Door

Andrew Leonard received a check from the city to repair his broken front door and a phone call from Mayor Sheila Dixon, more than two months after police stormed his house in a raid on the wrong address and one day after his plight was reported in The Baltimore Sun. "We're done and satisfied and moving on with our lives," said Leonard, 33, who lives in the North Baltimore neighborhood of Medfield. "Everything is as it ought to have been, only much, much later than one would expect." Leonard had been trying to recoup damages to his home since Feb. 25, when Baltimore police knocked down his front door and searched his home while investigating a drug case.

THINKING ABOUT renovating a kitchen or bath? Turning a spare bedroom into a family room with an outdoor deck? You've probably spent some time standing in the doorway surveying the space, checking out the placement of doors and windows, and musing on your options.If we put the stove over there, we could move the fridge over beside the door is there room for a dishwasher? If we put the new bathtub right where the old one was ... is there room for a whirlpool?If you're looking at the space as static, however, take another look: It's not as hard as you might think to alter the size and position of wall openings.

Two West Baltimore residents were critically wounded last night when they were shot shortly after answering a neighbor's knock on their front door, police said.The victims, Wanda Benton and Tyrone Nance, both 34, of the 600 block of N. Pulaski St., were listed in critical but stable condition today at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center.Police said they obtained an arrest warrant for a suspect, identified as Clinton Lamont Young, 29, also of the 600 block of N. Pulaski St.Witnesses said a man knocked at the door of the victims shortly after 11 p.m.Mr.

The Maryland Commission on Human Relations has ruled that a condominium board's decision to prevent residents from using a rear door as a shortcut to an adjacent synagogue discriminates against a disabled resident. The decision stems from a complaint filed by Sylvan Wolpert, a 90-year-old physically disabled resident of the Imperial Condominium complex in Northwest Baltimore who uses a walker to get around. Wolpert and other Orthodox Jewish residents in the building had previously been able to use a rear fire door in the basement to get to the nearby Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation synagogue.

As summer sun splashed into Cynthia Henry's empty home yesterday, the 25-year-old manufacturing worker's thoughts turned to Christmas. A tree would look just right next to the fireplace, within sight of the living room window. Her family and friends would have all the space they need for celebrating. "I'm just thankful to God right now," she said as a dozen fellow church members and friends walked by, admiring the spotless white walls and unblemished beige carpeting of Henry's new address.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - No moat, no battlements, no portcullis defend the house in the new Olathe, Kan., subdivision. But in lots of less-than-obvious ways, the house will be more like a castle than the average new dwelling. Features from a basement "safe room" to high-mounted floodlights are designed to thwart burglars and make the house a modern suburban stronghold. "We want people to say, `Where's the stuff at?'" said homebuilder Dave Allen, who is putting up the house along with business partner Ron Olberding in the Foxfield Village subdivision.

Every few months, I get a prerecorded telephone solicitation from a guy who wants to meet me at a hotel near an airport. He speaks in a clipped, instructional manner with televangelist overtones. "I want you to get a pencil, now, and write this down," he says authoritatively. "The airport hotel lounge, this Sunday, I'll be there from two until four. You won't want to miss this," he advises with a folksy drawl. He is the millennium version of the classic carnival elixir hawker. He goes on to say that I'm not alone in my quest for financial independence.

It is not a backyard deck. It is not a wraparound porch. It is the stoop. And that is something entirely different. In the city, the stoop is a gathering place, in the way of an African market, or a town square. It is a listening post. A haven and a hearth. When the weather is warm, families, friends, neighbors and passers-by convene on the stoop and catch up on the day's goings-on. They pass messages and talk smack, they gossip. They cluck their tongues and hoot and whisper. They marvel at the babies: "Good Lord, that girl is getting big!"

In his first six years in professional baseball, Greg Smith's role model was the Chicago Cubs' Ryne Sandberg.The all-star also was Smith's biggest roadblock to the major leagues.Sandberg is still a role model for the young infielder, but this spring he no longer stands between Smith and the majors.Smith, a 23-year-old Sykesville native, finally has the opportunity to move upthe ladder after being traded over the winter by the Cubs to the LosAngeles Dodgers.There's plenty of competition in the Dodgers' spring training camp, but Smith is no longer overshadowed by Sandberg.