Community Support

The Florida real estate developer working to construct a Ritz-Carlton hotel south of the Inner Harbor intends to redesign the $85 million project to win community support.Developer Neil Fisher said that he will consider eliminating one of three buildings from the 250-room hotel to assuage community opposition voiced at a meeting with Federal Hill residents Tuesday night.In exchange, Fisher asked neighborhood leaders to allow the Ritz-Carlton to exceed height restrictions that prohibit development above 74 feet on the Key Highway site, adjacent to the Rusty Scupper restaurant.

South Baltimore residents, chaffing at what they claim are "hardball" tactics by a Florida developer, are vowing to fight a two-towered Ritz-Carlton hotel planned near Federal Hill if the proposed project exceeds the existing 71-foot height limitation.Developer Neil Fisher said yesterday in response to the residents' declarations that he isn't optimistic that the $85 million project will proceed, but intends to "give it one more shot" to fashion a compromise."I have tried to be reasonable and compromising from the beginning," Fisher said in response to a Tuesday evening meeting of the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association (FHNA)

BARRING a strong last-minute show of community support, the Annapolis City Council should table an anti-loitering bill proposed by Alderman Herbert H. McMillan.Whether the proposal would succeed is uncertain because the Supreme Court this month struck down another anti-loitering law in Chicago and because cities, including Baltimore, are disbanding similar "drug-free" zones because they haven't been enforced or effective.The only certainty about the McMillan legislation thus far is its ability to inflame racial animosity in the state capital.

Ex-GBMC officials express concern about mergerWe write as three of the former presidents or chairs of the board of directors of the Greater Baltimore Medical Center.We have followed, with growing concern, the reports of the possible affiliation between GBMC and St. Joseph Medical Center. We reviewed the current terms of a letter of intent and terms between GBMC, St Joseph and Denver-based Catholic Health Initiatives.The concepts guiding the discussions are extremely troubling and reflect an unwise and irrevocable abandonment of GBMC's historic role, its community-based and community-supported non-sectarian medical mission and its ability to shape and control its destiny in support of the community it serves.

RESIDENTS OF Annapolis' impoverished Clay Street community have an opportunity to better their neighborhood. They should not let fears from the past stymie their efforts to help the city's Housing Authority pursue a major federal grant. The HOPE VI project could bring new townhouses and job training to two public housing communities.The fears of tenants who live in Obery Court and College Terrace are rooted in history. Three decades ago, African-American communities were bulldozed downtown in the name of urban renewal.

COLUMBIA PRO Cantare, a nonprofit musical group, celebrates its 20th anniversary this season.The opening concert, "Serenade to Music," features guest vocalists Kishna Davis, Marianna Busching, Charles Reid and Lester Lynch.The program includes works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, George Handel, Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin.The performance begins at 7: 30 p.m. at the Jim Rouse Theater for the Performing Arts.Tickets for the Nov. 1 performance are $20. The audience may join the performers at a reception after the concert.

Cherry Hill residents, led in part by 6th District Councilman Melvin L. Stukes, are circulating a petition in support of a long-stalled proposal for a senior housing complex at Harbor Hospital Center.Hospital officials put a hold on the proposal earlier this spring after residents of Reedbird Avenue complained that the complex, which would be built in the hospital's south parking lot, would block their views of the Patapsco. The hospital said in February that it would not move forward without more community support.

The Oakland Mills Village Board could vote next week on a striping plan aimed at reducing speeding and reckless driving on Stevens Forest Road.The community expressed support for the plan during an hourlong meeting Tuesday night, said board member Eric Bauman."

WASHINGTON -- With its penchant for by-the-book precision, the military has manuals for just about everything -- legal manuals to punish lawbreakers, technical manuals to assemble weapons. Now, the Navy has prepared a new manual on how to recognize, prevent and deal with sexual harassment.Intended to serve as a comprehensive resource for thousands of Navy commanders worldwide, the manual defines the problem, tells how to handle complaints and holds commanders responsible for eliminating harassment in their ranks, with an implicit threat that promotions could be jeopardized if they do not. The Navy will distribute the manuals fleetwide by early fall.

Cars know when you have extra money. Or at least mine does.This is the time of year when I eagerly await a little packet from Uncle Sam so I can go to the nursery and buy all the plants I didn't raise from seed. Maybe cars hate organic things. Maybe mine wouldn't break down if I were planning to buy, say, another computer.No, that theory doesn't hold water: My husband was planning to do so with the refund. We had already scheduled the "frank and meaningful discussion" about how to spend the money.

