Rebuilding

Washington -- Congress should force the State and Defense departments to cooperate in planning and overseeing wartime reconstruction efforts to prevent the kinds of problems that fouled rebuilding efforts in Iraq, according a new investigative report being issued today. The failure of a comprehensive unified planning effort before the Iraq invasion, and shifting oversight of the reconstruction program after the invasion, hindered the United States' ability to effectively rebuild Iraq, according to a "lessons learned report" by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

NEW YORK - From the East End of Long Island to the southern tip of New Jersey, these are jittery times for the owners of billions of dollars of shorefront homes and businesses.Two howling northeasters in midwinter destroyed a $750,000 beachfront home in Southampton and damaged a half-dozen others, flooded and tore up a major highway leading north from Sea Isle City, N.J., to the mainland and devoured old dunes shielding homes on the barrier islands of both states.Already feeling vulnerable to an angry sea, coastal residents this year face a battle on another front.

Despite the Ravens' 5-9 record, coach Ted Marchibroda said there is nothing he could have done differently for his team in the 1998 season.The Ravens have the NFL's 23rd-ranked offense, the No. 22 defense and have lost two of their last three games. Marchibroda is 15-30-1 in the three years the team has been in Baltimore and is expected to be fired by owner Art Modell shortly after the season.Modell said he will not make an official decision until he meets with members of his front office and coaching staff at season's end. If a new coach is named, the announcement will come by late January, the owner said.

Heron DivisionCatonsville Comets1996 record: 14-3.Coach: Kathy Schuyler.Top players: Katie Goodman, Sr., D; Jenn Sturm, Sr., F; Erin Coberth, So., M.Outlook: The Comets graduated 10 seniors from a team that played for the county title the past two years. Now they have a roster that includes 13 underclassmen. The timing is not great for a move up to the county's top division, but Schyuler is not complaining. She wants this young group to get a taste of top-notch action.Dulaney Lions1996 record: 11-4-1.

The City Council president eyed the proposals -- $1 million to renovate six houses in Sandtown Winchester, another $1.6 million for nine nearby on Gilmor Street -- and blinked.From his seat at the city Board of Estimates, Lawrence A. Bell III wondered if it all made financial sense."At what point," he asked early last year, "do we say we could construct twice as many houses with the same amount of money as we are spending to renovate them?"But as on other days at City Hall, as with other questions about the high price of Baltimore's low-cost housing, the answers came in words, not action.

Now, it's OK to use the R-word -- rebuilding -- about the Ravens.A year ago, after the move from Cleveland to Baltimore, owner Art Modell brought in first-year coach Ted Marchibroda to try to rekindle the passions of a lot of the veterans that had made the Browns a playoff team in 1994.It didn't work.The Ravens finished 4-12 and had the worst-ranked defense in the NFL. So during the off-season, Modell and Ozzie Newsome, the team's vice president of player personnel, kept their January promise of releasing 30 percent of the roster.

CHICAGO -- With a fat victory cigar in one hand and a huge bottle of champagne in the other, Michael Jordan was ready to celebrate Friday night. And yet, before he left the podium to rejoin his teammates in the locker room, Jordan turned somber when asked to address the Chicago Bulls' future."

Plans for rebuilding the burned-down Hollywood Theater in Arbutus have been approved by a Baltimore County design-review committee and were presented yesterday at a zoning board hearing.David G. Phillips, executive vice president of R/C Theaters, which owned the landmark Hollywood, said plans for the bulldozed site in the 5500 block of Oregon Ave. call for a larger theater, with four screens and 750 seats, along with a video game arcade room.The new multiplex will not have the limited storefront-size space of the 60-year-old Hollywood, which was destroyed last year, Phillips said.

A recent consultants' report details the many things desperately needed in Druid Hill Park. It also urges that the managers of this 740-acre oasis should capitalize on the park's relationship with the Baltimore Zoo, which occupies 180-acres of the land. Now it is up to city officials to implement the recommendations.Since the consultants' report is largely silent on the costs of all the recommendations, it is illustrative to consider how Druid Hill Park came about, 137 years ago. Although Baltimore was a rapidly growing city in those days, it had no readily available cash to buy a park.

To rebuild a largely impoverished, post-industrial city at the end of the 20th century, start with the idea of a village.Returning to the traditional, closely linked structure of a small town is the central concept in 112 initiatives developed by local committees working to obtain for Baltimore a coveted designation as a federal empowerment zone.More than 400 community activists, business leaders and government officials have spent the past two months coming up with proposals to win the designation that could bring as much as $100 million in new federal grants.

