Washington And Baltimore

No matter who embraces whom, Somalia's civil war will no stop until a legitimate police force is the best-armed gang in the country.Baltimore set a personal best for murders in '92. '93 looks even bigger.Washington and Baltimore are now one metropolitan area as big as Connecticut and Rhode Island geographically and New York City demographically. It is L.A.-envy, but is it home?Q. What is the proper salutation to a lame duck president? A. Pardon me.

Baltimore's book festival got here first. Organizers of the 16th annual Baltimore Book Festival, which opens Friday, say they aren't fazed that a larger, glitzier, more star-studded event is being held on the exact same weekend just 40 miles to the south. They aren't concerned that the upstart National Book Festival will feature celebrity authors the likes of actress Julianne Moore, or that the Washington extravaganza is expanding this year from one day to two. But not everyone is as gracious.

A futuristic 300 mile-an-hour train that would run silently between Washington and Baltimore moved one step closer to reality yesterday as Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke appointed a committee to help promote the magnetic levitation rail line for Baltimore.The maglev train, as it is known, could rush commuters between the two cities in as few as 15 minutes, not counting a stop at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. But it probably won't be built here unless the mayor's Maglev Advisory Committee can raise $500,000 from non-federal sources to match a grant included in the U.S. Transportation Department's appropriation bill.

The Zagat's "2012 Washington, DC/Baltimore Restaurants Survey," is released today. Think of this an update of the previous edition, with 119 new listings. But established restaurants have not been re-rated and re-ranked -- that happens every other year. In Baltimore, the new listings include Hampden's new Alchemy and Corner BYOB , Meet 27 in Charles Village, Chazz in Harbor East, Towson's Havana Road, Mount Vernon's Waterstone as well as the new Suburban House .  Elsewhere in Maryland, the Eastern Shore welcomed elaborate pub Banning's , nuevo deli Big Pickle FoodBar , American/French Brasserie Brightwell and in Frederick, Mick's New American Bistro All of this content can also be accessed online at ZAGAT.com or via Zagat's suite of mobile apps.

From The SunSept. 26-Oct. 2, 1843Sept. 27: The water in Jones' Falls yesterday afternoon, during and immediately after the heavy rain, came down with unusual velocity, and soon raised to a considerable height, though not sufficient to cause any damage.Sept. 28: The Madisonian states that Professor Morse will soon commence laying the wires of his electric telegraph on the Washington and Baltimore railroad.From The SunSept. 26-Oct. 2, 1893Sept. 26: The number of pupils enrolled in the public schools is 53,534.

Terah Ann Comegys, an avid reader who spent more than 30 years as a librarian in Baltimore's public schools, died Tuesday of dementia at the Augsburg Lutheran Home and Village in Pikesville. The longtime Baltimore resident was 73. Born Terah Ann Whitten in Chattanooga, Tenn., she graduated from high school in Abingdon, Va., and from what was then Morristown Normal and Industrial College in Morristown, Tenn. Members of her family founded the historically black college, which is now part of Knoxville College.

On his legacy:"I'm dedicated to building the stadium with my own money. At this time, not having the power to look into the future any more than anyone else has, I hope that my son, my grandson, my great-grandsons, the whole line of Cookes will be able to say with pride, 'That's what my great-great-great- grandfather built and that's where we're still playing.' And I want it to be ours."On the inevitable tension between Washington and Baltimore fans:"Look, all we are is a service business.

Although it may sound like a desperate -- to a legalistic loophole, a group of major Baltimore businesses wants to improve the region's air quality rating by combining the greater Baltimore and greater Washington areas.Under the broader identity of the combined Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area, officially recognized by the Census Bureau in 1993, the area would have only a "serious" ozone pollution problem, instead of the "severe" ozone problem ascribed to the Baltimore area alone.This downgrading would allow some 2,000 larger Baltimore employers to avoid the difficult and costly task of reducing the number of auto commuter trips made by their employees, a requirement of the federal government under the Clean Air Act for the nation's worst ozone areas.

The logic seems inescapable. Baltimore County last year granted the state $60,000 that the state didn't spend to study a proposed magnetic levitation train that wouldn't even go to Baltimore County. To boot, the counties the train would go through and one it would stop in, Anne Arundel, haven't spent a dime on the thing. So when Baltimore County auditors looked for possible cuts in the fiscal 2002 budget, to be approved this month, they found plenty of reasons to recommend against the $100,000 earmarked for the study this year.

Open houseRussett, a 613-acre planned community located midway between Washington and Baltimore, is having a Festival of Homes to celebrate 13 new model homes Saturday and and Sunday.As a part of the festivities, energy consultants, interior designers, professional landscape consultants and other experts of interest to new home buyers will be available to offer advice to festival visitors.Information: 725-2200Loews' golf dealLoews Annapolis Hotel announced its 1992 Summer Golf Meeting Package.

