Make Baltimore

Mayor Martin O'Malley will preside over a ground-breaking ceremony Friday for the Jones Falls Trail, a long-planned greenway for bikers, walkers and joggers. The trail eventually will travel through 20 neighborhoods that lie near Baltimore's central stream valley, which empties into the Inner Harbor. Funded with $1.3 million in federal transportation money, the first leg of the 10-foot-wide asphalt trail will connect Druid Hill Park and Pennsylvania Station to encourage use of alternate modes of transportation for work and recreation.

Mary Pat Clarke ran a spirited, energetic, enticing and surprisingly effective campaign for mayor that embodied the very reasons Baltimore's political scene will miss her.Upon her defeat by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, Mrs. Clarke said it was her last campaign for political office, even though she pledged to continue her activism in civic life. She said she had high hopes for the generation of leadership that is ascending in Baltimore, including her choice to succeed her as council president, Lawrence Bell.

TRUE, BALTIMORE has a number of high-profile potential terrorist targets - chemical plants, water treatment facilities, skyscrapers, tourist attractions, stadiums. Its role as a transportation hub and its proximity to Washington clearly make Baltimore vulnerable. But are the public warnings about "credible threats" doing more to frighten residents and enhance the careers of our municipal leaders than reassure citizens that the city is preparing to defend against terrorist attacks? In times of crisis and uncertainty, we turn to our leaders for guidance and reassurance.

Baltimore home fair If you're looking to make Baltimore your home, or already live in Baltimore and are looking for new scenery, come to the Live Baltimore "Buying Into Baltimore" Fair and Neighborhood Tours, running from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. In the past five years, this free fair has helped thousands of people find homes in the Baltimore area. Beginning at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, 1400 W. Cold Spring Lane, participants will take guided bus tours through city neighborhoods, including Hampden, Riverside and Dickeyville, to see homes for sale.

When we announced that we wanted to hear from readers about what they would do to make Baltimore better, I wasn't sure what we'd get. After all, we weren't offering to pay any money. Maybe no one would take the trouble to write in. Or maybe we would get a number of well-meaning, worthy suggestions that wouldn't make a very interesting cover story.What we got was a nice balance of serious, inventive ideas and some off-the-wall ones. Naturally we also got our share from malcontents and misanthropes, but all in all, a good response.

MARYLAND'S MASS transit administration needs the freedom to make Baltimore's system work. That didn't happen during much of the past four years, while Ronald L. Freeland headed the Mass Transit Administration. Gov. Parris N. Glendening gave Mr. Freeland the go-ahead to take only the smallest steps toward improving transit - and most of that happened only in the last two years. The city's pitiful light-rail line is finally headed toward double-tracking; the subway soon will begin operating Sundays; the legislature has reduced the percentage of operating revenue state transit systems are required to collect from the fare box; and a promising shuttle-bus service started operating this year in Hampden.

THINK ABOUT the importance of this scene: Mayor Martin O'Malley, U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Del. Hattie N. Harrison and Del. Clarence Davis standing together on a desolate East Baltimore lot, promising to work together to enable a sweeping renaissance in the area. They were smiling. They were hopeful. No need to pinch yourself; this was no dream. The bitter and defeatist political rivalries that have helped keep East Baltimore a slum may finally be waning. All the interested parties have now agreed on the ground rules for the development of Johns Hopkins Medical Center's planned biotech park.

These are tough times for all elected officials, but they seem to be particularly challenging for Baltimore City Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke. The city is broke. Its political clout in Annapolis is waning. Yet the needs of Baltimore's disproportionately poor population only keep growing. He must be wondering: If the beginning of my second term is like this, what will the end be like?Mr. Schmoke's recent political flip-flops have not made the situation any easier. His pattern of taking a position and then backing down when the flak begins to get heavy is becoming increasingly troubling.

There are signs along a forlorn stretch of U.S. 40 on the west side that Mayor Sheila Dixon is trying to make Baltimore better, and I don't mean all the new trees, shrubs and stamped concrete planters in the median strips. I mean the 4-by-8-foot, city-sponsored placards with Dixon's name on them. "A cleaner, greener, safer and healthier Baltimore," they read on top. On the bottom, the signs give kudos to "Mayor Sheila Dixon and the Citizens of Baltimore." That's right: a great, big thank-you to the mayor seeking re-election and the taxpayers who paid for the signs promoting her. When the median work began months ago, the city posted large placards at either end of the project, so passing motorists would be aware of the beautification project.

SOME people help others realize their dreams but never realize their own. One of them was Eli Hanover, who in the 1960s and '70s ran a gym over the Jewel Box club on The Block and trained boxers for short fights on long nights at the old Steelworkers' Hall in Dundalk.Hanover was a legend in his time -- and beyond. He was a dream merchant, but he sold only dreams he believed in. He promised seamen and steelworkers and bums down on their luck that if they trained in his gym, he would get them the fights, and they could punch their way to glory.