Side Of Downtown

Cheer up. The General Assembly has passed legislation making Hillary Clinton eligible to become mayor of Baltimore. Now all she need do is take up residence.The news biz did not know what could replace Monica. Slobodan came to the rescue.The West Side of downtown is coming back. From where and to where will be addressed at a later date.OK, Belle can stay.

BALTIMORE'S historic Congress Hotel would be reborn as a 36-unit apartment residence called The Kernan, under the latest plan to bring housing to the west side of downtown Baltimore.Owner J. Thomas Dowling recently joined forces with a co-developer, Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse, and they are working to begin construction on the $5 million project by June.Plans call for the building's upper six floors to be converted to market-rate apartments and for the lower levels, including the hotel ballroom, mezzanine and Marble Bar, to be leased to commercial or office tenants.

Twenty-four merchants threatened with eviction by a proposal to build hundreds of apartments on the west side of downtown Baltimore held a quiet rally yesterday to protest their displacement.Holding signs reading "West Side Merchants Deserve Better," the shopkeepers stood silently at Lexington Street and Park Avenue, near where workers are expected to start demolishing buildings in the spring."I've been here 24 years, and now I'm afraid I will have to close. I feel so sick about this whole thing, I don't know what to do," said Young Cho, owner of Wig House Beauty Salon at 112 W. Lexington St.As part of an effort to rebuild and rejuvenate several blocks on the struggling west side of downtown, the city's development agency is offering to buy dozens of stores and threatening to condemn and seize buildings if the owners refuse.

WHAT EXACTLY would be preserved if the city's ambitious west-side development came to a halt? Would Baltimore be better off if these half-vacant stores and offices were left intact?That seems to be the curious position of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has placed the west side of downtown on its list of "America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places."It is a classic case of a well-intended but misguided effort to keep historically important buildings from being torn down.

THIS is an exciting time for those of us who believe the conditions are finally right for the revitalization of the west side of downtown Baltimore. But as H. L. Mencken wrote, "For every complex, difficult problem, there is a simple, easy solution, and it is wrong."Revitalizing the west side of downtown is a complex challenge that must include a detailed program for restoring historic buildings -- not just a few silver bullet projects or a plan that is short on specifics.Of the details released so far on the west side plan, it appears that little attention has been paid to historic preservation.

They've studied the east side of downtown. They've studied the west side of downtown. Now the urban experts are turning their attention to the area in between.Seeking new ways to stimulate development in the heart of the city, the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore has launched a $180,000 effort to outline a strategic plan for the central business district, anchored by award-winning Charles Center.The nonprofit group, which works to create a "cleaner, more prosperous and vibrant downtown," has hired Hammer Siler George and Associates of Silver Spring to complete an economic analysis of the central business district and Design Collective of Baltimore to prepare a plan to guide physical development there.

AND SO, as the last remaining True Believers in Baltimore shout hosanna of newborn hope, we remind everyone of that most important lesson of contemporary urban history: Cities don't die. Pieces of cities die - a few neighborhoods here, a shopping district there - but other parts once considered dead and beyond redemption are reborn, and the great beast goes on, defying time, defying logic and sometimes even defying the sleepwalkers at City Hall who appear...

The cost of renovating Baltimore's Hippodrome Theater and its surrounding area may be rising beyond original projections, prompting some members of the General Assembly to question the wisdom of investing any state funds in the project.During a tour last week, members of the House Appropriations Committee were told that the cost of converting the vacant vaudeville house at 12 N. Eutaw St. to a 2,200-seat performing arts center could exceed the originally estimated figure of $35 million by anywhere from $2 million to $25 million.

AT THIS TIME of year, the area around Howard and Lexington streets in Baltimore used to be teeming with shoppers patronizing the various downtown department stores -- including Stewart's, Hecht's, Hutzler's and Hochschild Kohn & Co.This fall, with those large retailers gone from downtown, property owners and public officials are looking for ways to bring the district back to life -- without counting on retail activity that may never return.Last week marked the first meeting of the West Side Task Force, a group that has been formed to create a redevelopment plan for the area that once was the city's traditional retail district.

A New Jersey chain of children's clothing and furniture stores will take over part of the closed Epstein's department store at the Lexington Mall in downtown Baltimore, a spokesman for the Young World chain said yesterday.The chain opened stores at Catonsville Plaza and Reisterstown Road Plaza in Baltimore within the past few weeks, said spokesman Lenny Schweitzer. He said the Bayonne-based chain plans to expand further in Baltimore next year.Mr. Schweitzer said the store, to open this month, will take over the basement and the first floor of the five-level Epstein's building.

