Waverly

Four young men broke into a community center at Stadium Place in Waverly early Tuesday and stole a 60-inch television, a portable oxygen tank and food, and also damaged a vending and bank machine, Baltimore police said Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the Y of Central Maryland had said on Tuesday that the break-in was confined to the lobby of the building on East 33rd Street, the site of the old Memorial Stadium. She had declined to say if anything was taken, but said damage was quickly cleaned up. The police report details far more extensive damage, with surveillance cameras showing the men entering the building through an unlocked door to a pool pump room even as members of an overnight cleaning crew were working inside.

City police are investigating a reported rape that occurred Thursday night in North Baltimore, with a woman reporting a man broke into her home and attacked her. The incident occurred in the 3900 block of Frisby Street, on the border of Pen Lucy and Waverly, at about 11 p.m. Police say an 18-year-old woman said she was in her bedroom when a masked suspected armed with a handgun entered the home and sexually assaulted her.  The suspect took...

Peabody Heights Brewery, formerly called Charm City Brewing Company, has signed a lease this month for a bottling plant near Waverly , in the Abell neighborhood. The lease puts it one step closer to becoming the first large-scale brewery to open within city limits in over 30 years. Spearheaded by Stephen Demczuk, owner of Baltimore-Washington Beer Works, and entrepreneur J. Hollis Albert, the brewery expects to be open for business as early as May, though Demczuk says a June launch is more likely.  Peabody will have a 30-barrel brewhouse that its owners hope will eventually produce 40,000 barrels a year of several kinds of beers already made by some of Baltimore's microbrewers.

After 90 years of repairing shoes and other leather goods, Hack's Shoe Repair, a fixture in Waverly since 1922, will close its doors for good this week. Its owner, Frank Booker, a veteran cobbler who has owned and operated the business in the 3400 block of Greenmount Ave. since 1968, has decided to retire at age 75. A handwritten message taped to the shop's two bay windows tells the story: "This Shop is Closing on January 31, 2012. Pick up shoes: 10 AM to 4:30 PM. " "I was in the hospital the other day and I'm ailing a bit," said Booker, in a telephone interview last week.

There's a lot going on in Waverly, in case you haven't noticed. Late last month, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake signed a bill designating the old Waverly Town Hall at Greenmount Avenue and 31st Street as the city's latest historic landmark. The building's second-floor hall had once been a popular meeting place for 19th- and 20th-century politicians, as well as a neighborhood gathering place for Waverly residents. "A lot of us who live in the Waverly area are excited that this has happened," said Joe Stewart, a Waverly activist who is an attorney with the state Department of Assessments and Taxation.

Waverly Main Street, the merchant association in the Waverly community, has not been "dormant," as you suggest in a recent article abut crime in the neighborhood, but it has not often been covered by The Sun in the 11 years since its founding ("Uncertain times on Greenmount," Nov. 30). Every year there has been a Miracle on Main Street holiday event. There were three Greenmount Avenue parades co-sponsored by the organization and there have been many special events such as the Taste of Waverly, a day-long block party, guided walking tours and the unveiling of a new historic marker at 33 r d Street and Greenmount Avenue.

The owner of a dress shop is so fearful of crime along Greenmount Avenue in Waverly that she keeps the door locked even when her shop is open. The man who runs a discount store a block away feels it is safe enough to stroll the avenue with his three young children. A young clerk who just started behind the counter of a doughnut shop is happy to have found work amid the sour economy, but says, "It's scary in here. " The proprietor of the avenue's most expensive restaurant is threatening to leave.

A man was fatally shot in the chest Monday evening at a carryout restaurant in the 2900 block of Greenmount Avenue in Waverly, Baltimore police reported. Police received a call about 6:45 p.m. of a robbery, said Det. Jeremy Silbert, a department spokesman. The first officer to arrive found a man who had been shot at least once, in the chest. Police said Tuesday morning that the victim had been pronounced dead at 7:15 p.m. at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Police believe the man was being robbed, said Silbert; three men had been seen fleeing on foot.

The case against Michael Hunter, who is accused of shooting a 72-year-old security guard for the Afro-American newspaper, will rely heavily on the reluctant testimony of his friends, prosecutors said during opening statements Wednesday. "Troy Taylor doesn't want to finger his friend," prosecutor Theresa Shaffer told a Baltimore Circuit Court jury. "Tonio Billinger doesn't want to testify. But the truth is what the truth is. " Hunter, 20, is accused of gunning down Vietnam veteran Charles Bowman during the April 8, 2010, robbery of a Chinese food carryout in Waverly that netted $13. The crime shook the North Baltimore community and led police to flood the area with extra officers.