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Real Estate Record
AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.
Vol. XII. NEW YOEK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1873. No. 295
Published Weekly by
m REAL ESTATE RECORD ASSOCIATION.
TERMS.
One year, in advance...........$8 00
All communications should be addressed to
Whiting Bdilding, .%5 and 347 Broadwat,
The very best proof tliat city real estate is
in very strong hands is ahuost daily given at
the Exchange, where in most instances the
auctioneers are ordered to -withdraAv the par¬
cels from sale rather than accept the prices of
those who now are looking tor panic bargains
in good city property. And though we do
not desire to convey the impression that real
estate is not affected by the general collapse
of things all about, nevertheless the very fact
that owners do not submit to sacrifices shows
Avell for the increased wealth of New York.
Of course, here and there, we hear of private
transactions at low figures on the part of indi¬
viduals, but they are all men who have been
caught in the financial gale and were com¬
pelled to sell their real estate in order to meet
other liabilities. As a rule, very little real
property has changed hands since the begin¬
ning of the panic, and tliough we do not an¬
ticipate a wild speculation during the coming
six months, there nevertheless exists no reason
why good city property should be sacrificed
during the coming Avinter. Everybody admits
that with the recurrence of spring—especial¬
ly if Congress should agree upon some wise
financial measure—the country will once more
be prosperous, and no city in the Union will
feel the effects of it sooner than our own city
of Ncav York. With a continuance of that
spirit of compromise and mutual concession,
now fortunately prevalent in our mercantile
community, there is no doubt but the troubles
of the Avinter will be safely passed over, and
very few will be compelled to throw property
on the market while there is a dispositton on
the part of many to take advantage of the
present state of affairs to depress prices most
unreasonably.
EAPID TEANSIT.
With the exception of the Greenwich Street
elevated road, we are no nearer the solution of
the rapid transit problem than we were years
ago. The road mentioned does not, and can
not, if extended, fully meet the requirements
of our population. What we want—and must
have—is a road that will not take our people
out from us, but one that will help fill up our
waste places, and bring property removed
from the centers of trade into immediate con¬
nection with those centers. It is patent, be¬
yond doubt, that Mr. Vaaderbilt is faithless to
some of the promises upon which he secured
material aid from the city. With him, rapid
transit exists only beyond Forty-second Street,
and public opinion has so far affected him as
only to aid in furthering his project of increas¬
ing the carrying capacity of the railroads under
his control. It has recently been aptly asked
by what authority he has taken possession of
streets belonging to the public? or what return
he has made to the city treasury for property
to which he has acquired no legal title ? To
this source we may look in vain for rapid
communication between the City Hall and
Forty-second Street. The Gilbert Elevated
Road has also secured privileges which devel¬
op no signs of fruition. The officers of this
corporation have caused publicity to be given
of their ability and intention to prosecute their
works at an early day. There is no proof that
they can or will do so. Indeed, we know that
obstacles intervene, and that if thiscoiporation,
if provided with the necessary means and ap¬
pliances, undertakes the construction of a road
upon the plans it has adopted, legal proceed¬
ings will be taken which will prevent its com¬
pletion. The Arcade and Central Under¬
ground roads, with the Viaduct, are past hope,
and the Pneumatic Road, possessing the only
franchise of real worth, languishes for want of
means to push it to completion.
The greatest difficulty in securing rapid
transit lies in the conllicting views of the peo¬
ple most interested in its success. There is no
unanimity, and public opinion is as yet crude
and unformed upon the subject. The various
projects, warring upon each other, find adher¬
ents, and our own capitalists, hesitating be¬
tween them, do not act in a way calculated to
gain the confidence of foreign investors.
Abundant help, at home and abroad, can
doubtless be secured when public sentiment
crystallizes, as it were, upon a plan which will
justify a belief in facility of construction, econ¬
omy of expenditure, carrying capacity, and
general public convenience. Elevated roads
seem unsuited to our main lines of travel and
principal avenues. Yet the central line of the
city must be followed to make an impartial
distribution of the benefits to result from a
rapid transit road. Underground roads meet
with objection; principally on the score of
cost and detriment to health, yet the Fourth
Avenue tunnels combat, to a great extent,
these objections. If real estate owners, whose
chief interest lies in the appreciated values of
property, look at this question fairly, they can
not but agree that union of purpose is neces¬
sary. The people for whose special conven¬
ience in traveling to and from their homes
rapid transit is important, must yield opinions
and see how nearly they can converge to a
united sentiment. It is full time that silly
squabbling over what is best should cease.
Let there be less talk and more thought, and,
above all, let those who represent the financial
interests, not of the municipality, but of the
citizens, come to conclusions upon a single
basis, and through them, and with them, we
shall secure that aid which seems necessary
for the successful prosecution of an enteiprise
so important and so necessary.
MANUFACTXTRES JTEAE NEW YOEK.
Great cities furnish the greatest local mar¬
ket for manufactured as well as other products,
and furnish the most convenient point of dis¬
tribution for the largest number of consume!-*
wherever located.
Hence, we see the vicinity of great cities
occupied, by preference of their proprietors, by
manufacturing establishments. They are not
uniformly by any means desired by the general
inhabitants, and this fact, in connection with
the high price of land in the neighborhood of
great cities, becomes a powerful consideration
in fixing their location. Notwithstanding all
this, we find numerous manufactories located
in New York itself. They occupy space veiy
much- wanted for other purposes. They oc¬
cupy space which, if they were removed,
would immediately increase in market value
for other purposes. They occupy space which,
very frequently, a due regard being had lor
the public health, comfort, and general good,
they should not be allowed to occupy.
Consideiing all this, it is striking lo remark
that there are districts very near the city
almost as convenient for the location of man¬
ufactories as the city itself, where the necessary
supplies and material and labor and land could
be obtained more cheaply, and yet they lie
comparatively vacant and unproductive. Take
the district extending along both sides of
Staten Island Sound,from Elizabeth to Amboy,
as an example. In what feature to facilitate
profitable manufactures is this district lacking ?
It is most conveniently accessible by land and
water for transportation of coal and iron, for
receiving supplies of labor from abroad, and
for reaching New York and every other mar¬
ket. Here there is abundant room for every
desirable convenience and accommodation.
With very little expense or labor every part of
a manufactoiy can be made accessible for Ijoats
to load or unload. Here, comparative isolation
from a thick crowding population can, for
j many years, be relied on.
I It appears that an English company has
I purchased two or three farms at Chelsea, on
j the Staten Island side of the Sound, about
three miles below Elizabeth, and are now
I erecting docks and buildings, and are arrang-
I ing to go lai]gely into the manufacture of ft