Mondawmin Mall

They enter with equal parts dread and loathing, clutching envelopes and folders, random bills and bits of proof. This is Who I Am. This is Where I Live. If ever there were an exercise in patience, then surely this it where it unfolds, in a drab building known as the Motor Vehicle Administration, where time stretches like a wad of cotton candy - minutes into an hour, one hour into two, or three or more ... Tucked away next to Mondawmin Mall, this is the city's only full-service MVA branch, a building where easy-listening music blends into the background and the bing!

Mondawmin Mall, a West Baltimore landmark and the city's oldest shopping mall, will be spruced up and expanded with a large new supermarket and a warehouse-size specialty chain, mall representatives said yesterday.The mall's owner, Rouse Co., will build a 58,000-square-foot grocery store on the southern edge of the center and, in a second phase of development, construct a 132,000-square-foot store at the northwest corner, said Brian K. Gardiner, vice president and general manager for Mondawmin.

Every school morning, Shawna Jeffress sprints through Mondawmin Transit Center.Sometimes, the Cherry Hill resident's subway train arrives late. Other times, the bus leaves minutes early. Either way, she usually misses the bus -- and the bell that starts her pre-nursing classes at Baltimore City Community College.Jeffress and many commuters want to improve the West Baltimore bus and subway depot and better coordinate schedules, which is why the Citizens Planning and Housing Association (CPHA)

In Baltimore CountyBlack bear seen in Owings Mills eludes officials againOWINGS MILLS -- The black bear that has been roaming in Owings Mills since June 15 reappeared briefly yesterday, rooting in trash bins behind a discount store and a supermarket near Painters Mill Road and Music Fair Lane before vanishing into the woods, state officials said."

As kids growing up in Latrobe Homes public housing, Carl Stokes and Melvin Tuggle made a pact that one of them someday would become Baltimore's mayor.Now, more than 30 years later, Stokes will officially begin trying to make that pledge come true when he files this week as a candidate in Baltimore's mayoral race.The 48-year-old former city councilman and school board member is the first to announce his candidacy, organize and begin meeting with residents to share his vision for the city.With Tuggle, a minister and head of Clergy United for Renewal in East Baltimore, by his side, Stokes is confident he will be able to bridge the city's fractious east and west sides by basing his campaign on one word: outrage.

A Washington-based civil rights group filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against national chain KB Toys for allegedly barring customers in mostly black neighborhoods from writing personal checks. The suit claims that stores in largely white neighborhoods did not enforce the same policy.The complaint is based on tests conducted by The Equal Rights Center (TERC), which examined more than 30 stores in the Baltimore-Washington area since the end of last month, including stores in Mondawmin Mall, Reisterstown Road Plaza and Columbia.

New positionsAlcore appoints Draghi, Halbeisen and MulleryAlcore Inc. announced the appointments of Gary Halbeisen and Paul Draghi as vice presidents and Kevin Mullery as research and development manager for the Belcamp-based producer of structural core materials.Halbeisen, who will be responsible for business operations, was an engineering manager with Boeing Corp. He is a graduate of California State University at Long Beach and resides in Abingdon. Draghi, who will oversee manufacturing, is a graduate of California State Polytechnic University.

With a move to what many consider a hub of Baltimore's black communities and commerce, the vendors and entertainers of AFRAM filled a parking lot at Mondawmin Mall in West Baltimore yesterday.After its beginning 22 years ago, the three-day festival has come home in a sense, from the various parking lots near Camden Yards, where it had been held for the past several years, AFRAM director Lloyd C. Mitchner said yesterday."It's an ethnic festival and it's in an ethnic neighborhood," Mitchner said.

It's AFRAM time.The 22-year-old festival, which will be held tomorrow through Sunday, is about food, fun, entertainment and crafts. It is especially a time to celebrate and recognize the achievements of African-Americans.AFRAM has also been about change, and this year is no different. For the first time, it will be held on the grounds of Baltimore's Mondawmin Mall at Gwynns Falls Parkway and Tioga Parkway."We are coming back to the community," says Lloyd C. Mitchner, the director of the event.

'Grease'Grab your poodle skirts, slick back your ducktails and take a rock and rollin' trip down memory lane when "Grease," one of Broadway's longest-running musicals, roars into town this weekend. You can take a lighthearted look at growing up in the '50s at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday; 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sunday; and Monday-Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave. Tickets are $19-$45. Call 410-481-SEAT.Tribute to Hank WilliamsJoin an all-star cast in "A Tribute to Hank Williams" at 8:30 p.m Tuesday at the Ram's Head, 33 West St., Annapolis.

