Shop Owners

Howard County detectives believe they know who fatally shot two young men along an Oakland Mills bike path last month, but they are still gathering evidence, Chief Wayne Livesay said yesterday.Livesay made the remark to a liquor store owner as he walked through Oakland Mills Village Center. He spoke with business owners and reassured them that investigators will make an arrest in the double killing along the path off Stevens Forest Road.Ken Keepers, owner of Oakland Mills Liquors, told Livesay he had heard that detectives have suspects but not enough evidence to arrest them.

The largest downtown redevelopment plan since the Inner Harbor about 20 years ago moved a step closer to fruition yesterday when the city Planning Commission voted unanimously to support an 18-block revitalization of the west side.Over the objections of some shop owners and preservationists, the eight-member panel backed economic development officials who testified that the time is right to renew an urban core that has been long criticized as an eyesore."This is not a simple task before you," said M. J. "Jay" Brodie, president of Baltimore Development Corp.

Howard County detectives believe they know who fatally shot two young men along an Oakland Mills bike path last month, but they are still gathering evidence, Chief Wayne Livesay said yesterday.Livesay made the remark to a liquor store owner as he walked through Oakland Mills Village Center. He spoke with business owners and reassured them that investigators will make an arrest in the double killing along the path off Stevens Forest Road.Ken Keepers, owner of Oakland Mills Liquors, told Livesay he had heard that detectives have suspects but not enough evidence to arrest them.

One day after a couple were critically injured by gunfire in a purse-snatching near Belvedere Square shopping center, store owners in the area are hoping the incident will not further harm a community already suffering business losses.Baltimore police say crime is not a problem in the community surrounding York Road and Belvedere Avenue. Though most shop owners believe the shooting was a random act of violence, a few worry that the incident will leave an indelible impression on residents and visitors.

TWO BEAUTY shop owners won the Linthicum Lions Club's Linthicum's Best Businessperson awards for 1998 for their service to the community.Cathy Ulrich, owner of Head to Toe Beauty Salon, and Sharon Wunder, of Crowning Glory Hair Salon, received their awards Monday at a club meeting and dinner. The awards were presented by Beth Sandifer, first vice president.Ulrich and her staff provide gifts for needy families at Christmas, send donations to homeless children in Bosnia and support women's shelters.

More people are moving into North Laurel, but merchants at Cherry Tree Center say that isn't helping their business.Shop owners at the Scaggsville shopping center have characterized business as disappointing -- despite the recent openings of new communities nearby -- and claim the center needs a major anchor store to thrive."

The neighbor cursed her luck as she looked down the length of wooden fence across the street.She'd moved out of the city and into her suburban cottage to get away from this kind of thing. Graffiti. A sloppily painted hand-shooting-a-gun on a fence along River Road on the southeastern side of the Magothy River."It drives me crazy," the woman said with a sigh. "It just makes me sick. Who are these people who don't respect where we live?"The less-than-spectacular artwork has been there about a year, ever since two teens stopped in front of the fence for a swig of beer and got inspired.

THE SAVAGE MILL looks like a worthwhile investment of private and public money after all.Not too long ago, the partnership that transformed this early 19th-century textile mill into a retail center for arts and antiques appeared to be in serious trouble.The Savage Mill Limited Partnership had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Its state and county loans of some $900,000 appeared to be in jeopardy.It would have been unfortunate had the enterprise failed. The shopping center had become a pleasant place to shop and browse.

Owners of the vacant Peabody Book Shop and Beer Stube want members of the Mount Vernon-Belvedere Association to put up or shut up.Directors of the community group voted last week to oppose a request by the establishment's owners to demolish the book shop and tavern at 913 N. Charles St., which was frequented by H. L. Mencken, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and musicians, poets and artists. Association members want the owners, 913 North Charles Street Limited Partnership, to save at least the facade, and repair or reconstruct the rest.

About two dozen antique dealers and secondhand shop owners, incensed about a Baltimore City Council bill that they say would have regulated them out of business, scuttled the legislation yesterday and won an agreement that the bill will be redrafted more to their liking.The bill, introduced into council last month, would have required dealers and owners to document most acquisitions with a transaction sheet that detailed the seller's name, address and physical description for each object bought.