When Micha Dannenberg looks out the window of his Southwest Baltimore home, he's noticing some definite changes. There are fewer vacant houses, he said. Parking has become more of a chore. And new business owners in the neighborhood are starting to move in. "There is a real new community involvement that corresponds to the redevelopment of the Hollins Market," he said. The changes seemed apparent Sunday when thousands of people flocked into Dannenberg's neighborhood for the annual Sowebohemian Arts and Music Festival.

Teens discover new paths Two pyramidal heaps of stone at the entrance mark the start of the winding pathway. They also mark fresh beginnings for the students who have toiled for weeks in the dirt and mulch. The students at the Gateway School in Westminster - an alternative school for middle- and high-school students serving extended suspensions or struggling with learning disabilities or behavioral and emotional problems - acknowledge that at first they whined about having to get their hands and shoes dirty.

A chilly drizzle forced the audience to huddle under umbrellas, but the weather could not dampen enthusiasm for the ceremonial groundbreaking of the Union Street Community Center. Before turning gilded shovels into the earth Friday at a vacant lot on Westminster's west side, church leaders and area officials praised the $1.2 million project that will offer children a place to study and play, and the extended community, particularly seniors, an opportunity to socialize. "The weather does not matter," said Debra Sims, president of the Westminster Community of Shalom, a nonprofit, faith-based organization that is building the center.

Even before the Baltimore County executive arrives in Catonsville tonight for another in his series of neighborhood roundtable discussions, civic leaders said the visit has sparked a renewed sense of cooperation in the west-side community. The business, neighborhood and religious leaders who are slated to participate in a panel discussion said that in preparing for James T. Smith Jr.'s arrival, they identified common challenges, such as the need for more after-school programs and aid for senior citizens, and assets that include good schools, a robust housing market and strong business districts.

You've seen the movie and lived through the Oscar hoopla surrounding A Beautiful Mind. Now in American Experience, PBS offers its take on Nobel Prize-winning mathematician and schizophrenic John Nash with A Brilliant Madness. Not surprisingly, real life is darker and a little more complicated than Hollywood's version. While the arc of the story is still that of the Hero Quest, A Brilliant Madness acknowledges some of the facts ignored and / or glossed over in the film: Nash's first marriage and the wife and child he appears to have callously abandoned; an episode after his first discharge from a prestigious private hospital in which he withdrew all his pension money and wandered around Europe attempting to renounce his American citizenship; his second wife divorcing him; and a period during which he was living essentially as a homeless person.

A Sun Magazine article in 1991 asked, "Who's got the clout? Who in the business community has it? It's a short list, and getting shorter." In fact, that list of corporate leaders who contributed funds and leadership to all manner of civic enterprise has nearly vanished in a decade. Were it not for the vitality of Baltimore's foundation community that might have boded disaster for social service, health, eduction and cultural agencies here. With their activities, Baltimore-area foundations have brought vigor and new ideas to this region - and for that they deserve our deepest gratitude and continuing support.

BARRING a strong last-minute show of community support, the Annapolis City Council should table an anti-loitering bill proposed by Alderman Herbert H. McMillan.Whether the proposal would succeed is uncertain because the Supreme Court this month struck down another anti-loitering law in Chicago and because cities, including Baltimore, are disbanding similar "drug-free" zones because they haven't been enforced or effective.The only certainty about the McMillan legislation thus far is its ability to inflame racial animosity in the state capital.

South Baltimore residents, chaffing at what they claim are "hardball" tactics by a Florida developer, are vowing to fight a two-towered Ritz-Carlton hotel planned near Federal Hill if the proposed project exceeds the existing 71-foot height limitation.Developer Neil Fisher said yesterday in response to the residents' declarations that he isn't optimistic that the $85 million project will proceed, but intends to "give it one more shot" to fashion a compromise."I have tried to be reasonable and compromising from the beginning," Fisher said in response to a Tuesday evening meeting of the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association (FHNA)

The Florida real estate developer working to construct a Ritz-Carlton hotel south of the Inner Harbor intends to redesign the $85 million project to win community support.Developer Neil Fisher said that he will consider eliminating one of three buildings from the 250-room hotel to assuage community opposition voiced at a meeting with Federal Hill residents Tuesday night.In exchange, Fisher asked neighborhood leaders to allow the Ritz-Carlton to exceed height restrictions that prohibit development above 74 feet on the Key Highway site, adjacent to the Rusty Scupper restaurant.

RESIDENTS OF Annapolis' impoverished Clay Street community have an opportunity to better their neighborhood. They should not let fears from the past stymie their efforts to help the city's Housing Authority pursue a major federal grant. The HOPE VI project could bring new townhouses and job training to two public housing communities.The fears of tenants who live in Obery Court and College Terrace are rooted in history. Three decades ago, African-American communities were bulldozed downtown in the name of urban renewal.