Russell Street

Beware the Orange Cone. The Dixon administration is embarking on a push to double the number of streets it paves this season. And while that surely will be a plus in the long run, it's the getting there that worries us. These days, moving around downtown Baltimore is like running an obstacle course - streets in repair, buildings under construction, lanes closed, traffic snarled, motorists stuck. Consider what it takes to get in or out of the city via Russell Street. That stretch of roadway has been torn up for too long to remember why the work is being done or when it will cease.

THE PROBLEM -- Motorists traveling south on Russell Street toward the Baltimore-Washington Parkway were greeted by a sign near Hamburg Street warning that cars in the right lane must exit at Interstate 95, even though there is no such restriction. THE BACKSTORY -- Ron Wilner of Baltimore e-mailed Watchdog: "Those in the know have rightly ignored this sign for over a year, but the harm is that out of town motorists are forced to do lane shifting unnecessarily which confuses and slows traffic.

Despite telling the public the club had canceled violence-prone Sunday night dance parties, the owners of Paradox nightclub near PSINet Stadium held another event Sunday, after which a patron was shot in the spine walking to his car.Two young men were returning from the club to their car parked in Lot B-1 of Orioles Park at Camden Yards on Russell Street when someone fired four or five shots at them about 2: 15 a.m., police said.One of the bullets hit Jason Baker, 18, of the 1900 block of Summit Ave. in Baltimore County, in the back, police said.

In Baltimore CityMan trying to cross Russell Street is hit by car and killedA man was killed last night when he was struck by a car while he and a female companion tried to cross Russell Street in the Westport area of South Baltimore, police said. The woman was not injured.Ronald Cunningham, who was about age 48, suffered multiple injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, said Officer William Murray of the traffic investigation section. Murray said police were trying to confirm Cunningham's address last night.

The signs, all 738 of them, are up in the neighborhoods, telling people where they can park, where they can't park, and the dire consequences of parking someplace they shouldn't.Top city officials -- the mayor, police chief and public works director -- have faced television cameras to hammer the point home: if you drive into Baltimore for the first Ravens football game tonight, come early or be prepared for a traffic mess.But the hyperbole turns into reality this afternoon. Will the promise of gridlock on the gridiron be preceded by gridlock on the streets?

Because of tight parking and traffic restrictions on several streets near Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the city is urging baseball fans to use public transportation for weekday baseball games, including Tuesday's Opening Day."During day games, motorists should be aware that many downtown parking spaces are being utilized by workers and visitors," said public works chief George Balog.Starting with today's 1: 35 p.m. exhibition, traffic will be restricted two hours before game times on the Hamburg Street bridge; Hamburg Street west of Russell Street; northbound Russell Street service drive; westbound Washington Boulevard, west of Greene Street; Camden Street from Paca to Howard streets; and Eutaw Street from Camden to Pratt streets.

I AM STANDING in the tiny park at the north end of the Middle Branch of Baltimore's Inner Harbor, behind the Municipal Animal Shelter, trying to visualize the waterfront promenades, fountains and museums and other attractions that city officials and planners foresee for the area south of the new Ravens Stadium. Certainly anything they do to the place will be an improvement, short of declaring it a toxic dump.The almost inaccessible patch of green space has a few forlorn trees and lone picnic bench.

The big questions have been answered. The Ravens are here. Construction of their new stadium has started. And downtown Baltimore will be set to receive NFL football in 1998.But little questions about the $200 million stadium still abound, and only now are they starting to be addressed. The stadium's financing and design have soaked up so much official energy and public attention that the problem of grafting the venue onto a living downtown is still being pondered.Where will the cars go? How can 68,000 fans on Russell Street be encouraged to patronize restaurants half a mile north on Pratt Street?

By the time Mike Donlan stepped out of the Memory Lane club and onto West Hamburg Street, his ears were ringing from the sounds of a pop-punk band that goes by the assassin-actor name of Lee Harvey Keitel.Donlan's friends are in that band. He'd gone to Memory Lane to hear them. Now it was about 2 a.m. and, with the club closing, Donlan wanted to get back to his Race Street rowhouse, near the old gas tanks in South Baltimore, a few blocks away.But Mike Donlan didn't get there for four days because of what happened in the next 15 minutes.

A Baltimore man on his way to a college basketball game was shot fatally, and a friend was wounded critically during an argument at a stoplight in the 1500 block of Russell Street yesterday afternoon, police said.David Brown, 23, of the 1200 block of Pearleaf Court in Baltimore died of gunshot wounds, and Robert Frazier, 22, of the 3500 block of Old York Road in Baltimore underwent surgery for a gunshot wound to the left side of his chest at University of Maryland Medical Center, police said.

