Gateway

Approaching Baltimore from the south, travelers come upon the Oz-like vision of the gleaming new ballyard. Visitors to Howard County's Columbia or Baltimore County's town center at Owings Mills are met by creative corporate structures. And the first impression Harford County will offer people in several months will be. . . a Wal-Mart.Wal-Mart is a fine place to shop. It's being built where the zoning allows for it and where the landholder has every right to put it. But it does make us wonder whether residents knew what they were doing a couple of years ago when they voted by a 3-2 margin to reject re-zoning of the Wal-Mart tract at Interstate 95 and Route 24.At the time, growth was a particularly dirty word in Harford.

For years, the vacant Columbus School on a busy corner of East North Avenue appeared to be nothing more than a giant planter. Leafy tree branches stuck out over the top of the historic red-brick walls, making it seem like the school's only future inhabitants would be squirrels and birds. But Kevin Bell and Michael Barland saw more. They are investing about $14 million into the run-down 120-year-old building, also known as Public School 99, to make it livable for dozens of families.

A popular argument against expanding the Anne Arundel County jail on Jennifer Road, along U.S. 50-301 near Annapolis, was that it would ruin the gateway to the state capital. Indeed, it might have, but U.S. 50 has never truly been the gateway to Annapolis; that honor has always belonged to Rowe Boulevard.This mile-long straightaway, which passes over small bridges and pretty inlets and leads straight to the steps of the State House, has the potential to be a greater asset to the city and the state than it is already.

This week, as the Supreme Court took up two historic cases pertaining to same-sex marriage, it's been an exciting time to be a college student. Huge numbers of young people on Facebook and Twitter continue to post pictures and status updates in support of marriage equality. Kids proudly walk around campus sporting red clothing in support of the Human Rights Campaign, a national organization that seeks to promote equal rights for gays, lesbians, transgender people and bisexuals. The enthusiasm, from the quad to the blogosphere, is infectious and inspiring.

SAN DIEGO - Ted Waitt, the colorful founder of Gateway Inc. of Irvine, Calif., said yesterday that he is retiring as chairman of the No. 3 U.S. personal computer company. Waitt started Gateway in an Iowa farmhouse with a three-page business plan and a $10,000 loan he got after persuading his grandmother to co-sign it. In the 20 years since, Waitt, 42, has watched it grow into a Fortune 500 company, implode amid business missteps and relentless competition from Dell Inc. and others, and then skittishly try to rebuild itself again.

There are plenty of traffic signs that direct drivers to Baltimore's famed Inner Harbor, but none that actually tells people when they've arrived.For those who could use more guidance, the Schmoke administration is planning a civic first: a large gateway with a banner-like sign that proclaims: "INNER HARBOR."Baltimore's Architectural Review Board last week approved a design by RTKL Associates for an 18-foot-tall gateway near the intersection of Conway and Light streets.The gateway will define the entrance to a landscaped brick walkway just south of the Light Street pavilion of Harborplace.

Stuart Bowyer, 3 1/2 years old, had difficulty learning to talk, wouldn't play with other children or adults and seemed unable to follow directions. Last September, his parents, Tom and Leslie Bowyer, decided to have his communication skills evaluated by the Hearing and Speech Agency of Metropolitan Baltimore, (HASA).Now, Stuart is enrolled in a HASA program called the Gateway School, which is helping him develop both his language and social skills.HASA, at 2220 St. Paul St., has been running programs for children and adults with communication disorders since 1927.

For months, motorists traveling near the intersection of Routes 175 and 108 have watched as vast amounts of earth were cleared, graded and moved. But that was just a precursor to the construction of a sprawling upscale residential and retail complex that will be one of the last major developments of Columbia's New Town. The county Planning Board has approved a site development plan for a one-story, six-unit retail structure at the site, the forerunner of Gateway Overlook, a 123-acre development.

SAN DIEGO - Gateway Inc., the second-largest direct seller of personal computers, will fire all 1,050 employees in Ireland and the United Kingdom as part of a plan to revive profit by concentrating on U.S. sales. Gateway said last month that it would cut 5,000 jobs worldwide and halt business in Asia. The company said yesterday that it will stop selling computers in southeastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as in Ireland and the United Kingdom. The San Diego-based company has already pulled out of the Spanish, German and Swedish markets.

