Neighborhood Leaders

WITH THE appointment of Diane Bell as president of Empower Baltimore, pessimism among some Baltimore neighborhood leaders about their role in this project has turned to optimism. They believe their complaints have led to better cooperation with the business-oriented members of the empowerment zone board.That is good to hear. Baltimore's success last year in winning a coveted empowerment zone grant was due in part to heavy business-community-government interaction. The success of the program will hinge on making that cooperation an on-going reality.

Charlotte, North Carolina. -- Three dozen Charlotte neighborhoods, ranging from dirt-poor to affluent, met in May to adopt a ''Declaration of Interdependence'' -- a kind of mutual assistance pact to fight for equal attention from city and county governments on every issue from crack houses to parking, crime fighting to neighborhood policing to housing.The neighborhoods are agreeing to assist each other with information, education, training and plain old political infighting. For some of the most afflicted neighborhoods, that could mean a set of powerful new friends.

Charles Smith has an uncompromising vision for a tattered neighborhood just north of Pennsylvania Station."We could be the San Francisco of the East Coast," said the 31-year-old director of the Greenmount West Community Association. "Where else in America can you buy a marble-clad house for $60,000?"His domain is a chunk of Baltimore bounded by Green Mount Cemetery, North Avenue, an alley behind St. Paul Street and the Amtrak railway lines.It is a part of 19th Century Baltimore pockmarked by vacant houses and where government-subsidized housing units far outnumber the 150 or so individually owned homes.

In his effort to woo Baltimore, gubernatorial candidate Parris N. Glendening met with more than two dozen neighborhood leaders yesterday to hear their concerns and to seek their influential support.Mr. Glendening, a Democrat, told the group that he understands the city's problems, having tackled many of them in his 12 years as Prince George's County executive.He vowed to make urban schools his No. 1 priority, encourage city investment through property tax breaks and push for community policing.

Ronald Bailey takes his community work seriously. His business cards read: "Ronald Nathaniel Bailey, Community Activist, Proudly serving the people of Baltimore City."And he chairs the Do It Now Coalition, working with a group of tough West Baltimore neighborhoods to arrange neighborhood cleanups, vigils against drug dealers and overnight camp-outs for poor children.But only after finishing a six-month training program for neighborhood leaders can Mr. Bailey say he's ready to begin solving his community's more difficult problems: drug addiction, crime and illiteracy.

In Southeast Baltimore, where declining employment opportunities and illiteracy plague some of the city's oldest communities, neighborhood leaders have put together a blueprint for jobs, affordable housing and education programs.After 18 months of study and debate, the Southeast Planning Council -- made up of 40 to 50 neighborhood leaders -- last week released its Southeast Community Plan.The plan, perhaps the most ambitious created by any group of Baltimore community leaders, calls for an industrial park, the creation of small businesses, the formation of employment training programs, the expansion of literacy and Head Start programs, and a program to help businesses find homes for workers in the area.

The Loch Raven Library building, closed earlier this year by Baltimore County belt-tightening, will reopen in three weeks as a community health center and as the headquarters for county child sex abuse investigations.Starting July 1, the building will house the Towson Health Center and the Child Advocacy Center. County officials say they will save taxpayers $90,000 in annual lease payments by moving the two agencies from rented quarters elsewhere in Towson.The county is spending $30,000 to get the building ready for its new occupants and to improve access to the handicapped.

For years, Wayne Skinner has spent much of his time and energy with neighborhood groups working to safeguard their communities from threats -- including the excesses of commercial developers.Now the Towson Development Corp., a key advocate for business and development in the Baltimore County seat, has hired him to help map out its goals in a recession-weakened economy.He replaces Leslie Graef, who retired in June as the TDC's executive director.The choice has surprised many in Towson, even Mr. Skinner.

A fledgling army of community activists dedicated itself yesterday to mounting a war against the urban habits that have made many of Baltimore's streams inhospitable for fish or even a leisurely walk along their banks.Organizers for the non-profit group Save Our Streams shared tactics with about 50 neighborhood leaders who gathered for a planning session at the Liberty Medical Center. But, the organizers said, it will ultimately be up to the leaders to clean up the mud, tires and assorted debris that clog city streams.

Helen Shaw has gone to court six times in the last few years to complain about two dilapidated properties in her Belair-Edison neighborhood that were being used to store junk -- from motorcycles to musical instruments.Each time, the judge fined the property owner and ordered him to clean the buildings. Each time, the order was ignored.In October, members of the Belair Improvement Association played their trump card: They invited Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke to come with them to court."He told the judge that he had seen the buildings and that they were eyesores and something had to be done," Mrs. Shaw said.