Members of a Baltimore design committee urged the city slots developers Thursday to consider a bolder design and do more to enhance the Russell Street corridor. "We have expressed a bit of concern that the concept is not quite what we're looking for," said City Planning Director Thomas J. Stosur after listening to a one-hour presentation by Reich & Petch, the Toronto-based architecture firm that will design the casino. The Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel advises the city's planning department on major projects but does not have the authority to veto a design.

A soft-spoken Canadian builder without deep Baltimore ties or much gambling experience sees opportunity in a deal that the biggest local developers chose not to pursue. He came to town last week to unveil his vision for a slots palace that he believes will pull in a half-billion dollars a year - an estimate that found a skeptical reception. Michael Moldenhauer's venture springs from an unusual land agreement that would let him build on a highly visible parcel near the Ravens football stadium that the city had promised to another developer for a different project.

Outside, Baltimore's proposed casino would have an industrial look inspired by old warehouses in the surrounding area and a shop-lined pedestrian zone reminiscent of the Eutaw Street promenade at Oriole Park. Inside, it would have "neighborhoods" filled with slot machines; a 400-seat buffet-style restaurant that would turn into a nightclub in the evening; a 120-seat "chop house" and a 100-seat main bar. Designed to hold up to 5,000 people at a time, it would be open from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m, seven days a week.

The development team hoping to build a casino in Baltimore plans to construct a two-story slots parlor on Russell Street that could accommodate 5,000 gamblers, according to a preliminary design unveiled at a community meeting Tuesday. The plan calls for construction of a five-story, 2,500-space parking garage, according to members of Baltimore City Entertainment Group, which applied for Baltimore's video lottery terminal license, one of five available statewide. The $50 million garage would be financed through city-issued parking revenue bonds that developers would repay with gambling profits.

Baltimore's Parkway Theatre would be transformed to a "cinema and drafthouse," and adjacent buildings would become a steak restaurant and student apartments, under a $1.95 million development proposal submitted by Virginia-based businessman Joseph E. "Teddy" Kim. Kim said he would work with owners of the Virginia-based Arlington Cinema'N'Drafthouse operation to convert the Parkway to a 600-seat dining and entertainment space by the fall of 2011, if...

A Maryland developer would abandon plans to build a $250 million sports themed office and recreation park called Gateway South, and Baltimore's only slots casino would be constructed on the land instead if city and state officials approve the change. The Baltimore Development Corp. is drafting a memorandum of understanding that gives control of an 11-acre, city-owned parcel south of M&T Bank Stadium, to Baltimore City Entertainment Group, one of four bidders for slot machine licenses in Maryland and the only group seeking to build a slots facility in downtown.

For seven years, Second Chance has been the go-to place for salvaged ceiling tin, mahogany doors, stained-glass windows, claw-foot tubs and, yes, even the kitchen sink. (Bathroom sinks on sale, too, $5 and up.) Selling salvaged architectural antiques out of five brick warehouses in South Baltimore, the nonprofit has worked to find new uses for old stuff. At the same time, the business in the shadow of Baltimore's football stadium offers job training to workers who help customers, stock shelves or go out to demolish houses, with surgical precision, to salvage pieces.

A number of Baltimore streets will be closed this weekend for events that include a disaster drill at M&T Bank Stadium, a motorcycle and fashion show, and construction projects, according to the city's Department of Transportation. The emergency exercise, called Operation Purple Haze, begins at 7 a.m. today and is scheduled to conclude at 3 p.m. It is sponsored by the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, the Baltimore Fire Department and the Ravens and is designed as a mock disaster at Camden Yards or the football stadium.

O'Malley open to changing campaign contribution rules Gov. Martin O'Malley indicated yesterday that he would be open to raising campaign contribution limits and possibly closing a campaign-finance loophole that allows big donors to avoid the limits. Under state law, an individual or business may give no more than $4,000 to a candidate during a four-year election cycle and no more than $10,000 total in that period. Some donors have gotten around those regulations by giving through separate but related limited-liability companies.

Thomas William Mitchell, an industrial paint and chemical salesman who was a founder of a retirees trade association, died of pancreatic cancer Sunday at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Ruxton resident was 79. Born in Baltimore and raised on Rueckert Avenue in Hamilton, he attended St. Dominic's Parochial School and was a 1946 Polytechnic Institute graduate. His studies at the University of Maryland, College Park were interrupted by his service in the Air Force in Germany. He later attended the University of Baltimore and played on a semiprofessional football team.