POWAY, Calif. - Gateway Inc., a direct seller of build-to-order personal computers, plans to begin selling ready-made models at most of its 277 stores because some customers don't like placing orders and waiting for delivery. Gateway, the second-biggest direct seller of personal computers, said it will offer an $899 model and a $1,299 model and will later add more computers. "Most of the people who came to the stores were not aware you could not take a computer home with you that day," Gateway spokeswoman Ashley Wood said.

Twenty-two outstanding educators from area schools were honored at a dinner Jan. 10 by the Chesapeake Gateway Chamber of Commerce, which honors teachers as part of their annual awards and installation dinner,. Superintendent of Baltimore County Public Schools Dallas Dance was on hand to honor the Baltimore County Public School educators Teachers from Carney Elementary, to Kenwood High School, to the Community College of Baltimore County were selected on the basis of having five or more years of service in education, classroom leadership, involvement in extra-curricular activities, respect from colleagues and service as positive role model for students.

With each passing week, the Port of Baltimore, the region and the entire state of Maryland edge closer to an opportunity that will give our market a major advantage in the competition for jobs and economic development. The expansion of the Panama Canal, scheduled to be completed sometime in late 2014 or early 2015, will enable massive new cargo container ships to connect Asian markets to the East Coast of the United States. The Port of Baltimore is poised to be one of only two ports on the East Coast prepared to accommodate these new ships when the expanded canal opens.

Ground has been broken for an affordable housing complex in West Baltimore, the developer has announced. The $14 million revitalization on the south side of the 3000 block of West North Avenue will consist of two low-rise, elevator buildings. It will replace 20 vacant lots and seven vacant rowhouses, according to a statement released Monday by The Woda Group LLC. Plans call for 22 one-bedroom and 42 two-bedroom units in the buildings. The apartments, which should be complete in June, will be leased to tenants with incomes at or below 60 percent of Baltimore's median income, Woda's statement said.

Rallo's, the Locust Point gateway restaurant that closed in late September following the death of its owner, Vincent Rallo, is back open under new ownership and with a new name. Big Matty's Diner is open for business. Watch for more details later today. Big Matty's Diner is located at 838 E. Fort Ave. in Riverside. The phone number is 410-727-7067, the same as when it was Rallo's UPDATE, Oct. 31, 2:15 p.m.: The owner of Big Matty's Diner is Matt Gurczynski, a longtime customer of Rallo's.

Ethan Harvey hasn't played football in nine years. Before this season, Harvey last played organized football in 2003 - when he was in the third grade. So what is a 17-year-old doing in a Westminster Owls uniform in his senior year of high school, starting for a team that could make a run for a state title? Harvey has made an improbable comeback on and off the field this year as a starting lineman and a key cog for an offense that leads the county in scoring at 30 points a game.

SYKESVILLE - Town of Sykesville officials, county elected officials and members of the Warfield Cultural and Commerce Center board cut the ribbon on Oct. 6 for new "gateway" signs along Route 32 at the Warfield complex. The masonry signs were created by Maryland Division of Correction low-security, pre-release inmates who learned masonry skills while incarcerated. Three of the inmate masons were on hand to see their project dedicated. "What we see here," said Gary Maynard, secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, "is a truly a meaningful inmate project.

The startling success of Columbia's Gateway corporate park is putting small Howard County shoulder to shoulder with much larger jurisdictions among Maryland's top job producers.Among the top three counties in attracting jobs -- competing with Montgomery and Baltimore -- Howard is becoming less a bedroom suburb and more a place where people work and live.Gateway, south of Route 175 and bordering Interstate 95, is a driving force."What Gateway has allowed the county to do is accommodate the growth of high-tech and corporate firms," said Anirban Basu, director of applied economics at the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University.

Vincent Rallo, the endlessly ebullient owner of Rallo's Restaurant in Locust Point, died this morning at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. Frederick N.  Rassmussen's obituary is here . Rallo's stands at the gateway to Locust Point. which was unknown territory in the 1980s, when the settlement of Federal Hill began to spread to the south and west. Rallo's was the introduction to the area for many of newcomers, and Vinent Rallo was the first friendly face they saw.  

The downtown traffic woes resulting from the rush to get the city's roads ready for the Baltimore Grand Prix race on Labor Day weekend are going to get worse before they get better. The Baltimore Department of Transportation says part of Conway Street, the downtown gateway that has already been the site of extensive lane closures, will shut down entirely for about two weeks starting at 5 a.m. Monday as work on the project intensifies. After that, some race-related road work could linger into late July or early August, city Transportation Director Khalil Zaied said.