Suburbs

The majority of the poor in the Baltimore region now live in the city's suburbs for the first time, while the poverty rate in the city has declined, a new study has found. The changing geography of poverty here reflects a national trend, and argues for a more regional strategy on issues ranging from social safety nets to mass transit, the study concludes. "The notion of poverty as primarily an urban problem is officially outdated," said Elizabeth Kneebone, co-author of a report released Wednesday by the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Being on TV is nothing new for Baltimore. Think of the recent political dramas like "Game Change" and "VEEP" or earlier crime shows like "Homicide" and"The Wire. " But what's going on within a five-acre area of production offices and massive warehouses turned soundstages in Joppa is a new game altogether. The makers of the $100 million Netflix political thriller "House of Cards" are virtually building their own Washington in Harford County. There, the vaulted interiors of the Capitol, much of the West Wing of the White House and even a cramped Adams-Morgan apartment are taking shape.

Less than two weeks after a young black bear was fatally injured by a car on the Beltway near Lutherville, state wildlife officials are tracking another bruin last spotted Wednesday in Cockeysville. "I suspect this guy dropped down from Pennsylvania along the Susquehanna River," said Harry Spiker, a bear biologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. "This bear is probably wishing he hadn't come this way." Although Maryland's black bears aren't known to breed farther east than Frederick County, these springtime sojourns — sometimes more than 100 miles — by young male bears have become annual events.

Thanks to demand from the defense sector, the vacancy rate for office space in Baltimore's suburbs is lower than anywhere else in the United States except for two suburban markets in California, a new commercial real estate report shows. Suburban Baltimore had an office vacancy rate of 14 percent, according to an overview of the mid-Atlantic commercial market released this month by Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate firm that operates nationwide. That's lower than any other suburban market the firm tracks except for two high-tech hotbeds: the San Francisco peninsula, which has an 11.6 percent vacancy rate, and Silicon Valley, with a 12.7 percent rate.

For most of his term in office, Baltimore County Executive Roger Hayden has harped on the theme that should be a pillar of his bid for re-election: reviving the county's older communities.Rejuvenating the county's oldest neighborhoods, and in turn discouraging further sprawl into the countryside, isn't simply a good tack for Baltimore County. It's in the best interests of orderly regional growth, the health of Chesapeake Bay and the state's pocketbook.The out-migration of the past 40 years -- from city to suburb to exurbs -- must be slowed.

Washington. -- The Clinton administration says it's intent on ''inventing government.'' Vice President Al Gore was on television a few days ago babbling about ''this revolutionary new idea'' of making the government ''customer-friendly and customer-driven.''But if Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gore are serious about reinventing government, there is a genuinely revolutionary idea they might try: Abolish the suburbs.This is a serious suggestion. David Rusk, formerly the mayor of Albuquerque, N.M., makes the case in his new book, ''Cities Without Suburbs.

Two years ago, in the jaws of the recession, the suburbs that ring Baltimore cut back or cut out making their fair-share contributions to cultural institutions that are based in the city but benefit the whole region.Now, these suburban governments say they have restored their contributions to the Baltimore attractions so many of their residents patronize.If only that were the whole truth.The suburbs have restored some of the cuts they made during the recession, but their contributions still fall way below 1990-92 levels, when the counties as a group pledged to begin treating a dozen or so major Baltimore-based institutions as the regional jewels they are. Suburban leaders sell city culture as an amenity when they solicit new business yet still view these stipends more as goodwill gifts than as a responsibility to the region's educational and economic well-being.

A CRITICISM of the transfer of a fraction of public housing from Baltimore to the counties is that it's ''social engineering.''That broadside discounts the immense role government has played in shaping the suburbs, as if they were settled by rugged homesteaders on wagon trains. Without the $2.5 billion invested in highway expansion in this region alone the past 15 years, plus billions more for water and sewer systems and other infrastructure, the bedroom communities that have mushroomed in places like Bel Air and Westminster and Odenton would not exist.

The suburban security blanket, like the one Linus totes around in the "Peanuts" comic strip, seems to fray with each passing news item:Food pantries note increased demand in the suburbs, particularly in affluent Howard County . . . Panhandling more evident along suburban shopping strips. "It's safer," panhandlers say. . . . Retired executive shot through his living room window in Baltimore County's wealthy Green Spring Valley . . . Baltimore County announces heightened security to protect holiday shopping mall crowds.

