Moving To Baltimore

In Baltimore, where the scarcity of Starbucks was elevated to the level of civic crisis just a few years ago, residents are now drowning in a frothy flood of gingerbread lattes and gasping for air under a mountain of cinnamon scones. The Seattle coffee giant has opened three stores in Baltimore in the past three months, the result of years of lobbying by the city and a recognition by Starbucks that Baltimoreans are as willing to pay $4 for a macchiato as anyone else. This, civic leaders say, is a good thing.

Jack S. Evans, 42, director of business developmentJack Stanton Evans, director of business development for Hanover-based Computer Sciences Corp. and an ardent supporter of indoor lacrosse and hockey teams, died Friday at his Ellicott City home after an eight-month battle with cancer. He was 42.Born and raised in Palmyra, Pa., Mr. Evans graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1980. He took a job in New York working for Control Data Corp. before moving to Baltimore in 1991. He worked as the government relations coordinator for GTECH Corp.

Andrew F. Peterson, 69, retired engineerAndrew Frederick Peterson of Camp Creek, W. Va, formerly of Baltimore and Cambridge, died Wednesday of a heart attack after a long illness at Princeton Community Hospital in Princeton, W. Va. He was 69.Mr. Peterson and his wife moved to Camp Creek last year from Cambridge. He had retired in the early 1980s from the Patapsco Back River Railroad at Bethlehem Steel Corp., where he was an engineer.Born in Turner Station, Mr. Peterson had lived in Dundalk and Brooklyn.

Phi Alpha Delta law fraternity, a nonprofit professional association of lawyers, students and others with links to the law profession, will move its international headquarters to Baltimore this spring.The association has purchased a four-story office building at 345 N. Charles St. and plans to relocate from Granada Hills, Calif.The move will take several months, and the association will briefly operate in both locations.But the Baltimore headquarters will ultimately house all of Phi Alpha Delta's administrative offices -- including about 12 employees -- and the association's Public Service Center, dedicated to law-related education of elementary and high school students.

Virginia Weatherford, a retired home economics teacher who helped her husband establish Parks Sausage Co., died Thursday of pneumonia at Union Memorial Hospital. She was 81 and lived in Roland Park.Formerly married to businessman and City Councilman Henry G. Parks Jr., she used her training as a dietitian to create recipes and promote the product that was widely recognized through commercials as "More Parks sausages, Mom, please."Mrs. Weatherford's recipe for sausage stuffing appeared on one-pound packages of the sage-laced Parks sausage for more than 40 years.

Clark Mason Davis, 85, construction project chiefClark Mason Davis, a retired civil engineer and construction project manager who oversaw the building of a section of the Jones Falls Expressway, died Sunday of prostate cancer at Carroll Lutheran Village Health Care Center in Westminster. He was 85.The former Hagerstown resident moved to the Carroll County retirement community in 1990, after he retired from Hardaway Co. of Columbus, Ga., where he had worked since 1955.At Hardaway, he managed many highway, pipeline and bridge projects in the Baltimore-Washington area, including segment of the Jones Falls Expressway from the Baltimore County line to Cold Spring Lane, which opened to traffic in 1961.

St. Paul Cos., the Minnesota insurer that bought USF&G Corp., might look to expand in Baltimore if plans to acquire a property in its hometown fail, a spokeswoman said.Although the company has no immediate expansion plans, it expects the number of employees to grow over the next several years, which could force it to build a new headquarters office.One option is to erect a building in St. Paul across the street from its current office tower, which houses the majority of its 3,300 employees who work downtown.

Maybe the Ravens should ban their players from practice this week.Banning the media last week didn't work too well, as you may have noticed during the Ravens' 45-19 loss to the Jaguars yesterday.It turned out that the team with a 12-27-1 record since moving to Baltimore is more of a problem than anyone asking questions about the team with a 12-27-1 record since moving to Baltimore.So it's time to try another tack. Put some yellow "crime scene" tape around the practice field. Tell the guys they aren't welcome.

The look of downtown can make a difference in Baltimore's 0) vitalityChristopher Muldor raises important issues about the relationship between aesthetics and urban health in his criticism of a Downtown Partnership of Baltimore proposal to improve the appearance of Charles Street, but he confuses aesthetics with attractions and unfairly denigrates both as superficial fluff ("Will Charm City be saved by attractive sidewalks?" July 30).Why people move (or move back) to a particular place is not well understood.

ST. LOUIS -- It has to happen here, has to happen at Busch Stadium, has to happen -- with all due respect to Baltimore -- in perhaps the greatest baseball city in America.The emotion of Cal Ripken breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive-games record wouldn't have been the same if his big night had taken place in Oakland or Kansas City.And the impact of Mark McGwire breaking Roger Maris' single-season home run record won't be the same if he hits No. 62 on the road, even as an entire nation cheers his every move.

