Envisioned refurbished harbor (circa 1950’s, via City Archives)pk10534 t1_itw38aa wrote
Reply to comment by Charming_Wulf in Envisioned refurbished harbor (circa 1950’s, via City Archives) by Reeyuuk
You raised some good reasons why this was done, but another factor I’d add to that is that it didn’t usually tear neighborhoods in half. Yes, it’s awful to ruin great waterfront property, but it’s also a lot better to place a highway between some houses and the water than to place it directly through a neighborhood and rip it up. Not every transit engineer was evil back then, and sometimes this genuinely was one of few options that was relatively non-impactful to a community. I don’t know if that’s what happened in Baltimore specifically with this drawing, but it was definitely a factor in other places.
But I think it’s also important to keep in mind cars were seen as the future and public transit was earning a really bad rep. It’s true General Motors bought a lot of streetcar companies - but that’s because many of them were going bankrupt. Even NYC’s subway companies were be acquired by the city because they weren’t sustaining themselves (among other reasons). Nobody wanted to ride in a streetcar, they were loud, cramped and frequently obstructed. Buses were cheaper and flexible, requiring zero infrastructure beyond some menial placards and a bunch to set up an entirely new route. And to be frank, streetcars still don’t make much sense as replacements for buses even in 2022. So if that’s where you’re at in the 50s, it makes sense to imagine highways going everywhere and why that’ll be an improvement
Charming_Wulf t1_itw5u8w wrote
You are correct, interstates didn't tear neighborhoods in half. The city interstates just outright deleted neighborhoods. Even in this rendering you can see Fed Hill and Little Italy are erased. And if this picture shows the bridge for originally planned i-95 route, then Fells Point and Canton are also fully deleted. The designing engineer might not be racist or look down upon working class, but the local politicians creating the parameters for the engineer definitely were.
Also this particular i-95 possibility was impactful enough to launch the political career of Senator Mikulski. She made her first big play as community organizer fighting this particular design. Though she saved those neighborhoods, much of i-95s route east of Baltimore deleted other neighborhood's.
pk10534 t1_itw6o16 wrote
Oh yeah, this particular highway might have totally destroyed neighborhoods in this instance. My answer was more of just a general take on why highways at that time were sometimes aligned on the water. I am very, very glad it did not get built lol. The damage the "highway to nowhere" caused the west side is a great example of why highways are so harmful. I wish the city had built out its metro network like DC did, who knows where we'd be today
Charming_Wulf t1_itw7kff wrote
It saddened me when I learned that there was originally supposed a second north-south subway line in Baltimore. Transit funding drying up and Anne Arundel County racists (shocked Pikachu) helped to kill that line though.
pk10534 t1_itw8fz3 wrote
Oh it’s painful to read what AA county residents said about what would happen if public transit were completed. I mean just straight up blatant racism.
mlorusso4 t1_itw8xgr wrote
Wait I’m confused. Fed hill is still clearly there and still a park. Ya you lose the volleyball courts to that weird building with its own highway exit and you lose the unobstructed view of the harbor to the highway, but you gain that small park where the ritz Carlton is now. And from what I can tell this rendering doesn’t show what becomes of the little Italy
Scrilla_Gorilla_ t1_itwdt2p wrote
When people refer to Fed Hill generally they mean the neighborhood, not the park. Assuming the highway doesn't turn dramatically as soon as it gets off the rendering it would definitely go through Little Italy, and would also cut off almost the entire northern third of Fed Hill.
DfcukinLite t1_itwl6bz wrote
Otterbein was demolished then and they rebuilt it in its current form once the highway was cancelled. Same with that community off the square in canton
ppw23 t1_itwuhto wrote
I think Little Italy would have been just fine. Pretty sure Tommy DeAlesandro (Mayor) during that period lived in Little Italy. Nancy Pelosi’s father, her brother also served as Mayor in the 60’s. The area was rock solid. It was one of the few neighborhoods that didn’t have so much as a broken window during the riots which destroyed much of the city.
ppw23 t1_itwsygr wrote
At the time of this plan. Baltimore still had its streetcar system. My parents lived in the city at this time, they both worked. My dad used the streetcar and my mom used the car since she worked in the county. Multiple cars serving one family didn’t hit until the mid to late ‘60’s. It’s my understanding that the Inner Harbor was a dark and desolate place for the most part. McCormick Spice (Light St.)and The NewsAmerican (across from Pratt St. Pavilion) brought many employees from the blue collar neighborhoods throughout the city. Banks, Insurance companies and other home offices lined N. Charles, Calvert and Lombard Streets. Residents still shopped at Lexington Market, The Fish Market and did shopping for clothing and household goods downtown. All this was reached by streetcar.
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