Urban Development

Edmund W. Lubinski, a retired appraiser who worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, died of pneumonia April 10 at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Lutherville resident was 93. Mr. Lubinski was born in Baltimore, the son of Polish immigrants who owned and operated grocery stores on Linwood Avenue and later Elmora Avenue. Mr. Lubinski was raised near Patterson Park and graduated in 1931 from Loyola High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from Loyola College in 1935.

Developers plan to build 1,700 housing units near a mixed-use business park in White Marsh, saying it will "supercharge" an area that had previously been targeted for job creation. The $100 million development, Greenleigh at Crossroads, would be part of the 1,000-acre Baltimore Crossroads @95. Baltimore County officials announced the plans Wednesday with representatives from developer St. John Properties and Somerset Construction Co. St. John officials said they'll break ground on the 200-acre project — which will include single-family houses, townhouses, condominium units and apartments — within the next year to 18 months.

David S. Cordish was supposed to be a lawyer. In the early years after graduating from the University of Maryland law school in 1963, Cordish toiled in Baltimore courtrooms, working for his father's Eutaw Street practice. But then a group of desperate investors persuaded Cordish to underwrite and manage their flailing Harford County retail project, and one of the nation's most-acclaimed developers emerged. When the Edgewood Shopping Center opened in the early 1970s - the first among dozens of strip malls that he would build and own - Cordish's future as a practicing attorney was effectively ended.

Edwin P. Post II, a retired federal housing inspector and veteran of two wars, died Oct. 25 of complications from Alzheimer's disease at Sunrise Assisted-Living in Columbia. The former Mays Chapel resident was 89. The son of a Con-Ed lineman and a homemaker, Edwin Price Post II was born and raised on Staten Island, N.Y., where he graduated from McKee High School. He served in the Navy during World War II from 1942 to 1947, where he was a patternmaker. He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War, serving again from 1950 to 1951.

Baltimore architects and planners avoided more than a few design blunders in 1995. They didn't turn the waterfront over to casino interests. They didn't convert the vacant Pier 4 Power Plant, which has the potential to be a terrific public attraction, to a private office building for Alex. Brown & Sons Inc. They didn't put a visitors' center on a pier in the middle of the Inner Harbor, where few could reach it.But successful urban planning requires more than averting mistakes. Cities on the move these days are taking steps to create environments in which good things will happen, not just places in which bad things won't happen.

James Saunders and Elissa O'Leary were married in Towson, Maryland on October 22, 2007. The groom is a Baltimore County Police Officer and the bride is an attorney for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The couple reside in Hanover, MD.

An article Sunday about the condemned Riverdale Apartments in Essex-Middle River incorrectly described the status of the property. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has foreclosed on half of the complex; Chemical Bank, now part of Chase Manhattan Bank, holds a mortgage on the other half and has not foreclosed.The Sun regrets the errors.Pub Date: 9/11/97

Eugene Shoemaker, 69, an astronomer who co-discovered the comet that slammed into Jupiter in 1994, was killed in a car accident yesterday in Australia during an annual trip to search for asteroid craters. Mr. Shoemaker died in a two-car accident near Alice Springs. His wife, Carolyn, another Lowell Observatory astronomer who shared in the Jupiter comet's discovery, was injured. Mr. Shoemaker was perhaps best known for helping to discover comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which broke up and spectacularly slammed into the giant, gaseous planet in 1994.

Here is how members of Maryland's delegation on Capitol Hill were recorded on important roll-call votes last week:Y: Yes N: No X: Not votingSenate: Daley for secretary of commerceVoting 95 for and two against, the Senate confirmed William M. Daley as secretary of commerce. Daley, 48, leaves a Chicago law firm to join President Clinton's Cabinet. Opposition, though sparse, was directed at Commerce Department programs that subsidize blue-chip corporations, and at its high number of political appointees -- about 200. Daley said in his confirmation hearing that he supports reducing that number by about half.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has granted Maryland $2.3 million to help people living in public housing find opportunities for job training and education. The money will be used to hire local “service coordinators” who will work with people living in public housing, or receiving financial assistance from the government to pay for housing, find services that will lead to employment, according to a statement Friday from the department. In addition to connecting public housing residents with job training and educational opportunities, the coordinators will be able to guide public assistance recipients to childcare, transportation, and counseling, and computer and budgeting lessons, HUD said.