Maryland commuters who once spent their mornings drivin from suburban homes to work downtown are steering in another direction: back to the suburbs.New analyses of 1990 U.S. Census findings show that communities along the outskirts of Washington and Baltimore have become the state's fastest growing job centers, usurping the economic role once played by the cities.The census figures indicate, for instance, that the number of commuters headed into Baltimore declined by 11 percent over the past 10 years.

Hours after a ribbon-cutting ceremony 50 years ago, the Jones Falls Expressway had its first pileup and subsequent traffic snarl. Some things never change. The JFX is the road we love to hate but can't live without, the city's Main Street where everyone has a tale to tell. Shannon Mullaney met her husband on the JFX. The soundtrack of David Rocah's workday is often provided by the southbound lanes right outside his office window. Steve McDaniel's bees thrive in the shadow of the roadway and produce a flavorful honey.

Jim Schillinger, a fourth-generation farmer from Severn, has occasionally tussled with politicians who don't understand the first thing about crop yields or the rising cost of fertilizer. When he tries to explain his concerns, it's as if they don't speak his language. So when Schillinger studies the proposed boundaries for Maryland's eight congressional districts and sees that his 136-acre farm in Anne Arundel County would be lumped with densely populated Prince George's, it doesn't inspire confidence that his voice would be heard in Washington.

As the school year finally gets under way, public school students across the state will be writing more often and learning to think differently in math class, as the state begins major education reforms that will change everything from the curriculum to the way teachers are evaluated. While some of the changes — which districts agreed to make in exchange for more federal funding — have faced resistance from teachers, others have already been embraced in classrooms. Baltimore City has tried a number of the most radical reforms as it attempted to turn around its perpetually poor-performing schools.

The emerald ash borer, an invasive Asian insect deadly to ash trees, has turned up in trees and traps in three locations in Howard County, accelerating the threat to hundreds of thousands of valuable shade trees in Baltimore and its suburbs. The beetle's move from Southern Maryland years earlier than expected means the state must step up efforts to slow the spread toward Baltimore, where ash trees make up about 10 percent of the city's tree canopy, and to minimize the costly damage.

Clayton James has tried in vain to transform 24 acres of waterfront woodlands into apartments for senior citizens in southern Anne Arundel County, a housing stock he says is sorely needed in the rural part of the county. For nearly nine years, neighbors and preservationists have fought the Crandall Cove development of 32 senior apartments on land given to James' nonprofit group, decrying the move to develop the heavily forested land in Churchton overlooking the waters of Deep Cove Creek.

There is no debating the fact that Baltimore's property tax rate puts it at a major competitive disadvantage with the surrounding counties. The rate in the city is $2.268 per $100 in assessed value, more than double the rate in Baltimore County — which is itself higher than the rates in Anne Arundel, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties. Even with the recent improvement in the city's schools and crime rate — two other big historical advantages for the suburbs — the property tax is a powerful incentive for families to leave the city or to choose another jurisdiction when they move to the area.

West of Reisterstown Road, just over the city-county line, stands Colonial Village, a proud repository of civic spirit but a neighborhood under siege.Stores are robbed and robbed again. Teen-agers block streets and doughnut shop parking lots and dare someone to disperse them. Rats have appeared in at least one vacant lot.Last year, the politicians put Colonial Village's 300 homes in a new city-county legislative district. Since 75 percent of the district is in the city, elections in this county neighborhood will be controlled by city voters.

Folks hungering for a Gino Giant, your wait is almost over. Officials with Gino's Burgers & Chicken announced Tuesday that the burger franchise, launched in 1959 by Colts legend Gino Marchetti , is returning to Baltimore. A Gino's restaurant is expected to open in the Baltimore suburbs by this fall. Gino's officials confirmed Tuesday that they had signed a 10-restaurant deal with Scott Autry and Jared Miller of the newly formed company, A&M Hospitality of Maryland LLC. "We think we're going to rock in Baltimore," said Tom Romano, Gino's president and CEO. According to Romano, the deal with Autry and Scott was hatched very quickly.

One of the most important recent pieces of education research was released last year — and promptly ignored. The Century Foundation's report "Housing Policy is School Policy" confirms the seminal 1966 finding of Johns Hopkins University sociologist James Coleman: The school-based variable that most profoundly affects student performance is the socioeconomic composition of the school. In short, poor children do better if they attend schools with affluent children. The "new" news in the report?