South Baltimore

THE COUNT Homicides since Jan. 1: 277 THE VICTIM: A man was shot several times in the head and died yesterday in the 2600 block of S. Paca St. in South Baltimore. The shooting occurred about 3 a.m. LAST YEAR: Baltimore had recorded 266 homicides as of Dec. 19, 2006. ONLINE: Details and locations of this year's city homicides are at baltimoresun.com/homicidemap

Carney residents angered Carney residents are upset after the Baltimore County Council did an about-face on a building ban near an intersection that neighbors say will only get worse with development. Towson to build new dorms In the Towson area, where residents complain about college students living in their midst, the university says it will house an influx of undergraduates on campus. Arsenic problem found in 1981 A Johns Hopkins researcher published a study in 1981 showing high levels of arsenic in Swann Park in South Baltimore and concluded that the element was likely responsible for a high cancer death rate in the neighborhood.

The U.S. Postal Service plans to relocate its Ostend Street branch, prompting community concerns that the South Baltimore peninsula could be left without a post office.Baltimore Postmaster Mike Furey said postal officials are meeting with neighborhood groups and elected officials for suggestions for a new site. Furey said the branch will remain in the 21230 ZIP code, but it could move from South Baltimore to Southwest neighborhoods such as Morrell Park, Pigtown or Westport.Some residents enjoy the ambience of the cramped branch at 146 W. Ostend St., but postal officials say it is too small to accommodate the growing number of customers -- and mail -- in the area.

THE PROPOSED redevelopment of Baltimore's old shopping district, located on the west side of downtown, has given many people pause.The plan calls for demolishing some old buildings and replacing them with gleaming new shops, restaurants, offices and residences, and, as its centerpiece, a rejuvenated Hippodrome Theater.Whatever arguments you hear concerning the recycling of the old downtown blocks, remember: History is on the side of the proponents. This city has some outstanding examples of how to resurrect declining neighborhoods.

In Baltimore CountyGlendening appoints 2 women to posts on circuit, district courtsANNAPOLIS -- Gov. Parris N. Glendening yesterday appointed two lawyers to judgeships on county courts.Kathleen Cox, a litigator and partner with Venable Baetjer and Howard, was named to the Circuit Court, succeeding Judge Alfred Brennan, who retired. Cox, a 1979 graduate of the University of Notre Dame School of Law, also worked as a federal public defender for several years.Vicki Ballou Watts, a lawyer with experience in personal injury, criminal, traffic and family law, was named to a District Court vacancy created by the retirement of Judge John H. Garmer.

When the federal government's vaunted South Baltimore program for community-directed environmental action met recently, 14 people showed up. Chemical industry executives. Federal environmental officials. City health and planning employees. And only one of the 16,000 residents in the program's target area: a warehouse worker from Curtis Bay.Halfway through, he fell asleep.One thing was clear: Very little community is left in the Community Environmental Partnership.The pilot project, set up here by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Washington headquarters in 1996, had promised a new era for American regulation of polluters.

In Baltimore CityBody of man found floating in harbor is apparent suicideA man's body was found floating in the Inner Harbor in South Baltimore yesterday and police said he may have committed suicide by jumping into the water with a backpack filled with rocks strapped to his back.Police said a man working near the water's edge in the 100 block of Harbor View Drive off the 1200 block of Key Highway spotted the body about 7 a.m. and called police.A police marine unit removed the body from the water and it was taken to the state medical examiner's office for an autopsy.

Closing ranks in the face of a half-dozen neighborhood activists from Cherry Hill and Brooklyn, South Baltimore's top Democratic leaders yesterday tapped a junior member of their political family for a soon-to-be vacant seat in the House of Delegates.William H. Cole IV, a 26-year-old Congressional aide and close ally of state Sen. George W. Della Jr., won the unanimous support of Baltimore City Democratic State Central Committee members from the 47th District to replace Del. Timothy D. Murphy, who is resigning to accept a district judgeship.

The largest community organization in South Baltimore, an unrepentant fighter against local bars, apologized this week to a Federal Hill tavern it had accused of trying to influence a zoning board decision.The South Baltimore Improvement Committee (SBIC) voted Tuesday night to send a letter of regret to Mother's, a bar and grill on Charles Street. Board members had suggested publicly that Mother's operators, among other things, contributed $25 to the political campaign of SBIC's former president, William Prohaska.

Gilbert E. South, director of ministry advancement for the Lutheran Mission Society and a two-time Republican candidate for Howard County executive, died Wednesday of a heart attack while playing basketball in Centennial Park in Columbia. He was 63 and lived in Ellicott City.Mr. South, who won state racquetball championships and ran marathons well into his 40s, had a passion for athletics and sport that was surpassed perhaps only by his devotion to his faith. He was business administrator of the Baptist Convention of Maryland-Delaware from 1959 to 1986 and served as an elder and treasurer of Patapsco Community Church in Ellicott City.

