Patterson Park

A 19-year-old man shot multiple times after being approached by a group of assailants police said were dressed in "dark clothing and ski masks" died in the hospital Sunday evening. Police identified the victim Monday as Charles Fuller of the 600 Block of Potomac Street. Officers responded at 6:53 p.m. Sunday to reports of a shooting at E. Baltimore Street and Decker Avenue. Fuller was found by officers lying in front of a residence in the 3000 block of E. Baltimore Street and had been shot in the hip and the back, police said.

For the past two years, neighborhoods around Patterson Park in East Baltimore have been promoting the affordable rowhouses in their communities. They have now taken an interesting new step by opening a model home at 17 North Linwood Avenue, just north of the park."

Patterson Park is no stranger to skirmishes. It contained some of the fortifications that helped repel the British in the Battle of North Point in 1814. During the Civil War it was a military camp for Union soldiers.But even Patterson Park has seldom seen the kind of standoffs that are now being staged at its street corners. Twice a week after sunset, groups of residents and their dogs sweep through a 12-square-block area, shooing away prostitutes who are conducting business from the curbs.

As the current occupant of a quirky 136-year-old Victorian town house on Union Square, I find myself drawn to other aging neighborhoods.Often when I feel distressed about the city and its prospects, I drive to the marble-step-rowhouse streets around Patterson Park. In Butcher's Hill and surrounding areas someone always seems to be tinkering and has the scaffolding up. That lifts up my spirits, particularly if the weather cooperates and sun is shining.On one house tour, I was inspired by a number of residents who had taken dingy wrecks facing the park on Baltimore Street and turned them into showpieces, often at costs comparable to buying a suburban starter home without any character.

A 20-year-old East Baltimore man has been charged in the stabbing and robbery of a 60-year-old woman in the Patterson Park neighborhood earlier this month, police confirmed. The robbery was among a rash of such incidents reported recently in the Southeastern District, police statistics show. Over a seven-day period ending Nov. 17, the Southeastern District saw 19 robberies, the most in the city - that compares with just three reported over the same period in the Eastern District to the north, and two in the Northern District.

The controversy over a proposed parking lot in Baltimore City's Patterson Park shows once again that there is something profoundly wrong with our collective dependency on cars ("Residents irate at proposal to pave over green," Sept. 19). The alleged need for additional parking is a consequence of past decisions to destroy a viable public transportation system. While that decision was made long ago, we are doing little to change its continuing legacy. Building more parking capacity only sustains the problem, in addition to the environmental damage it will bring about.

The problem: A hole formed at a corner storm drain near Patterson Park despite calls for help. The back story: This week's Watchdog features a problem that may be a familiar sight to Baltimore residents. Cheryl Shiflett called to complain about a storm drain at Eastern Avenue and South Glover Street. Several months ago, she and other neighborhood residents noticed that the manhole and curb were crumbling. "The curb started to fall off, and cars of course were hitting that," Shiflett said.

Hundreds of Baltimore residents voiced strong opposition to a preliminary plan to add more parking spaces and an access road to Patterson Park during a community meeting there Monday night — at times shouting down city officials trying to explain it. The meeting, held at the park's Virginia S. Baker Recreation Center, was the first of four planned by City Councilman James Kraft and city officials after Kraft told residents about the plan last month...

Joanna Sullivan knows what she saw Saturday night as she and her husband peered through the window of their home overlooking Patterson Park - more than 20 youths involved in a "melee" on the tennis courts. But police statistics and incidents reports won't show that any such incident took place. The reason points to a disconnect between residents' experiences with crimes and longstanding police policies. The incident occurred at about 9 p.m. on the Patterson Park tennis courts.