Penn Station

Head down, eyes focused, Alexis Brown sat on a bench at Penn Station yesterday, typing fast on a laptop. "I'm writing a paper that's due in an hour," said Brown, a second-year law student at the University of Baltimore, her tone slightly anxious. She'd been too busy to notice, she said, that the train station was newly equipped as a Wi-Fi "hot spot," a system that would enable her, if she chose, to send her paper directly to her professor via e-mail. The Wi-Fi setup was established Monday at Penn Station and at four other Amtrak terminals on the Northeast corridor - Philadelphia's 30th Street Station, Wilmington Station in Delaware, Washington's Union Station and Penn Station in Manhattan.

Conquering Gotham A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnels By Jill Jonnes Viking Books / 368 pages / $27.95 In 1901, only one railroad came directly into Manhattan. The jewel in the crown of the Vanderbilt family, the New York Central ran along the Hudson, then crossed the Harlem River into the financial capital of the world. Ten other railroads ended their runs in New Jersey, then ferried passengers and packages into midtown. Enter Alexander Cassatt, the seventh president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the largest transportation corporation in the world.

Teams of law-enforcement officials began patrolling transportation hubs yesterday in at least 10 cities, including Baltimore, as a visible deterrent over the holiday, Transportation Security Administration officials said. Units including canine officers, air marshals and officers trained to observe behavior, called VIPR teams, have been sent to support local transit police at airports and subway stations in cities along Interstate 95 such as Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Providence, R.I., and Boston.

The destruction in 1964 of New York City's Pennsylvania Station, by its cash-strapped owner, the Pennsylvania Railroad, created international outrage. "Until the first blow fell, no one was convinced that Penn Station really would be demolished," said an editorial in The New York Times, "or that New York would permit this monumental act of vandalism against one of the largest and finest landmarks of its age of Roman elegance. "Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and ultimately deserves," the editorial continued.

THE PROBLEM -- The bus shelter on St. Paul Street near Penn Station is in disrepair and has no directional map. THE BACKSTORY -- Douglas Manger of Pikesville wrote an impassioned complaint to Watchdog about trying to take the bus after getting off a train at Penn Station during a recent rainstorm: "Imagine your excitement visiting Baltimore for the first time. You step off the train and on a whim decide to take the city bus to gain a feel for the urban landscape. The porter directs you to the St. Paul side of the station.

Amtrak is spending at least $10.5 million to prepare Pennsylvania Station for high-speed rail service and is exploring plans to turn part of the landmark terminal into a hotel.Baltimore's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation, a city agency that monitors changes to the 1911 station at 1525 N. Charles St., approved plans for the high-speed rail-related improvements last month.Amtrak, the nation's passenger railroad and owner of Penn Station, is working with a developer to explore constructing a moderately priced hotel, with 75 to 80 rooms, on the station's upper three levels, above the main concourse.

IT IS quite miraculous what imaginative architects can do. At the Charles Theater, thanks to stadium seating, they were able to cram four additional screens into the space where the Famous Ballroom used to be -- plus a concession area, restrooms and other amenities.A star-studded ribbon cutting today will celebrate the result of months of reconstruction. Guests will have five films to choose from, champagne, popcorn and live music.Over the next four days, the Charles will be among the locations used by the Maryland Film Festival.

Civility broke down slowly but surely on Amtrak train 110.Stalled by Hurricane Floyd on the tracks south of Penn Station around noon Thursday, passengers at first chatted, worked on their laptops and played gin. An hour passed, then two. The muffins and sodas ran out. The power went off.The mood turned particularly surly around 4 p.m., when cell phone batteries began to die. Then toilets overflowed. By 6, there was no stopping the businessmen in suits and women in high heels who jumped from the train and traversed a muddy bank to freedom in the West Baltimore neighborhood of Rosemont.

Fares, times and other things you should know about our four ways to get to Manhattan:PLANES ... What: One-hour Southwest Airlines "no-frills" shuttle from BWI to MacArthur Airport in Islip, Long Island, then a train into Manhattan. Cost: $102 round-trip if returning the same day. If you stay overnight, the fare is $88. Fares include taxes. (By comparison, TWA flies from BWI to LaGuardia for $188; Delta flies from Washington National to LaGuardia for $170.) Conditions: $102 fare requires 14-day advance purchase; $88 fare requires seven-day advance purchase.

A $23 million makeover of the Charles Street bridge at Penn Station will shut one of Baltimore's busiest roadways for roughly 26 months beginning this summer, launching a siege of heavy demolition, rebuilding -- and frustration, as commuters and businesses grapple with traffic upheaval.Area merchants complain that plans to temporarily close the crumbling 1911 northbound span at the midtown Amtrak and commuter rail terminal might ruin their businesses, which feed off expressway access and foot traffic.

