AND   BUILDERS'   GUIDE.





Vol. I.]





SATURDAY, MAY 9, 18G8.





[No. 8.





Edblished Weekly by

C.W.   SAVEET   &   CO.,

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Our lists of conveyances are again very
large; but after this week they will be con¬
siderably reduced, when we will be enabled
to introduce a new feature into the Record
of great value to our Real Estate patrons.





EAST AND "WEST SIDE ASSOCIATIONS.

Our city real estate owners have at last
hjtupon a plan to protect their OAvn interests,
and at the same time help forward all needful
metropolitan improvements. It is by the
formation of local organizations, having in
view needed sectional improvements, and the
correction of existing municipal evils. The
first of these associations formed, Avas the
West Side Association. This was composed
of gentlemen who OAvned property west and
north of the Central Park, and -who naturally
desired to make the miost of that beautiful
section of the city. What really called the
organization into existence, was the law pass¬
ed to cut up all that part of the city into rect¬
angular streets, such as obtain betAveen 14:th
and 59th streets. This plan, which does well
enough, perhaps, on a comparatively level
piece of country, would not only have been
absurd, but ruinous to a section like the
west side, where there were great inequalities
of surface. The property owners were organ¬
ized to resist this plan, and they succeeded in
time in putting that district under the control
of the Central Park Commissioners, and the
result is noAv that the Avest side has been laid
out in accordance with its topographical
peculiarities, and will make in time the most
charming locality for residences in the vicin¬
ity of any city upon the globe.

Their success has induced the Avcst side
OAvners to keep up a permanent organization
to add further to the attractiveness and value
of their property. Sewerage, opening of
streets, paving, and the like, are all attended
to; and the unjust extortions and assessments
of the local officials are prevented by an or¬
ganization which commands respect if it does
not always succeed in its efforts.

The happy results derived from the organ¬
ization of the West Side Association, has led
to the formation of an East Side Association,





also an East River Improvement Association,
an account of which will be found in our real
estate market. These gentlemen have defi¬
nite and AVOrthy objects in vicAv, and deserve
and will no doubt acliieve success.

We hope in time to chronicle a North-End
Association, a Middle Section Association, and
a Down Town Association. Wlien these come
iito existence, as they ought to do, New York
city will for the first time be on the road to
really good government. Heretofore our
property OAvners have not acted together; in¬
deed, while the city was growing, and new
streets opening every year, property changed
hands so rapidly that there was no perma¬
nent holders of the soil. When the Island is
built up, and our citizens have local habita¬
tions, more attention will be paid to taxation
and other matters directly affecting real es¬
tate. Then we will have a noble system of
piers and wharves, steam roads Avhere they
are needed, streets parallel with Broadway,
a -wise and cheap ferry system, an abolition of
overcrowding nuisance in our city cars. In
a word, Avith the property holders organized
as they should be, we will have good local
government. Success, then, to the East and
West Side Associations, also to the East
River Improvement Association. They are
steps in the right direction, and their example
should be followed.





DEFEAT  OF   THE  ABOADE.

The Arcade road failed in the State Senate,
and more's the pity. It was an original and
splendid scheme, one worthy of the great
metropoUs, and which would have beautified
our noble city. But the wealthy owners of
property upon Broadway defeated it by their
nioney. A meeting was held; the funds sub¬
scribed and the senatorial cattle were pur¬
chased.

Instead of blaming these poor creatures,
why is not public indignation rather directed
against those rich merchants who tempt these
weak and corrupt legislators ?

It is idle to talk of any road really being of
use to the metropolis which does not use the
line of Broadway.    That is the backbone of j
the city; along its pavements flow the tide of j
travel up and down the city.    To accommo- j
date the people the steam road which Avill
give relief will be under Broadway; and we
have yet a lively hope that it will not be a
noisome tunnel road, but a liglit, airy, and
cleanly arcade, such as that which has just
been defeated by the money of the Broadway
property holders.





BEDTIOTION  IN  BENTS.

There is no disputing the fact that there
are more vacant hoaxes in New York than
there Avere before the first of May. Some¬
how or someAvhere a portion of our popula¬
tion have disappeared. True, summer ia
coming on, and the birds of passage have
taken flight to their rural haunts, but this
cause will not account for all the vacant
houses, especially the vacant furnished houses.

The fact is rents have come down some,
and Avill probably come down more. The
losses in business for the last two years have
told upon the means of our citizens, and they
cannot pay the paper money Avar prices. jThe
reduction is not pleasant to landlords, but it
is wholesome.





The New York ITerald, last Sunday, cop¬
ied our building material report without giv¬
ing us any credit. This shows neither enter¬
prise nor honesty. The Tribune likewise
"appropriated" another idea of ours. We
gave a short time since the sales for the year.
These the Tribune copied, adding the sales
for the month of April. Go ahead, neigh¬
bors ; take all you want, only be honest and
give us credit.





FEBSONAL.
Mantok Marble, the noted editor of the
World, has been buying him a piece of pro¬
perty on the Kingsbridge road, near 135th
street. It is 50 x 180, and cost him $11,000.
This property is wisely selected, but the price
seems high for the amount of land secured.
However this northwest side of the city is
destined in time to be the most costly pro¬
perty for private residences upon the globe.





Land in Paris—The comparative value of
ground in different countries and different lo¬
calities is always a subject of interest. Li a
general Avay, " feet front" on Oxford street or
the Strand in London, will sell for twice aa
much as in Broadway or on the Boulevards,
The most valuable comer lot in Paris has just
been confiscated to tbe ogre, ''public utility; "
the costliest block of buildings in the whole city
has been given over to the hands of the de-
molishers, to make way for new streets, and
we are thus let into the secret of what a jury
of honest citizens consider the value of this
most valuable of Paris property.

The figures I am going to give you are as¬
tounding'. M. Didier. deputy in the corps legis-
latif, who was put into a madhouse the other
day on account of thi.s business, was awarded
by the jurythe sum of 2.300,000 francs, say$4o0,r
000 in gold, for the comer house and lot on
the Rue de la Paix and the boulevard occupied by
Tahan, vender of bronzes an small objects of
art. The lot is of an irregular form, because
the Rue de la Paix enters the boulevard at an