Canton

Three dwellings and several businesses were damaged in a Sunday morning fire at Montford Avenue and Boston Street in Canton, fire department officials said. Fire Department spokesman Roman Clark said that the three-alarm blaze was brought under control at about 7 a.m. A resident was transported to the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center to be treated for burns. Several businesses, including a neighborhood bar and restaurant and a tanning salon were affected. The cause of the fire is being investigated.

Baltimore police are searching for a man accused of robbing four women at gunpoint in Canton who may also be responsible for a string of similar crimes there and in Fells Point. The suspect, 26-year-old Jerry Jule Harcum, is being sought on a warrant accusing him of robbing four 23-year-old women in the 2100 block of Aliceanna St. around 12:45 a.m. on July 23. Police say he took their wallets, cell phones and purses. According to the Baltimore Guide, which first reported that Harcum was being sought, police believe Harcum is connected to a string of similar incidents.

In its aim and ambition, Moonshine Tavern is nothing like the Gin Mill, the cozy Canton bar and restaurant it replaced after nearly 16 years of service. Like many of the nearby bars on Boston Street, the Gin Mill was more of a casual place for dinner and drinks than a hot spot. I talked to Moonshine Tavern co-owner Shanna Cooper in January, and it was clear that she and partner Jacob Millisock hoped to make Gin Mill a distant memory. "We're not looking to be a hole-in-the-wall bar," Cooper said.

Baltimore police's Marine Unit rescued a 41-year man who fell into the harbor near Canton Saturday afternoon, officials said. Around 1:30 p.m., police were called to the 3200 block of Boston Street in Southeast Baltimore for a report of a man who had fallen into the water. The marine unit responded and pulled the man out, police said. The man told officers he was sitting on a pier when he lost his balance and fell into the water, police said. He was taken to an area hospital and police do not believe his injuries are life-threatening.

Cars are 16 feet long. Row houses are 11 to 14 feet long. OK, my shoes are 1 foot long, my bike is 5. So walk or bike. Oh, wait: People are thinking they must use cars and the city must provide parking? Pretty silly. Theodore Houk, Lutherville Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Canton's Waterfront Park - a favorite fishing spot and dog park along the harbor - will be expanded by 2 acres by 2009 under a plan unveiled by Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon yesterday. Dixon said a maintenance yard and trash skimming facility adjacent to the park would be moved by 2009 - opening approximately 2 acres that will be used for parkland. City officials said specifics of the plan would come before the Board of Estimates later this year. "Our waterfront is one of the most valuable resources we have," Dixon said in a statement.

Remember the American officer in Vietnam who famously said he had to destroy a village in order to save it? Welcome to Boston Street, on the west side of Canton, where they're beginning to understand such language of contradiction.Take Harry Lewis, for example. He's sitting by the window of Harry's Cafe Mediterraneo, which he opened in July 1995, and pointing to a crater in the street that could be spotted on a clear day from the moon."See that?" he says. "You could fit a whole car into that, and that's the thing that's killing us."

The Baltimore City Fire Department battled a three-alarm fire at a warehouse at 1200 Baylis St. in the Canton area late into the night Sunday, bringing it under control around midnight. Capt. Roman Clark, a department spokesman, said about 60 residents in the block were evacuated. No homes were involved in the fire, but heavy smoke and the fire's proximity to residences spurred the evacuation, said Chief Kevin Cartwright. An MTA bus was called to shelter residents. Power was also out in the immediate area.

Baltimore's Canton neighborhood, a blue-collar community reshaped as the city's Gold Coast in the 1980s, is about to experience another wave of development.Over the next several months, decisions are likely to be made that will affect the look and character of up to 17 acres of valuable land on both sides of Boston Street.Redevelopment plans aroused controversy in Canton throughout much of the 1980s as out-of-town developers proposed mega-projects that threatened to wall off the working-class neighborhood from its waterfront.

Open only since the end of May, Of Love & Regret is operating with admirable maturity, confidence and grace. It's a wonderful gathering space for Baltimore, and it's putting out some of the best burgers and good cheer in town. Plain but not spartan, the interior space suggests the lunchroom of a benevolently run factory, where everyone respects the work they do and each other. There are a half-dozen tables on either side of the long, bar. A community table with high stools sits in the room's center.