The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-19
OLD MAP OF CITY SOUGHT IN FIGHT
 FOR. UNDERPASS
Col. Motion Leads Crusade
 For Opening Of Nine '. teenth Street

"There was a map of Birmingham which showed Nineteenth street open through traffic from the Southside into the heart of the business section" !" Col. T. H. Motion told the city commis. sion at its meeting Tuesday morning, land I can get 50 men to prove it, men of integrity who saw that map"
 Colonel Motion headed a delegation of merchants, real estate men and other citizens which appeared before the con- mission to plea for inclusion of opening up Nineteenth street by means of an underpass as part of the viaduct-under- pass program.
 In the delegation were J. L. Yancey, president of the Birmingham Real Estate board; Louis Pizitz, G. R. Harsh, Joe Loveman, Sam c. Stark, Ernest Matthews and numbers of oth- CTS who own property or conduct busi- nesses on or near Nineteenth street.
 Asks For Meeting
 Colonel Motion asked the commis- sion to make arrangements for the dele gation to present consideration of the Nineteenth street improvement before the railroad officials scheduled to ap- pear in Birmingham Tuesday to con fer on the traffic adjustment program. President D. D McLendOn said all would be done that could be to bring ahant tile meetiHg
 The speaker stated that he came to Birmingham six months after the first house was built on the site of the pres. ent city, saw the development of the community with three 100-foot wide streets, Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth streets as the nucleus, all of them open through from Northside to Southside, and Nineteenth, the center ortery, the most important, unobstruct- ed !. in its traverse of the community from Jonesville to Red Mountain.
 That map has disappeared" Colonel Motion said, "but there are half a hun dred men who can testify to its former existence"
 Except for the loss of that map" he continued" the city would have won the re-opening of Nineteenth street during the Wetherly city administra- tion.r
 Colonel Motion said it was not con- templated to operate street cars under the railroads, as at Twentieth street, and that a 0.foot passage would be sufficient, not making 1t necessary for the street to be lowered at that point He explained that the opening would be worth millions to the city. He advO- cated a concrete structure for the raised railroad way so that space under it would be used for parking automobiles and spoke against the proposed use of slag as a fill on Railroad avenue,
 The opening, Colonel Motion said, would create new business district on south Nineteenth street where many small shops would be operated by per. sons who cannot now pay downtown rents. ''
 c, R, Harsh explained that without the lost map the movement was greatly handicapped, for though the court would recognize as evidence a complete copy of such nap sworn to by rep utable people, there>would not be recog. nition of the meIe testimony without the accompanying duplicate drawing the accuracy of which could be sworn to
 Friendliness Advocated
 Mir Harsh advocated an attitude oi friendliness to the railroads, saying they had nothing to lose in tte matter and the community nothing to gain by bit tGEuSbh III uuuuAAAS CuC SAIuAtACAs
 Louis Pizitz spoke of the enhance ment of yRlues that would follow the desired improvement. He said value on Nineteenth street would go up from 25 to 35 per cent, making great additional revenue for the city through increased taxes. Tt would inaugurate a busi' ness .boom." he said" and mean millions ! of dollars to the community in gen eral."
 Joe Loveman also was an ardent ad vocate of the measure, drawing atten tiOn to the provision of parking space for cars under the proposed raised ways He predicted a conflagration in Birming ham due to the inability of fire depart ment apparatus to get through the curt pa-king blocade to fight the fire. "An6 after that" he said, ''!'ws will bt passed, after the damage is done, whicl W.. prevent recurrence of such g catastrophe"
 The commission meeting was adjourn ed to Friday morning at 10 o'clock fol further consideration, following the con farence with the railroad representa