Garage

This is the way the Mercy Medical Center parking garage ended: not with a whimper, but a bang. And a bang. And a bang. And still more bangs. In mere seconds, the 10-story garage on Calvert Street collapsed into itself and passed into memory, leaving behind a crater-like hole, thousands of tons of rubble and, in the air and everywhere, clouds of fine dust. "This is step No. 1," said Dan Collins, senior director of media relations for the medical center. Once the site is cleared - a process that will take about a month, he said - plans for the new 18-story medical tower on the site can move forward.

Once upon a time, I had this idea for a set of stories, one for each of the seven deadly sins. It probably says something about me that I finished two stories right off the bat -- Pride and Anger. But I gave up on the project because I had a problem with Envy. Envy is not my kind of sin, if you know what I mean. I've never been the type who eats her heart out over the things other people have. But lately, having rounded the corner past age 60, I've spotted Envy once or twice, hanging about.

The title of the CD -- Yoga in the Car -- made my editors laugh hysterically. And as I'm The Sun's resident yoga "expert," they asked me to check it out. The goal of the recording, by Los Angeles yoga instructor and cancer survivor Jen Swain, is laudable: to get people to chill out behind the wheel. But as I bopped around Baltimore attempting to do the exercises, I had to ask which was more dangerous: road rage or the risk of driving off the road? And if it's not safe to drive while gabbing on a cell phone, how can it be safe while doing neck rolls?

CARBON monoxide deaths are considered freakish because they don't occur as often as such misfortunes as fatal fires or car crashes. Nonetheless, hundreds of people die each year when the colorless, odorless gas, emitted by autos or faulty heating systems, prevents their blood from carrying oxygen.A sad reminder of the hazard came Monday when 20-year-old Bryn E. Parry, of Alexandria, Va., died while asleep in the home of a friend in Annapolis' Eastport section. The friend's mother accidentally left her automobile running in the attached garage, beside the room where Ms. Parry slept.

Something's crooked in Little Italy, and it isn't the corkscrew pasta at Sabatino's. A three-story garage is being built at the southwest corner of Central Avenue and Bank Street. Its simple lines, colorful Italian crests and brick veneer are designed to fit into the surrounding neighborhood of historic row- houses and restaurants.But now that it's nearing completion, it has begun to acquire a feature that makes it unlike any other building in the immediate area.The difference is crooked bricks: On the east and west sides of the garage, where the street is relatively level, masons are laying the bricks level, too. But on the north and south sides, where the street slopes gradually downhill from west to east, the masons are laying the bricks on an angle that corresponds to the grade.

Less than two months after purchasing a downtown office building for $1.1 million, a member of the mayor's Parking Advisory Board sold it to the city for $2 million for conversion to a parking garage.The transaction -- between parking board member Milton H. "Mickey" Miller Jr. and the Baltimore Development Corp. -- took place May 12, 56 days after Miller and a partner bought the property at 117 Water St.Andrew Frank, the BDC executive vice president who handled the purchase, said he did not know how much Miller paid for the nine-story building, but he believes the city got a fair deal, even considering Miller's 81.8 percent profit.

With a four-story atrium, views of historic Annapolis and computers mounted in lawyers' courtroom desks, the Anne Arundel County Court House, which opens fully this week, is huge, airy and the most high-tech local courthouse in the state.But it lacks one essential for the 4,000 people who come through each week: parking.In a city that has long suffered a parking crunch, garages often put out "full" signs by 9: 30 a.m., affecting more than the attorneys and witnesses who often arrive late for court.

The chairman of the Baltimore County Council says the county could save $1.2 million in rent each year for county office space -- and ease a parking crunch -- by putting up another government building and garage in Towson.Councilman Kevin B. Kamenetz said the county administration should consider constructing an office building and garage on the county's acre-sized parcel at Chesapeake and Bosley avenues, now used as a county employee parking lot."We have the land, and we have the need. All I'm saying is we ought to have a plan in place for the future," said Kamenetz, a Democrat who represents the Liberty Road-Pikesville area.

In Baltimore CountyBoard rejects request for hearing on racquetball clubBROOKLANDVILLE -- The county planning board yesterdayrejected a request from the owners of Greenspring Racquet Club for a hearing to consider a zoning change that would allow them to construct an office building prohibited by county law.William and Loretta Hirshfeld want to build a 242,000-square-foot office building and parking garage on the racquet club site at Falls and Greenspring Valley...

A nurse at Mercy Medical Center was charged yesterday with fleeing an accident and other traffic violations after Baltimore police said she cut off an MTA bus, forcing its driver to swerve into two parked cars and plow into the hospital facade.Two bystanders, Lisa Harris and Karen Rayfield, said they ran after the 1985 Toyota Camry as its driver sped away from the accident at Calvert and Saratoga streets and into the hospital's parking garage a half-block away.The Camry collided with the bus, damaging the car's left front fender, police said.

