October 23, 1909





RECORD   AND   GUIDE





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President.   CLINTON  W.   SWEET                         Treasurer,  F.  W.  DODGE

Vice-Pres.  Sc Genl.  Mgr.,  H.  W.  DESMOND         Secretary, F. T. MILLER

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Vol.  LXXXIV.





OCTOBER 23, 1909.





No. 2171.





WHEN tlie present municipal campaign flrst began it
looked as if its chief educational value would consist
In the educational value of the discussion which would take
place of tbe financial condition of the city. As a matter of
fact, however, such has not been the result, Financial issues
have been obscured 1)y the personal issues which have come
to the front during the past two weeks, and the speeches of
the several candidates, Mr. Bannard excepted, do not place
much emphasis upon the problem of a more economical ad¬
ministration of the vast business interests of New York.
Nevertheless, the campaign will not be wholly wanting in
educational value. The people of New York are, at any rate,
being taught something about the real meaning and effect
of the machinery of government that obtains under the ex¬
isting charter. In the last two campaigns everything tended
to emphasize tlie personalities of the several candidates for
Mayor, and the fact was obscured that important as the
Mayor is in the machinery of local government in this city,
the Board of Estimate is of still more importance. The
Board of Estimate is substantially a "board of directors"
(hat is responsible for the settlement of all really Important
questions of public policy; and a Mayor, no matter how well-
intentioned he might be, would be powerless unless he could
secure the co-operation of an equally well-intentioned Board
of Estimate, But it is I'ust this truth which is now being
fcTrced upon the attention of the voters of New York. At
least one of the three candidates for Mayor is constantly
telling his hearers that it makes very little difference which
of the competitors of that position is elected, whereas it
makes an essential difference whether or not they give the
new Mayor the support of an efficient and disinterested
Comptroller and President of the Board of Aldermen. And
this is undoubtedly a great gain. Never before has the
peculiar importance of the Board of Estimate been forced
upon the attention of the voters, and it may be hoped that
the lesson will not be soon forgotten. Por the Board of Esti¬
mate is assuredly destined hereafter to become of more,
rather than of less, importance. The new charter makes it
even more exclusively responsible for the good government
of the city than it is at present; and it Is made better able
to redeem its responsibilities, because il; is supplied with a
better organization for the purpose. Tbe Ivins charter may
not be passed at the coming session of the Legislature; but
we are confident that in the course of time the work accom¬
plished by Mr. Ivins and his associates will not be thrown
away. The new charter will prevail in substantially its ex¬
isting form, because it is really necessary for the good gov¬
ernment of New York; and the day will come when the
people of the city will realize the futility of electing good
men to office without at the same time supplying them with
the organization and the authority indispensable to the re¬
demption of their responsibilities-





THE difflculty which the Board of Estimate is having in
dealing with the question of widening Thirty-second
street constitutes one more illustration of the enormous ob¬
stacles which in Manhattan are encountered in all street-
widening proceedings. In the case of Thirty-second street,
it is proposed merely to widen one street for the space of
one block; and it would seem as if that ought to be a com¬
paratively simple and economical thing to do, particularly in
view pf the fact that the vehicular traffic created by the new





Pennsylvania Terminal will absolutely demand some such
accommodation. Nevertheless, the same kind of obstacles
are encountered which have prevented the wideniug of Fifty-
ninth street as an approach to the Queensboro Bridge. The
project meets with almost unanimous opposition on the, part
of th'e owners of contingent property, and its expense prom¬
ises to be very much larger thau was originally anticipated;
larger, indeed, than the city can apparently afford for such
a modest improvement. In the present instance another and
less expensive alternative will' "probably in the end be
adopted. It is now proposed to abolish the stoop privileges
not only in Thirty-second street, between Sixth and Seventh
avenues, but also- in Thirty-first and Thirty-third streets,
and in this way to obtain space for widening the roadways
of all three of these streets. Inasmuch as all of these streets
will in the course of the next few years become lined with
shops, the abolition of the stoop privilege will be attended
with little or no hardship to the property owner, while it
will at the same time afford a considerably increased space
for the movement of vehicular traffic. The comparative lack
of expense and opposition which this project will involve
will be likely to commend it to the Board of Estimate, and
there can be no doubt that the same means will be frequently
adopted to diminish the congestion in other parts of Man¬
hattan.





IT is already sufficiently apparent that the widening of
Fifth avenue has within limits been a great success.
The dense vehicular trafflc on that avenue is enabled, be¬
cause of the widening, to move with rauch more freedom,
aud there is to be remarked also a decided improvement in
the appearance'of the avenue. The removal of the stoops,
and of the areas which were a legacy from the old stoops,
has given the 'avenue a uniformity and propriety of aspect
adapted to its standing as the most important retail avenue
of the largest city in the country; and the change should be
attended by an increase in the business transacted by the
stores on the avenue. These stores have been made more
sightly and more accessible both for people who travel in
vehicles and people who travel on foot. There can be no
doubt that similar results would follow frora the abolition
of the stoop privileges on all tbe important cross-town
streets- Steps should immediately be taken to widen by sim¬
ilar means the roadway of Twenty-third, Thirty-fourth and
Forty-second streets; and in the course of time similar
changes will in all probability have to be made on certain
other cross-town streets between Twenty-third and Forty-
eighth streets. Throughout tliis whole district business is
pushing farther east and farther west than it did south of
Twenty-third street. The cross-town traffic is destined to
be increasingly dense; and for the present the best way in
which it can be handled is by means of a widening of the
carriageways and the abolition of the stoops and the areas.
In the end, of course, this device will prove to be wholly
ineffective for the purpose it is intended to serve, because
with the Increase both of lateral and longitudinal traffic, the
congestion at the several points of intersection will become
more, rather than less, annoying and delaying. In the end,
tliese delays will become intolerable, and some other means
will have to be taken to get rid of them; but for the next
few years a great deal of relief can undoubtedly be obtained
by the widening of the carriageways of all the streets and
avenues which have been changing from a residential into a
business employment.





THE plea emanating from the Greenwich Village Public
Service Committee for the extension of Seventh ave¬
nue to the south deserves the attention of the Board of Esti¬
mate and Apportionment- The extension of Seventh avenue
to Varick street, and the extension of a widened Variclv
street to a junction with Broadway, is one of the few im¬
provements to the street lay-out of New York which -would
be very useful and comparatively inexpensive. The whole
district affected by the improvement has been hampered in
its development because of its confused and inconvenient
street plan; and the best means of improving that plan
would be by means of the proposed extension of Seventh ave¬
nue. Seventh avenue is a fine, wide thoroughfare, capable
of accommodating very much more traffic than it does at
present, but of comparatively little use to the business of the
city, because it terminates in a brick wall at Eleventh street.
Its extension to the south would, consequently, not merely
contribute to the development of the territory in the imme¬
diate vicinity,  which  would  be thereby opened up,  but it