Street Lights

IN MATTERS of home improvement, I am known as The Dimwit, a title proudly passed down to me by my father and, for all I know, his father before him. Builders of shelves, we never were. Hammerers and sawyers, not even. When asked about the full range of my household repair skills, I always answer, I can just about screw in a light bulb.Yet even in the embarrassment of such full disclosure, I can now say this on behalf of myself and all other previously mocked men of my ancestral limitations: At least we can do more than certain city work crews, of whom The Sun's Tom Pelton last week plaintively asked: "How many Baltimore public works employees does it take to screw in a light bulb?"

HOUSE TOURS are a unique American tradition. Nowhere else in the world will ordinary people open their homes to strangers who buy a ticket. Yes, some of the castles and manor houses of England and France can be toured for a fee. But they are not regular people's homes.This is the season of house tours and a nice one is coming up. Six Uniontown homes and several other buildings can be toured from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. The admission is $10 and all proceeds go to community projects."We hope to raise several thousand dollars," tour organizer Barbara Childs says.

Quaint, unassuming Tyson Street, tucked away in Baltimore's Mount Vernon District, seems an unlikely place to start a revolution.But nearly 50 years ago, artist Edward Rosenfeld did just that when he bought one of the small brick-fronted rowhouses in the 900 block, between Read Street and Park Avenue, and launched the country's first privately financed urban renaissance.Other artists and artisans followed their friend to create their own little colony. They restored the early 19th-century homes, created elaborate gardens and painted the fronts in a rainbow of colors, which led to the nickname "The Pastel Block" and inclusion in the Encyclopaedia Britannica in the 1950s.

South Court Street residents have heard that drug dealers and users call the street "Crack Alley." But some of the neighbors are ready to try to shed that label."

Baltimore County's problems aren't hard to spot, David Fields says.More elderly people are living in older, sometimes neglected neighborhoods. School buildings are crowded. Rental communities are unstable. Poverty, crime and drug abuse are increasing.Except for the city, Baltimore County has the lowest median household income, the slowest income growth and the lowest median home value in the region.Political pressure has kept tax rates and revenues down, while slow growth has cut off the kind of money that fast expansion has generated in Howard, Carroll and Harford counties.

The Westminster City Council plans to increase the illumination from street lights in some sections of the city as a crime-fighting measure.On Monday night, the council approved a police department proposal to change mercury vapor lights to higher powered sodium vapor lights. Sodium vapor lights currently are in use in downtown Westminster.The action came after a fatal shooting on South Center Street that police said was a drug-related murder Jan. 28.Lt. Dean Brewer told the council that dark areas on some streets make it easy for drug deal ers to avoid police scrutiny.

Half a century ago, Arthur W. Feeser, owner of A. W. Feeser Canning Co. in Silver Run, and another local businessman decided that their community ought to have street lights.So Mr. Feeser dipped into his cash register and came up with the money to install lamps in downtown Silver Run and along Mayberry and Cherrytown roads.Also in the early 1940s, the Independent Order of Mechanics, a now-defunct lodge in Union Mills, sponsored the installation of street lights along Route 97 in that community.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The dim street lamp at the intersection of Del Paso and El Centro Roads was no help to Bobby Hurley Sunday night.The road was dark, and little did the Sacramento Kings rookie know, it was not deserted.On his way home from a game, he turned left into a speeding car, was ejected about 75 feet into a drainage ditch and yesterday was breathing with the aid of a ventilator after eight hours of surgery to save his left lung.Hurley suffered two collapsed lungs, broken ribs and facial, knee, wrist and back injuries.

Uniontown is a historic treasure of Carroll County, its 19th century homes on Main Street well kept with fresh paint and loving restoration. A leisurely stroll from the Methodist cemetery to the town limits along the narrow sidewalk is a peaceful retreat to yesteryear.But this town is no living museum. The lace-curtained antique front parlors merge into more modern habitations in the back. Residents care about their present while nurturing their civic heritage.The town's needs of today and yesterday have come into conflict in a controversy over Uniontown's 50-year-old street lights.

NO ONE has yet asked me what I did in the Great War, but with all of the 50-year anniversaries of this or that turning point, perhaps one or another of our curious grandkids will get around to it. Allowing their be-ribboned merchant marine grandfather a priority on his deeds of valor, I can reveal that Grandmother, too, was active in the worldwide struggle.I'll show them the trappings of my fearless wartime calling -- badge, arm band, whistle, helmet and gas mask. I was an air raid warden.

