Charles Street

Yes, I agree Charles Street could use improvement ("Charles Street could use a little TLC," Commentary, Aug. 11). And help may be on the way if the proposed Charles Street Trolley were to become a reality. I attended a meeting recently about a fixed-rail transit system that would run up Charles Street from Harbor Place to University Parkway. At first I was skeptical, but data presented demonstrate trolleys add tremendous value to a city's quality of life. Several examples of other cities who built trolley lines were cited along with hard economic statistics.

A crash on northbound Interstate 95 has shut down lanes just past the Baltimore Beltway in Arbutus. The one-car crash at 8:30 a.m. caused the closure of two lanes and one shoulder. The two right-hand lanes of traffic are getting by, according to the Maryland State Highway Administration. Emergency roadwork has closed one lane and one shoulder on eastbound Route 7 at Rossville Boulevard in Baltimore County. One eastbound lane is getting through. Lanes have reopened on southbound Interstate 83 at Timonium Road, where there was a seven-car crash earlier.

From the Getting There blog: The State Highway Administration will begin about three weeks of overnight closures of the westbound Beltway at Charles Street tonight to let it install structural steel beams for a new bridge. Crews will begin the closures Sunday through Thursday nights at 8 p.m. by taking away a single lane. They will close a second lane at 10 p.m. and the remaining lanes from 11 p.m. through 5 a.m. Traffic will be diverted at Exit 25 to the Charles Street interchange and the roundabout at Charles and Bellona Avenue before rejoining Beltway traffic beyond the bridge area.

Two Baltimore-area firms are planning to restore the historic Central Savings Bank in downtown, adding more shops and apartments to a once vibrant business district trying to reinvent itself as a hotbed of residential activity. Poverni Sheikh Group and Meisel Capital Partners are planning 26, mostly one-bedroom apartments, as well as 12,000 square feet of retail in the 1 E. Lexington St. property, and two adjacent parcels on Lexington and N. Charles streets. The joint venture, Central Savings Bank Shops & Flats, purchased the properties, which were built around 1900 and are connected in the interiors, as a package last month for $1.2 million, said Poverni Sheikh Group Principal Ibrahim Sheikh.

Charles Street will be closed from Mulberry to Saratoga streets from early Saturday morning (around 3 a.m.) to approximately 6 p.m. on Sunday, according to city officials. The closure will accommodate a massive crane needed for work on one of the buildings on the 300 block of Charles Street. There are quite a few restaurants on that block, one of the longest blocks downtown. They include Lumbini , Maisy's , Cazbar , Homeslyce, Ban Thai , Mick O'Shea's , David & Dad's and the Woman's Industrial Kitchen . All of them will be open regular hours during the street closure.

North Charles Street will be closed between Saratoga and Mulberry streets for much of the weekend. Motorists are encouraged to avoid the area and take alternate routes. The two-block closure will last from 3 a.m. Saturday through about 6 p.m. Sunday to accommodate a crane that will be working on a building, according to the city transportation department. Detours and parking restrictions will be in effect. sdance@baltsun.com twitter.com/ssdance

Indochine Vietnamese Restaurant (1014 N. Charles St., 410-539-4636) is now open in the Mid-town Belvedere neighborhood. The restaurant's specialty is the Vietnamese noodle soup known as pho, which can be ordered with various combinations of well-done steak, flank steak, tendon, brisket and meatballs. The menu also includes other Vietnamese cuisine, both stir-fried and from the grill. Indochine's owner is Amy Nguyen, whose family owns the Pho Hiep Hoa Vietnamese restaurants in Wheaton and Silver Spring.

Those of us of a certain age can recall Charles Street when there were dozens of shops and consumer oriented services in the blocks between Fayette and Centre Streets, the area addressed by Janet Heller ("Charles Street could use a little TLC," Commentary, Aug 11). In particular, in the 300 block in the 1950s on the east side of the street, there were two furriers, a TV store, a silversmith, a purveyor of antique jewelry, a camera store, a men's' haberdashery, two sellers of fine china and stationery (one was my family's 120-year-old business at 317)

Joseph Poupon, the owner of Patisserie Poupon, is preparing to open a cafe version of his patisserie downtown. Cafe Poupon will be located in the cafe space at 225 N. Charles St. The storefront space adjoins the Grand Historic Venue, the former Masonic Lodge now operated as an event space by the Embassy Suites Baltimore - Inner Harbor hotel. Unlike the Jonestown patisserie on Baltimore Street, which sells only pastries, the new location will offer a menu similar to that at Poupon's store on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, namely breakfast and lunch fare like omelets, quiches, brioche and baguette sandwiches and salad nicoise.

