Charles Street

The downtown tree removal for the Grand Prix was nothing, compared with what the city is doing now along Charles Street by the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus. Yet only a few voices have been raised in protest. Dozens of trees have been shorn of their leaves and limbs, and nearly 200 in all are apparently slated to come down in phases over the next year or so from 25th Street north to University Parkway.  It'll be a whole new, open look for a particularly leafy stretch, at least until recently, of a corridor that has been designated a National Scenic Byway.

A parking lot at Charles and Eager streets in midtown Baltimore is being considered for redevelopment as a $3 million retail and office complex. Baltimore's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation approved preliminary designs this week for the project, known as 1000 North Charles. If completed by late 2012 as planned, it would be the first time in more than 50 years that the prominent site has been anything but a parking lot. Plans by SMG Architects of Baltimore call for the building to rise three stories along Charles Street and two stories along Eager Street, with about 28,000 total square feet of space and an eco-friendly "green roof.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was spot-on in her assessment of Wednesday's water main break when she pleaded for more funds to support the area's aging infrastructure ("Water infrastructure becomes a priority," Nov. 8). Unfortunately, scenarios like the flooding are along Charles Street are all too common. Many communities are struggling to solve their water woes, but federal funding for these systems has dwindled, creating a $29 billion gap that prevents municipalities from fixing their infrastructure.

Students enrolled in the seminar ''The Future of Baltimore City'' should complete the following homework assignment before the next class.Pick any weekday with good weather. At any time during the daylight hours, walk north on Charles Street from the Walters Art Gallery to the University of Baltimore campus at Mount Royal Avenue. It's less than a mile, so it shouldn't take you too long -- an hour or so, if you dawdle, which is what I want you to do.Occasionally cross the street and continue your walk on the other side.

As of 9:45 a.m. Monday, traffic was slow on the outer loop of the Baltimore Beltway at Charles Street, due to an accident involving two vehicles. An accident was slowing traffic on southbound I-95 at White Marsh Boulevard in Baltimore County. There were no major delays reported on Baltimore area transit systems.

So Mayor Martin O'Malley wants to make Charles street a two-way thoroughfare again. No matter what his people recommend, other people will be against it. It's that way with just about any change, especially on Charles street - long regarded as Baltimore's most splendid road - no matter which way the traffic goes and no matter what the conditions of life and commerce alongside. The report last week of O'Malley's two-way traffic idea brought to mind some amusing lore involving the street, the traffic commissioner, the mayor and this newspaper.

Baltimore's newest theater space gave its formal kickoff last weekend with a benefit performance featuring legendary singer-comedienne Eartha Kitt at the New Metropolitan Theater Company on North Charles Street. The alternative theater company, which is housed a few doors up from the Charles cinema, is the brainchild of owners Kevin Brown and Bill Maughlin, who have turned the old Maryland Library for the Blind into a 375-seat theater, art gallery and cold foods cafe as part of the hoped-for renaissance of the Charles Street corridor just below North Avenue.

BGE workers fixed the ruptured gas main yesterday that caused dowtown street closures and rush-hour traffic tie-ups but have yet to determine the exact cause of the leaks. "We don't know what, if anything, we will be able to determine conclusively," Linda Foy, a spokeswoman for BGE, said yesterday. Workers completed repairs about 3 p.m. yesterday. Charles Street at Pratt and Lombard streets was reopened at 3:30 p.m., in time for the evening rush hour. The streets were closed Thursday during afternoon and evening rush hour after gas leaks sent two manhole covers into the air. Metal plates were placed over the areas where the repairs were made, and the area will be repaved this weekend, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation said.

A man who escaped from the Baltimore City Jail New Year's Eve after receiving a 7 1/2 -year federal sentence for robbing a downtown bank on South Charles Street is now being sought in the robbery of a second bank just across the street, according to authorities.Wayne Maurice Byrd, 37, of the 5900 block of Radecke Avenue was at the City Jail awaiting transfer to a federal institution when he and another inmate escaped Dec. 31 by hiding in the back of a trash truck, Baltimore police said.On Tuesday morning, a man resembling Byrd robbed a Signet Bank branch in the first block of South Charles Street and escaped with about $2,000, they said.

Many people expect a Charles Street rebirth or at least a shot in the arm for the historic byway, now that municipal studies have urged a return to two-way traffic along its passage through downtown.Since the Barnes traffic "revolution" of the 1950s, Charles has headed resolutely and insolently northbound, giving the tail light to what was once the city's finest shopping district.Today's Charles Street merchants hate the resultant parking-proof pattern of traffic. And who can blame them for feeling ignored?