulevard and Ednor Road.

There's a tidy historical footnote to the Orioles' new address at Camden Yards.The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Camden Station's platform was the first spot in Baltimore the team set foot on when the major-league franchise returned here April 15, 1954. Teams then all traveled by train. The first two games that season were played in Detroit. The team rode the blue-and-gray B&O coaches for its welcome here. Once the team detrained, it boarded buses for a mammoth parade and first game at Memorial Stadium.

Camden Station's new top hat goes on this week.Construction workers are putting the finishing touches on downtown Baltimore's landmark rail terminal, which sits on Camden Street alongside the new baseball stadium. By the end of the week, the old terminal should resemble the way it looked in the era of Abraham Lincoln.A crane will lift a tiered, wedding-cake-style clock tower atop the station. With its columns and fancy victorian brackets, the new headpiece should make a loud statement, one that will call needed attention to an overlooked piece of local history.

By now just about everyone knows about the traditional old-fashioned ballpark that the Maryland Stadium Authority is building to replace Memorial Stadium, and how much praise the planners have received for bucking the national trend toward larger and less intimate "megastadiums."With Opening Day at Camden Yards now less than a year off, stadium planners are about to embark on another risk-taking project that could yield equally dramatic results: They have decided that it's not enough just to fix up Camden Station, the historic train depot from which Camden Yards draws its name.

Eddie Brooks sold his colorful array of baseball hats, sweaters, pennants and sunglasses during Orioles FanFest at the corner of Camden and Eutaw streets, an area off-limits to vendors during games the past two years. The event Saturday wasn't an actual contest, so Brooks was able to sell at a spot that will be closed to vendors again come today's Orioles season opener against the Tampa Bay Rays. The event provided Brooks a brief flashback to the good old days. "If you came to a game in 2003 or 2004, everything was set up. All up and down Camden Street, people were selling pizza, there were umpteenths million hat stands.

Parking restrictions, street closings and new traffic patterns are in store for motorists traveling to or near Camden Yards for the Opening Day of the Orioles' regular season tomorrow. The city's Department of Transportation is urging people without parking permits for stadium lots to use buses or light rail. Parking in neighborhoods near the stadium, such as Ridgely's Delight and Federal Hill, is forbidden without a residential parking pass. "All parking restrictions and neighborhood permit parking regulations will be aggressively and strictly enforced throughout the season," the DOT said in a statement, warning that violators will be ticketed and towed to the Fallsway impound lot. New routes for pedestrians have been set up to ease navigation around the construction of a hotel on Eutaw Street.

Branch aide Crider chosen to fill seat on City Council Vernon E. Crider, an aide to former City Councilwoman Paula Johnson Branch, was nominated by a committee yesterday to replace her as the representative from the 13th District, virtually ensuring that he will be sworn in to the position this month. Crider, 43, began as a City Council aide in 2004. Before that, he was a special-education teacher and an assistant principal at Lake Clifton-Eastern High School. On the committee of 10 council members, seven supported Crider, one abstained and two were absent, according to a spokesman for the City Council president.

When the Orioles play at home, Jerry Smith flips sizzling Polish and Italian sausages, hot dogs and hamburgers on a grill at the corner of Pratt and Howard streets. "Two hot dogs, a soda and a bag of chips for four bucks, folks," he calls in a singsong voice. "Cheaper on the outside. Take it inside with you, folks." But this year, there aren't as many folks passing by to hear Smith's pitch. Many of his colleagues blame city construction - but others say the O's lackluster season hasn't helped, either.

Fans heading into today's Opening Day game at Camden Yards may still hear Jeff Ingerman yelling "pretzels, pretzels" or see Junior McCrae peddling his $2 peanuts - but they'll have to look across the street to find them. Construction of a city-financed hotel on the north side of Oriole Park at Camden Yards has transformed the gateway to the stadium, funneling many fans through a covered walkway and moving about 30 vendors a block or more from their coveted spot outside the park's north entrance on Camden Street.

City transportation officials are planning a variety of parking restrictions and road closures, starting tonight, in anticipation of Saturdays WHFS Festival at the M&T Bank Stadium. From midnight until midnight Sunday, the northbound and southbound Russell Street service drive will be closed from West Street to Ostend Street. From 7 a.m. until midnight Saturday, Camden Street will be closed from Howard Street to Russell Street, and Eutaw Street will be closed from Camden Street to Pratt Street.

The Baltimore City Department of Transportation has announced several traffic and parking alerts that will be in effect Monday for the Orioles' season-opening baseball game. The Orioles play the Oakland Athletics at 3:05 p.m. Parking restrictions and neighborhood permit parking regulations will be strictly enforced on game day, officials warned. Anyone without a parking permit for the Oriole Park at Camden Yards stadium lots is strongly encouraged to use public transportation. "Mass transit is a great way for O's fans to get to the ballpark," said Alfred H. Foxx, director of the Department of Transportation.

Tomorrow's road closures, with approximate times (subject to change): Roads closed most of the day (6 a.m.-3:15 p.m.): Corner of Paca and Pratt streets; Camden and Eutaw streets; Harford Road to Hillen Road to Lake Montebello Drive (running around Lake); 33rd Street; Guilford Avenue from 29th Street to Howard Street; Howard Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard; Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Eutaw Street to race finish at Camden Yards; Camden Street between Howard Street and Russell Street Roads closed in the morning (at some point between 7 a.m. and 10:40 a.m.)

In Baltimore City Morgan student, 26, charged in killing outside rec center A Morgan State University student is being held without bail, charged with murder in a shooting last month outside a Northeast Baltimore recreation center, city police said yesterday. John Faulkner, 26, a full-time student from the 400 block of E. 28th St., was arrested at the university about 7 p.m. Tuesday by members of the Warrant Apprehension Task Force. He is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Christian Smallwood, 18, of the 2000 block of E. Baltimore St. Police said Smallwood and another man were arguing outside the Northwood Recreation Center in the 1500 block of Winford Road about 9 p.m. April 1 when he was shot in the chest.

In Carroll County Sykesville man, 18, is killed in crash near Eldersburg ELDERSBURG - An 18-year-old Sykesville man was killed yesterday morning in a head-on collision on Route 32 just north of the Morgan Run bridge and Liberty Reservoir. About 6:30 a.m., state police said, a Chevrolet Camaro northbound on Route 32 crossed the center line and crashed into a delivery truck. The passenger in the Camaro, Nelson William Fincham III of Sykesville, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.