Howard Street

A $65 million retail and housing development proposed to replace the Anderson Automotive dealership at Howard and 25th streets in Baltimore would benefit the surrounding area more if its design were not so inward-oriented, neighboring property owners told city planners Thursday. During the first presentation of plans for the project to Baltimore's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel, property owners from Remington and lower Charles Village said they would like the developers to consider saving a former church on 24th Street rather than razing it. City planning director Tom Stosur said he was excited about the project but urged the architects to do more to make the design as environmentally sensitive as possible.

If you go The Ravens victory parade will kick off at 10:45 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall. From City Hall, the parade will proceed south on Commerce Street, continue to Pratt and Howard streets, and end at M&T Bank Stadium. About 12:30 p.m., fans can attend a free celebration featuring the team and entertainment at M&T Bank Stadium. The event will be held rain or shine. Concessions, merchandise and restrooms will be available. Parking for the stadium celebration is free in lots F, G, H, and J and will open at 9 a.m. No tailgating will be permitted.

The city's Department of Transportation has extended the closure of Howard Street between Lombard and Conway Streets until next Thursday. City workers are rebuilding the intersection near where Interstate 395 ends at the Camden Yards baseball stadium. Officials are encouraging motorists to use Sharp Street before the closure of Howard Street or take Lombard Street to southbound Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard as an alternative to I-395.

Streets throughout Baltimore will be closed temporarily Saturday for the 2012 Under Armour Baltimore Running Festival, which includes a 26-mile marathon, a half-marathon and a 5K race. According to the organizers, here is a list of street closures and approximate times. Organizers say that final decisions about when to open and close streets will be made by police officers at various intersections. They say there also may be "rolling stops," which means an officer may allow vehicles to proceed when there is a gap between runners.

The Maryland Historical Society's plans for a $10 million expansion are ruffling some feathers because of the impact on 1920s-era storefronts in the 600 block of North Howard Street. The society wants to raze them for a parking lot; preservationists want them retained.We half suspect this a bogus disagreement and that the focal point of the issue is not the Historical Society's plans but the future ambience of the city's one-time retail boulevard. If that is the case, the preservationists will have many difficult battles ahead.

Ever since Howard Street's 1970s decline to what today is essentially a ghost town of vacant retail properties, Baltimore's one-time department store hub has posed a seemingly insurmountable redevelopment challenge. Nothing has worked so far and the area is deader than ever.In a major change of direction, Baltimore City officials are signaling they are ready to abandon their long-time premise that predicated Howard Street's revival on retailing.Instead, the talk now centers on turning the corridor into an "Avenue of the Arts."

THE CITY is abuzz about recently announced plans to rebuild the west side of downtown, between Charles Center and the University of Maryland's downtown campus.Plans call for new office buildings, apartments, shops and entertainment complexes.Quite expectedly, the focal point of the new west side will be Howard and Lexington streets -- the heart of the old downtown shopping district. Over the years, when developers or city fathers have had a new idea about improving the quality of urban life in Baltimore, they have returned repeatedly to that area.

After six years of trying to figure out how to best improve Baltimore City, the Schmoke administration has borrowed pages from William Donald Schaefer's experience and decided to try stepped-up downtown redevelopment. Lots of attention is being paid to the fringes of the Inner Harbor. But that is not City Hall's only focus. Howard Street, too, is getting renewed interest.From 1858 until the 1970s, Howard Street was Baltimore's most prestigious retail hub. All the major department stores were there.

The vacant Hecht Co. store at Howard and Lexington streets will be the next headquarters for the Baltimore Police Department.In announcing the decision yesterday, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke said he was guided by the department's needs, cost factors and the city's economic development agenda."

So many dreams have been dreamt about revitalizing HowardStreet over the past two decades that just thinking about them is likely to produce a nightmare. Now, the Schmoke administration has quietly started its own drive to resuscitate this once-prestigious retail hub.Unlike the previous multi-million-dollar plans, the latest effort is starting in a decidedly modest fashion. ''Let's do it in chewable chunks,'' says Honora Freeman, president of the Baltimore Development Corp.If everything goes according to plans, the public may soon get a sense that the Howard Street area of largely vacant storefronts is returning to life as a corridor of eclectic art and cultural uses.

Drivers are urged to plan alternate routes to travel through downtown Baltimore, as significant road closures are slated to begin Thursday evening to prepare for the second annual Grand Prix of Baltimore. At 8 a.m. Thursday, Baltimore Police warned drivers to expect delays on 395 due to the Grand Prix. Traffic is diverted to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Pratt Street from MLK to Paca Street is currently closed and Conway Street is currently closed. Light Street between Key Highway and Pratt Street, and Howard Street between Lombard and Pratt streets will be closed beginning at 7:30 p.m. The northbound Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard exit to Russell Street will close at 1:30 p.m., shortly after the start of the Orioles game.

The derailment that killed two young women in Ellicott City Tuesday morning adds one more incident to a long history of CSX trains leaving the tracks in Maryland - from little-remembered events in the company's own railyards to the spectacular fire in the Howard Street Tunnel in 2001. It could be months before federal investigators determine the cause of the bizarre tragedy that occurred overnight in the historic Howard County mill town. The facts that emerged Tuesday suggested the fatalities were largely the result of trespassing on the tracks.

James "Jimmie" Judd, a well-known antiques dealer recalled for his elaborate homes and discerning eye for art, died of prostate cancer Thursday at his Inner Harbor home. He was 82. Born in Baltimore and raised on East North Avenue at Collington Avenue, he attend city public schools until he was in the eighth grade. "He was severely dyslexic," said his wife, Barbara Katz Judd, who had owned the old White Coffee Pot restaurant chain. "He was a rags-to-riches story and had a reading disability that he was able to transcend later in life.

Barney "Barr" Harris, who was born above his father's Howard Street cabinetmaking business and turned it into a successful antiques auction house, died of dementia complications Thursday at Arden Court in Pikesville. The longtime Bolton Hill resident was 94. "His auctions were like the original 'Antiques Road Show,'" said John Huppert, a collector who lives in Charles Village. "You sat there and were entertained and informed. You learned as he spoke. It was a delightful spectacle.

The door at 831 N. Howard St. swings open to one of Baltimore's more charming salesrooms. But Friday, when I stopped by the place known as the Imperial Half Bushel, it was a dispiriting and depressing sight. The 19th-century walnut and oak showcases were empty. Gone were the silver forks and spoons made by Baltimore silversmiths. The water pitchers, the cups, the napkin holders had disappeared. Sometime between Sept. 17 and Sept. 20, thieves looted $100,000 worth of silver from this little shop located on a stretch known as Antiques Row. Fred and Nancy Duggan and their son, Patrick, opened their silver business in 1976.

Harford County sheriff's deputies and Maryland State Police report: Aberdeen Stephanie Johnson, 30, of the first block of Pritchard Avenue, was arrested Wednesday on two warrants in cases in which she was charged with fourth-degree burglary, second-degree assault, animal abuse and abandonment of animal. Marc Philippe Steele, 44, of the first block of Liberty Street, was charged Wednesday with being a fugitive from Pennsylvania. A caller in the 1400 block of Old Philadelphia Road reported Saturday vandals broke a window.

IT WAS THE afternoon of Labor Day and I found myself in the elevator of what is now the Value City department store at the Westview Mall. I glanced around. There was that pink color, the shade Hutzler Bros. used to paint the walls of its department stores. This spot was, of course, a former Hutzler operation now occupied by a different store.This time of the year, I especially think of Howard Street. It was here that you met your friends, bought your bedsheets and saw Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady."