REC

On a stage filled with the professionally silver-tongued (preachers and politicians), before an audience of the demonstrably articulate (community activists and even the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch), Tony Dantzler had no trouble being heard. Seen - maybe. He's a little on the short side, even for 13. Like others at the candidates forum held Sunday by the civic group BUILD, Tony called for more rec centers, more summer jobs for teens and more affordable housing. But while other speakers wielded charts, questionnaire results and budget figures to make their cases, Tony merely wielded his own experience.

"Homicide: Life on the Street" may have been canceled, but a new television production may soon begin filming in the same Fells Point location.Baltimore housing officials have scheduled a news conference today to announce that the Rec Pier in Fells Point -- the red brick building on Thames Street that was used until recently as the main production facility for the TV drama "Homicide" -- will continue to be available for filmmaking.One possible project, industry representatives say, is a proposed six-hour HBO mini-series based on "The Corner," an account of addicts' lives by David Simon and Edward Burns that was published in 1997.

At a housing department news conference yesterday, Baltimore City officials announced that the cast and crew of "Homicide: Life on the Street" may be returning to Baltimore to make a two-hour series finale movie.But don't stop the wake.Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana, the producers who own the rights to the recently canceled TV drama and whose involvement is crucial for any such film to be made, said they had not heard anything about it."There is no `Homicide' film. Barry Levinson knows nothing about it," Simon Hall, Levinson's spokesman in California, said yesterday.

Before "Homicide: Life on the Street" took over Fells Point's Recreation Pier about seven years ago, Kathy Hermann and other like-minded moms spent afternoons watching their children swing and tumble on what would become Baltimore's most televised landing.With the police drama canceled, many Southeast Baltimore residents and business owners say the pier and building which served as the show's headquarters should return to commercial and recreational use. They plan to discuss the pier's future and gather public input at a news conference at 11 a.m. Saturday on the pier steps in the 1700 block of Thames St.The pier was in use as a rec center up until production began for the show, which debuted in 1993.

At one end of the dinky, sweat-soaked court at East Baltimore's Madison Square Recreation Center, 20 9-year-olds from the Buccaneers basketball program run conditioning drills, sprinting to half court and back.On the opposite end, one 18-year-old shows what he learned on the same court. Mark Karcher, twice the Baltimore metropolitan area's player of the year and now a freshman at Temple University in Philadelphia, nails jump shot after jump shot with the same form that made him the latest star to come through the basketball mecca at 1401 E. Biddle St.Although best-known for the showcase summer games on the outdoor court known as "The Dome" that has featured players such as Keith Booth, Sam Cassell, Reggie Williams and Muggsy Bogues, Madison Square pulsates with activity in the fall-winter basketball season.

THE SLUGGISH PACE at which Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke is replacing ousted Recreation and Parks Department director Marlyn J. Perritt certainly suggests no urgency. Two months after forcing Ms. Perritt's abrupt resignation, Mr. Schmoke has neither set a timetable for the appointment of a permanent replacement or decided who will serve on the search committee.The mayor obviously is content to have interim director Thomas V. Overton make decisions that may determine the course of city-provided recreational services for years to come.

WE RARELY WENT to the public recreation center near the projects where I lived during my childhood. Ball games and other sports occurred in the yards and streets that surrounded our houses. The rec center had a little park with a slide, swings, merry-go-round and climbing bars. But we had similar playground stuff at school, so no one made a special trip to the rec center just for that.It was more fun to play on the dirt hills of a construction site where new apartments were being built. We liked to play army and throw dirt-clod grenades that broke into fragments when they hit somebody.

Schmoke shaped his budget reductions to raise the most citizen protest. He knows Baltimoreans do not want publicly supported museums and theaters on the financial precipice. He knows residents strongly believe good rec centers can help reduce teen-age crime.The mayor wants a City Council that has rebuffed past efforts to raise the local "piggyback" income tax to feel it has no choice. Rather than analyze arts allocations to determine which should be reduced or even eliminated, he proposes Draconian 50 percent cuts on all cultural agencies.

THEY BROUGHT out the children Monday night. Council members arriving at City Hall for their weekly meeting were confronted by two dozen youngsters who pleaded in their little children's voices: "Save our rec centers! Save our summer camps!" Indeed, Baltimore should do much more to save its children. And, in doing so, it should save some public recreation centers. But all of them? Probably not.Neither Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke nor any member of the City Council should be swayed by this staged spectacle from making some inevitable, but difficult, decisions about the city's 58 rec centers.