Three men stabbed on Harford County road 1 Three men were stabbed yesterday morning on Mountain Road in Joppa, according to Harford County police. The unidentified men had left the Port Sports Bar and Nightclub in Fallston about 1:50 a.m. when they got into an argument with one of the eventual assailants, according to police. As the three men were traveling south on Mountain Road near Old Mountain Road North, three vehicles approached them from the rear, police say. The suspects' vehicles formed a road block, forcing the victims' car off to the side of the road, according to police.

Samantha Harris is probably the envy of every fashion-minded women or giddy teenager. She spends every working day in the mall. After working in marketing at Owings Mills Mall, the Mall in Columbia and Towson Town Center, she was promoted earlier this month to general manager of Mondawmin Mall and The Village of Cross Keys in Baltimore. Harris takes over Mondawmin as it finishes a $70 million renovation that includes the addition of a Target. She admits that it can take a lot of self-control to work so close to racks of pretty shoes, expensive perfumes and designer jeans.

Man, 50, is wounded in Howard St. shooting A 50-year-old man was in critical condition yesterday evening after being shot early yesterday in the 600 block of N. Howard St., Baltimore police said. At about 1 a.m., an officer responded to the scene, near West Centre Street, and found a man lying on the ground with gunshot wounds to his neck and stomach, according to police. Authorities said the victim and a male friend were walking when the victim stopped to engage a male on a bicycle in conversation, while the companion continued walking.

The investment a business makes in a community can't be reckoned only in terms of bricks and mortar. It also has to include a desire to improve the quality of goods and services for customers and create a safe environment for employees. That kind of commitment ultimately benefits people far beyond its immediate neighborhood. The $300,000 gift big-box retailer Target made this week to the Baltimore Police Department to beef up crime-fighting efforts around its new store at Mondawmin Mall in West Baltimore is an example of that kind of commitment.

State Sen. Ulysses Currie, the subject of a federal investigation into alleged influence-peddling, acted as a liaison between top-ranking Cabinet members of the past two administrations and Shoppers Food Warehouse, newly released documents show. In one instance, Currie, who earned more than $200,000 over five years in a previously undisclosed consulting job with the grocery chain, wrote on his legislative stationery to former Shoppers Chief Executive Officer William J. White in September 2003 that he had spoken with James C. "Chip" DiPaula Jr., budget secretary in the Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. administration at the time, about Mondawmin Mall, where Shoppers planned to invest millions of dollars.

Baltimore's retail renaissance and beleaguered mayor converged this week, two Targets, together, at Mondawmin Mall. If Sheila Dixon feels like she has a bull's-eye on her back, it didn't keep her from the opening of a store with the circle-dot logo. Shopping helped put Dixon in her current fix with prosecutors. So the retail setting could have been a little awkward. But when Dixon spoke about her shopping habits, there was no mention of Giorgio Armani, Jimmy Choo or Mano Swartz, names not found on the shelves of discount retailers, even those as hip as Chez Tar-jay.

When Mondawmin Mall in West Baltimore opened in 1956, it was one of the first indoor shopping centers in the country and a marvel for consumers, who flocked to its stores from across the region. Anchored by two major department stores, Sears & Roebuck and Hochschild, Kohn & Co., it boasted two pharmacies, three shoe shops, a barbershop, a bakery, a hardware store and a florist among its 40 tenants. In the years since, however, the fortunes of the Rouse Co. development on a former estate of Baltimore businessman Alexander Brown have gone up and down with the city's changing demographics and competition from trendier suburban malls.

Target - the big-box store with the bull's eye logo and funky TV ads - has arrived in Baltimore. Elected officials and business leaders celebrated the grand opening of the city's first Target at Mondawmin Mall last night, heralding it as vote of confidence from a national retailer in the commercial potential of neighborhoods far beyond the revitalized areas near the Inner Harbor. "This new Target gives Baltimore residents a great place to shop without having to travel great distances," said Mayor Sheila Dixon, who has worked to bring retail outlets to the city, where shopping options declined starting in the 1960s, when large retailers joined an exodus to the suburbs.

A state trooper was wounded after an altercation yesterday at the MVA branch in Mondawmin Mall, city police said. The trooper suffered minor injuries during a fight with a man who police said was trying to enter the Motor Vehicle Administration office after hours. City police arrested the man and are investigating the incident, which happened shortly after 5 p.m. Police did not release the trooper's name. A spokeswoman for the state police said the trooper was on a special detail, and that he is based out of the Glen Burnie barracks.

State Sen. Ulysses Currie, whose ties to Shoppers Food and Pharmacy are under federal investigation, intervened several times in recent years on behalf of the grocery store chain when it was seeking public financing and other concessions as part of the multimillion-dollar redevelopment of Mondawmin Mall in West Baltimore, according to interviews and records obtained by The Sun. Currie, a Prince George's County Democrat who is chairman of an influential committee...