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INFLUENCES THAT MAKE FOR GROWTH IN BROOKLYN,
Rapid Increase of Population and Expansion of Business Assured by Coming
Water Front and Subway Improvements—A Shopping Center for Long island.
THE local influences that make for
activity in Brooklyn real estate are
just now especially notable and interest¬
ing. The indications are that these In¬
fluences will materially alter the tradi¬
tional lines of development of the bor¬
ough. Since consolidation, Brooklyn
with its 50,000 acres of land, much
of it unoccupied and essentially su¬
burban, has grown most rapidly as
a residential subdi\-ision of the city.
Its business and industrial interests
have expanded relatively slowly. But
the great natural resources of its water¬
front are now being brought into ade¬
quate use by modern improvements, as¬
suring to the borough an expansion of in¬
dustry comparable with its growth of
population.
The growth of population, like the ex¬
pansion of industry, is bound to be on an
enlarged scale. It lias been achieved in
the past despite an isolated transporta¬
tion system. That system will presently
be extended into the heart of the city.
Passengers on the Brooklyn elevated
lines, as well as on the new Brooklyn
subways, will be taken direct to their
destination in Manhattan at a single fare
and without change of cars. For the
greater part of Brooklyn the cost of
transportation will be reduced from 10
cents to 5. This will mean an increase
in the capital value of all the real estate
affected by the change.
The rate of growth of population and
industry will be multiplied by the com¬
ing revolution in subway and elevated
transit and by the equally radical change
in waterfront and railway shipping facili¬
ties. To these new factors bearing on the
prosperity of the borough will be added a
third of hardly less importance, namely,
the determination of its leading citizens
to co-operate in securing a harmonious
physical development of the borough on"
a plan devised hy recognized authorities
on city planning. Brooklyn, in a word,
will be far more pleasant and convenient
to live in than it has been, and it wil!
offer warehouse, factory and shipping faci¬
lities unparalleled by any other waterfront
neighborhood not already occupied.
Recent Factory Exitaiision.
To estimate what this will signify in
the way of growth, one must bear in
mind that the density of population per
acre in Brooklyn is less than one-fifth of
the density in Manhattan, and that its
per capita land value is but $475 as
against $1,201 in the central borough.
Further help toward such an estimate
will he obtained from a comparison of
the State and Federal census figures for
the first half of the last decade with those
for the second half. Under the infiuence
of such slight changes in transportation
as the enlargement of the carrying ca¬
pacity of the Brooklyn Bridge, the open¬
ing of the Williamsburg Bridge and the
extension of the present subway to the
Flatbush avenue station, the rate of
growth of population rose from 16,5 per
cent, during the first half of the decade
to 20.2 per cent, in the second hal!;. Dur¬
ing the decade as a whole lire rate of
growth exceeded that of the greater city.
Meanwhile, encouraged by the new freight
facilities introduced or promised hy the
Pennsylvania, Long Island and New
Haven railroads, and by the creative
ideas applied to waterfront development
Ijy the Bush Terminal Company, the
number of factory establishments,; in¬
stead of showing a loss of 2.S per cent,
as was the case during the first half oE
the decade, advanced during the second
half at the remarkable rate of 25 per
cent, as against 24 per cent, for the city
as a whole.
As evidence that the municipal admin¬
istration realizes the importance of the
Brooklyn waterfront to the further in¬
dustrial expansion of the city and is in
earnest" about the projects which it has
in- hand for its development, one may
refer; .to. a special report just submitted
to Mayor Gaynor by Dock Commissioner
Calvin Tomkins. The report is occa¬
sioned by the approaching completion of
the city's new pier at 3od street, whicli
is now being shedded and will be finished
in May. Mr. Tomkins recommends that
the municipal pier be used as part of
the existing waterfront improvements
at South Brooklyn, He suggests that the
city consult with the Bush Terminal
Company, the New Tork Dry Dock Com¬
pany, the Erie Basin enterprises, and
railroad and steamship interests with a
\-iew to organizing a joint freight ter¬
minal corporation. To this corporation,
he suggests, the city should lease the
ood street pier at a rental calculated lo"
return 5 per cent, on the investment.
Mr. Tomkins' plan further provides for
a division between the city and the leas¬
ing corporation of tlie profit realized over
and above an agreed maximum profit to
the corporation. The Public Service Com¬
mission or the Interstate Commerce Com¬
mission is to have control over the rates
charged by the corporation and is lo in¬
sure publicity for its affairs. The cor¬
poration is to have preference as a lessee
for the additional docks which the city
proposes to construct on its extensive
waterfront adjacent to the 33d street
pier.
AA'nt erf rent Improvements.
It is also recommended that Second ave¬
nue and the New York Connecting Rail¬
road be extended over the Gowanus Creek
to the New York Dry Dock Company's
property at Atlantic Basin and that the
city acquire property for docks, a general
railroad yard and car approaches, all to
be leased to the proposed freight terminal
corporation, Mr, Tomkins advises the
insertion of a recapture clause, to be¬
come effective upon an agreed indemnifi¬
cation if tlie city takes back its property.
