Harbor

If the Black Eyed Susan were a race horse, it would be a sprinter. It makes one strong move, then fades quickly. The strong move occurs this weekend when the cocktail will be in demand at Pamlico Race Track, during both the running of the Black Eyed Susan Stakes on Friday and the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. Over these two days, about 25,000 servings of the libation, poured into commemorative glasses, will be sold at $8 apiece, track officials say. But as soon as Preakness weekend ends, so does the does the local thirst for the Susan.

Meeting behind closed doors, the city's Board of Finance on Monday approved more than $100 million in taxpayer assistance to help fund a massive, waterfront development project that will host energy giant Exelon Corp.'s regional headquarters. After barring the public from the 90-minute meeting, board members voted 4-0 to approve a developer's request for $107 million in tax increment financing to pay for roads, utilities and parks for the $1 billion Harbor Point mixed-use development on the waterfront between Harbor East and Fells Point, according to Stephen M. Kraus, the city's chief of treasury management.

City officials plan to raise fees for docking boats in Baltimore's Inner Harbor in hopes of generating about $35,000 in added revenue. With that money, officials say, they could reduce the amount that taxpayers spend to operate the city-owned docks. Barry Robinson, the city's head of transit and marine services, said officials are working to make the program self-sufficient. "This is the first step in that direction," he said. The Board of Estimates is expected to approve increases to the Inner Harbor docking fees Wednesday.

At the Saturday, Feb. 9 Harbor of Grace Chapter meeting of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the membership was treated to a presentation by Dawn Fairchild, "Image of a Hero - Recreating George Washington's Revolutionary War Uniform. " Fairchild discussed her construction of George Washington's uniform using authentic materials. Her husband, Bill Myers, attended the meeting modeling one of the uniforms.

Regarding concerns over safety at the Inner Harbor ("Lack of familiarity breeds contempt for Baltimore," May 27), I frequently visit the harbor and have always had a pleasant experience. That being said, there is room for improvement. The uniformed guides from the Downtown Partnership provide a worthwhile service and no doubt provide a deterrent to those who might cause problems. There is, however, a noticeable lack of police patrols. Several years ago, the patrols at the harbor were common and there were also police kiosks along the promenade.

In childhood, after church then lunch with my grandmother, I went on Sunday drives with my family throughout Baltimore. When we rode around the harbor, it looked nothing like it does today. It was a bunch of ratty docks, beat-up row houses, the Fava Fruit Company, and McCormick & Company, our favorite because of the large vanilla bottle and pepper can that sat on top of the company's Light Street building.   In later years, when the Inner Harborwas redeveloped, my husband and I went down regularly for dinner and a stroll around the promenade.

Ray Bahr ought to be taking it easy. He's 75 and retired after a successful career as a cardiologist. Instead, the Canton resident finds himself prowling alleys in East Baltimore on the lookout for illegally dumped trash and goading city officials to clean up mini-landfills in back of abandoned houses. Now, the physician — who once helped launch a national movement to treat chest pain before it can lead to fatal attacks — has another sick patient, another crusade. He wants to help heal the watery heart of Baltimore — its harbor — and in the process perhaps bring a fractured city a little closer together.

The trash littering Baltimore's harbor might not seem like art to many. But for local artist Eileen Wold, it's an obvious sign of the damaged health of the waterways that define this region. The Inner Harbor and Middle Branch of the Patapsco River — debris and all — are featured subjects of a new multimedia exhibition by Wold that opened this week at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. The aim of "Empty Waters," she explained, is to get people to think hard about their role in degrading the Chesapeake Bay, and especially the harbor.

Harborplace, the 27-year-old centerpiece of Baltimore's renaissance, deserves more respect. Its latest indignity? The addition of 14 kiosks along the waterfront promenade offering the kind of fare more associated with Ocean City's boardwalk than a showcase urban park. Terrific for those in need of sunglasses and tanning lotion, appalling to all who expected the Inner Harbor's open-air aesthetics to be protected from such excesses. When, oh when, will city government learn? The decision to permit Harborplace Associates Limited Partnership (the local affiliate of General Growth Properties, the firm that bought Rouse Co.)

It was all so simple in the words of the old song: "Let's remember Pearl Harbor as we go to meet the foe; let's remember Pearl Harbor as we did the Alamo." So simple to remember American boys dying, to remember a demonized foe, to remember the humiliation of defeat and the unifying vengeance that was in time to bring victory.But like the Alamo and the Maine, the circumstances that led to war in 1941 were complicated by diplomatic maneuverings and deeply embedded American notions of superiority.

