East Side

For much of this half-century, the tale of political power in heavily Democratic Baltimore County has been an east-side story. This has been especially true of campaigns for the county executive's office.Various factors -- including demographic shifts and, possibly, the unusual absence of a home-grown candidate from the east -- could dictate a different ending to this summer's Democratic primary race for county executive. But the consistent power of the large eastern voting bloc is not something candidates can afford to take lightly, despite the fact that the old east-side Democratic political machine has been dead and buried for at least 20 years.

ON BALMY mornings such as this, with the temperature practically skyrocketing out of single digits, a young man's fancy turns lightly to thoughts of softball games. This young man is Lou Karpouzie. He is 77 but approaches all life with the enthusiasm of the schoolboy athlete he used to be. He's out there in the cold at Lombard and Kane streets, where the city's rowhouse east side turns industrial before melting into Baltimore County. He's staring at a couple of baseball diamonds that bear his name: Lou Karpouzie Fields.

Recruiting efforts by two white supremacist groups in eastern Baltimore County are troubling to officials and local residents, who say the activities reflect poorly on an area that has been trying to overcome an undeserved reputation for racial intolerance. As lawyers argue whether it was legal for the county to prohibit one of the groups - the World Church of the Creator - from meeting at the Rosedale public library this month, questions remain about what drew the organization to the area: Was it because the Rosedale area is predominantly white and working class?

Several East Baltimore residents told a City Council hearing last night that they wanted to remain in their longtime homes rather than have the city acquire their properties as part of a sweeping revitalization plan that would create a biotech park and hundreds of units of new and renovated housing. "I would like my name off that [acquisition] list," said Gloria M. Bolding, who has lived for 42 years in the 1400 block of N. Patterson Park Ave." I'll be 65 this year, and I don't see where I need to go anywhere and start over."

Federal officials are expected to approve next month the much-awaited $63 million extension of White Marsh Boulevard, a highway carrying the promise of commerce, jobs and quality housing to Baltimore County's economically depressed east side.In addition to opening for development about 2,000 acres of prime woodland, county leaders predict the road will attract investors for the county's expansive waterfront, envisioned as a tourist gold coast of marinas, restaurants, shops and parks."After more than 30 years of neglect, the east side and the region have a brighter future," said County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger.

Not since the War of 1812, when a hearty ragtag army defeated the British at North Point, has there been such clamor of victory on Baltimore County's east side.The area -- steeped in history and proud of an enduring blue-collar heritage -- is brimming with healthy signs of debate, change and long-missed attention from the county's political power center in Towson.Last fall, persistent community associations helped defeat a plan for a $100 million NASCAR speedway near their homes. Another neighborhood group, skittish after the crash of a stealth fighter, demanded an end to aerobatics by jet aircraft during a popular Middle River air show -- and won.In another long-fought battle, state officials elected to stop dumping spoil on Hart-Miller Island in the Chesapeake Bay.And in Dundalk, long the butt of jokes, 400 residents are protesting the possibility of low-income housing at Hidden Cove apartments in West Inverness.

GROUNDBREAKING for the $139 million Wyndham hotel is the most visible sign of the dramatic transformation of East Baltimore's "Gold Coast," from Little Italy to Canton.Former lumber yards and industrial sites are giving way to snazzy luxury developments.Formstone facades on rowhouses are being stripped away as blue-collar neighborhoods undergo gentrification.City Hall played a pivotal role in orchestrating the Inner Harbor renewal in the 1970s. But as the momentum shifts east of downtown, private investment -- albeit with city aid -- is driving changes there.

The former Baltimore City Life Museums campus would become the site of a new visitors center for downtown Baltimore, if city officials follow the advice of urban designers hired to recommend ways to enliven downtown's east side.The visitors center at Lombard and Front streets would be connected by a pedestrian bridge to the $32 million children's museum under construction on Market Place. The bridge would cross President Street and serve as a gateway to the Inner Harbor.A 400-car garage would be constructed nearby to encourage tourists to park and explore areas beyond the Inner Harbor, including historic sites in Jonestown and a proposed "water park" alongthe Lower Jones Falls.

About 50 Baltimore police officers swept through east side neighborhoods yesterday and arrested 12 people for felony drug distribution as part of a two-month undercover investigation. Five other people were arrested on parole and probation violation charges.Police Lt. John Foster said the sweep, which started at 6 a.m. and ended at noon, was directed by the Youth Violence Strike Force in partnership with officers from the Eastern and Southeastern districts, Maryland parole and probation officers and the city Housing Authority.

In this tranquil countryside -- just seven miles east of Baltimore -- folks still like to can home-grown beets and string beans, and treasure rolling expanses of emerald fields and undisturbed woodland.A bit closer to the Chesapeake Bay, where a slow gentrification ** is transforming "shore shack" properties into expensive homes, newer residents enjoy twilight breezes on creeks like Frog Mortar and Hog Pen.The setting is misleading. Here on Baltimore County's east side, where Rochambeau's troops camped in 1781 after the victory at Yorktown, war is back in the air.White Marsh, Chase, Bowleys Quarters and other communities are battling plans for a $100 million motor speedway on a 1,100-acre tract off Eastern Boulevard near Martin State Airport.

