Observation Deck

It is fashionable in the cost-conscious '90s to denigrate government spending on anything for primarily aesthetic reasons. Not surprisingly, then, the state Department of Transportation's plan for a $16.3 million face-lift at Baltimore-Washington International Airport is being met with grumbles from some who feel this is another example of taxpayer-funded extravagance. A planned $5.8 million observation lounge and a $500,000 outdoor garden featuring 150 life-sized steel geese are prime targets for ridicule.

Work began over the weekend on erecting a buffer of steel pilings as harbor-side protection for Baltimore's World Trade Center, replacing four Army barges that had served the purpose since shortly after the terrorist attacks Sept. 11. The Maryland Port Administration had the barges removed Friday. They had been used as a 75-foot buffer zone that had been recommended by the FBI - before Sept. 11, when passenger jets commandeered by terrorists hit New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon - to protect the 30-story building from waterborne attack.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge had been opened only four months when, in September of 1952, a Baltimore engineer became the first person to commit suicide from the bridge by jumping off the towering span.Although no exact figures are available, more than 75 people have followed his example in the last four decades -- including three men in the past two months. The recent rash of suicides has prompted the Maryland Transportation Authority, which oversees the bridge's operations, to consider whether anything can be done to prevent people from jumping to their deaths.

COLLEGE PARK -- Rising out of the rubble is a building that suggests that Maryland finally is going the extra yard in renovating its athletic facilities.In place of the 40-year-old press box at Byrd Stadium is a five-story structure that will house more than just the literary lions on fall afternoons.The entire stadium bowl has been cleared of the deteriorating concrete, repaired and resurfaced with a gleaming white finish. The aluminum benches are new. Men's and women's restroom facilities are being increased.

A newly built outdoor classroom at Piney Ridge Elementary School gives students and teachers an opportunity for hands-on learning about wetlands, aquatic life and the environment.The outdoor classroom, the first at a county elementary school, was made possible, in large part, through the efforts of Piney Ridge fifth-graders, who won a $3,000 grant for materials from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and students from South Carroll High School, who contributed labor to the project.The children and the teen-agers spent about six hours Tuesday building bridges, trails, an observation deck and a classroom on 8 acres of wetlands behind the school.

Rethink rules for ordaining Catholic clergy As a layperson who has worked professionally within the Catholic Church for 25 years, I greatly appreciate Maureen Dowd's balanced column "Church must fight abuse at its roots" (Opinion * Commentary, April 1). Like Ms. Dowd, I have been disturbed both by recent scandals and by some reactions to them. Child abusers must be dealt with openly and compassionately and removed from potential contact with minors. At the same time, we should not forget the great majority of priests who are faithful to their commitment to celibacy, even though it may entail significant sacrifice.

Does Baltimore's annual Artscape festival truly seem too much like Foodscape? That has been a criticism in the past because food vendors have occupied so much prime space along a key corridor of the festival. But it's not likely to apply this year, if organizers move ahead with plans they're considering to move anything that's "broiled, baked, grilled or fried" to a new area within the festival grounds. Relocating the food vendors is one of several changes under study by Bill Gilmore, the new director of the city agency in charge of the annual event, which is held in the Mount Royal cultural district near Bolton Hill.

Travelers passing through Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport will see extensive changes over the next two years as officials launch a $100 million renovation project that will transform the central section of the airport — including parts that date to its opening in 1950. The project, set to begin next year and to be finished in summer 2013, will allow passengers to move among concourses A, B and C without having to pass through security a second time. It will also replace a narrow checkpoint with a much larger one, which is expected to help relieve congestion during busy travel periods.

From rooftop perches and crammed sidewalks and even a clogged Jones Falls Expressway, thousands of spectators reveled in yesterday's big bang: demolition of the six high-rises at the Lafayette Courts housing project.Some came for the spectacle, others for the celebration. Some came for the symbolism, others for the dawn of a new era in public housing. But for some, yesterday's blast was a last, emotional look at home.'Giant family reunion'"This is the final chapter for us," said Gladys Jenkins, 38, pointing at the high-rise where she had lived all but the last two years.

Twenty-seven years ago, tens of thousands of people watched, shocked and transfixed, as Philippe Petit pulled off the performance of his lifetime. On Sept. 11, the man who walked a tightrope strung between New York's World Trade Center towers stood riveted by the same emotions and more, as he watched the twin towers crumble before his eyes. Petit, who through an ingenuous, clandestine and defiant act long ago helped New Yorkers embrace the stark, square skyscrapers that anchored Manhattan's skyline, immediately felt cut loose.