Most big cities in America have recognized that the ability to provide good youth programs that keep kids positively motivated and off the streets can be the difference that prevents viable neighborhoods from becoming turf for teen-age gangs.That's why Police Chief Thomas C. Frazier got together with the Recreation and Parks and Housing and Community Development departments to reopen and operate the Carroll Park rec center in southwest Baltimore. His community policing approach places greater emphasis on youth recreation programs as a crime deterrent.

Today, Baltimore's Police Athletic League centers will shut down and, in most cases, will be reborn. The police will leave, though they'll stay for one or two more weeks to ease the transition as 16 of 18 centers become one with the city's Department of Recreation and Parks. City officials announced the end back on March 18, but residents fought back at budget hearings and in gyms where city leaders let them speak but timed them using red, yellow and green traffic signals. Residents pleaded over and over again that officers made all the difference, as protectors and role models, when they shed uniforms and donned sweats and mentored kids and organized field trips and helped with homework and coached soccer and kept vulnerable youths off the street and out of trouble.

The children spoke first, an appropriate gesture considering they have the most to lose. Dominique Ritch, 14, strode to the microphone at midcourt in the gym of the Rosemont Police Athletic League Center and faced the director of Baltimore's Department of Recreation and Parks. His first words would be repeated in some form or another throughout the evening by children, teens and adults. "I want to know why you all are closing our rec center," the Calverton Middle School seventh-grader asked.

A 26-year-old man awaiting trial on a rape charge was fatally stabbed Thursday morning in the Baltimore City Detention Center, according to a statement from state prison officials. Officials said Nathaniel George was stabbed about 10:45 a.m. in the recreation yard at the East Eager Street complex. Authorities have identified a suspect but charges have not been filed.

Facing a $65 million shortfall in next year's budget, Mayor Sheila Dixon has warned she may have to cut back the hours or close some libraries and neighborhood recreational centers to balance the books. That's especially painful during an economic downturn, when demand for these services generally goes up as people seek less-expensive alternatives to ticketed cultural and sports events. If cuts become necessary, they should be part of an overall strategic plan to strengthen these institutions over the long term, not just respond to the current crisis.

Fallston boys lacrosse coach Ryan Arist said he knew Andy Thrasher would be a good player. But he never expected 47 goals and six assists from a ninth-grader. Thrasher became a big part of an already potent Fallston offense, finishing second in the regular season in scoring behind Luke Raab, who passed him at the end. The freshman has a blistering left-handed shot that he doesn't mind firing in traffic, and he knows how to get open. He also played on the junior varsity football team as a running back and cornerback.

The large open archway that runs from one end of Fells Point's Recreation Pier to the other symbolizes its role as a portal between the historic community and the harbor beyond, making the ultimate civic gesture for a waterfront setting. But as part of a $45 million plan to convert the 1914 city landmark to an upscale Aloft hotel, developers are proposing that the opening be glassed-in so the area beneath the arch - which has always been an outdoor space - can become part of the hotel's interior.

North Carroll's Nate Walker has always been a risk-taker. When he was a child, he was never too shy to try daring tricks with his skateboard or fantastic dives into the swimming pool. Now, as a senior stopper for the Panthers soccer team, Walker continues to lay it on the line, time and again creating scoring opportunities for his teammates with an acrobatic, forward-flip throw-in that can travel 40 yards in the air. Last year, the defender racked up six assists, earning second-team All-County honors and helping lead his team to the Class 3A state final.

On a stage filled with the professionally silver-tongued (preachers and politicians), before an audience of the demonstrably articulate (community activists and even the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch), Tony Dantzler had no trouble being heard. Seen - maybe. He's a little on the short side, even for 13. Like others at the candidates forum held Sunday by the civic group BUILD, Tony called for more rec centers, more summer jobs for teens and more affordable housing. But while other speakers wielded charts, questionnaire results and budget figures to make their cases, Tony merely wielded his own experience.

Slow pitch -- Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks will offer spring and summer slow-pitch softball leagues - co-rec, women's, men's and 40+ and 50+ for men - starting in mid-April. The season is 10 to 14 weeks. The cost is $850 a team; a rec league that plays Monday nights costs $475. An organizational meeting to discuss policy and rule changes will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Recreation and Parks headquarters, 7120 Oakland Mills Road, Columbia. Mark Pendleton, 410-313-4703, or www.hcrpsports.

One afternoon last January, Jennifer Williams got an unwelcome call at her job at a downtown state office building. Her two sons, Aaron and Derrick Allen, were in the rental office at the Pleasant View Gardens city housing complex, instead of at the nearby Boys and Girls Club on East Fayette Street, their usual after-school destination. The club had run out of money during Christmas break, she was told, and had closed. She left work, picked up her boys and brought them to work with her. She did that at the end of every day for the rest of the school year.