Pigtown

Dropkick Murphys, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, The Gaslight Anthem and more will perform at Carroll Park in Pigtown on Sept. 14 for the debut of The Shindig, an all-rock music festival, organizer Paul Manna announced today. Tickets go on sale Friday. Other artists scheduled to perform include Clutch, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reverend Horton Heat, The Hold Steady, Jimmie's Chicken Shack, Larry and His Flask, The Glenmont Popes and Bad Seed Rising. There will be two stages but no sets will overlap.

STX, which built its business through innovation on the lacrosse field, aims to play in a larger but more slippery arena - the ice rink. The Baltimore-based sports equipment maker plans to introduce a line of ice hockey sticks and protective equipment by late 2014. The company, based in Pigtown, has begun building new office space and posting job openings to prepare for the launch. It's a rare foray into a new business for STX, which developed the first plastic lacrosse head in 1970.

Baltimore police have identified a 55-year-old woman found stabbed inside her home in Pigtown and said a man who was driven to the hospital by a friend after being shot in Southwest Baltimore has died from his injuries. Deborah Simon was found by relatives inside a home in the 1200 block of Washington Blvd. on Monday afternoon, and police said she had been stabbed several times. Property was taken from the home, and detectives are exploring whether she might have known her attacker.

Baltimore police said an officer who was integral in arresting a suspect in the Cherry Hill shooting that killed a 1-year-old boy Friday night shot a suspect connected to a Saturday afternoon shooting near a downtown deli. The officer-involved shooting took place in the 300 block of S. Poppleton St. in Pigtown, according to Sgt. Eric Kowalczyk, who said the suspect was struck several times and is being treated at an area hospital. Kowalczyk said the man was armed but that it was not yet clear whether he shot at officers first.

I usually enjoy Dan Rodricks ' columns, even when I don't fully agree with them. This one — about the recent Maryland Court of Appeals decision deeming any "pit bull" or "pit bull mix" dog to be inherently dangerous — I simply find dismaying ("Pit bulls: Own one at your risk," April 30). I live in the Pigtown neighborhood of Baltimore. When my suburban friends come visit, they hold their kids close, and they look askance at some of my more "unusual" neighbors. Some of them are only too happy to hop back in their cars and scurry back to the counties.

Baltimore's economic-development arm said Tuesday that it is requesting proposals from firms for a mixed-use redevelopment of five properties in the Pigtown neighborhood. The properties — at 925, 927, 929, 931 and 937 Washington Blvd. — are a mix of commercial and residential space. The Baltimore Development Corp. said it wants developers to propose plans that will anchor the Pigtown/Washington Village Business District. The quasi-public agency wants to see proposals to rehabilitate the buildings "to the largest extent possible.

PriceRite discount supermarket is expected to open a 39,000-square-foot store in West Baltimore by the end of the year, according to the owner of the Mount Clare Junction shopping plaza. DLC Management Corp. announced Tuesday that PriceRite has signed a lease to be an anchor tenant at the open-air shopping plaza in Pigtown, at the corner of West Pratt and South Carey streets. “We are thrilled to welcome PriceRite to Mount Clare Junction. It was our priority to bring an established grocer back to this shopping center in order to serve a clear demand from the community,” said Adam Greenberg, DLC's associate director of Mid-Atlantic leasing, in a statement.

The PriceRite discount supermarket planned for the Mount Clare Junction shopping plaza in West Baltimore will open Wednesday, the chain said today. The Sun's Steve Kilar reported in October that PriceRite had signed a lease to open in a 39,000-square-foot anchor spot in the Pigtown center, at the corner of West Pratt and South Carey streets. Other tenants are Family Dollar, Downtown Locker Room and Rent-A-Center. PriceRite, a wholly owned subsidiary of Elizabeth, N.J.,-based Wakefern Food Corp., said the location is the first in the city.

It started about 30 years ago — no one seems to recall the exact date — when three men who'd grown up together in Pigtown took a vacant lot at the corner of Ward and Bayard streets, sank two metal pegs into the ground and started tossing horseshoes back and forth. None of the three — not Roy Whitney, not his cousin Emory Green, not Emory's little brother, Leon — had a clue they were founding a tradition. "We started playing for the fun of it, then word got around, people started coming from other neighborhoods, and it kept on growing," Leon Green, 62, said Saturday afternoon as rhythm and blues music, the smell of burgers on barbecues and the "clink" of horseshoes filled the air at the First Annual Horseshoe Tournament at the Pit In Pigtown.

A neighbor of a woman found stabbed death this week in Pigtown has been charged in her killing, police said Thursday.  Police say Antonio Johnson, 52, of the 1200 block of Washington Blvd., has been charged with the murder of Deborah Simon, 55, who had moved a few doors down after her home caught fire in August.  Johnson has been in jail since Nov. 4 on an unrelated assault charge - the day before Simon was found by a relative. But police believe the killing occurred on Nov. 3, and say they found some of her stolen belongings, including a television and cell phone.  "We believe he was looking for money, and she let him in because he was a neighbor," spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.  Court records show Johnson has been picked up for drug and assault cases.

