Charles Village

Roberto Pagan-Franco didn't have a bank account for decades. His employer paid him in cash or with a check that the Baltimore resident took to a check-cashing store. A few years ago he lost his job after a severe illness and for a time was homeless. Not exactly the type of customer you'd expect a big bank to court. But Pagan-Franco enrolled in a PNC Bank program that targets consumers who otherwise might be shut out of the banking system. And today, the 54-year-old has checking and savings accounts at PNC and is in the process of getting a credit card.

Word got out on area blogs over the weekend, and it's true. The Donna's on Snowden River Parkway in Columbia closed Sunday after a 10-year run. “It's been tough,” onwer Alan Hirsch said about the closing. ““It was a great experience. Our customers became our friends. We had a decent business there but just not enough for us to commit to another 10-year lease.” Hirsch said that business continues to be excellent at the Donna's locations in Charles Village and Cross Keys.

Don't look for traditional bus stop signs marking one of Baltimore's busiest transit conveyances, a bumpy jitney called the Shuttle by those who live and learn by its frequent goings and comings.These traditional 40- to 44-passenger school buses -- which melt into a yellow blur in city traffic -- are a conduit provided by the Johns Hopkins University to its various outposts in North and East Baltimore and Mount Vernon. There is no parallel MTA service that duplicates the Hopkins Shuttle.Starting at 6: 30 a.m. weekdays, the first of a day's 96 bus runs begins on an asphalt apron directly behind the Baltimore Museum of Art.By the time the bus reaches its first off-campus stop, St. Paul and 27th streets in Charles Village, it is half-filled.

Update April 17 : CVP has set the official opening date as April 23, after a week or so in soft mode, reports Explore Baltimore County . That's a month later than co-owner Rick Bielski had anticipated in early March, when he last spoke out about the reconstruction's progress. Towson's Charles Village Pub, closed for over year after a devastating fire, expects to re-open by month's end, owner Rick Bielski said Tuesday. The pub, a favorite of Towson residents and college students, was struck by a catastrophic, two-alarm fire January 2011 that required some 100 firefighters to put out. Reconstruction started last summer, but was delayed by weather complications.

Baltimore police confirmed that they are investigating a stabbing of a Charles Village man by an intruder who broke into the victim's apartment Tuesday night. According to a report, the 25-year-old victim and his girlfriend were awakened by his barking dog at 11 p.m. and the victim went downstairs, where he found an intruder in the living room of his home, in the 3000 block of Guilford Ave. The intruder punched the victim in the face, then pulled a knife and "continuously stabbed the victim in the face and his side until the struggle ended, allowing the suspect to flee the residence," according to a police report.

They've begun shooting every night just east of Charles Village -- shooting pool.Bank shots, combination shots, scratch shots are heard routinely at 25th Street and Greenmount Avenue in Baltimore, where a 20-table poolroom opened late last month in a former print shop."

Yum's Asian Bistro has opened in Charles Village on the corner of Charles and 25th, where New No Da Ji was  for years and years. Before New No Da Ji (or No Da Ji as it was originallly known), there was Love's, which had been on that corner ever longer, for about 50 years beginning in 1942. The bad news: the old New Do Da Ji buffet is gone. The good news: Yum is a very pretty place to sit down for good old American Chinese food encompassing a half century or so of Cantonese, Szechwan and Hunan favorites.

An adult man was reported shot in the head Thursday night on North Calvert Street in Charles Village, according to the Baltimore Police Department. Few details were available this morning, but police said the shooting occurred minutes before 11 p.m. in the 2900 block of N. Calvert. On Nov. 26, two people were shot in an SUV in lower Charles Village, in the 100 block of East 22nd St. That shooting occurred on a Saturday afternoon, about 12:45 p.m. The woman was shot in the hip and leg and the man was wounded in the arm. In October, a Prince George's County man was shot in the leg on St. Paul Street , just 50 feet from where Johns Hopkins University researcher Stephen Pitcairn was fatally stabbed last year while walking to his home and talking to his mother on his cell phone.

A 22-year-old man was found shot to death inside his Charles Village apartment Thursday night, according to a spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department. Police said the body was found by a friend who hadn't been able to reach the victim for several hours. The victim was identified as Brandon Hudson, who lives in the first floor apartment in the 2900 block of North Calvert St., where his body was found. Police said he had been shot in the head while lying on a couch. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi there was no sign of forced entry to the apartment and no gun was recovered.

Police identified a man who was shot and killed Friday afternoon in Charles Village as Donatello Fenner, a 22-year-old who has long been on law enforcement radar as a leader of a North Baltimore gang. Police found Fenner with several gunshot wounds about 4:20 p.m. in an alley in the 2600 block of N. Calvert St. Fenner was said to be a ranking member of the Young Gorilla Family gang, and that group has been linked to much of the violence recently in the Barclay neighborhood, just south of where Fenner was found wounded, according to police.

