Patterson Park

3 sought in stabbing near Patterson Park Police were looking for three suspects and a motive in a stabbing near Patterson Park yesterday afternoon. A man was walking in the 2400 block of E. Baltimore St. shortly before 5:30 p.m. when three people approached and stabbed him multiple times, Detective Nicole Monroe said. The man was taken to a hospital, where he was in stable condition, Monroe said. Matthew Hay Brown Beltway at Perring ramps shut for repairs The State Highway Administration will temporarily close two ramps at the Baltimore Beltway interchange at Perring Parkway (Exit 30)

Three teenagers accepted plea agreements yesterday that could send them to prison for eight years in exchange for testifying against a fourth defendant accused of the near-fatal beating of Zachary Sowers near his Patterson Park home June 2. Eric Price, 17, Arthur Jeter, 18, and Wilburt Martin, 19, pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery after a lengthy court proceeding before Baltimore Circuit Judge John C. Themelis. Under the plea bargain, each defendant faces 15 years in prison, but prosecutors say they will ask that the sentences be further reduced if the three testify against Trayvon Ramos, who is accused of beating Sowers.

Michel Zeltzman, a Johns Hopkins nurse practitioner who spent more than 20 years treating brain tumor patients, died of a melanoma Jan. 26 at his Patterson Park home. He was 70. Born in Paris, he learned English on two visits to London, where his mother had relatives. After Paris was occupied by German troops - and the death of his father, Albert, in the Majdanek concentration camp - he lived in the south of France. After Paris was liberated by Allied forces, Mr. Zeltzman returned to Paris.

The marble fountain that sits near the Pagoda at the northwest end of Patterson Park is among the first architectural elements designed at the park and serves as a peaceful oasis from the noisy traffic that zooms past on nearby streets. A popular spot among Baltimore residents, it was designed by George A. Frederick in 1865 and restored by the Department of Parks and Recreation in 2004.

They stole his cell phone, credit cards and a watch. But for those common and easily replaceable items, Zachary "Zach" Sowers' attackers also nearly took his life. Two teenagers beat the 27-year-old near his home east of Patterson Park, according to Baltimore police, as he walked home from a Canton bar. Since the attack June 2, the part-time graduate student has been in a coma at Johns Hopkins Hospital while his friends and family - including his wife of eight months - have stood vigil and chronicled his slow recovery on an Internet site.

Baltimore : Patterson Park Santa to visit ice rink today Santa Claus will visit the Dominic "Mimi" DiPietro Family Ice Skating Rink at Patterson Park from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. today. Roasted marshmallows, hot chocolate and cookies will be available, according to the Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks. Admission is $4. The rink is at 200 S. Linwood Ave. and is open from October through mid-April. For more information on Skate with Santa, call 410-396-9392. Transportation : Bay Bridge EZ Pass overcharges discovered Some EZ Pass users who cross the Bay Bridge might have been overcharged at the toll plaza for several days in October.

After complaints about the management of the city-run Patterson Park pool emerged this week, Mayor Sheila Dixon yesterday announced a plan for the pool that includes greater oversight by top Recreation and Parks administrators, increased staff training and recruitment of additional "experienced" staff members. "I was deeply troubled by the concerns the community has about the center," Dixon said in a statement. "Residents bring their children and families to enjoy the summer by the pool.

On August 18, 2007, LONNIE T. PAYNE, JR. Friends may call at the FAMILY OWNED MARCH FUNERAL HOME EAST, 1101 E. North Avenue on Tuesday after 2 P.M. The family will receive friends at Highway To Heaven Apostolic, 1650 N. Patterson Park. Ave on Wednesday at 11 A.M. Funeral Services will follow at 11:30 A.M.

When Ed Rutkowski and his wife moved to the Patterson Park area on the city's east side in 1986, it was the sort of place, he said, where everything was in good shape and neighbors pitched in to keep it that way. But over the next decade, the region slid headfirst into decline. Drug dealers set up shop in its 140-acre park. Prostitutes worked the corners, and Rutkowski's neighbors - the same ones he saw at community Christmas parties - abandoned Baltimore in droves. Rutkowski, however, got to work.

Some of the kids participating in Baltimore's 67th annual doll show yesterday were mostly just interested in the free ice skating planned after the judging. Not Destiny Cooke. The 10-year-old left no detail unattended as she dressed her My Twinn doll - named It's-A-Me - as herself. The girl and her inanimate companion wore matching white ribbons around their pigtails, matching wire-rimmed glasses, matching magenta V-neck sweaters, gray plaid kilts and black patent leather shoes. "I really think we may win this competition if we just hold our strength together," said Destiny, a fifth-grader at Dr. Nathan A. Pitts-Ashburton Elementary/Middle School.