Sometimes, in small ways, this Getting There gig is downright gratifying. Particularly when it can help a reader get something fixed. One example is an e-mail that came Feb. 16 from Crossan McDonald of Baltimore. For me one of the most hazardous stretches of road that I travel is Keith Avenue, the connector between Interstate 95 [the first exit after the Fort McHenry toll booth] and Broening Highway. To properly appreciate the problems, one has to travel this road at night. On any given evening, over half of the street lights are out of service, and the white paint lane markers are so faint that they are barely visible.

Pity poor Howard Street. Baltimore's once-proud commercial center has suffered all manner of indignity since the 1970s. Jilted by a California developer promising a rebirth. Abandoned by department stores for the suburbs. Violated by road crews that ripped it up, then ripped it up again a few years later for light rail tracks. Duped by the city's unrealized plan for an "Avenue of the Arts." There was even a time in 1999 when street lights went out - and stayed out for months. And this month?

Union Bridge will soon get a new flashing yellow light to help its emergency vehicles get on to Main Street, but the small town probably will lose its only existing traffic signal. The State Highway Administration has ordered work to begin on a signal at Locust Street, where the fire company is located, said Neil Parrott, an SHA traffic engineer. "That's the good news," he told the Town Council on Monday night. The bad news - perhaps - is that the state plans to remove the traffic light at Main Street and Broadway, he said.

IN MATTERS of home improvement, I am known as The Dimwit, a title proudly passed down to me by my father and, for all I know, his father before him. Builders of shelves, we never were. Hammerers and sawyers, not even. When asked about the full range of my household repair skills, I always answer, I can just about screw in a light bulb.Yet even in the embarrassment of such full disclosure, I can now say this on behalf of myself and all other previously mocked men of my ancestral limitations: At least we can do more than certain city work crews, of whom The Sun's Tom Pelton last week plaintively asked: "How many Baltimore public works employees does it take to screw in a light bulb?"

HOUSE TOURS are a unique American tradition. Nowhere else in the world will ordinary people open their homes to strangers who buy a ticket. Yes, some of the castles and manor houses of England and France can be toured for a fee. But they are not regular people's homes.This is the season of house tours and a nice one is coming up. Six Uniontown homes and several other buildings can be toured from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. The admission is $10 and all proceeds go to community projects."We hope to raise several thousand dollars," tour organizer Barbara Childs says.

Quaint, unassuming Tyson Street, tucked away in Baltimore's Mount Vernon District, seems an unlikely place to start a revolution.But nearly 50 years ago, artist Edward Rosenfeld did just that when he bought one of the small brick-fronted rowhouses in the 900 block, between Read Street and Park Avenue, and launched the country's first privately financed urban renaissance.Other artists and artisans followed their friend to create their own little colony. They restored the early 19th-century homes, created elaborate gardens and painted the fronts in a rainbow of colors, which led to the nickname "The Pastel Block" and inclusion in the Encyclopaedia Britannica in the 1950s.

Baltimore County's problems aren't hard to spot, David Fields says.More elderly people are living in older, sometimes neglected neighborhoods. School buildings are crowded. Rental communities are unstable. Poverty, crime and drug abuse are increasing.Except for the city, Baltimore County has the lowest median household income, the slowest income growth and the lowest median home value in the region.Political pressure has kept tax rates and revenues down, while slow growth has cut off the kind of money that fast expansion has generated in Howard, Carroll and Harford counties.

South Court Street residents have heard that drug dealers and users call the street "Crack Alley." But some of the neighbors are ready to try to shed that label."

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The dim street lamp at the intersection of Del Paso and El Centro Roads was no help to Bobby Hurley Sunday night.The road was dark, and little did the Sacramento Kings rookie know, it was not deserted.On his way home from a game, he turned left into a speeding car, was ejected about 75 feet into a drainage ditch and yesterday was breathing with the aid of a ventilator after eight hours of surgery to save his left lung.Hurley suffered two collapsed lungs, broken ribs and facial, knee, wrist and back injuries.

Half a century ago, Arthur W. Feeser, owner of A. W. Feeser Canning Co. in Silver Run, and another local businessman decided that their community ought to have street lights.So Mr. Feeser dipped into his cash register and came up with the money to install lamps in downtown Silver Run and along Mayberry and Cherrytown roads.Also in the early 1940s, the Independent Order of Mechanics, a now-defunct lodge in Union Mills, sponsored the installation of street lights along Route 97 in that community.