Hanover Street

The sun came out yesterday.That alone is news in Baltimore in August of 1992.Fierce and white above a humid haze, the sun showed the fullness of its face yesterday for the first time in six days."

Less than five hours after being shot in the neck during a high-speed chase, Officer Eric Paul Dawson returned to Baltimore's Southern District police station -- upbeat and feeling lucky to be alive.Wearing a neck brace and with a .32-caliber bullet still lodged at the base of his skull, the officer was in good spirits and chatted for about a half hour with his fellow officers about his brush with death, said his sergeant, Joseph W. Weber."To say he's feeling lucky would be an understatement,"Sergeant Weber said.

Running water returned to the Cherry Hill neighborhood early yesterday, allowing residents once again to take showers, flush toilets and brush their teeth."

Amid a spray of gold, black, red and white confetti, Brooklyn residents got their first look yesterday at a colorful 750-square-foot mural on a railroad overpass in the 3400 block of S. Hanover St., the first part of a neighborhood beautification effort. About 50 people gathered about 3:30 p.m. for the unveiling, which also drew clusters of curious onlookers across the street. Several Ravens fans watching the game at O'Brady's Crab House wandered outside, shielding their eyes from the sun as the blue tarp that had hidden the work for weeks finally fell to the street below.

Roland Park is out. South Baltimore is in. On Oct. 19, the second installment of the Baltimore Marathon Festival will follow a flatter course than was used for last year's inaugural event. What were some of the course's more scenic neighborhoods have been dropped, but the payoff is the elimination of the climbs up Walther Avenue and Northern Parkway that turned off many in the 2001 field. The president of the firm that manages the event for the city said that the changes for the 26.2-mile footrace were completed last month.

UNLIKE Baltimore's glittering Inner Harbor, the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River has escaped development pressures. Although just around the bend from Fort McHenry, the six miles of shoreline is a jumble of industrial relics, neglected wharves, parks and wetlands. This could change. The National Aquarium plans to build an animal hospital, quarantine holding tanks and classrooms on six acres of parkland near the Hanover Street bridge. Over the years, this newspaper has campaigned for the inviolability of parkland.

As many as 2,000 people are expected to converge on the Hanover Street Bridge on Sunday for a ceremony officially renaming the South Baltimore span as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge.The effort began last fall when a local Vietnam veterans group led by Ed Vogel, chairman of the Memorial Day project, petitioned the City Council for the name change. The bill passed easily and was signed into law by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke.The group raised $6,000 to pay for commemorative plaques honoring those who served in the war. The plaques will be placed at each end of the bridge, which opened in 1917.

The MTA has scheduled the following changes in bus routes for this week. For more information, call 539-5000; TTY for the hearing-impaired, 539-3497.New serviceNo. 20 -- Selected trips will be routed via Holabird Industrial Park.28 -- On Sundays, selected Woodlawn trips will be extended to serve Security Square Mall.Route changes13 -- Buses to Fells Point will follow the regular route on Wolfe Street, then left on Aliceanna Street. The buses will use a new layover on Aliceanna between Castle and Chester streets.

BALTIMORE Commercial vehicles banned tomorrow in parts of city Most commercial vehicles will be prohibited from downtown Baltimore, the Inner Harbor and parts of Federal Hill from noon to midnight tomorrow for the Fourth of July holiday, according to city transportation officials. Exceptions will be made for local deliveries, but tanker trucks will be forbidden altogether. Streets under the ban are Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard from Interstate 395 to Fayette Street; Fayette Street from Martin Luther King to President Street; President Street from Aliceanna Street to Fayette Street; Pratt and Lombard streets from Martin Luther King to President Street; Light Street from Pratt Street to Key Highway; Key Highway from Light Street to McComas Street; and Hanover Street from McComas to Montgomery streets.

When reviewing the past year, the main question I ask is, "What broke?"The obvious answer is the nation's economy. But that problem is out of my jurisdiction.Other notable breakages were in my domain. And at year's end I like to remember them.Like the time the car's pulley wheel stopped pulling when I was perched above the Patapsco River.It happened on that amazingly high ramp that connects Interstate 395 to Interstate 95 north, near Hanover Street. It is a ramp that is so steep, that as you travel up it, all you see is sky. At the highest point of the ramp, the road bends and dives down to the interstate.