Harbor

SEE A TATTOOInspect the troops at the season's second tattoo at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine. The Army's Fife and Drum Corps and Continental Color Guard will perform early American music and drill routines. Joining the pageantry will be the Fort McHenry Guard, with volunteers in uniform as the 1814 defenders of Baltimore. The program and parking are free. A third and final tattoo is scheduled for Aug. 1.Also, park rangers present a series of summer programs that run through Labor Day. (Selected programs are listed below.

For the second time in 40 years, a member of the "Flying Wallenda" family will wow Inner Harbor crowds Wednesday with nothing between him and the murky harbor waters but a wire cable. Self-proclaimed "King of the High Wire" Nik Wallenda will follow in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, Karl, "The Great Wallenda. " While Karl Wallenda crossed the harbor over 600 feet of wire 60 feet in the air in 1973, Nik Wallenda will ascend a wire stretched 300 feet from the Light Street pavilion to a barge in the harbor, up to a height of about 90 feet.

Seldom has a Baltimore Blast player received as much buildup before playing a game as Jean Harbor has.But Harbor comes to the team as a storied outdoors player frothe Maryland Bays, and Blast coach Kenny Cooper said yesterday, "There is no question he could develop into a special player."In the past, Cooper has reserved the word "special" for the likeof Stan Stamenkovic, Steve Zungul, Branko Segota and Brian Quinn.One thing already special about Harbor is that he will be the firsBlast player to wear No. 99.Harbor said the number was Blast vice president of socceoperations Drew Forrester's idea.

Jean Harbor isn't going to play for the Spirit after all.The Spirit was burned by a clause in Harbor's contract with the Montreal Impact of the outdoor American Professional Soccer League, allowing Montreal to assign him as late as Nov. 1 to another APSL team for the winter season.Harbor played last weekend for the APSL's Los Angeles Salsa in an exhibition against Chivas, a Mexican team. He is assigned to the Salsa through the winter.The Spirit signed Harbor under the assumption he would join the team, as a free agent, after Montreal's final game Oct. 15. But Harbor phoned Spirit vice president Drew Forrester and said he was "beat up and emotionally drained" from the Impact's season and wouldn't arrive until Nov. 2."

The Baltimore Blast placed Waad Hirmez on waivers yesterday for the purpose of giving him his unconditional release.About eight hours after Hirmez was released, Blast vice president of soccer operations Drew Forrester announced the team had reached a contract agreement with Maryland Bays forward Jean Harbor.Harbor, 26, was introduced to the crowd before last night's Blast-San Diego Sockers game at the Baltimore Arena. Harbor was wearing street clothes when he walked on to the floor and waived to the fans amid a loud ovation.

Among the great improvements of recent years in Baltimore have been the water taxis that now criss-cross the Inner Harbor. Business is so good that a keen rivalry has developed among various operators. Now comes the idea of building a 1.5-mile streetcar line around the harbor from Federal Hill to Little Italy.This is the vision of an energetic group of museum and streetcar enthusiasts. They think an old-fashioned streetcar line could do wonders to Baltimore's tourism industry.Ultimately, they say, privately-run streetcars could fill a gap in the state Mass Transit Administration's network by linking up with both the light-rail and Metro systems.

Two small oil leaks - one accidental, one apparently intentional - have created a visible slick in the harbor waters off Boston Street in the Baltimore neighborhood of Canton, state environmental officials say. The monthlong cleanup has taken longer than expected in part because rain and melting snow have washed trash out of storm drains, said Richard McIntire, spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment. "People don't realize everything that goes down the storm drain actually ends up at the harbor," he said.

Few development projects at highly sensitive locations have had the preliminary attention accorded to the site of the old AlliedSignal chemical plant on the Inner Harbor. Instead of dropping a wrapped package at City Hall's doorstep, AlliedSignal and its local advisers have held extensive negotiations -- involving real give and take -- for 10 months. Not everyone between the harbor and Fells Point is satisfied, but so far, so good.The AlliedSignal rendering calls for a mixture of housing, offices, shops and public facilities on the 27-acre site.