Charm City

WHEN IT comes to news reporting, the old city-room edict is always: first, get the story; and second, get it right. When the writer gets it wrong, it's a mess. It gets the reader who knows better all upset, confuses history and puts an error in the record books. I know; I've had my share of errors.Recently, the New York Times, which is known for its excellence, included what some of us around Baltimore consider a glaring error. On Sunday, July 9, the Times published an article about Baltimore in its travel section, called "What's Doing in Baltimore," by writer Melinda Henneberger.

City officials plan to raise fees for docking boats in Baltimore's Inner Harbor in hopes of generating about $35,000 in added revenue. With that money, officials say, they could reduce the amount that taxpayers spend to operate the city-owned docks. Barry Robinson, the city's head of transit and marine services, said officials are working to make the program self-sufficient. "This is the first step in that direction," he said. The Board of Estimates is expected to approve increases to the Inner Harbor docking fees Wednesday.

City officials plan to raise fees for docking boats in Baltimore's Inner Harbor in hopes of generating about $35,000 in added revenue. With that money, officials say, they could reduce the amount that taxpayers spend to operate the city-owned docks. Barry Robinson, the city's head of transit and marine services, said officials are working to make the program self-sufficient. "This is the first step in that direction," he said. The Board of Estimates is expected to approve increases to the Inner Harbor docking fees Wednesday.

Running Charm City Run to honor victims of marathon bombing Charm City Run will join independent running stores across America in hosting a "Runners For Boston" fun run Monday at 6:30 p.m. Runners are encouraged to meet at the Annapolis, Baltimore, Bel Air or Clarksville store locations and wear past or present Boston Marathon gear or other Boston-related clothing. For more information, contact info@charmcityrunonline.com . Salisbury Shark Run: The Salisbury rugby team will host the Miles For Mom Shark Run on Sunday.

In 1985 I bought a small house in the Cedmont neighborhood in Northeast Baltimore. At the time, I knew nothing about Formstone ("Formstone would be banned on new buildings under proposal," Dec. 1). I have found it to be beautiful, especially up close when it includes subtle shades of pale pink, blue, and gray with sparkles. Several years ago, a storm damaged a small piece of Formstone. I had some difficulty finding a person who could repair it properly, and I am pleased the Formstone artist blended in the new with the old. Baltimore has many charms we can all enjoy, and I'm very pleased to live here and have a unique home.

I read with interest your feature about Baltimore workers and former citizens moving to Pennsylvania ( "Md. transplants seen as helping to drive growth of York County, Pa.," March 22). I wish you would write about the city dwellers and home owners like me. We occasionally see stories about high-end rehab buyers in the Real Estate section, people who are living in neighborhoods like Patterson Park, Butchers Hill, Federal Hill and Canton. But what about the rest of us who bought in the 1990s?

Christina Spearman dug out her best high school formal gown, took the day off work and headed down to the Inner Harbor on Friday morning to realize the dream of a lifetime. She was getting an Oscar. OK, that's a stretch. What she was actually getting, thanks to an 11-city Oscar Roadtrip that stopped in Baltimore, was the chance to pose with an Oscar — to hold the 81/2-pound gold-plated statuette for a few seconds and have her picture snapped with it. But the degree of difference between her and the movie folks who actually will walk away with an Oscar on Feb. 24, when the Academy Awards are presented in Hollywood, was pretty minimal.

I drove to Baltimore on Labor Day weekend, parked in the lot of the Dollar General at Washington Boulevard and Martin Luther King Boulevard and went into the store. The sign in the lot said "vehicles parked illegally and non-permitted vehicles will be towed. " This is not too clear, but I figured that since I was a store customer it must not be illegal. I crossed Martin Luther King Boulevard and soon found that I was in the middle of the American Le Mans auto race. This was rather interesting so I stayed for a while and watched.

Sun columnist Marta Mossburg, relatively new to Maryland, has a solution for all of our problems ("Baltimore: the view from 2021," March 16). Cut taxes and all will be well. Sure, the taxes in Baltimore are high. Baltimore is the home of many non-profits that don't pay property taxes. They are institutions that benefit the whole state. How do you solve that problem? Texas and Florida don't have income taxes and have far greater financial problems than Maryland. Maryland is number one in education while Florida and Texas are near the bottom.

The Baltimore Grand Prix races into town Labor Day weekend, and we're already planning our city's sporting future. We're curious: What's the next sporting event that should randomly come to Baltimore? The Summer Redneck Games. Yes, these actually exist. And yes, toilet seats are involved. -   Luke Broadwater, managing editor,  b Solo synchronized swimming championships. It's a real sport, in that it was an Olympic event. If that's enough to make it count.

Don't let it be said that Baltimore isn't at the forefront of the environmental protection movement.  According to "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Charm City is almost single-handedly helping to save a certain species from extinction.  Unfortunately, it isn't the polar bear. It's the, ahem, crab. And, no, not that crab.         Thanks to Brazilian waxes and similar trends, the ecosystem of pubic lice is endangered, the show's Jessica Williams reports.