Once again, Orioles fans are in the autumn of their discontent, and it's hard to make a case for anything short of despair as they watch their rebuilding team coming unglued at the end of another losing season. This is the point when The Plan was supposed to bear a little fruit. Not much, mind you, but enough to confirm that the O's finally are headed in the right direction and that better days just might be on the other side of the coming offseason. Sorry, but the peaches look bruised and the tree doesn't look hearty enough to get through another cold winter.

The call is out for energetic community volunteers to rebuild the popular Waverly playground destroyed by an arsonist last year. "We need at least 1,000 persons to step forward," said Marisa Canino, president of Friends of Our Playground. "The fire was a senseless act of arson and we instantly moved to start rebuilding. I can't belive we are so close." Work crews began preliminary regrading and site work last week. The once-popular playing area - north of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Family Center YMCA at Stadium Place, the former location of the old Memorial Stadium on 33rd Street - burned Sept.

Downtown drivers can expect about a year of traffic misery as city transportation officials launch an ambitious rebuilding project that will at times claim half the capacity of Lombard Street - Baltimore's principal westbound artery across the central business district. Beginning as early as May, the city will close some lanes of Lombard Street for the $2.6 million project, potentially the most disruptive downtown road work in recent years. Lombard, a block north of harbor-front Pratt Street, is one of Baltimore's busiest streets.

Slowly but surely, the ship is being turned in the right direction. It's June, and the Orioles are still hanging around .500. They're ending the siege of the road uniforms and rebranding the franchise with its home city. There were only about 40,000 Boston Red Sox fans in Camden Yards for each game of this series. And the long-suffering faithful are thrilled, even borderline satisfied, about what's happening, even if conditions Saturday night were such that Manny Ramirez could tell reporters that he was happy to hit his 500th home run "here, in front of our fans."

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Players started arriving in the cramped clubhouse at Fort Lauderdale Stadium before 8 a.m. yesterday, walking briskly to their lockers while nodding at unfamiliar faces. A couple of hours later, after the hugs and handshakes and thorough physicals had commenced, Orioles pitchers and catchers emerged from the dugout to a smattering of applause and officially began preparations for the 2008 season. At a time in the sport when optimism reigns, the Orioles will train for the next six weeks here amid low expectations.

Baltimore Orioles pitchers and catchers report for spring training tomorrow. That's traditionally a harbinger of spring and news to warm the cockles of a baseball fan's heart. The season is a mere six weeks away, and thoughts of life's better things - green grass, cold beer and the pleasant smells of Boog's barbecue - can usually be counted on to help us weather the winter's remaining unpleasantries. But this has not been a typical Orioles off-season. Instead of signing a few new players of modest stature and talking up this or that youthful pitching prospect, the management has decided to stop using Band-Aids and do some major surgery on the team.

Arizona Diamondbacks Low point: Went 51-111 in 2004. Rebuilding approach: Clear veterans to create space for homegrown stars, patch holes with trades or cheaper free agents. Key moves: Drafted ace Brandon Webb, three starting infielders and super-prospect Justin Upton between 2000 and 2006, traded for outfielder Chris Young in 2005 and pitcher Dan Haren in 2007, signed outfielder Eric Byrnes as a free agent. 2007 record: 90-72, won NL West Cleveland Indians Low point: Went 68-94 in 2003.

With the trades of Miguel Tejada and Erik Bedard, the Orioles said more definitively than they have in a long time that rebuilding has begun. But what does that mean in baseball? How will the next few seasons unfold? When can Baltimore fans expect another winner? Teams that have rebuilt successfully in recent years have done so in different ways. The Cleveland Indians relied on stars signed as teenagers in Latin America and on a few key trades. The Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks drafted well in the late 1990s and early 2000s and waited patiently for their homegrown stars to flourish.

Hired in June to head the Orioles' front office, president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail faces a daunting task this off-season as he attempts to resuscitate a team in the midst of 10 straight losing seasons. He sat down with The Sun's Orioles beat reporter, Jeff Zrebiec, Thursday for a question-and-answer session. MacPhail, executive vice president Mike Flanagan and director of baseball administration Scott Proefrock will represent the Orioles at baseball's general managers meetings, which begin today and run through Thursday in Orlando, Fla. You met with Orioles owner Peter Angelos recently to discuss your plans and the general direction of the club.

It looks more and more like the Orioles have shifted into a serious rebuilding mode. I'm guessing team president Andy MacPhail wasn't overly impressed with what he saw this summer or what he heard at the organizational meetings. Unfortunately, the "rebuilding" should have started sooner and been done more effectively. A lot of years have been lost. Now fans will be asked to remain patient while prospects work their way up from the lower levels of the farm system and veterans are dealt for more prospects who are closer to the majors but aren't going to bring you a title in 2008.