Vickie Guerrero uses words such as "quiet" and "homebody" to describe herself. She spends a good portion of her time at home in El Paso, Texas working in her scrapbook studio and hanging out with her 16-year-old daughter. However, the mere sight of this quiet homebody at Verizon Center Sunday night and 1st Mariner Arena Monday night is guaranteed to send thousands of spectators into a raucous frenzy of jeers. And she'll be loving every second of it. Guerrero, who performs as one of the vilest — and unlikeliest — villains in WWE, will be among the pro wrestling stars appearing Sunday at the Capitol Punishment pay-per-view in Washington and Monday at the Monday Night Raw broadcast in Baltimore.

When one subway train crashed into the rear of another in Washington this week, killing nine, it quickly raised a question in Baltimore: Could it happen here? Maryland Transit Administration officials aren't taking any chances. Just to be safe, MTA Administrator Paul J. Wiedefeld has ordered an "integrity test" to see how the Baltimore subway's train operation and collision-avoidance systems would perform in a crisis. MTA officials, who don't think an accident like Washington's could happen in Baltimore, are designing a series of tests to simulate potential problems.

Baltimore has never been kind to mega-clubs. Even in 2000, when promoters in cities like Washington started moving illegal underground dance parties into large legitimate clubs, the trend didn't catch on in Baltimore. But that hasn't stopped investors from trying to open large-scale clubs here. The newest investor to try to lure the Baltimore club scene from small lounges to a big venue is Jon Han. After founding the acclaimed club Ibiza in Washington, he turned his attention to the 20,000-square-foot Redwood Trust building at Redwood and Calvert streets in Baltimore.

Terah Ann Comegys, an avid reader who spent more than 30 years as a librarian in Baltimore's public schools, died Tuesday of dementia at the Augsburg Lutheran Home and Village in Pikesville. The longtime Baltimore resident was 73. Born Terah Ann Whitten in Chattanooga, Tenn., she graduated from high school in Abingdon, Va., and from what was then Morristown Normal and Industrial College in Morristown, Tenn. Members of her family founded the historically black college, which is now part of Knoxville College.

I RECENTLY read a story saying the federal government is considering a change that would separate Washington and Baltimore, which our District of Columbia friends blissfully consider to be one huge, seamless market. I speak as a native Baltimorean, one who thinks I'm in a very different world when I see the signs for the New York Avenue exit off the Parkway. And, I am informed, real Washingtonians get a twitchy feeling when they spot the Gladys Noon Spellman Memorial sign. One market?

The terrorist attacks yesterday brought chaos to Maryland's transportation system, with flights and trains cancelled, highways jammed, streets blocked, bus stations closed, passengers stranded and tempers boiling. At Baltimore-Washington International Airport, thousands of people scrambled to find taxis to local hotels when 600 flights were grounded. "I'm very scared. I'm just trying to stay calm. I don't know what to do," said Gelina Gully of San Francisco, who couldn't find her luggage with her vital kidney transplant medication when her flight home was canceled.

The sports industry has it cushy in the Washington-Baltimore Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area. It gets away with pretending this is one market.There has been one baseball team since the Senators left D.C., one football team since the Colts fled Baltimore in the night, one basketball team, one major-league hockey team, one major indoor-soccer team.And what good franchises they can be, the Redskins for decades and the Orioles recently. When they are not, such as the Bullets lately, that's not the region's fault.

I RECENTLY read a story saying the federal government is considering a change that would separate Washington and Baltimore, which our District of Columbia friends blissfully consider to be one huge, seamless market. I speak as a native Baltimorean, one who thinks I'm in a very different world when I see the signs for the New York Avenue exit off the Parkway. And, I am informed, real Washingtonians get a twitchy feeling when they spot the Gladys Noon Spellman Memorial sign. One market?

The logic seems inescapable. Baltimore County last year granted the state $60,000 that the state didn't spend to study a proposed magnetic levitation train that wouldn't even go to Baltimore County. To boot, the counties the train would go through and one it would stop in, Anne Arundel, haven't spent a dime on the thing. So when Baltimore County auditors looked for possible cuts in the fiscal 2002 budget, to be approved this month, they found plenty of reasons to recommend against the $100,000 earmarked for the study this year.

One of the inherent challenges in trying to land an event that is 12 years away is persuading people to get serious about the venture now. The Washington-Baltimore Regional 2012 Coalition, working to bring the Olympics here, knows that all too well. But with the deadline to submit a bid to the United States Olympic Committee less than six months away, the group doesn't have to spend as much time justifying its existence these days. "I've seen this real shift in recent months," said Dan Knise, president and chief executive officer of the Washington-Baltimore Regional 2012 Coalition.