Urban Policy

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean held a rally in Baltimore yesterday and a fund-raiser that campaign officials said collected $100,000 for the former Vermont governor. About 130 supporters gathered for the rally in front of the Wyndham Baltimore-Inner Harbor hotel. "We have the power to take this country back," Dean said. Dean was also celebrating his 55th birthday yesterday, and some at the rally sang "Happy Birthday" to him. Among them was Bobbi Benitz of Annapolis. "He is sincere," Benitz said, explaining why she will vote for Dean.

Part of Gay Street had a beauty makeover and became Old Town Mall in the 1970s. This two-block stretch of old commercial stores and a city market made national headlines as an example of urban renaissance more than 30 years ago. Just a few blocks northeast of City Hall, Gay Street was closed to traffic, paved in brick and had a fountain and planters installed in the years after the riots following the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr....

Baltimore City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake was among a delegation from the U.S. Conference of Mayors invited to the White House on Thursday. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the group about the administration's urban policy and its plans to generate jobs in cities and towns across the country. The delegation of mayors in the East Room was not exactly an exclusive group: More than 200 names were on the guest list, including some from outside the United States.

Margaret Oliver "Maggie" Feiss, a recent college graduate and volunteer, died Sunday of an epileptic seizure at her father's Locust Point home. She was 22. Ms. Feiss was born in Baltimore and raised in Lutherville and Cedarcroft. She graduated in 2004 from Bryn Mawr School, where she received the alumnae award for spirit. In May, Ms. Feiss earned a bachelor's degree in urban policy, planning and development from the University of Southern California. While at USC, she was a member of the Hellions of Troy, the women's flying-disc team, and had been logistics coordinator for the USC Relay for Life, which raised $89,000 for the American Cancer Society.

Baltimore's former health commissioner has come out with a way that just might get regular people to care about public policy -- he mixes in a heavy dose of "The Wire. " Dr. Peter Beilenson, who's now Howard County's chief health officer has written a book with journalist Patrick McGuire called "Tapping into The Wire: The Real Urban Crisis. " Each chapter is a different scene from the beloved HBO show, but with the storylines broadened to examine public policy questions. Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, the 232-pager comes out Sept.

Baltimore County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger III may be howling about his exclusion from Baltimore's public housing settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union, but he could benefit from it politically. Hifrom Republicans and conservative Democrats alike. They say their constituents strongly back his stance."I commend Dutch for reacting so aggressively," said Del. Martha Klima, a conservative Towson Republican.To settle a housing discrimination suit, the city and the federal government have proposed shifting 1,342 families from inner-city public housing to better neighborhoods in Baltimore and five surrounding counties.

WASHINGTON -- Thanks to a sore presidential throat, the final meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors started late. But as 160 mayors tumbled cheerfully out of a meeting with President Clinton yesterday, not one of them complained."

Il Professore Schaefer? Yes indeed.Planning for life after Annapolis, Gov. William Donald Schaefer already has lined up some temporary employment: a one-shot visit to the Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy, where he'll be a "distinguished lecturer."A Hopkins spokesman said yesterday that Mr. Schaefer will visit the school sometime after his second term as governor ends in January. But the arrangement is so new that no date has been set, no subject has been selected and no format for the talk has been agreed to, said Dennis O'Shea, of Hopkins.

David Blumberg of Baltimore is the head of the city's Republican party and a delegate to the Republican National Convention. A librarian at the Baltimore City Detention Center, he is writing each day about his thoughts and experiences.Doug Riley, Baltimore County councilman, and my roommate on this trip, awakened me from a nightmare last night. I had been screaming, "Help, help."I can't remember the dream but I imagine it might have been about the Bush campaign without Jim Baker. Despite his reluctance to join the re-election staff, Mr. Baker realized that if President Bush loses in 1992 that a moderate GOPer (such as himself)

The shape of things to come is becoming clearer for the financially strapped District of Columbia, which faces a projected budget shortfall of $722 million. Congress has approved legislation creating a federally appointed financial control board to force major cuts in district spending and with the power to overrule decisions by Mayor Marion S. Barry and the City Council.The legislation further narrows the limited home rule Congress granted the District in 1973. Even officials who remain optimistic about D.C.'s long-term prospects concede it will have to live with a major loss of autonomy into the next century.