Urban Development

I WAS one of 200 people crowded into a small room in the Northern District Police Station to attend a City Council hearing earlier this month. The topic: Loyola College's plan to buy 49 acres of city property in Woodberry and convert the woodlands into a large stadium and athletic complex. It was a thrilling display of civic activism -- Baltimore residents devoting themselves to protest something they believe will hurt their community. At the same time, representatives from city agencies testified on behalf of Loyola against the wishes of the very people who pay their salaries.

Moving west side forward Baltimore's ambitious west-side development project is moving forward in an expeditious, market-based and even-handed manner. The $16 million public investment we are making to acquire the Stewart's and CenterPoint sites will leverage $77 million in private investment, creating 588 jobs and 370 apartments. After the project's completion, this investment will bring at least $837,000 in new taxes, every year, to city coffers. These projects are also creating the critical mass that makes possible the $56 million Hippodrome Theater and the $12 million Hecht Co. project.

Charles Street `ballet' underscores failures of public housing The person who proclaimed, "we hang out, that's what we do" ("A destructive ballet in Charles North," Opinion Commentary, Oct. 4) provided a vivid illustration of why many residents are resentful of subsidized housing programs. It doesn't take a hard heart to believe that no person should be subsidized to drink, shout profanity, blare music and otherwise plague the neighborhood. If, as is often claimed, the number of recipients of housing subsidies who cause trouble is small, then the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

CLYDE, N.Y. -- Sitting in Pete's Diner, talking about his beloved hometown, Kenneth DiSanto makes the plan sound plausible, even probable. Of course this forlorn little village will transform itself from plain old Clyde, smack in the middle of nowhere, to Clyde-on-the-Erie, historic site and tourist magnet. Step outside onto Glasgow Street, however, and the obstacles to that plan become plain. Just for starters, you cannot actually get to the Erie Canal from three-block-long downtown Clyde.

Property flipping and suspected mortgage fraud have produced a fertile field for federal investigators in Baltimore, setting off an expanding series of criminal probes.At least three agencies -- the FBI, postal inspectors and the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development -- are conducting investigations. Another dozen and a half possible targets have drawn their interest, sources say.The Maryland attorney general's office is in the early stages of an inquiry that could produce criminal as well as civil actions.

Jennifer Paterson,71, a television cook and one of the "Two Fat Ladies" who joyfully salted their recipes with political incorrectness, died Tuesday of lung cancer in London.Happy to be plump, the women toured the country on Miss Paterson's old Triumph motorcycle -- she in the driver's seat and Clarissa Dickson Wright, in Red Baron-style helmet, squeezed into the sidecar. Miss Dickson Wright once called the program "a cookery show with anarchy and a motorbike."Bob Herbert, 57, the man who concocted the Spice Girls, was killed in a car accident near London Monday.

Deserved applause for illustratorsI have been enjoying the "Parent and Child" section of The Sun, especially the featured stories. But consistently, the "Story Time" feature only notes the author and only below in the copyright corner is the illustrator mentioned.As an illustrator, I find it a shame that the illustrator always takes a back seat to the author, when it is the illustrator who makes the words of the author spring to life.It is the illustrations which get children (and parents)

WASHINGTON -- In the face of congressional opposition to its urban agenda, the Clinton administration is finding other ways to fulfill its vision of bringing jobs and development to hard-pressed inner-city neighborhoods.At a little-noticed White House meeting June 5, Vice President Al Gore was host to chief executives of nine corporations that have invested heavily in building commercial enterprises in poverty-stricken areas. Each used the meeting to make commitments to major expansions.The meeting, the White House Business and Entrepreneurial Roundtable on Community Empowerment, marked a turning point in the often tenuous relationship between businesses and HTC impoverished urban neighborhoods.

WASHINGTON -- "In years past, we had to come to lobby for cities. But in this meeting, we were the ones being lobbied. Cabinet officials came to us for help in advancing their agenda. So did congressional committee chairmen. The president asked us for support, too."Winding up the U.S. Conference of Mayors' 66th annual winter meeting in Washington on Friday, those words from Fort Worth Mayor Paul Helmke, a Republican and this year's conference president, came as something of a shock.In recent years, the mayors' conference has often been disparaged for tin-cup politics -- always pleading for extra or special federal aid.Clinton stretchedBut the attention showered on the mayors visiting Washington was not to be denied.

After more than a decade of false starts, downtown Silver Spring may finally get the boost it needs to restore it as a vital commercial center.A team of four developers, including Baltimore's RTKL Associates, unveiled a $326 million proposal yesterday that would turn vacant lots, empty buildings and half-filled parking garages in Maryland's second largest community into a "town center" of stores, offices and a hotel.The plan centers on two hubs within the 26-acre wedge of land bordered by Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road: "Silver Circle," a cluster of businesses geared toward leisure activities and evening entertainment; and "Town Square," which would include a supermarket, hardware store and civic meeting building.