Movement Against Destruction Collection       ( MAD)

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Movement Against Destruction, (M.A.D.) was founded in August of 1968. M.A.D. was a coalition of 25 neighborhood and other community organizations. The purpose of the organization was to fight any further construction of expressways into the city of Baltimore. The organization demanded a moratorium on all expressway and related activity until full and effective community representation was guaranteed by all public officials and the involved agencies in policy and planning decisions.

Proponents of the new expressways included Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro III and numerous members of the business community. They felt that the new highway system was needed which would promote trucking in and out of the city to keep Baltimore competitive with the surrounding counties. William Donald Schaefer, as a city council member, opposed a highway route through West Baltimore. Later as Mayor, Schaefer was the most vocal advocate of the highway system which he felt would be an economic boost to the city.

In place of the new highways, M.A.D. proposed that the funds allocated for highway construction be used to restore damaged neighborhoods. Additionally they stipulated affected neighborhoods be given representation in transportation planning. From the very beginning, M.A.D. stressed the viability of the alternative of a modern street car system - light rail.

M.A.D.'s focal issue was the twenty-one miles of proposed interstate highway set to cross through the middle of Baltimore City. Particularly disturbing was the 13.4 mile expressway set to go from the Beltway on the West side of the city, traversing Leakin Park and bisecting a stable, middle class African-American neighborhood known as Rosemont. The highway would continue South with a multi-lane highway crossing the Inner Harbor into South Baltimore and connecting with Interstate 95. The highway also threatened to destroy a corner Federal Hill by cutting off a swath for access to Fells Point.

By 1968 the City's estimate for the project was $324 million. M.A.D. questioned this estimate since the City had excluded the cost of destroying another 3000, low to middle income homes and "relocating" the displaced. A problem compounded by the existing shortage of moderate cost housing. Also at issue was the leveling and paving of 100 acres of Leakin Park contrary to enviromental experts who argued the city already had a I,000 acre defecit in required park land. The plan to put a highway through Baltimore had been around since 1944. The Jones Falls Expressway, stretching 5.5 miles into downtown Baltimore existed prior to M.A.D's founding in 1968. The Federal Government, which had paid for ninety percent of the Jones Falls Expressway, stipulated that the Jones Falls must connect with the Federal highway system or repay the Federal Government the cost of the expressway. M.A.D. labeled this condition ridiculous and asked the question: Should a city be a Place to Live? With politicians, business, and lobbyist primarly focused on money M.A.D. believed their question had already been answered.

M.A.D. was led by such community activists as George and Carolyn Tyson, Barbara Mikulski, Walter Orlinsky, Norman Reeves and Parren Mitchell. The greatest period of activity for M.A.D. was in the early 1970's. In 1971, M.A.D. members including George Tyson, formed a new organization called Volunteers Opposing Leakin Park Expressway, (V.O.L.P.E.), specifically to fight the construction of the highway through Leakin Park. V.O.L.P.E's name was a parody of President Nixon's Secretary of Transportation, John Volpe. V.O.L.P.E., M.A.D. and the Sierra Club filed suit against the Federal Government and the City of Baltimore. Among the charges, in the suit, was that the new highways would ignore the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.

In February of 1972, the lawsuit reached Federal Court. Judge James Miller temporarily delayed the highway construction until March 1974, after which construction would be allowed to proceed. However, the expressway was not built. As of the mid- I970's the opposition to building the highway through West Baltimore was so great that construction was halted, literally, where it stood. By using every means at their disposal, from lawsuits to publicity stunts, M.A.D. raised public awareness to the extent that citizens of Baltimore protested with great effectiveness to block highway construction through their neighborhoods.

On September 11, 1983, a ceremony was given dedicating a trail in Leakin Park to Norman Reeves, a city councilman who had opposed the expressway. At the dedication, Mayor William Donald Schaefer surprised those in attendance by remarking that it was a good thing the expressway was never built through Leakin Park.

Notes:
1. "Movement Against Destruction organizing Conference," August 1968.
2. Baltimore Evening Sun, October 11, 1972.
3. M,A.D," Organizing Conference, August, 1968.
4. Baltimore News American, June 21, 1973.
5. M.A.D. Membership Rosters1971-1973.
6. "History of Baltimore's Transportation System," James Dilts, The Committee for Urban Transportation, 1977
7. Telephone Interview with Carolyn Tyson, May 2, 1996.