2 The first tenants are moving into Miller's Court, a $20 million conversion of a North Baltimore factory building designed to house young teachers and non-profit organizations. "There are so many things about this project that give us a smile each day," said Donald Manekin, who worked alongside his son, Thibault, and his Seawall Development Corp. to develop the project. Manekin said that much of the building will house agencies such as Teach for America, Catholic Charities' foster care and adoption division, the Baltimore Urban Debate League, Wide Angle Youth Media, Building Educated Leaders for Life and the Experience Corps.

Last week on Read Street, we posted a quiz on Baltimore's literary heritage; today we're expanding it. You can keep score at home, e-mail us with the answers (addresses are below) or comment at Read Street. Folks who answer via e-mail or online will be entered in a book drawing (you don't need a perfect score to win). Many thanks to the University of Baltimore's Literary Heritage Project and the Maryland Humanities Council, which provided information for the questions. 1. He learned about dirty deeds as a Pinkerton investigator here and wrote his best-selling detective novels, in a distinctive sparse, clipped prose.

In Baltimore, where the scarcity of Starbucks was elevated to the level of civic crisis just a few years ago, residents are now drowning in a frothy flood of gingerbread lattes and gasping for air under a mountain of cinnamon scones. The Seattle coffee giant has opened three stores in Baltimore in the past three months, the result of years of lobbying by the city and a recognition by Starbucks that Baltimoreans are as willing to pay $4 for a macchiato as anyone else. This, civic leaders say, is a good thing.

Margaret B. Brown, a retired apartment rental agent, died of heart disease Thursday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The longtime Govans resident was 89. Margaret B. Coleman was born in Portage, Pa., and lived in Harrisburg before moving to Baltimore in 1950. She was a rental agent for Regional Management Co. and leased apartments at Lothian, Parkway Drive and Oakridge Gardens, all in Northeast Baltimore. She retired about 25 years ago. She followed Democratic Party politics and enjoyed watching University of Maryland basketball and football games on television.

Ruth Easton Renaut, an artist, travel agent and homemaker, died of lymphoma last Monday at her son's home in Annapolis. A Baltimore resident since 1952, she was 80. As a teenager, she studied art at the Swain School of Design in New Bedford, Mass., which is now a part of the University of Massachusetts. She later studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, where she won a Peabody Award for painting in 1962. During the 1960s, she was an exhibitor and board member of the 26th Street Art Gallery in Baltimore.

Sidney Smith, a retired assistant regional director for the National Labor Relations Board, died of a stroke Sunday at the Northwest Hospital Center. The Pikesville resident was 92. Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., he earned a bachelor's degree at Brooklyn College. After moving to Baltimore in 1947, he received a degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law. He spent nearly 40 years in government service, including time with the Army Air Corps during World War II. For many years Mr. Smith was assistant regional director of NLRB Region 5 in Baltimore.

Elaine C. Fields, a retired secretary for the Baltimore chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, died of a heart attack Feb. 4 at Berlin Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on the Eastern Shore. The former West Baltimore resident was 97. Born Elaine Coulbourne in the Shore community of Wattsville, Va., she was sent to Baltimore's Frederick Douglass High School for her secondary education because there was no school in Wattsville available to blacks. She graduated in 1926.

Celestine Gray Tinson, a retired educator who was active in church affairs, died of cancer Friday at her son's home in Scottsdale, Ariz. The former Baltimore resident was 85. She was born and raised Celestine Cortez Daniels in Halifax County, N.C. She was a graduate of Eastman High School in Enfield, N.C., and earned a bachelor's degree in education from what is now Elizabeth City State University. She moved to Washington in the early 1950s and taught elementary school pupils for several years.

BERNARD L. EISLER "Bert" died on May 2, 2005. He resided at Atrium Village after moving to Baltimore from Lynchburg, VA. He is survived by two sons, Joel R. and Kim I. and one granddaughter. Services on Sunday, May 8, at 9:30 A.M. and 7:30 P.M. at 1808 Courtyard Circle, Pikesville. Contributions can be made to Agudath Shalom Congregation, P.O. Box 2262, Lynchburg, VA 24501.

Josephine Jordan, a retired Social Security Administration maintenance worker, died of cancer Dec. 8 at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. The East Baltimore resident was 74. She was born Josephine Williams and raised in Durham, N.C., where she graduated from public schools. She worked in Norfolk, Va., before moving to Baltimore in 1948. She had held positions at Johns Hopkins Hospital and at a nursing home before taking a job with the Social Security Administration in Woodlawn in the early 1980s.