Parking Garage

The abilities of some intelligent, civic-minded people are going to waste while about a quarter million tax dollars sit idle. This isn't necessarily the result of some government boondoggle, just one of those things that didn't work out as planned. But that doesn't mean officials can't do anything to correct this situation. The Howard County Revenue Authority has had little to do in the five years since it was formed, initially to study and secure funding for a parking garage in Ellicott City's historic district.

For a little over a century, starting with the end of the Revolutionary War, Maryland craftsmen were producing some of the finest home furnishings anywhere. Inlaid bellflower furniture, painted furniture, repousse silver, case clocks and other goods made in Baltimore, Annapolis, Frederick and elsewhere during this period are still admired for their design, quality and craftsmanship. Today, furniture from all over the world is easy and often inexpensive to come by, but there remains a demand for quality furnishings made by hand.

Many people are afraid of crime in parking lots and garages, and not without reason. According to a 1999 U.S. Department of Justice report, they are the second most frequent place for nonviolent crimes and the third most frequent place for violent crimes in the United States. That said, hiring armed guards at $40 to $50 an hour to patrol parking garages in downtown Baltimore may not always be necessary. A recent report from the city's inspector general, David McClintock, said much the same thing.

The following is compiled from police reports from the Towson and Cockeysville precincts. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible. Towson York Road, 7100 block, between 7 p.m. May 15 and 6 a.m. May 16. Schwinn mountain bike stolen from detached garage at residence. Dulaney Valley Road, 800 block, between 6:11 and 6:17 p.m. May 16. Man seen on security video attempting to steal 2004 Honda Odyssey from parking garage.

Baltimore's first public electric-vehicle charging stations debuted Thursday in a Mount Royal parking garage, as places begin to pop up across the Baltimore-Washington area to plug in the new battery-powered cars trickling off automakers' assembly lines. The developers of the Fitzgerald, a recently opened apartment building on Mount Royal Avenue, installed two charging stations in the adjoining 1,245-space parking garage, which is available to the public as well as residents. The University of Baltimore and Lyric Opera House are nearby.

A proposed 76-unit apartment house and two-level parking garage on public land just off Main Street in historic Ellicott City won't go forward without community support, Howard County Housing Commission members were promised by county housing officials last week. "There is no effort to move that forward, at the moment," housing director Stacy Spann told the four commission members at a meeting Tuesday night in the county's Gateway building in Columbia. "There's no movement afoot on that whatsoever.

Students at growing Howard Community College in Columbia are facing the second tuition increase in as many years next fall, after college trustees unanimously approved a $4-per-credit boost for the budget they will submit to County Executive Ken Ulman. The increase, double the $2-per-credit rise approved last year, was approved without discussion at a brief board meeting Wednesday night at the college, though board Chairwoman Kathy Rensin said it was discussed at length at a work session in January "We have been discussing it for a while, wrestling with it with it — trying to put it off," Rensin said after the vote.

In Las Vegas, gambling is the biggest game in town. But pedestrians don't get to play. A visitor to Sin City recently found that while all manner of vice might be winked at, jaywalking is not. On downtown Fremont Street, knowledgeable locals warned pedestrians about crossing against signals, telling them that police aggressively issue tickets for the offense. And wouldn't you know? Even in the rain, pedestrians in one of the least sober cities on the planet were actually waiting their turn.

A Baltimore City homicide detective was shot in the leg about a block from police headquarters Tuesday night. The plainclothes detective was shot a little after 9 p.m. in a parking garage in the unit block of South Frederick Street, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said. The unidentified 13-year police department veteran was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with a graze wound to his left thigh, an injury not considered life-threatening, he said. The detective was in the garage to get something out of his car when a man approached with a small-caliber revolver, Bealefeld said.