Merchants

Merchants at the fledgling Avenue Market, the Afrocentric marketplace in the Upton community, are in distress, calling for management to forgive delinquent rents, renegotiate leases and make other changes in the face of poor sales.The recently formed merchants' association gave a list of concerns to management a week ago, and management is to respond at a 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday -- the second such meeting in recent months."I thought there would be more business than this," said a sullen Natalie Duncan, 47, who mortgaged her home and left a 12-year supermarket job to open Sunny Island Kitchen, a Caribbean food stall.

Concerned about the future of the Wilde Lake Village Center, some of the aging center's merchants are urging the community to help lure specialty shops to fill five vacancies there -- six vacancies when it loses its longtime bank branch next month."

ANY BALTIMOREAN who wants to learn how City Hall wastes taxpayers' money should read an auditor's report that was made public last week. It will knock your socks off. Guaranteed. City Auditor Yovonda D. Brooks' review focuses on the west-side initiative. During the past two years, the city spent $3.3 million to compensate 32 businesses that could either move or liquidate their inventory when they were displaced to enable redevelopment. Mayor Martin O'Malley - trying to appease vocal merchants and their aggressive lawyers - insisted on that compensation choice, which was far more generous than what the federal government's rules allow.

A proposal to open a new business in Baltimore's Highlandtown neighborhood, where many stores have closed in recent years, should have made area merchants happy. But in this commercial district east of downtown, it caused an outcry.The dispute revolves around whether a blood-donor center should be allowed to open in a vacant one-story building in the 3800 block of Eastern Ave. Merchants fear the center will pay its donors to give blood, attracting drug addicts to the area.Maryland Biological Services, Inc. last week filed a permit application with the city Department of Housing and Community Development, seeking permission to open the donor center in a former card shop.

After 14 months' enforcement, Howard County's two new laws aimed at reducing the sale of tobacco products to teens appear to be bearing fruit - and fines. "Just one year after health inspectors hit the street, the percentage of merchants willing to sell tobacco to minors dropped from 50 [percent] to 37 percent," said Mark E. Breaux, president of the Smoke Free Howard County Coalition. The inspectors focused on enforcing a law that changed the ban on selling tobacco to minors from a criminal to a civil violation that is enforced by the Health Department instead of police.

The city paid more than necessary - in some cases by more than $100,000 - to compensate merchants displaced by the effort to revive downtown's west side, according to an audit set for release today. The report by Comptroller Joan M. Pratt's auditors questioned the $2.4 million the city paid to businesses for their inventory. If the program had been handled differently, the audit said, the city could have realized "substantial" savings, though the amount was not specified. One of several problems the audit identified was that the city did not require proper documentation, making it impossible to verify the true cost of the goods.

Business in downtown Westminster in the past three months of this year has been: (a) down the tubes; (b) about the same as in the final quarter of 1997; or (c) considerably better.The answer depends on which merchant makes the assessment.The departure of the Westminster post office, which moved from its historic site at 83 E. Main St. in August to the northern edge of the city, has hurt downtown retail businesses that depended heavily on people strolling by and stopping to look at merchandise.

Business in downtown Westminster in the last three months of this year has been: (a) down the tubes; (b) about the same as in the final quarter of 1997; or (c) considerably better.The answer depends on which merchant makes the assessment.The departure of the Westminster post office, which moved from its historic site at 83 E. Main St. in August to the northern edge of the city, has hurt downtown retail businesses that depended heavily on people strolling by and stopping to look at merchandise.

Historic Ellicott City's effort to break its parking gridlock appears to be working -- maybe a little too well.Less than two weeks after Howard County began phasing in the much-talked-about effort, nearly 50 merchants have signed a petition asking the county Planning and Zoning Department to lengthen the time restriction for much of Main Street from one hour to two hours.The request is part of the merchants' goal to ward off what they call a "ghost town feel" that many say has afflicted the quaint former mill town's commercial district since a private parking firm began ticketing errant parkers July 26."

Historic Ellicott City's effort to break its parking gridlock appears to be working -- maybe a little too well.Less than two weeks after Howard County began phasing in the much-talked-about effort, nearly 50 merchants have signed a petition asking the county Planning and Zoning Department to lengthen the time restriction for much of Main Street from one hour to two hours.The request is part of the merchants' goal to ward off what they call a "ghost town feel" that many say has afflicted the quaint former mill town's commercial district since a private parking firm began ticketing errant parkers July 26."