Target - the big-box store with the bull's eye logo and funky TV ads - has arrived in Baltimore. Elected officials and business leaders celebrated the grand opening of the city's first Target at Mondawmin Mall last night, heralding it as vote of confidence from a national retailer in the commercial potential of neighborhoods far beyond the revitalized areas near the Inner Harbor. "This new Target gives Baltimore residents a great place to shop without having to travel great distances," said Mayor Sheila Dixon, who has worked to bring retail outlets to the city, where shopping options declined starting in the 1960s, when large retailers joined an exodus to the suburbs.

Pawnbrokers and owners of second-hand shops would be required to photograph their purchases and submit daily electronic reports of items to police under legislation introduced in the City Council yesterday. The ordinance, drafted by City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake, is intended to give police a tool to more rapidly identify stolen property. Shop owners currently submit the information on paper cards. "We have to get current, and it doesn't make sense that there's a manual card system," Rawlings-Blake said.

The stars of the Vagabond Players' production of Steel Magnolias had to learn more than just their lines. Because the entire play takes place in a beauty shop, a number of the actresses had to learn how to style hair, too. In contrast to the popular 1989 film, the play is set entirely in a small-town Louisiana beauty shop -- a warm and open environment that provides its patrons an opportunity to let their hair down. Written by Robert Harling and based on the relationship between his mother and late sister, the play chronicles the story of six charming Southern women who support one another through a series of trials and triumphs.

NEW ORLEANS - The heart of the city showed a pulse yesterday as shop owners and cleanup crews settled into the central business district and the narrow French Quarter to begin clearing damage from Hurricane Katrina and restoring life to the city. But through the shattered glass, behind the wavy plywood and the moldy doors, many found more work to do than they anticipated - and evidence that the rebirth of New Orleans will likely be measured in weeks or months. The mood was often cheerful.

The easels and paintbrushes are gone. The bagpipe museum, billed as one of a kind in the nation, is being moved. And today, the artists and antique dealers left at the Historic Oella Mill are scheduled to auction off the remaining teacups, typewriters and tables in their eclectic collections. The early 20th-century mill is closing. The shop owners and artists who rented space in the airy brick building say they have been told the 5.8-acre property on the western edge of Baltimore County near Ellicott City is being sold to a developer, who might renovate it for an apartment complex.

Although many shop owners in Ellicott City weren't around for the flood of 1972, when Tropical Storm Agnes devastated lower Main Street, they've heard the stories. And they aren't taking chances with Hurricane Isabel. Yesterday, many along the flood-prone street began taping and boarding windows with plywood, packing merchandise into boxes and moving them to upper floors. Some rented trucks to whisk thousands of dollars worth of antiques, clothing, jewelry, art and other items to higher ground.

In Park Heights, a neighborhood hard-pressed by what one community activist calls "crime and grime," a coalition of garage owners and government bureaucrats has begun working to tackle the grime. Instead of fining garage owners who illegally dump used oil into storm drains or fill the air with chemical fumes, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Maryland Department of the Environment plan to teach the owners how to comply with environmental laws. State and federal officials unveiled the program yesterday at the Malcolm X Youth Center.

WASHINGTON - The public won't pay much attention to one of the General Assembly's most consequential, long-running and disheartening political games: the ever-tightening restrictions on consumer choices in order to increase profit margins for politically favored businesses. The game works like this: A politically favored business group becomes worried that an innovative new competitor might open shop and offer consumers lower prices, better selection, higher quality or greater convenience.

Reversing an earlier decree, Annapolis Mayor Dean L. Johnson wants to raise parking fees in the city's downtown garages - a proposal that has angered business and shop owners, leaving one "speechless." If the proposal is approved by the city council, motorists would pay, as of July 1, an additional $45 to $50 a month to park at the Noah H. Hillman and Gotts Court garages. Johnson's proposal also would eliminate the garages' first hour of free parking, popular with tourists and shoppers in the state capital.

YOU CAN visit municipally sanctioned whorehouses in lots of Third World cities. And in some German burgs, the local governments even own high-rises that house courtesans who will indulge your every desire for a few hundred bucks. So maybe Baltimore officials are on to something with their idea to own the El Dorado strip club's building. The bar could be linked on the city's municipal Web site (www.baltimorecity.gov) under "city services." And the rent the city collects from its ill-reputed tenant could be sent to schools or public libraries or -- more appropriately -- to public health clinics.