Howard Street

For the 7,000 football lovers who relied on light rail to ferry them to the Ravens' stadium last season, some good news: The rail section along Howard Street that closed July 18 reopened yesterday without fanfare -- but just in time for the fans at today's Ravens home opener. Light rail had not been expected to resume between the Camden Yards and North Avenue stops until this morning -- nearly eight weeks after a broken 40-inch water main compounded troubles caused by a derailed freight train and tunnel fire that caused all traffic to come to a sudden halt along one of downtown Baltimore's busiest north-south corridors.

A crowd of more than 2,000 revelers packed Howard Street early yesterday after a spring break party at a nightclub let out, forcing police to call in extra officers to break up minor skirmishes to keep order. Police said they were unprepared for the large crowd outside Infinity Sound Stage in the 200 block of N. Howard St., between Saratoga and Lexington streets, because the party occurred on a weekday and authorities had not been told of the club's plans. "It was just a lot of people milling around and walking down the middle of the street," said Maj. Steven McMahon, commander of the Central District.

The federal government's decision to lease up to 250,000 square feet of office space in a $37 million building planned for the southwest corner of Baltimore and Howard streets has been formally challenged by a competing developer, an action that could delay construction of the project.John Thompson, an executive assistant with the General Services Administration in Philadelphia, said the challenge, lodged Sept. 7 by Charles-Redwood Limited Partnership, a Baltimore group headed by developer Leonard Attman, triggers a review that could take more than three months.

Developers are proposing to create a $15 million apartment and retail complex on a boarded-up block of North Howard Street where city efforts failed five years ago to create an "Avenue of the Arts" studio district. Mayor Martin O'Malley announced yesterday that the city had awarded Baltimore developers Wendy Blair and Derek A. McDaniels the right to build 73 apartments, nine shops, a 104-space parking garage and two courtyard gardens on the city-owned 400 block of N. Howard, between Franklin and Mulberry streets.

SINCE the flagship department stores deserted Howard Street, beginning in the 1970s, Baltimore's own Fifth Avenue has been struggling. It may never again thrive as a retail hub. But it does have potential for revitalization.The area has superb transit and highway connections. And its location -- close to the downtown business district, the Inner Harbor and the University of Maryland professional schools and medical institutions -- is unbeatable.A new master plan bankrolled by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, the area's major real estate owner, outlines a 10-year strategy to renew the Howard Street corridor.

The Howard Street Bridge that crosses the Jones Falls Expressway is no Pont Neuf. Swaddled during a restoration project by a humongous tarp that billows and balloons in the breeze, the bridge does call to mind Pont Neuf Wrapped, a monumental work completed by environmental artist Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, in 1985. After a 10-year-struggle with Parisian bureaucracy, Christo and a large crew wrapped the Pont Neuf in shimmering gold fabric that temporarily revealed the 400-year-old bridge in a dazzling new way. Unlike in Paris, though, Baltimore authorities didn't question Howard Street Bridge Wrapped; they created it. It may not be as dramatic as its French counterpart, but for those driving south on the JFX, the draped bridge emerges as a mammoth work of accidental art. Moving with the wind, sometimes escaping its moorings, the tarp gives artistic license to the bridge, built in 1938.

SOMETHING REALLY big - and good - is about to explode in downtown Baltimore, if Mayor Martin O'Malley and the preservationists don't snuff the fuse. Just a year ago, Mayor O'Malley rashly gave historic preservationists veto powers over demolition in the Howard Street redevelopment area. Now, quite unexpectedly, Target and Marshall's want to open stores there. Insiders say these aren't done deals. If the chains don't get what they like, their site selectors will move on to more welcoming areas.

The Howard Street Tunnel has been a headache from the day its opened in 1895. It drove the railroad that built it into bankruptcy. It's been obsolete for decades. A derailment and chemical fire in 2001 showed it to be a bottleneck for East Coast freight rail traffic. And it's likely to remain that way for a long time. Alternatives have been proposed, but any of them would be costly and take decades to build. CSX Transportation, the tunnel's owner, seems in no rush to replace it. "For the foreseeable future, that tunnel is an important part of our network," said railroad spokesman Bob Sullivan.

"The market is perhaps the last true urban precinct," observes one of the award winners in a design competition held to suggest ways to rejuvenate Howard Street."Real exchanges and transactions occur there all the time: Commercial, cultural, drugs, fruit, sex, food, odor, pig, goat, cheese. ... No one is left out of the dance."And, apparently, no ideas were left out of consideration by the 37 competitors, whose entries represent a veritable marketplace of ideas for Howard Street.The Baltimore Architecture Foundation's Young Architects Committee launched the contest last summer to stimulate thinking about Baltimore's moribund retail corridor, which city officials are trying to revive as a regional "Avenue of the Arts."

Gov. Parris N. Glendening took the controls of some heavy construction equipment yesterday to help clear the way for a new office, retail and residential complex on North Howard Street, almost two years after announcing the $30 million project. Glendening and Mayor Martin O'Malley took turns with a John Deere excavator at what was once the home of Baltimore Life Insurance. The Mass Transit Administration bought the 901 N. Howard St. building in 1990 but vacated it after asbestos was discovered.