Baltimore Skyline

 Roland Park Water Tower, June 1911 ( rolandpark.org )  City planning on giving funds to restore the Roland Park Water Tower (North Baltimore Patch) Is former mayor Sheila Dixon considering a return to politics? ( Baltimore Sun ) Baltimore plans on raising parking rates at city garages , but residents might catch a break ( Baltimore Business Journal ) You will start to see ADA accessible taxis in the city . MTA also hopes to replace their Mobility fleet with the new MV-1 ( Baltimore Sun ) Development pushes on in Remington despite the stalled 25th Street Station project. ( Baltimore Brew ) Johns Hopkins continues its look into Station North , this time for space for its film and creative arts programs. ( Bmore Media )

Dogwood in Hampden closed Sunday. (Baltimore Sun) Baltimore is still a city that bleeds . (Baltimore Sun) The House of Delegates wants a quick vote on the Governor's transportation plan. The House plan keeps the gas tax the same but generates a sales tax on gas that would total 3 cents over 3 years.  (Washington Post). Baltimore Brew suggests housing homeless in city vacants , but it may not be that easy. (Baltimore Brew) Orioles and Ravens cannot compromise on scheduling for home games on September 5th. (Camden Chat)

photo by the blogger A new medical office building that was first reported on back in 2011 is under construction on the 400 block of N.Washington Street just a block away from the Johns Hopkins Hospital. According to the BBJ article and the architectural rendition outside the construction zone, it will be five stories and 50,000 square feet. The Department of Public Works gives more detail saying the project will have parking, office space, and a lobby on the first floor, and 4 floors of office space. The project should be completed by the end of 2013. Just around the corner from this project, Jefferson Apartment Group is in full construction mode with the first phase of apartments called Jefferson Square at Washington Hill . This 5 story project will include a CVS Phramacy and the first apartments should be available by Summer 2014.

If you see drunken hordes roaming around Federal Hill on Saturday wearing emerald, drinking green beer, and celebrating their Italian, German, English,  "Irish" heritage don't be alarmed, because in Baltimore we like to celebrate St. Patrick's Day early! Let's be honest here for a second. When St. Patrick's Day falls midweek, it makes sense to wear the green the weekend before. HOWEVER, St. Patrick's Day this year is a Sunday, so having all the festivities on Saturday, March 16th would be so much more sense, but not in our fair Charm City . But wait there's more! The city's St. Patrick's Day Parade is this Sunday, March 10th. The parade is always held the Sunday before the holiday, but come on, this year it is a Sunday! Seriously how hard would that be? I still think it's wrong to not hold it on the day anyway like in New York or Dublin, but once again it's Baltimore and we do what we want.

Having moved to Hampden last summer from downtown Baltimore, I have come to enjoy the neighborhood feeling of the area: wider streets, bigger rowhomes, trees and grass, etc. But I have also realized just how car dependent Hampden and its immediate surroundings really are. It does not take long for the Avenue to get filled with cars in the morning or a busy evening, and traffic can get backed up along Falls Road because of the light signals at the Avenue, and at 41st Street. Hampden is currently served by two local bus routes (22 and 27), the Hampden shuttle, and indirectly by the Woodberry Light Rail station. All of these options have problems that make it difficult for people to reliably use them to access Hampden. Let's explore. The Route 22nd bus only runs along the northern edge of the neighborhood along 40th and 41st Streets. While it does run approximately every 10 minutes during the rush and about 20 minutes during the rest of the day, it does not serve the heart of Hamp...

The Baltimore Regional Rail System Plan that was drafted in 2002 included, besides the Red - which after 11 years has yet to begin construction - also envisioned a separate yellow line that ran parallel to the current light rail, but several blocks east that would connect the Inner Harbor with Mount Vernon and Station North; eventually going up York Rd to Towson before rejoining the current Light Rail right of way at Lutherville. This was a very ambitious plan which looks to be nowhere near feasible in the near (or long term) future given how expensive that would be to build. However, what about building the line just to Penn Station? From Camden Yards to Penn Station would be roughly 2 miles of new tunnel, but would provide rail access to an extremely traffic heavy portion of the city. The 2002 Plan proposed a new station at the Inner Harbor (approx. Conway and Light), a transfer at Charles Center to connect directly to the Metro, a new station in Mount Vernon (approximately at...

The last time the Metro Subway was expanded it grew from Charles Center to Shot Tower and Johns Hopkins; that was in 1994. Since then there has been talk about where it should go from there. Currently, the subway is one of the most underutilized, but best form of transportation we have, and it's principally because of where it goes. Approximately 48,500 people ride it ever day, according to MTA's annual 2011 annual report. APTA's quarterly statistics have daily ridership averaging around the same for the last 10 years. This is roughly half of the initial anticipated ridership when the subway was originally constructed, so essentially there is plenty of room for expansion with the infrastructure that is currently there. Our subway, as constructed, works best for commuters, heading from the northwest of the city to downtown and JHH, and that's about it; roughly end-to-end travel. It's lack of easy connection to the Light Rail, and no connection at all to the MARC, m...