Steve Carter argued Oct. 11 that low-income housing in Columbia makes little sense ("Low-income housing does not belong in high-cost Columbia," letter). Perhaps Mr. Carter does not realize that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is required to increase affordable housing throughout the Baltimore region, which mirrors the founding goal of Columbia. The case of Thompson vs. HUD filed in January 1995 ended with a partial consent decree. The court determined that HUD violated part of the Fair Housing Act through their failure to affirmatively promote fair housing by not providing affordable housing options in areas of lower poverty.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has granted Maryland $2.3 million to help people living in public housing find opportunities for job training and education. The money will be used to hire local “service coordinators” who will work with people living in public housing, or receiving financial assistance from the government to pay for housing, find services that will lead to employment, according to a statement Friday from the department. In addition to connecting public housing residents with job training and educational opportunities, the coordinators will be able to guide public assistance recipients to childcare, transportation, and counseling, and computer and budgeting lessons, HUD said.

James Saunders and Elissa O'Leary were married in Towson, Maryland on October 22, 2007. The groom is a Baltimore County Police Officer and the bride is an attorney for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The couple reside in Hanover, MD.

One of the most challenging and expensive urban renewal initiatives in Baltimore County history is poised to move forward today, with county leaders expected to approve a deal with a developer to transform the razed site of a crime-ridden apartment complex into a village of mixed-income housing. The county would give the 18 acres that had been the site of the Kingsley Park Apartments to a development team under a proposal that must be approved by the County Council. The county would also give the developers $4.1 million in subsidies.

Edmund W. Lubinski, a retired appraiser who worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, died of pneumonia April 10 at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Lutherville resident was 93. Mr. Lubinski was born in Baltimore, the son of Polish immigrants who owned and operated grocery stores on Linwood Avenue and later Elmora Avenue. Mr. Lubinski was raised near Patterson Park and graduated in 1931 from Loyola High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from Loyola College in 1935.

When Walter Sondheim Jr. chaired the Center City-Inner Harbor Development Corp. in the 1970s and 1980s, he often received unsolicited gifts from developers who hoped to win business contracts with the city. Back those presents would immediately go. Inappropriate, Mr. Sondheim said. Except once, according to David Gillece, a former city economic development officer. That time, Mr. Sondheim told Mr. Gillece, the gift was a particularly impressive coffee-table book on architecture. Mr. Sondheim confessed he couldn't resist thumbing through the book before sending it back.

Glendening backs Mfume for Senate Former U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, running for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, has landed his biggest endorsement yet, his campaign said yesterday. Former Gov. Parris N. Glendening will endorse the five-term congressman and former NAACP chief during a news conference tomorrow at City Dock in Annapolis, the campaign said. "I've got a lot of respect for Governor Glendening," Mfume said yesterday. "I'm one of his biggest fans with respect to the notion of smart growth and protecting our environment, our wetlands, our lakes and streams and making sure that urban development was planned urban development."

Betty Hyatt has spent 20 years seeing that the decaying housing in her East Baltimore neighborhood of Washington Hill is replaced by new housing for homeowners.About 800 new housing units later, she is just one project away from seeing her job completed.The city Board of Estimates yesterday authorized the Department of Housing and Community Development to apply for a federal Urban Development Action Grant worth slightly more than $1 million to finish the job.The grant would help finance a $4.5 million housing project expected to provide 66 new low- and middle-income housing units around the 1400 block of E. Baltimore St.More than half of the housing would be two- and three-bedroom condominium units with the rest being single-family townhouses.

Glendening backs Mfume for Senate Former U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, running for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, has landed his biggest endorsement yet, his campaign said yesterday. Former Gov. Parris N. Glendening will endorse the five-term congressman and former NAACP chief during a news conference tomorrow at City Dock in Annapolis, the campaign said. "I've got a lot of respect for Governor Glendening," Mfume said yesterday. "I'm one of his biggest fans with respect to the notion of smart growth and protecting our environment, our wetlands, our lakes and streams and making sure that urban development was planned urban development."

When developer Bernard Manekin and his partners converted the old Maryland Casualty Co. headquarters to a shopping and office center in the early 1970s, they were ahead of their time. There weren't many examples of old buildings being recycled for new uses, in Baltimore or elsewhere in the country, during those years. Manekin's venture, the Rotunda at 711 W. 40th St., became both an anchor and an amenity for the neighborhoods around it. Now new owners are seeking to build on that pioneering effort and use the 11.5-acre Rotunda property to create the next generation of urban development, while preserving the landmark structure that made it so distinctive in the first place.