On September 22, 2009, JOHN J. SR. of South Baltimore, beloved husband of the late Margaret C. Ruff (nee Marcellino); loving father of John Jr., Michael, Norman, Teresa, Margaret, Michelle, and Mark; beloved grandfather of Sarah, John, Christopher, Matthew, Katie, Amanda, Michelle, Mark Ryan, and Shelby and great-granddaughter Allison. The family will receive friends at the family owned and operated MCCULLY-POLYNIAK FUNERAL HOME P.A., 130 E. Fort Avenue (South Baltimore) on Thursday and Friday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 PM, where the procession will begin on Saturday at 10:30 AM for a Mass of Christian Burial in St. Mary Star of the Sea Church at 11 AM. In

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.

To "do" South Baltimore, the way one "does" South Beach, would be as laughable as it is impossible. Fort Avenue can't be done. It just is. You want scene? Try Captain Larry's on Tuesdays for half-price margaritas and fish sandwiches. You'll see everyone - from the neighborhood, anyway. You want sexy? Another Natty Boh might help with that. (You might want to make it two.) There's an ongoing, low-energy effort to get people to refer to the neighborhood as SoBo, as if that would automatically impart the acronymic cachet of, say, SoHo.

Property values in Baltimore are rising faster than anywhere else in Maryland, according to state officials who were to mail more than 730,000 assessment notices today. While appraisals were nearly flat statewide for property overall - and even dipped in the more prosperous suburbs - values for homes in the third of Baltimore that will receive the notices rose 21.4 percent since their last assessment in 2005. State assessors said home values rose 9.7 percent in eastern Baltimore County, 5 percent along the U.S. 40 corridor in Harford County, and 2 percent in the reassessed area of Carroll County.

Darryl Neal pleaded guilty to having a loaded handgun in his maroon Acura in South Baltimore's Curtis Bay neighborhood. Maurice Turner pleaded guilty in connection with a shooting that left two men injured in Park Heights. Both suspects had initially been charged with crimes that carried hefty sentences - five years without the possibility of parole for Neal and life in prison for Turner. Both got plea deals and ended up serving far less time. Neal was sent home on 30 months' probation and Turner is in prison for five years.

Housing foreclosures have hit record numbers. It can cost $100 to fill up an SUV. Even Fannie and Freddie might need an advance on their allowance from Uncle Sam. Can the economic news get any worse? Oh, yes. The faltering economy now is coming after something truly precious: the summer carnival. Across the country, carnivals have been canceled outright or their hours shortened as a result of the soaring cost of the fuel that powers the rides, heats the oil for the corn dogs and lights up all those midway attractions.

Dr. Stephen Baylin first suspected something was amiss in his Federal Hill neighborhood yesterday morning when he opened his door but did not see his Sunday newspapers. "I stepped outside," he said, "and the street was a crime scene." For the second time in two days, Federal Hill residents awoke to news of a fatal shooting in their historic neighborhood. It was one of four killings that occurred yesterday in the city. In addition to the shooting of an unidentified man in Federal Hill, a 23-year-old man was found shot to death in a minivan in West Baltimore and an unidentified woman was found dead in South Baltimore after suffering "obvious signs of trauma" that police would not specify.

When friends recalled Marshall Shure yesterday, they compared him to Matlock, a folksy, down-home attorney who could lull people into thinking he was their friend while he was tearing their testimony apart. He could equally play the part of father confessor and social worker. Mr. Shure, an assistant state's attorney who prosecuted vagrancy, car theft, spouse beating and drug possession cases in Baltimore's neighborhood courts - mostly in the Southern District - died of lung cancer Wednesday at the Levindale Hebrew Center and Hospital.

John F. "Jack" Silber, who managed plants for McCormick & Co. and local printing companies, died of progressive supranuclear palsy Tuesday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The South Baltimore resident was 80. Born and raised in South Baltimore, Mr. Silber graduated from Southern High School in 1945. After serving about a year in the Navy, Mr. Silber attended Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College, where he wrestled and played football. He earned a bachelor's degree in liberal arts.

Suddenly, on February 4, 2008, RONALD E. SR. "HOGHEAD" of South Baltimore; beloved son of Shirley M. DeLair and the late Harry E. DeLair, SR.; dearest brother of Harry, JR., James, Jerry, Bobby, SR., Cheryl Huntsberger, and Kathy Shifflet; loving father of Brittany, Ronald, JR., and Jamie Lynn; and great-grandfather of Joey; loving boyfriend of Rhonda Sherman. The family will receive friends at the family owned and operated MCCULLY-POLYNIAK FUNERAL HOME, P.A., 130 E. Fort Avenue (South Baltimore)