Gay Street

It's easy to find moral reasons to object to the O'Malley administration's plan to lease a city-owned property near the Inner Harbor to the El Dorado Lounge strip club. The city shouldn't be the landlord for such a business. But even if the proposed tenant were the most reputable enterprise around, there is a basic flaw with the idea of the city relinquishing control of the former Baltimore International College property at 19-21 S. Gay St. Used for many years as the headquarters and teaching restaurant for a culinary college that outgrew the location, the now-vacant property is one of the most valuable development parcels the city owns.

A new urban park is bringing a patch of green to a once-blighted corner of Broadway East, a project organizers hope can be a model for improving the quality of life and reducing pollution in other distressed Baltimore neighborhoods. Trees are to be planted today at the corner of Gay and Federal streets, on a third of an acre where until a few years ago 18 mostly dilapidated rowhouses had stood. Community and nonprofit leaders, elected officials and others who live, worship and work in the area are expected to be on hand to help with landscaping the New Broadway East Community Park.

It is one of those architectural oddities that lend the Baltimore skyline more than a little distinction, while at the same time arousing the curiosity of those who appreciate offbeat buildings.Standing on a hill in the 1700 block of North Gay Street, the abandoned American Brewery rises up from the street, a massive red brick structure grown dingy and weary with age, its pagoda-like tower visible for miles.Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, the former brewery has served as a backdrop for movies and this season even figured in an episode of "Homicide."

A male was shot in the leg Saturday on N. Gay Street, Baltimore police said. The shooting occurred in the 1000 block of N. Gay St. The victim was transported to an area hospital. No further information was immediately available. Police had earlier believed the shooting occurred in the 1800 block of Orleans St. ywenger@baltsun.com twitter.com/yvonnewenger

A new urban park is bringing a patch of green to a once-blighted corner of Broadway East, a project organizers hope can be a model for improving the quality of life and reducing pollution in other distressed Baltimore neighborhoods. Trees are to be planted today at the corner of Gay and Federal streets, on a third of an acre where until a few years ago 18 mostly dilapidated rowhouses had stood. Community and nonprofit leaders, elected officials and others who live, worship and work in the area are expected to be on hand to help with landscaping the New Broadway East Community Park.

THE 1968 riots rank with the 1904 fire that wiped out much of the downtown business district and the state legislature's 1947 vote to prevent the city from annexing additional land as major events that changed the course of history for Baltimore this century.In the early hours, the unrest didn't seem like a momentous event. The city was relatively quiet after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis on the evening of #F Thursday, April 4. But by April 6, sporadic, isolated incidents had gained momentum.

On June 11, 2004, MARTHA NOINETTE HIHN (nee Diehl) age 81, beloved wife of the late John B. Hihn Jr., dear sister of the late Fred Diehl. Also survived by many friends. Memorial service will be held at later date. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Grace & Hope Mission, 4 S. Gay Street, Baltimore, MD, 21202.

From The Sun Nov. 5-11, 1845* Nov. 7: A correspondent suggests that, in view of the increase of travel in Gay Street, the proper authorities should order the removal of furniture wagons from Gay Street, between Baltimore and Fayette streets, and give them a stand somewhere else.* Nov. 8: We regret to hear that apprehensions exist that the Baltimore pilot boat Fell's Point has been lost with all on board, some six or eight in number.From The Sun Nov. 5-11, 1895* Nov. 5: About five thousand persons witnessed the unveiling yesterday in Bonnie Brae Cemetery of the monument erected by the congregation of St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church to the memory of its late pastor and founder, Rev. Peter McCoy.

Tommy D'Alesandro III has something he wants to say about the great Baltimore riot of 30 years ago. He wants to clear up misunderstandings about how it affected him, and why he quit as mayor after only one term. And a few other things.D'Alesandro has been thinking a lot about the riot lately. It was sparked by the murder of Martin Luther King Jr., 30 years ago today.Baltimore was among the hardest-hit cities in the 1968 violence -- six people died, 700 were hurt and $13.5 million worth of property was destroyed.

On September 5, 2005 JULIAN I. FORREST JR.; loving husband of Sue A. Forrest (nee Shover); dear son of the late Julian I. Sr. and Myrtle (nee Gabriel) Forrest; brother of the late William J. Forrest, John D. Forrest, C. Beverly Schwamb; brother-in-law of Ruth Colliver. A Graveside Service will be held in the Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens on Thursday, September 8, at 11 A.M. Please omit flowers and contributions may be made in Julian's name to Box 414 Association Inc., 414 N. Gay Street, Baltimore, MD 21202.