By choosing to build a new arena on the west side of downtown, Baltimore is placing a $300 million bet on an area that has long struggled to come to life. One problem has been 1st Mariner Arena itself, a 46-year-old albatross with only one entrance and no street-level retail outlets - a hulk that stifles the blocks around it. Proponents of a new downtown arena call the project a shot in the arm for the west side, while critics said yesterday that a mega-project is a bad fit for that area.

Long before Baltimore had its Harborplace pavilions, or the National Aquarium, or Oriole Park, there was Charles Center. The 33-acre district in the heart of downtown might not be as well known as some of the newer spots, and tourists don't typically seek it out. But it is as significant as any other development associated with modern-day Baltimore because, in many ways, it was the catalyst for all that followed, including the even more ambitious effort...

The old Stewart's department store downtown never contained a chapel for weekday Mass. Or a meditation space for Muslims. Or an upper-level "situation room" to cope with tsunamis and other disasters. Those are just a few of the additions made to the structure built in 1899, which reopens today after a $42.7 million conversion to become the new world headquarters of Catholic Relief Services, the international relief and development agency of the U. S. Roman Catholic community. The move ends nearly three decades of uncertainty about the fate of the Stewart's building, once one of the jewels of a bustling shopping district that drew thousands to the west side of downtown Baltimore.

John Cavey is the type of guy the Hippodrome Theatre's management hopes to attract. The 56-year-old industrial salesman from Baltimore County occasionally attends plays in the city and wants to see the theater's $62 million overhaul. But old perceptions about downtown Baltimore's west side leave him a little uneasy. After all, Cavey still remembers when his car was broken into near the theater - in 1969. Yet he is willing to give the area another chance. "I would probably frequent the place as long as there wasn't a safety problem," he said recently from his home in Parkville.

The recent flare-up between Mayor Martin O'Malley and those who say he doesn't concentrate enough resources on rebuilding the west side of downtown highlights a broader issue: His urban renewal strategies differ significantly from those of his predecessors. O'Malley, as a white leader in a majority-black city, works hard to avoid being perceived as downtown's mayor and a champion of big business interests. Instead, he emphasizes his efforts to boost minority enterprises and lift neighborhoods.

UP HERE, ON the roof of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, on the west side of downtown Baltimore, you can see pretty far. On a clear day, you can see all the way to the 2000 block of E. North Ave., where a dozen people were shot the other night. Some of them wound up at Shock Trauma. At moments like this, the bodies seem to arrive from some other city altogether. Thus the battle for Baltimore's future is joined once again. All around University of Maryland Medical Center, the west side of downtown blooms with possibilities.

In the past several months, long-running disputes over the proposed demolition of the west side of downtown Baltimore, Redwood Street, and Memorial Stadium have been resolved. A significant part of the west side will be preserved, while a significant part of the 100 block of E. Redwood St. is being torn down. The stadium will soon be gone, but its 116-foot memorial facade will be preserved. Now that the dust has -- or will soon be -- settled, the question remains, why fight for historic buildings?

SENSIBLE development strategies -- or Smart Growth -- have been the cornerstone of Gov. Parris N. Glendening's policy agenda. So it's baffling that his capital budget ignored a requested $10 million that would speed redevelopment on the west side of Baltimore's downtown. If ever there was a compelling argument for Smart Growth revitalization, it is the Howard Street corridor. In its heyday, from the 1910s to the 1960s, it was Baltimore's Fifth Avenue, the site of the city's leading department and speciality stores.

In a major victory for preservationists seeking to save threatened buildings on the west side of downtown, Mayor Martin O'Malley signed an agreement yesterday to preserve at least 260 buildings in an area targeted for condemnation. The move means that more than half of the buildings in a 26-block zone surrounding Howard Street must be renovated instead of demolished as part of the city's $350 million effort to rebuild the struggling retail district. The action represents a significant shift in focus for the project, which is the city's largest urban renewal effort since the Inner Harbor.

THE YEAR ends with good news on the long-troubled west side of downtown: The innards of the old Hecht Co. flagship store, at Howard and Lexington streets, have been carved out to enable the building's conversion into airy, light apartments. When they open in a few months, Baltimoreans will be in for a surprise. The historic Kernan Hotel, where Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Al Jolson and the Marx Brothers once stayed and where Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullavan were married, has avoided the wrecker's ball.