Penn Station

A year after Mayor Martin O'Malley put the brakes on plans for a new bus terminal near Penn Station, the head of Greyhound Lines is appealing to city politicians for help finding a new location in or near downtown. Craig Lentzsch, president of Greyhound, stressed the importance of maintaining a downtown location in a meeting with Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, City Council members and business leaders. Greyhound has an agreement to operate its terminal on West Fayette Street for the next three years, but the landlord has the right to cancel the lease with six months' notice, Lentzsch said.

NOT EVERYTHING in life takes longer than expected. The Charles Street bridge, which has been closed for reconstruction since May, 2000, will reopen for traffic in September. Ahead of schedule. But the glittering new bridge will be in sharp contrast to the neighborhood just beyond it. The blocks from Penn Station to North Avenue, between Maryland and Greenmount avenues, look shockingly seedy. Actually, the five-screen Charles Theatre is doing booming business and has been joined by a good new restaurant.

They met three times at Penn Station to discuss the robbery of a cartel's drug stash house, then on Thursday, strapped with handguns, gathered at a 7-11 in Hampden for a last-minute rendezvous before carrying out the plot, according to court documents. The whole operation was a ruse, however, set up by federal agents. It's at least the second time the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has used the method in recent months to identify and arrest home invasion suspects.

Few local construction projects have tried the public's patience more than Penn Station Plaza, the forecourt to Baltimore's historic Pennsylvania Station. The open space and roadway in front of the 1911 train station have been under construction for eight years and counting. That's six years longer than it took to build the station itself. But the end is in sight. City officials say the plaza finally will open in mid-September along with most (but not all) of the three-block section of Charles Street closed for reconstruction since May of 2000.

STATION NORTH is the catchy new name for an underused chunk of real estate bounded by Penn Station, North Avenue, Howard Street and Greenmount Avenue. It is the city's candidate for a new state arts and entertainment district, a designation that would bring tax breaks for artists. Seven city neighborhoods applied for the honor. Without a doubt, Station North was the worthiest candidate. It's already the home of the Charles Theatre, the Everyman Theater, the fledgling Heritage Cinema House and the Maryland Institute College of Art's new post-baccalaureate studios.

The Purple Line of the Charm City Circulator shuttle service opened Monday, ferrying passengers — for free — between Ostend Street in South Baltimore and Penn Station. The hybrid electric buses, which are funded by increases in city parking taxes, will operate at 10-minute intervals along the north-south corridor, the second of three shuttle routes to open. Ted Walls, a Federal Hill accountant whose office is along the Purple route, was excited about the opening.

Amtrak will open a 72-room hotel entirely inside Baltimore's historic and increasingly busy Pennsylvania Station in the next two years, the developer and Amtrak confirmed yesterday. The developer, Columbia-based James M. Jost & Co. Inc., plans to begin construction on a moderately priced hotel next summer and spend a year converting second-, third- and fourth-floor offices into guest rooms. The rooms will be accessible from an elevator in the train station's lobby. "The only change commuters will see from the lobby will be hotel signage," said James M. Jost, the company's owner.

Dale Dusman wishes drivers would notice his neighborhood as they zip past Pennsylvania Station. For more than 30 years, the former elementary school art teacher has waited for motorists stuck at a stoplight not to count the seconds until it turns green. Like many in the area, he wants to see people strolling past the shops, restaurants and entertainment venues of the three-year-old Station North Arts and Entertainment District. "Now, you can't wait for the light to change," said Dusman, a Lutheran pastor at St. Mark's Church at St. Paul and 20th streets.

A year after Mayor Martin O'Malley put the brakes on plans for a new bus terminal near Penn Station, the head of Greyhound Lines is appealing to city politicians for help finding a new location in or near downtown. Craig Lentzsch, president of Greyhound, stressed the importance of maintaining a downtown location in a meeting with Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, City Council members and business leaders. Greyhound has an agreement to operate its terminal on West Fayette Street for the next three years, but the landlord has the right to cancel the lease with six months' notice, Lentzsch said.

Last week, as a construction team struggled to integrate the male and female sections of Jonathan Borof- sky's new sculpture, Male/Female, by banging it in the head with a crowbar, many passers-by posed the same question: "Is that thing permanent?" This week, with the five-story aluminum giants cleanly welded and firmly planted outside the doors to Baltimore's Pennsylvania Station, permanence was no longer an issue. Yes, Baltimore is either permanently: a) stuck with or b) blessed with Borofsky's enormous, shiny silhouettes of the male/female forms.