No lantern yet? Don't fret. This year, procrastinators will have the opportunity to walk in the Creative Alliance's Great Halloween Lantern Parade. Pre-parade activities at the new lantern festival, which begins before Saturday's parade, include last-minute lantern-making, hayrides around the park, live music, vendors and a beer garden. Arrive before 5 p.m. and pay $5 to construct your own lamps of bamboo, wax and tissue paper. Molly Ross, director and principal artist for the nonprofit Nana Projects Inc., an artists' collective, directs the parade, which is in its 10th year, and helps to oversee the festivities.

A sliver of green downtown, sandwiched between busy city streets, is being turned into a dog park. The Downtown Partnership and the city are working together to turn the tenth of a grassy acre, city property, into a fenced-in park for people to let their dogs off-leash. Though much smaller than the city's two existing dog parks - in Canton and another in Locust Point that just opened a few weeks ago - this would be Baltimore's third spot where dogs can legally be off a leash. "We saw the need," said Bob Dengler, the Downtown Partnership's vice president of capital projects.

The problem:: A smelly utility pole languished in Patterson Park. The backstory:: John Lundquist noticed a utility pole lying in the park across the street from his Ellwood Avenue home, as well as several others on Linwood Avenue, in July. The poles on Linwood disappeared after a few weeks, but "this one across the street just sat and sat and sat." He called 311 to report it. He spotted a tag on the pole indicating that it belonged to Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., so he also called the utility.

To the delight of city dog owners, Baltimore's second dog park opens today in Locust Point. About the same size as the Canton Dog Park, which has been open a few years, the new park, on Andre Street at the edge of Latrobe Park, has a few more bells and whistles. For instance, dogs will be able to splash in a creek-like water feature and scale a hill covered in artificial "canine turf." "We live in the city where there's not a lot of green space, and this is kind of like our yard for our dogs," said Jamie Kelley, president of Friends of the Locust Point Dog Park, a group that helped raise money for the park.

It was, the auctioneer said, "a very unusual opportunity" - 12 renovated rowhouses in and around Baltimore's Patterson Park neighborhood, for sale in whirlwind back-to-back auctions. But then, the reason they were up for grabs is very unusual, too. They belonged to the Patterson Park Community Development Corp., a nonprofit group that helped the East Baltimore neighborhood take a stunning U-turn from rapid decline into a hot place to live. The group countered blight and flight by snapping up vacant homes, rehabbing the properties and selling some while renting out others.

Highlandtown is an artists' haven and a city arts and entertainment district bounded by Haven Street on the east, Pratt Street to the north, Patterson Park to the west and Eastern Avenue to the south. The neighborhood has a blue-collar, small-town America feel. But, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 70 percent of its workforce is white-collar, 65 percent of the households don't have children and the median age is 36. It was traditionally a German-American blue-collar working neighborhood that is now a Polish, Italian, Irish and Latino community of artists.

Though the Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are still two weeks away, there are those in the Latino community who are confident that the position is hers. Take Humberto Cintron, for example. He's already arranging for 25 busloads of people - a coalition of various groups from East Harlem - to travel from New York City, where he lives, to Washington for her swearing-in. He shrugs it off as a sure thing, puffing lightly with pride for his fellow Puerto Rican.

The sun was not blinding, but humidity hung thick in the air as 20 or so teenage boys waited in line Saturday for a chance to dive into cool waters. On its opening day, the Patterson Park pool in East Baltimore was hopping. Shatira Evans, in a blue one-piece bathing suit, brought along eight children, ranging in age from 3 to 8, to swim Saturday afternoon. The group included her godchildren and cousins, and her 5-year-old daughter Kwaliea Vaughn, in a red-and-white-striped two-piece bathing suit and a rainbow of hair beads.

Just when you thought it was about time to get back into the water - it is. Baltimore's summer swim season begins this weekend with openings at two of its largest and most popular public pools. Druid Hill and Patterson Park pools will open for weekends only beginning today as part of the city Department of Recreation and Parks' abbreviated, early opening - a first for the city's swim season. The pools will open from noon to 7 p.m. Saturdays and from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays. Admission is $1.50 for each.

Dr. Joseph Peter Gutkoska, a former longtime professor and director of reading programs at Towson University who was also a decorated Korean War veteran, died Tuesday of heart failure at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 81. Born in Baltimore and raised in Highlandtown, Dr. Gutkoska was 16 when he dropped out of Patterson Park High School to enlist in the Marine Corps in 1944. He was sent to the Pacific, but because Dr. Gutkoska was underage, he was not allowed to participate in landings.