Baltimore Skyline

There is a lot that is awfully wrong with this city, and the Recession really hasn't helped us out a whole deal. The murder rate is back up again (but overall violent crime is still down), there are blocks of trash strewn dilapidated neighborhoods, and stalled places like the Superblock and Old Town Mall still frustrate and confuse us. But here me out folks, we could honestly be seeing a Baltimore Renaissance happening around us. There has been a whole lot of news recently about old office stock being sold to be developed into apartments: 10 Light St, 301 N Charles, and 114 E Lexington to name a few. All of these that are in what used to be the traditional downtown can help to create a more lively area. In so many places off the Inner Harbor, the vibrancy of the streets dies down as office workers leave after 5pm. This has the opportunity to change dramatically when the once mostly office complexes are now interspersed with residential and mixed-use buildings. This has the pote...

Who are we kidding? We've been playing Christmas music in the house since the day after Thanksgiving. The Christmas decorations were already primed and ready to be put up as soon as the Turkey was cold in the refrigerator. They may have been put up on November 23rd, the wreath wasn't added until the 28th. Ok, but tomorrow is December 1st, so now it's fully appropriate to bust out the Christmas cheer for the rest of the month. And what better way to get into the festive spirit by seeing what is happening around town in the next few days to kick off everything. If you haven't been up in Hampden as of late 34th street and the Avenue are already decked out. 34th Street is as bright and gaudy and wonderful as ever. The shops on the Avenue have their store windows decorated and light, and the whole street looks lively from Chestnut Ave to Falls Road. Sunday is the Mayor's Christmas Parade which traverses from Poly/Western to Hampden, and with the temperatures forec...

Tomorrow is the day that everyone looks forward to; today, on the other hand is the busiest travel day of the year. Across the country folks are packing the car or heading to the airport, or jumping on the train to go someplace for Thanksgiving. Around here that means cars will be cramming onto I-95, people will be queuing up at the security lines at BWI waiting to board completely full flights, commuters will be taking the early MARC train home, and long-distance travelers will be funneling into Penn Station to catch also full Amtrak trains along the NEC. This is also the time of the year that if you're lucky you will see MARC equipment making runs as extra Amtrak trainsets up the NEC toward New York to accommodate the holiday travelers. This year I won't be making the travels on Thanksgiving, instead Skyline wife and I are making the family come to us! In the past I have made many trips out of Baltimore Penn Station and Philadelphia 30th Street (when I lived there) at...

So it's been raining all day, and the winds and gusts have increased as our friend Sandy makes her way into town. Baltimore Skyline headquarters in Hampden is stocked with non-perishable food, water, candles, and beer thanks to a last minute run to the Wine Source before they closed up for the night. Now a "superstorm" as the system no longer was a "tropical" cyclone as it slammed into the winter storm system that was hovering over the upper midwest and Canada. Technically now Sandy is a "post-tropical cyclone", but whatever it still packs a nasty hurricane force punch. She made landfall in southern New Jersey and John Collins on WBAL is showing the eye of the storm passing to the north of Baltimore, in northeastern Maryland. Which means, more rain and more wind for the rest of the night. It's odd to see downtown Baltimore so empty on a Monday morning, as I was picking up Baltimore Skyline Wife from work this morning at 6:30am, and then driving...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/real-estate/wonk/bs-re-bdc-meeting-october-20121025,0,91946.story I doubt they read this blog, but good news all around. PMC Property Group, which is working on new apartments at 521 St. Paul Street, and recently purchased 301 N Charles Street for an apartment conversion is in talks with the city to purchase 26-36 S Calvert Street. These properties were originally slated for demolition for the Cityscape Development. In fact some interior demolition began at the old USF&G Annex before the project was put on hold. Now PMC wants to add those buildings to its increasing list of adaptive-reuse projects to convert old office space to residential. I had posted about saving this building two years ago; looks like it may come true!If all goes well PMC could turn these properties on S. Calvert Street into 140 new residential units!

This is a knockoff from Portlandia, but if you've been to a game recently, you have probably seen this. Adam Jones and Robert Andino up in New York City putting Oriole bird stickers on anything and everything. Your browser does not support iframes.

Joy R. Absalon-US PRESSWIRE - Presswire On a night to celebrate the Iron Man, Cal Ripken Jr., these Orioles played like a team of iron men. In front of a sellout crowd of 46,298 the Orioles brought the magic to Camden Yards. Before the game started, the crowdes gathered to see the unveiling of the Cal Ripken statue in the new Legends Park depicting him fielding backhandedly, as he had so many times between 1981 and 2001. Emotions ran high, and the crowds gave him and all the other O's greats who were there: Brooks, Eddie, Earl, and Jim, a standing ovation. Then the game began. The Orioles jumped to an early lead with an RBI by Adam Jones that scored JJ Hardy and then a three run shot by Matt Weiters to the left field wall that just barely got over Raul Ibanez's reach and into the stands. Robert Andino and Mark Reynolds added two more solo-shots to bring the Orioles up 6-1 by the end of the 7th. Things got scary in the 8th. Jason Hammel was plunked in the 4...