A stretch of Charles Street that was damaged and closed after a 90-year-old water main broke beneath it and sent torrents of water downhill two weeks ago was reopened Wednesday night, according to Baltimore's Department of Public Works. The stretch reopened - "just in time for holiday travel," the city said - about 8:20 p.m., after being closed between W. North Avenue and W. 21st Street in the city's Charles North neighborhood Nov. 7. All sidewalks, road surfaces and utilities on the street damaged by the break are also fixed, the department said.

The city's Southeastern District was again hit the hardest with robberies, recording 16 hold-ups for the week ending Aug. 30, according to data posted by the city. Across the city, 85 robberies were reported by police, the highest since The Sun began this weekly blotter feature. That was up slightly over the 83 reported the previous week, and was 16 percent more than the same week last year. Downtown saw four robberies, as did the Jonestown and Oldtown neighborhoods.  A sampling of the incidents (detailed accounts not available from police)

Work has begun on the major mixed-use development downtown that is to replace the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre with two glassy apartment towers and four floors of shopping, said a spokesman for Owings Mills developer David S. Brown Enterprises LTD . The garage beneath the theater closed this month and a construction fence now surrounds the property, located at the intersection of Charles and Baltimore streets. Formal demolition could start "any day," said Larry Lichtenauer of Lawrence Howard & Associates.

Vietnamese food is a particularly attractive combination of fresh ingredients and familiar Asian flavors. Add the current popularity of its steamy noodle soup, pho, and it's no wonder that right now, Vietnamese food is hot, hot, hot. Indochine, which opened last May in an unassuming storefront in a Midtown stretch of Charles Street, covers the Vietnamese bases, from simple appetizers like rolls and dumplings to traditionally flavored rice dishes....

White Marlin Open Monday-Friday, Aug. 4-8: The 41st anniversary White Marlin Open will be held in Ocean City . Weigh-ins at Harbour Island, 14th Street bayside. Information: whitemarlinopen.com. Pro-Formance Fishing Tuesday, Aug. 5: Pro-Formance Fishing Team, affiliated with B.A.S.S. and Maryland Bass Nation, is seeking additional members and will hold an introductory meeting at 6 p.m. at The Greene Turtle in Edgewater. The club is primarily based in Glen Burnie but has membership throughout the region.

Justin Myers stepped out of Penn Station in Baltimore on Wednesday evening to find two groups of protesters chanting, waving flags and blocking traffic. Hundreds of pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protesters were out to support their respective sides in a decades-long contest that has grown increasingly violent in recent months. As he waited for a cab to take him to visit his parents, Myers, 36, of Washington, D.C., looked out on the scene. "With the news, I guess I'm not completely surprised," he said.

Emergency roadwork on MD 147 South in Parkville at Putty Hill Avenue has closed the southbound right traffic lane and southbound right exit at 8:48 a.m. on Thursday, according to the state Department of Transportation. A two-vehicle collision in Interstate 95 South in White Marsh at the MD 43 (White Marsh Boulevard) exit has closed the southbound left shoulder at 8:37 a.m. on Thursday, according to DOT. DOT also reported a collision on I-95 North in Baltimore City at the Washington Boulevard exit at 8:35 a.m. No additional information was given.

As of 9 a.m., traffic was slow on the outer loop of the Baltimore Beltway near Charles Street, due to an accident involving four vehicles. Accidents were slowing traffic on the inner loop of the Baltimore Beltway at Charles Street in Baltimore County and on I-95 northbound at Route 175 in Howard County. A vehicle fire was slowing traffic in the 2900 block of Harford Road. A disabled vehicle was blocking traffic on U.S. 50 eastbound at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The Maryland Transit Administration is warning passengers of delays on the MARC Penn Line between Baltimore and Washington due to mechanical problems.

A 51-year-old man who was shot multiple times as he entered his North Baltimore home Thursday died at University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. An unknown suspect approached Merv Douglas from behind at about 5:25 p.m. and fired several times, police said. Douglas, who lived in the 2300 block of N. Charles St. in Old Goucher, sustained wounds to his head and torso and died at 10:40 p.m. Police have no motive and the investigation is continuing. Mary.gail.hare@baltsun.com