Train Station

Penn Station, the city's bustling train, bus and taxi hub, sits almost exactly in Baltimore's geographic center. Within a two-mile radius lie many of the city's cultural treasures: four colleges and universities, two major art museums, a symphony and an opera hall and the stately main branch of the library. Youthful entrepreneurs have transformed once-derelict blocks just north of the station with nightclubs, galleries, a movie theater and even a do-it-yourself electronics workshop.

With an eye toward potential customers from expanding federal agencies nearby, developers proposing a mixed-use community near the Dorsey Marc train station in Elkridge got final approval for their plan from a split Howard County Zoning Board. The board voted 3-2 to approve a specific plan for Oxford Square, the proposed residential/commercial project on 122 acres across Route 100 from the train station. The site is vacant land once expected to hold a Coca Cola bottling plant. "It's been a long process, but I believe it's the best zoning, and I hope to prove that over the next 15 years," said David P. Scheffenacker Jr., president of Preston Partners, the developer.

M any of the great rail terminals from the halcyon days of passenger rail travel in the U.S. have been demolished, like New York City's fabled Pennsylvania Station, still considered nearly 50 years later by many as one of the great architectural crimes and preservation losses and the catalyst for the founding of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Other terminals across the nation, such as Detroit's Michigan Central Station or Buffalo Central Terminal, stand forlorn, waiting for better days and even better ideas to give them a second chance at quite possibly a non-rail life.

A decision on whether to allow a large mixed-use project near the Dorsey MARC train station along Route 100 was postponed late Thursday night by the Howard County Planning Board. Oxford Square, which could have up to 1,400 apartments, 1 million square feet of commercial space, stores, and give the county a 5-acre school site, is different from two other train station proposals in the county, because it is across Route 100 from the station. The developers say they'll gain access to the train platforms via a 1749 easement that allows extension of an existing road along the railroad tracks from the station, under the highway bridges, directly into their property.

An 18-year-old man was shot twice in the back early Wednesday near Baltimore's Penn Station but was reported to be alert and talking to detectives, according to a police spokesman. The victim flagged down a police officer stopped at a red light in the 1600 block of St. Paul St. a few minutes after 1 a.m., said the spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi. He said the man told the officer he had been shot two blocks west of that location. The victim was taken to an area hospital and treated for two gunshot wounds to his lower right back, according to Guglielmi.

O ne of Baltimore's most unforgettable winter weather episodes brought the city to its knees with a total accumulation of 4 inches of snow and no ice. Several weeks ago, I recalled that incident, headlined "the worst jam in history," using this paper's news accounts. Here are some better versions, in the words of those who trekked home that Friday afternoon on Dec. 14, 1951: From former Sun sports writer Jim Henneman: "As a junior in high school, I left the old Calvert Hall, Cathedral and Mulberry, at mid-afternoon, headed for our varsity basketball game that had not been postponed.

The Maryland Transit Administration Police will launch a program of random security checks at MARC commuter train stations Friday, using bomb-sniffing dogs to screen passengers' luggage and packages to detect explosives. The MTA warned riders that delays could occur and urged passengers to allow extra time to board trains on the Penn, Camden and Brunswick lines. Lt. Col. John E. Gavrilis, chief of the MTA police, said the tighter security is not a response to a specific threat but part of a general effort to "target-harden" Maryland transit facilities.