Charles Edward Miller, who owned and operated a Charles Village commercial art school, died in his sleep April 9 at the Charlotte Hall Veterans Home. No cause of death was determined, family members said. He was 93 and had lived in the Cromwell Valley section of Baltimore County. Born and raised in New Windsor, he was a 1936 graduate of New Windsor High School, where he played on a championship basketball team and won silver medals in track and field competitions. A drummer, he played in his high school orchestra and the Maryland State Orchestra.

Hey, everybody -- give a warm welcome to Yvonne Wenger , a new Baltimore Sun reporter who will be joining me here to blog about (appropriately enough) newcomer issues. She'll take us along as she looks for a place to settle, gets to know the city and navigates the system (MVA registration, anyone?). We hope her experiences will help other newbies and give natives a new way to look at things we've seen a thousand times before. (If you're a new buyer, check out this collection of information and resources while you're at it.)

UPDATE (3/15): Video Americain tell Insider that the sale originally planned for tomorrow (3/16) has been postponed until further notice. They're hoping to sell the collection as a whole instead of piecemeal. -- JR Everyone's favorite quirky Baltimore video chain will soon shrink by half. The Charles Village outlet of Video Americain is closing. Monday will be the last day the shop will be open for rentals. It will then close for a few days and when it re-opens on Friday, March 16, people will have a chance to get their hands on all of the store's merchandise.

Yum's Asian Bistro has opened in Charles Village on the corner of Charles and 25th, where New No Da Ji was  for years and years. Before New No Da Ji (or No Da Ji as it was originallly known), there was Love's, which had been on that corner ever longer, for about 50 years beginning in 1942. The bad news: the old New Do Da Ji buffet is gone. The good news: Yum is a very pretty place to sit down for good old American Chinese food encompassing a half century or so of Cantonese, Szechwan and Hunan favorites.

Calle's Cucina is a place with potential. Chef-owner Carl "Calle" Vahl has the experience to run a show-stopping restaurant, with both formal and on-the-job training in Italy and New York. Philosophically, Vahl is in the right place, too. He uses fresh, local ingredients to create authentic Italian dishes and is committed to becoming an integral part of the Charles Village community. All great things. Unfortunately, both the food and the atmosphere at Calle's Cucina need some tweaking, and it's not completely clear where the restaurant falls on the casual-to-fine-dining scale.

Since Charles Village Pub & Patio in downtown Towson was devastated by a two-alarm fire last January, customers, Towson students, and neighbors have been asking owner Rick Bielski when the popular hangout would re-open. This week, he finally had an answer: "We'll be up and running mid-to-late March," he said. That's what he's shooting for anyway. Bielski had said before the bar, which was heavily damaged after an afternoon fire January 29 , would re-open March 1 at the latest.

A man who said he was armed with a gun sexually assaulted and tried to rape a Johns Hopkins University student early Saturday, an attack that city police said occurred in an alley two blocks from the North Baltimore campus. The university issued a public safety bulletin on Monday and Baltimore police confirmed the attack, which occurred in Charles Village. The victim was treated at Union Memorial Hospital. No arrests have been made. Anthony Guglielmi, a Baltimore Police Department spokesman, said the 20-year-old victim was walking to her campus apartment or dorm when she was attacked about 1:20 a.m. by a man in a parking lot in the 3200 block of Lovegrove St. The street, which resembles an alley and widens behind homes and businesses for parking, runs north to south between the heavily traveled thoroughfares of North Charles and St. Paul streets.

Thomas J. Kennedy Jr., who while fighting with the Marines in the South Pacific during World War II was blinded by enemy fire and after his return to Baltimore established Dawn's Office Supply, died Friday of cancer at his Mount Washington home. He was 86. Mr. Kennedy was born and raised on his family's Kingsville farm. Growing up, he developed a lifelong love of horses while helping his father on his horse-drawn milk wagon. In his youth, he worked as a Western Union messenger boy, exercised racehorses on a Monkton farm and was a Pep Boys stock clerk.

Hours after a ribbon-cutting ceremony 50 years ago, the Jones Falls Expressway had its first pileup and subsequent traffic snarl. Some things never change. The JFX is the road we love to hate but can't live without, the city's Main Street where everyone has a tale to tell. Shannon Mullaney met her husband on the JFX. The soundtrack of David Rocah's workday is often provided by the southbound lanes right outside his office window. Steve McDaniel's bees thrive in the shadow of the roadway and produce a flavorful honey.