The problem:: Why is a lane of a busy downtown Baltimore street closed to traffic during the evening rush? The back story:: Charlie Dell has had plenty of time to observe what's been slowing down traffic along Franklin Street just east of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. For more than a month, the Catonsville resident noticed that the southernmost lane of westbound Franklin has been blocked off to allow drivers to enter and exit a garage between Paca and Greene streets near the Social Security Administration building.

Visitors have traveled for miles to see David and Laura Sill's new garage in Reisterstown. What makes this three-car garage worth the trip is that it was made out of about 200 bales of straw and features a toilet that heats waste into environmentally friendly ash. The Sills' garage was finished last week, just in time to be part of the B-more, B-Green Solar Tour on Sunday sponsored by the American Solar Energy Society, Potomac Regional Solar Energy Association...

Police probe woman's death as apparent suicide 2 Baltimore police were investigating the apparent suicide of a woman found dead Monday morning in a downtown parking garage near the Inner Harbor. Officers were called to the Lockwood Garage, in the 500 block of E. Lombard St., at about 11 a.m. on a report of a carjacking and found the woman's body on a first-floor platform connecting the garage to a nearby building. They later found her vehicle on the garage's top floor. Aaron Archuleta, who works in an office nearby, said he could see police on the roof of the parking garage inspecting a blue late-model vehicle.

Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport has two big things going for it: It's cheap and convenient. Sure, you don't get a lot of international flights, and it's no match for Reagan and Dulles when it comes to the big carriers. But it's a virtual palace for Southwest and its low-fare rivals, and it?s easy to get to and easy to leave. That's why news that the airport will now charge $2 for the previously free halfhour of parking in the hourly garage is such a disappointment.

A 32-year-old man died early Saturday after being shot in the chest and hip in one of three overnight Baltimore shootings that took place within an hour. The victim who died, Christopher Ricks, was found at 2:20 a.m. in the 2000 block of Kennedy Ave. in East Baltimore and was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital in critical condition, according to Detective Donny Moses, a spokesman for the Police Department. Ricks, who lived on the 1200 block of Bonaparte Ave., was pronounced dead about 6 a.m. Less than half an hour later, police received a call about an incident in a parking garage on North Paca Street, just north of Baltimore Street.

A builder's quest for a downtown robotic garage finally received approval yesterday from the city's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel, some of whose members continued to question the aesthetics. The garage, which will have apartments on the outside, was first announced in 2004, but encountered opposition. Architect Peter Fillat displayed models and sketches of a slightly trimmed-down project to be constructed in the first block of West Saratoga St., adjacent to the 1791 Old St. Paul's Episcopal Church rectory.

For the fifth-grade boys of Cub Scout Den 2, Pack 737 at the Norwood School in Bethesda, an overnight stay at the National Aquarium was, as their den leader Nanci Gosnell put it, "too cool to pass up." The 10 children arrived at the Inner Harbor attraction Friday afternoon, dined on lasagna and brownies, walked across the top of the shark tank, toured the rain forest exhibit after the aquarium had closed for the night, and camped out in sleeping bags next to the dolphins. But when they left Saturday morning to head home in two Cadillac Escalades parked spaces apart at the Landmark garage on Gay Street, the chaperons and children discovered that someone had broken out both vehicles' windows, ransacked the interiors and stolen an iPod and a GPS device.

I am in desperate need of storage-shed plans, because the clutter in my garage has become unbearable. What should I be looking for? Is it really necessary to have detailed plans if I am going to do the work myself? How would you construct the shed to be both easy to build and long lasting? Three years ago, I took back ownership of my garage for my vehicles. When I first moved into my home, we could easily park my truck and our car in the spacious garage. But, over time, we accumulated too much stuff, which forced the cars outside.

You might expect to find a Harley-Davidson motorcycle tucked into a mechanic's garage. But not one with bright turquoise trim and fenders carved out in pearl white like a '57 Corvette. And you wouldn't be surprised to see a few oil stains on the floor or a glimpse of chrome, but a dual-sided fireplace, bubbling hot tub and hanging quilted art would certainly cause a doubletake. That's because this former garage is actually enjoying a second life as an urban chic townhouse in Baltimore's Canton neighborhood.

Ten years after a spectacular fire tore a hole into historic Main Street in Annapolis, a gleaming brick structure has sprouted up to fill its place. But no one from the 18th century would have recognized its centerpiece: a computer-controlled parking garage. The automated valet unveiled yesterday can neatly tuck up to 18 vehicles under the building, far too few to solve the state capital's notorious parking problems. But city officials and the new building's owner hailed it as a striking innovation that is the first of its kind in Maryland and the fourth in the country.