In a bit of an ego blow to Ravens fans, Karina Smirnoff, a dancing professional who knows all about the cha-cha, the tango and the waltz, has never heard of "the squirrel. " "What's that?" she asks Jacoby Jones, a Ravens wide receiver and her partner on the upcoming season of "Dancing with the Stars," who'd like to work it into one of their routines. It's only Ray Lewis' signature move, he tells her. "Oh," she says. "You mean the slide, slide, knee, knee kick?

The Sun's recent article, "City police beef up patrols" (March 8), is so lacking in a grasp of reality that it not only didn't warrant font page, above the fold placement. The implication is that the Irish or those who claim to be on Saint Patrick's Day were somehow responsible for the thuggish, rather common behavior in and around the Inner Harbor last year, including the brutal and humiliating attack on a visitor to Charm City is, in a single word, pathetic. Given that The Sun would never have the courage to tell the truth about the events chronicled in the article, I'm left with the challenge of an analogy, so here it is. To say that the horror of what happened in and around the Inner Harbor last year is somehow related to a true Saint Patrick's Day celebration is like saying that an al-Qaida observance of 9-11 is the same as the solemn observance in the United States of those who died so unnecessarily.

Baltimore may not be Hollywood East, but once again, the Oscars include a distinctly Bawlamer element. Craig Bartholomew Strydom, writer of the Oscar-winning documentary "Searching for Sugar Man," lived in Baltimore until last year. Read about his involvement with the film here . With some luck, maybe he'll return to Baltimore for his next project? Perhaps a documentary on Frank Zappa? Now there's a documentary that needs to be done...  

I never thought I'd hear a Baltimorean say such a thing. Last week, while reporting on the Rawlings-Blake administration's 10-year financial plan, I spoke with the mayor's press secretary, Ian Brennan. We covered a lot of ground in our hourlong phone conversation, but one comment in particular rewound itself repeatedly in my mind like a game-deciding, goal-line drive. One day, said Mr. Brennan, "We would love to be spoken of like … Pittsburgh as a city not suffering post-industrial urban decay any longer.

Christina Spearman dug out her best high school formal gown, took the day off work and headed down to the Inner Harbor on Friday morning to realize the dream of a lifetime. She was getting an Oscar. OK, that's a stretch. What she was actually getting, thanks to an 11-city Oscar Roadtrip that stopped in Baltimore, was the chance to pose with an Oscar — to hold the 81/2-pound gold-plated statuette for a few seconds and have her picture snapped with it. But the degree of difference between her and the movie folks who actually will walk away with an Oscar on Feb. 24, when the Academy Awards are presented in Hollywood, was pretty minimal.

Just when I thought Baltimore couldn't become less charming, it manages to do so. I've never seen a place that works so hard to ruin what's attractive and fun. To me, Honfest and all associated with it represent quintessential camp. Now the word "Hon" and vaguely associated merchandise have become restricted items ("'Hon' flap flares again as festival time nears," June 4). And we let this happen! Citizens of Baltimore — you should be ashamed! When someone goes to such length to destroy a cute happening that makes Baltimore a fun place to visit, I'm disgusted.

Let's face it. Baltimore is ripe for satirizing. We've probably got more offbeat people, more distinctive edifices, more colorful history and habits per block than any metropolitan area in the country. Oh yeah, and some crime. The folks at Second City Theatricals, a wing of the venerable Chicago-based Second City enterprise, burrowed earlier this season into our little world, with all of its carefully demarcated neighborhoods. The material they gathered from the experience has been fashioned into a customized show that has settled into Center Stage for a long, no doubt profitable, run. "The Second City Does Baltimore" may be a little long for its own good, and may hit some obvious targets in, well, obvious ways, but there is an awful lot of fresh and very funny stuff here.

Sitting in a living room in Queens, New York, I like so many others held my breath during the final seconds of Super Bowl XLVII between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers ("Staying power," Feb. 4). I, too anxiously watched the final kick and simultaneously glanced at the diminishing seconds and the final play, and I sighed with relief as the seated Ravens jumped up and ran onto the field with raised arms. Earlier in the evening, I had yelled at my dad, mostly in jest, when he started rooting for the 49ers - not because he was any kind of die-hard 49ers fan, but because the Ravens were crushing them and my dad pitied the team.

"We won!" people around here shouted Sunday night as the Ravens took their second national championship in Super Bowl XLVIII. Those two words are significant. It wasn't just the Ravens who won. It was also "we," as in those who live and work in the Baltimore community, who won. The victory was a welcome shot of pride. Baltimore gets dissed a lot. It's a blue collar city on the Atlantic seaboard that, to many, is merely an industrial landscape seen by train or car window on the route between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.