Dropkick Murphys, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, The Gaslight Anthem and more will perform at Carroll Park in Pigtown on Sept. 14 for the debut of The Shindig, an all-rock music festival, organizer Paul Manna announced today. Tickets go on sale Friday. Other artists scheduled to perform include Clutch, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reverend Horton Heat, The Hold Steady, Jimmie's Chicken Shack, Larry and His Flask, The Glenmont Popes and Bad Seed Rising. There will be two stages but no sets will overlap.

A man died in a shooting reported in Southwest Baltimore about 4 a.m. Thursday, city police said. Officers were called to the 1300 block of Carroll Street in the Washington Village/Pigtown neighborhood, where they found a black man with a gunshot wound to the chest. Homicide detectives are investigating. The victim was taken to an area hospital, where he died, police said. No other information was immediately available. The shooting death is the first police have reported in the city in more than a week, after two shootings in West Baltimore left two women and two men dead March 19. A man and woman were shot while driving a pickup truck in West Baltimore on Monday but were expected to survive.

Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake has received a $1 million grant from The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, of Owings Mills, that will go toward building and rehabbing homes in Baltimore. “We are proud to receive support from the Weinberg Foundation to assist the financially disadvantaged and vulnerable individuals and families in our homeownership program,” said Habitat Chesapeake CEO Mike Posko. The grant will go toward rehabilitating 56 vacant properties over two years, Posko said in a statement.

Sherwin M. Adelman, a retired U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health economist and strategist, died Feb. 4 from complications of dementia and heart failure at Sunrise Senior and Assisted-Living of McLean, Va. The longtime Pigtown resident was 77. Born and raised in Chicago, Sherwin Mark Adelman was 17 when he enlisted in the Army. He later earned his General Educational Development diploma. Discharged in 1954 from the Army, where he had been a cook, Mr. Adelman earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1959 and a master's degree in government in 1965, both from Southern Illinois University.

The PriceRite discount supermarket planned for the Mount Clare Junction shopping plaza in West Baltimore will open Wednesday, the chain said today. The Sun's Steve Kilar reported in October that PriceRite had signed a lease to open in a 39,000-square-foot anchor spot in the Pigtown center, at the corner of West Pratt and South Carey streets. Other tenants are Family Dollar, Downtown Locker Room and Rent-A-Center. PriceRite, a wholly owned subsidiary of Elizabeth, N.J.,-based Wakefern Food Corp., said the location is the first in the city.

A neighbor of a woman found stabbed death this week in Pigtown has been charged in her killing, police said Thursday.  Police say Antonio Johnson, 52, of the 1200 block of Washington Blvd., has been charged with the murder of Deborah Simon, 55, who had moved a few doors down after her home caught fire in August.  Johnson has been in jail since Nov. 4 on an unrelated assault charge - the day before Simon was found by a relative. But police believe the killing occurred on Nov. 3, and say they found some of her stolen belongings, including a television and cell phone.  "We believe he was looking for money, and she let him in because he was a neighbor," spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.  Court records show Johnson has been picked up for drug and assault cases.

Lawrence bought his first baseball bat recently, but for all the wrong reasons.The 76-year-old Pigtown resident keeps the Louisville Slugger beside his front door to ward off intruders."

Pigtown -- or, as some upscale residents and real estate people prefer, Washington Village -- is a largely blue-collar area west of Martin Luther King Boulevard. Although it is within sight of Oriole Park, it has so far received few benefits from the baseball stadium. In fact, Washington Boulevard, the neighborhood's main street, has never looked as squalid and unkempt as it does today.Mercifully, change is in the air.Last year, an old elementary school at Washington Boulevard and Carey Street was transformed into senior citizen apartments, a conversion that won architectural plaudits.

Baltimore police have identified a 55-year-old woman found stabbed inside her home in Pigtown and said a man who was driven to the hospital by a friend after being shot in Southwest Baltimore has died from his injuries. Deborah Simon was found by relatives inside a home in the 1200 block of Washington Blvd. on Monday afternoon, and police said she had been stabbed several times. Property was taken from the home, and detectives are exploring whether she might have known her attacker.

A woman was found fatally stabbed Monday evening inside a home in Pigtown, one of several recent violent incidents being investigated by Baltimore police. Police also were probing three fatal shootings that occurred Saturday and Sunday, including a home-invasion robbery that killed a 26-year-old man near Lake Ashburton and the killing of a 29-year-old man in front of his wife and young children in Northeast Baltimore. Police also confirmed that a 32-year-old downtown resident suffered skull fractures during an attack in the middle of the afternoon Friday near the 1st Mariner Arena and Bromo Seltzer tower, and said a 75-year-old woman was robbed at gunpoint that morning in Fells Point.