I often find myself walking through the neighborhoods around Penn Station where Artscape is being staged this weekend. After years of not much happening, these blocks now seem to change before my eyes, even if so many of the buildings seem underused or boarded up. It's a curious part of Baltimore that often keeps its secrets to itself. Discovering what goes on here has proved a lot of fun. There are artists' lofts and studios scattered around the Mount Royal-North Avenue area. The talented people here tell me they like the modest rents and are not concerned with modest exteriors.

The news that Pennsylvania Station's unused upper floors will be renovated and used as a hotel ran through my head as I passed Baltimore's main railroad depot. On a gloomy Friday morning, it looked like a big gray ship marooned in the mothball fleet. The place needs a good paint job. Its window sashes are sagging. The window glass appears filthy. And yet it remains a magnificent Beaux Arts structure that could well be a catalyst for more upgrades in this part of town. We can only hope that a sharp-looking station with a new, attached business could add some snap to this part of Baltimore.

After years of planning and false starts, Amtrak has reached agreement with a developer to turn the upper three levels of Baltimore's historic Pennsylvania Station into a 77-room hotel, a first for an Amtrak-owned station along the northeast corridor. Amtrak officials confirmed this week that they have signed a lease with Hospitality Partners of Bethesda that will enable the company to build and run a "boutique" hotel inside the 1911 train station while it continues to operate as a railroad terminal.

State won't deactivate crabbers permits After a flurry of protests, the state has dropped plans to deactivate the licenses of about 1,000 commercial crabbers who had not been crabbing much lately. The Department of Natural Resources had proposed "freezing" the licenses of those holding a "limited crab catcher" permit who had not reported any catch from 2004 through 2007. That license allows fishing for crabs with up to 50 wire-mesh "pots" or with a trotline. State officials had said they were trying to protect the Chesapeake Bay's beleaguered crab population by preventing an upsurge in crabbing by some of the 4,000 or so crab license holders who are not active in any given year.

Within one square block of the Charles North neighborhood there is a gallery announcing a coming live painting; a spoken word exhibit; a theater staging a film noir comedy; and a bar where the staff is known to perform on a trapeze. So it's no surprise that the neighborhood, an eclectic mix of galleries, brownstones and theaters near Penn Station, is drawing residents who enjoy art and entertainment. "It's a lot of fun here," says Tim Reed, a 26-year-old resident and booster who was among the first tenants in the renovated Railway Express building.

The new harborside Morgan Stanley building reminds me of just how much Baltimore invested in - and was changed by - the relaxed credit and available money of the past financial cycle. The highly visible structure now going up on an eastern tip of Fells Point is one of the dozens of projects conceived and executed during this boom decade. Look around Baltimore and observe the physical legacy of the Alan Greenspan-Freddie Mac economy. The results of the available credit-construction building boom are so evident along Key Highway, at Silo Point in Locust Point and Harbor East.

The beautiful Beaux Arts-style Penn Station was constructed in 1911, and it looks like the windows have not been washed since. The Venetian blinds have not been relieved of their crookedness or the boxes and other paraphernalia at the windows removed from their obtrusive locations. This unattractive scene faces all who pass the station going north on Charles Street and south on St. Paul Street heading downtown. Signs designating the adjacent area as the Station North Arts and Entertainment District have been posted.

Maybe you've booked that spring getaway, and now you're counting the days. But before you pack the car and speed off to the airport - or harass that unsuspecting relative for a ride - consider your transportation alternatives. With its myriad transit options, Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport was recently ranked as one of the 10 easiest airports to get to by Aviation.com. You can take public transportation (train, light rail or bus), drive and park at one of many airport or private lots, or go by cab, shuttle or limousine.

Lori Kantziper of Mount Washington, under the delusion that this column is written by a "local travel expert," sent this query: My 17-year-old son and three friends are going to attend the Washington Wizards game in D.C. on Friday. The game starts at 8 p.m. They really don't want to drive, but I can't think of another way for them to get there. If they take the Metro from a suburb, then there's the time involved of waiting for the return Metro back to the car and then driving home. That could take an extra hour or so. I do remember one of your columns discussing the MTA bus that leaves from BWI and goes to D.C., but I have a feeling that it just runs during commuter hours.

The Station North Townhomes had no shortage of pre-construction buyers, lured by the promise of luxury living near Penn Station in Baltimore's emerging arts district. Prices in 2005 reflected a red-hot market, rising tens of thousands of dollars with each batch of new contracts. But when construction wrapped up last spring, subprime mortgage woes had begun to surface and the housing market was slumping. Buyers with contracts no longer qualified for loans, and investors - who made up about a quarter of the buyers - dropped out. The four-story, four-bedroom homes, with granite kitchens, open floor plans, huge windows and garages, sat in stark contrast to nearby blocks of boarded and vacant homes.