Sidewalks

After years of planning, a four-block renovation of Catonsville's sidewalks is expected to begin early next year, community advocates say.The $2.1 million Catonsville streetscape project will bring new benches, sidewalks and light fixtures to four blocks of Frederick Road, from Bishops Lane west to Sanford Avenue. The state, county and business owners will pay for the project.It is part of a county effort to renovate business districts in older communities. Streetscapes in Pikesville, Essex and on Liberty Road have enhanced businesses and provided new tax dollars, county officials said.

If Baltimoreans notice a new spring in their step, it might just be the sidewalks. In a pilot program that officials hope benefits the city's bottom line almost as much as the environment, Baltimore is joining dozens of cities across the country in testing rubber sidewalks - made from used tires - that are less prone to damage from tree roots and ice. Rubber walkways, which were installed yesterday in one-block test sites at the Inner Harbor and in...

On the lane where John Reister's Colonial tavern once flowed with home-cooked rye whiskey, 20th-century merchants now sell everything from dusty antiques to gleaming kitchen gadgets. Reisterstown's historic Main Street is a place to shop -- or at least to browse and stroll.But watch your step."We've got broken sidewalks, a bad-looking street and the usual, bad-looking lighting," says John L. Herman Jr., proprietor of a Main Street antique store.Adds Carolyn B. Eichler, co-owner of a Main Street auto repair shop: "I moved here in 1948, and the sidewalks have never been done at all."

With the remains of more than 2 feet of snow still on the ground and inches more expected to fall, many sidewalks in Baltimore's suburbs remained impassable yesterday, a fact that has angered parents and others concerned about the safety of children forced to walk on streets to school. In Howard County, property owners are required by law to remove snow from their sidewalks within 48 hours of the end of a storm. But that law was suspended by police from Feb. 20 until yesterday because of the extraordinary volume of snow left by last week's storm, said Officer Denise Walk, a police spokeswoman.

Sykesville officials, after revoking a $240,000 public works bond from the developer of Carroll Fields, will oversee the hiring of contractors to finish roads and sidewalks."

For nearly nine years, the marble memorial with the gold-painted cement eagle on top has stood in a grassy, otherwise empty lot, a white and bright slab standing out from the weeds, crumbling sidewalks and the unrelenting gray of life in Curtis Bay.In winter, the memorial spends its time alone, a solitary monument to all the young neighborhood men who gave their lives to defend the United States. In the summer, it's a rallying point for impromptu stickball games, block parties and events held by the monument's owner and caretaker, American Legion Post 187.This year, the city's decision to fix one piece of decaying Curtis Bay -- its sidewalks -- might cost the neighborhood its memorial.

Spurred by accidents involving three pupils in the past year, CountyExecutive Robert R. Neall has pledged $50,000 to begin plans for laying sidewalk along Outing Avenue in front of George Fox Middle in Pasadena.Two students have been struck by cars on Outing Avenue in the past year. Just around the corner from the school, on Catherine Avenue, a pupil was killed on Memorial Day weekend.Assistant Principal Patricia Cording said half of the school's 830 pupils live close enough to walk home.

A Meade Senior High School community group wants a fence along the south side of Clark Road to protect the children who might live in new base housing there from traffic on the two-lane road.The group also wants post and school officials to build sidewalks along the road in front of the school and to develop measures to ease potential congestion caused by hundreds of new residents in the area.The 147 townhouses under construction "are awfully close to a main drag," said Judith Markelz, president of Meade's PTSA and a member of the school's Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC)

The Baltimore City Council is considering a repeal of its longtime ban on riding bicycles on sidewalks, a response to concerns that police officers are abusing the prohibition as part of the department's crackdown on quality-of-life crimes. Councilwoman Lisa Joi Stancil said she introduced the bill to deter what she described as the Police Department's "overzealous" use of the law. "There is a legitimate problem getting people in court, and using that law as an excuse to detain someone," Stancil said.

Since it was sliced into a thousand tiny lots in 1898, North Laurel Park has been a case study in unplanned growth -- a dense patchwork of homes connected by narrow streets without sidewalks, proper drainage or apparent forethought.Almost a century later, Howard County officials have developed a plan that may finally upgrade the infrastructure in this southernmost corner of the county to modern standards -- and perhaps ease the flooding that regularly sweeps through the community.Under the plan, developers building the newest sections of North Laurel Park could opt to ask the county to build their developments' infrastructure according to current standards.