On Saturday morning, thousands of people running the marathon will turn northwest onto McCulloh Street. About the time they hit the first water station, they will run right over the spot where Israeli Mason was shot and killed Sept. 13. At that point, they will be within three blocks of where three other killings occurred this year. As they continue on the route, they will pass within a block of 13 other spots where people have been fatally shot, stabbed or beaten since January, including eight on the city's east side.

Seeking ways to revitalize Baltimore's east side, the city is exploring the idea of tearing down a mile-long stretch of the Jones Falls Expressway that divides downtown from the Johns Hopkins medical campus. Baltimore's Department of Transportation has hired an engineering team headed by Rummel, Klepper & Kahl LLP to examine the pros and cons of razing the elevated expressway roughly between Chase and Fayette streets and replacing it with a landscaped "urban boulevard" that would provide access to an area larger than Charles Center or the Harbor East renewal district.

The patchwork of Baltimore's neighborhoods includes an area that is itself an amalgam of diverse cultures, a place affected in many ways by the city's development - the east side. Blacks, whites and Latinos have all been a part of its story. Italian, Greek and Ukrainian cultural traditions are among the variety that have flourished here. Change is a constant factor on the east side, too, as the expanding medical campus of the Johns Hopkins University drives home in our day. Out of this history comes East Side Stories: Portraits of a Baltimore Neighborhood, Then and Now, a photography exhibit that opened Saturday at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture.

Charles Grene reads the Weather Page in Westminster, and he's noticed the subtle, graduated colors we use for Maryland. "The west side of the state is pink, then the color goes to yellow, with the east side of the state shown in green. What do the different colors represent?" he asks. Our graphics folks tell me it's a relief map. The colors indicate elevation above sea level. They're colors commonly used for mountainous, Piedmont and coastal regions. In real life, it's all drought-brown.

MARYLAND THROUGH THE EYES OF SUN PHOTOGRAPHERS On Baltimore's east side, progress is coming at the expense of long-established communities. The East Baltimore Life Sciences and Technology Park being created near Johns Hopkins Hospital is expected to span 80 acres and offer much-needed employment and new housing. But Rita Paul and hundreds of other former east-side residents who lost their homes to the project find themselves having to re-create their lives in new places. They were compensated for the loss of their homes, but money can't make up for the upheaval to their lives.

He was a skinny kid just back from Vietnam the first time I saw Joe Nawrozki. He stood there in a corner of the third-floor sports office at the News American, and John Steadman wrote a column about him headlined "Our GI Joe Returns from the War," as though the experience were no less triumphant than the guys coming home from World War II. But it was. Joe kept the worst of it to himself that day. For Nawrozki, this was completely out of character....

At 9 a.m. Wednesday in the second-floor conference room, 220 S. Main St., Bel Air: The Greenery Location: On the east side of Emmorton Road (Route 924), south of Abingdon Road. Developer: Wilson Deegan & Associates Inc./James & Wendy Butz. Description: Addition to the rear of the building, 0.682 acres. MIMS Partners -- Lot 5 -- Bynum Run Business Center Location: On the northwest side of Granary Road, west of Water Tower Road. Developer: Frederick Ward Associates/MIMS Partners. Description: Office/warehouse building, 5.47 acres.

At 9 a.m. Sept. 7 in the second-floor conference room, 220 S. Main St., Bel Air: The Greenery Location: On the east side of Emmorton Road (Route 924), south of Abingdon Road. Developer: Wilson Deegan & Associates Inc./James & Wendy Butz. Description: Addition to the rear of the building, 0.682 acres. MIMS Partners - Lot 5 - Bynum Run Business Center Location: On the northwest side of Granary Road, west of Water Tower Road. Developer: Frederick Ward Associates/MIMS Partners. Description: Office/warehouse building, 5.47 acres.

At 9 a.m. Wednesday in the second-floor conference room, 220 S. Main St., Bel Air: Whiteford Storage Location: On the south side of Dooley Road, west of Pylesville Road (Route 165). Developer: Campbell & Nolan Assoc. Inc./Ferrell D. Whiteford. Description: Auto sales/mini-storage facility, 2.477 acres. 1700 Castleton Road Location: On the west side of Castleton Road (Route 623), north of Deerfield Road. Developer: Merritt Development Consultants Inc./Robert Slater. Description: Three single-family residential lots, 112.77 acres.

At 9 a.m. Wednesday in the second-floor conference room, 220 S. Main St., Bel Air. Resin Tech - Lot 6C Bynum Run Business Center Location: North side of Granary Road, west of Water Tower Way. Developer: Frederick Ward Associates/ACM Realty Associates LLC. Description: Warehouse/ tenant building, about 1.2 acres. Carea Road Location: East side of Carea Road, south of Walnut Spring Court. Developer: Campbell & Nolan Associates/Robert A. & Alma L. Norris Description: Create six single-family residential lots, 48.19 acres.