I had hoped that a video of a juvenile court hearing would help explain how a teenager with a long criminal record who had just been arrested in a drug bust could be sent home from a detention center only to be charged with killing a man two hours later in the front seat of a Buick Park Avenue. Unfortunately, what I saw not only fails to explain why state officials freed 17-year-old Maurice Brown, but it raises new questions about the case, while revealing proposed procedural changes that would make it easier for more young offenders to avoid detention.

The long-planned revitalization of the area surrounding Oldtown Mall in East Baltimore inched forward Wednesday, as city officials approved funds to help relocate merchants and make way for mixed-use development. The Board of Estimates, the city's spending panel, approved more than $256,000 in moving expenses for seven small shops or businesses, among them a hair salon, a car wash and a tailor's shop, that occupy buildings the city has acquired. The city has been buying up property around the mall south of Monument Street at Orleans and Ensor streets as part of a deal to turn over a 5-acre parcel to a development group led by Continental Realty Corp.

Walking up Gay Street - past burning storefronts, past looters carrying suitcases through the broken display window of a pawn shop, and past Baltimore police cars racing by on their way from one riot call to another - I could hardly take it all in. That Monday after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s murder was chaos in East Baltimore, where I struggled as a raw, 23-year-old police reporter for the News American to gather information. Strangely, none of the looters gave me a second glance, and I was calm and unafraid.

Why is it that the foods we enjoyed decades ago invariably seem to taste better than today's offerings? Last week I talked about a Saturday shopping trip to the old Belair Market on Gay Street in the late 1950s.

Late January might be high muskrat season, but don't ask me to touch one. In truth, I don't even like their skinned bodies when displayed on a bed of ice at the Lexington Market. I encountered this critter, which normally thrives in the Chesapeake's marshes, often on Saturdays in my childhood, when my mother rounded up her children and led us across 29th Street to Greenmount Avenue to board a No. 8 streetcar.

A teenage girl developed an infection because she could not bathe. Suicidal and aggressive teen-agers mingled with abused children and neglected toddlers. Overworked and frightened case workers were ill-prepared to deal with youths with severe mental illnesses. Those are some of the things that went wrong in 2005 when a downtown office building was used to house at least 168 foster children, two of them for as long as 40 nights, according to lawyers representing Baltimore's 8,000 foster children in a long-standing consent decree.

Pratt Street traffic slowed by 2 construction projects Eastbound traffic on Pratt Street leaving the Inner Harbor will be slower than usual through Tuesday, with lane closings necessitated by two continuing construction projects, and use of alternate routes is suggested by the city Department of Transportation. The Pratt Street lane closures are scheduled from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. through tomorrow between Gay Street and Market Place for work on the Market Place Streetscape project. Lane closures will take place during the same hours through Tuesday from President Street to Central Avenue for the Flaghouse Courts development project, the department said.

In its 81st and final year in the menswear business, Sam Glass & Son Inc. is showing its age.The racks that once drew shoppers from around the city to the 4,000-square-foot Gay Street store are plastered with going-out-of-business signs. One in particular drives home the message that this is Sam Glass' swan song:"All Sales Final," it says. "No checks . . . No refunds . . . No returns . . . No exchanges . . . No store credits . . . No charge credits . . . No layaways."The liquidation sale has been going on for several weeks now -- it's expected to last until February.

The developers who have taken on the old city-owned American Brewery in East Baltimore are going to save an architectural colossus of the city's past. This is not a project for the faint of heart. The ornate, five-story complex on North Gay Street has been vacant for 34 years, its cavernous interior in such disrepair that a city appraisal put its worth at zero. And the area around it resembles a wasteland of vacant, lead-poisoned rowhouses. Even at the $5,000 purchase price, the brewery was hardly a bargain.

At least two Baltimoreans are still using their trusty 1960s E. J. Korvette's audio speakers, I learned after last week's look at retail history. Another reader requested equal time for Baltimore's homegrown budget stores, where I spent many Saturdays, not always willingly, as we were fitted for whatever we needed. Let's consider Epstein's, Goldenberg's and Julius Gutman's, later Brager-Gutman's.