City officials plan to raise fees for docking boats in Baltimore's Inner Harbor in hopes of generating about $35,000 in added revenue. With that money, officials say, they could reduce the amount that taxpayers spend to operate the city-owned docks. Barry Robinson, the city's head of transit and marine services, said officials are working to make the program self-sufficient. "This is the first step in that direction," he said. The Board of Estimates is expected to approve increases to the Inner Harbor docking fees Wednesday.

Harbor East is moving farther east with baker-cum-developer John Paterakis Sr.'s announcement Friday that he will break ground this summer on a new, mega-Whole Foods and later on a new residential/retail building across Central Avenue from the glittering mini-city he has almost single handedly built during the last 15 years. Things are bustling in that corner of the city, what with the planned construction of a new headquarters office tower for Exelon Corp. and a variety of other smaller scale residential, retail, office and hotel developments nearby.

The Poly girls and No. 7 Digital Harbor boys cruised to team titles at the Baltimore City track and field championships Saturday at Mervo. This was the first-ever team title for Poly's girls. Coach Latoya Brown's team finished with 121 points, beating out long-time Baltimore City powerhouse Western (104). "I tried to put people in places where I know they could score points," Brown said. "I told them to believe in themselves and go out and do it. " Poly dominated the field events, taking the top three spots in both the high jump and triple jump plus first and third in the long jump - which gave the Engineers 64 points.

John Paterakis Sr. didn't believe it when Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke told him nearly two decades ago that Harbor East's Marriott Waterfront Hotel would spur revitalization from the Inner Harbor to Canton. The city had picked Paterakis' H&S Properties Development Corp. to build the hotel, launching a parallel career for the baker and developer. Today, Paterakis marvels at the upscale shops, luxurious living spaces and top-flight office space set to line the southeastern Baltimore waterfront - and already booming along it. "You have to give a lot of credit that he was right," said Paterakis, president of H&S Bakery Inc., which grew from a two-man operation that opened in 1943 to a baking empire spanning more than two dozen states.

Tommy Fortman and his Digital Harbor teammates have been here before. Yesterday, Fortman made sure they were all there again. Digital Harbor won the Baltimore City Division I baseball championship by defeating Poly, 11-1, at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Saturday afternoon. The game was stopped in the fifth inning by the 10-run rule. Fortman allowed one run and five hits in five innings. "It feels great to win it again," Fortman said. "We have a great group of seniors, and our coaches make us work hard.

The Federal Reserve Board announced Thursday that it terminated an enforcement action against Baltimore-based Harbor Bankshares Corp. The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond issued the action in July 2010, reaching an agreement with the holding company to take steps to shore up its finances. The company, parent of The Harbor Bank of Maryland, agreed to comply with consent orders from other regulators as well as not to pay dividends, take on more debt or redeem shares without the approval of the Federal Reserve Bank first.

SATURDAY SEEMED like the perfect afternoon for a boat ride - sunny and warm, with a promise of spring in the air - but the day turned deadly with a quick change of weather. The capsizing of a Seaport Taxi in the water off Fort McHenry serves as a grim reminder of nature's powerful, and sometimes capricious, force. A sudden squall - a "microburst," in the words of one boat captain - brought wind gusts nearing 50 miles an hour barreling through the harbor, roiling the waves and turning an afternoon outing into a nightmare for the 25 people aboard the water taxi, and into a death trap for at least four of them.

A fight among juveniles at the Inner Harbor on Tuesday evening sent a teen to the hospital with a stab wound, police said. The boy, whose age was not immediately available, was among a group of youths fighting in the road near a bus stop at Pratt and Light streets at 5:43 p.m. The boy was stabbed in the chest and taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was reported in serious but stable condition, police said. - Justin Fenton

A second man has been arrested and charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of a Cheesecake Factory employee during an early morning fight near the Inner Harbor restaurant, Baltimore Police said Tuesday. The move to arrest Derek Schuler, 24, of Glen Burnie, contradicts previous statements from police that he had tried to diffuse the situation and wouldn't be arrested. According to new charging documents, Schuler had in fact joined in the April 7 fight that left 20-year-old Anthony Black bleeding profusely in front of the World Trade Center building downtown.

Maura Imel , 22, showed off what she calls her "simple, elegant" style at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's fourth annual Hope in the Harbor Gala at the American Visionary Art Museum . The Rollins College senior wore a navy chiffon Lush shift and a white and brass chunky necklace that she found at a boutique in her college town of Winter Park, Fla. The Ellicott City resident added a pair of light gold strappy wedges that she picked up...