The general purport of his recommen¬
dations is to avoid the entry of the city
into a mutually injurious competition
with the private interests now engaged in
supplying waterfront sliipping, warehouse
and factory facilities. The 33d street
pier is the longest pier in the city. It
meets the requirements of deep sea craft
of a class lor which there is no ade¬
quate docking elsewhere in the city. The
shore and water conditions at this point
are exceptional. The neighborliood has a
growing industrial colony of recent origin,
the development of which would be fur-
tliered by the adoption of the plan recom¬
mended by Commissioner Tomkins. Tlie
prosperity of that colony would be cer¬
tain to react not only on Brooklyn but
upon the entire city.
The extensive waterfront of Brooklyn
embraces several industrially distinct sec¬
tions. Furthest south is that containing
the factories and piers of the Bush Ter¬
minal Company and the giant municipal
pier at 33d street. Next in order
comes the Gowanus Canal region, with its
coal pockets and Its brick and lumber
yards. Between the Gowanus Basin and
Manhattan Bridge are to he found ware¬
houses, grain elevators and adjacent piers,
where freight steamers from West Indian
and South American ports load and un¬
load their cargoes. North of Manhattan
Bridge as far as Newtown Ci-eek the river
front is given over to big industrial en¬
terprises that extend inland for several
blocks—light and power plants, refiner¬
ies, paint works, the Wallabout Market
and the Navy Yard,
Under the traffic conditions which pre¬
vail in the harbor this great stretch of
Brooklyn waterfront may be said to be
separated into two main divisions, with
the Gowanus Basin as their dividing line.
The waterfront south of the basin is espe¬
cially adapted for sea-going and Hud.=on
River traffic. The waterfront north of
and including the Gowanus Basin is more
convenient for Canal Barge. East River
and Sound traffic. The State has fixed
upon the Gowanus Basin as one of the
terminals of the Barge Canal. This se¬
lection is in harmony with the ideas of
the Federal, State and city oflicials who
have m charge the interests of the port of
New lork, ideas founded on a recogni¬
tion of the necessity of setting apart dif¬
ferent sections of the waterfront for dif-
erent kinds of traffic in order to relieve
the present congestion of the harbor.
In conformity with these ideas the New
York State commission which has been
appomted to investigate port conditions
and pier extensions in the harbor will
probably recommend the adoption of the
suggestion made by the Secretary of the
Navy that the Brooklyn Navy A'ard be
discontinued. The abandonment of the
yard would enable the city to provide
wharfage for large numbers of Sound
steamers and other craft engaged in local
traft'ic that are at present forced to find
dock room further down the East River
and on the Manhattan side. The chief
argument against the proposed abandon¬
ment is the fact that many laborers em¬
ployed in the Navy Yard have invested
their savings in small homes nearby It
is evident, however, that these invest¬
ments would not be impaired in value as
the establishment of a great and populous
mduslrial colony in place of the Navy
Yard would create an extensive demand
tor housmg. The New York State com¬
mission is composed of State Engineer
John A, Bensel, Dock Commissioner Cal¬
vin Tomkins. and R. A. G. Smith.
One of the chief hindrances in the way
of the establishment of certain important
classes of manufacturing in Brooklyn has
been the absence of adequate facilities for
the transportation of freight within the
city. A largaproportion of the manufactur¬
ed products of tlie city is sold in the whole¬
sale and retail stores of Manhattan. The
cost of carrying such products from
Brooklyn or from any of the other out-
lymg boroughs has heretofore been vir¬
tually prohibitive. The first important
step towards reducing it may be said to
have been taken by the Bush Terminal
Company, which applied the co-operative
Idea not only to the housing of factories,
but to the distribution of their products.
Ag yet. however, no public measures have
been taken to bring about the diffusion of
manufacturers throughout the city, but it
IS recognized that to bring it about a belt
Ime freight railway, connecting the vari¬
ous sections of the waterfront of the har¬
bor with the mercantile district of Man¬
hattan, is necessary. A project of this
character is now under consideration by
the city authorities. The railway would
probably pay a handsome return on the
investment In the form of increased tax¬
able values. In any event, it would tend
to check the present emigration of indus¬
tries and population to New Jersey. The
chief gainer from the railway would of
course be the borough of Brooklyn with
its considerable areas of unoccupied land
available for factory sites, areas separ¬
ated hy no great distance from the mer¬
cantile district of Manhattan.
Residentiai Prospeets.
Turning from the industrial to the resi¬
dential prospects of the borough one finds
the subway situation to be the most im¬
portant of the local factors. The city is
now building the Fourth avenue subway
m Brooklyn a four-track road four miles
long. The contracts for this work aggre¬
gate about $ir!.000,000. 11 has been under
way since November, 1900, and the sub¬
way will be finished during the current
year. The city is also building the Man¬
hattan end of the Brooklyn loop subway,
a four-track road, a mile and a half long,
connecting the Brooklyn, Manhattan and
Williamsburg bridges. This work began
in 1007, and is finished with the exception
of one section, the end of which lies be¬
neath the- new Municipal Building. This
subway will cost about $10,000,000 and
will also be completed in 1012.
Both of these subways will form part of
the Broadway-Lexington avenue route,