November 20, 1909





RECORD  AND  GUIDE





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

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Vol. LXXXIV.





NOVEMBER 20, 1909.





No.  217.^^





THERE is every reason why the Board of Estimate sliould
act at an early date and in a favorable sense upon
the proposal, now before it^ to extend Seventh avenue to -
Varick street and to widen Varick street to a junction with
Broadway. Of all the street improvements proposed for
Manhattan this project offers the most seductive advantage
of small expense combined with great public benefit. The
expense would be small, because that part of Greenwich Vil¬
lage through which the line of the proposed improvement
runs remains almost entirely undeveloped. Real estate values
are low and there are no modern buildings to be bought and
torn down. The purpose of the project is not to relieve any
existing congestion of traffic, but to develop business by open¬
ing up a now neglected district. Greenwich Village has been
neglected in the march of improvement, partly because its
sti-eet system cuts it off from the important centers of busi¬
ness in Manhattan; and the object of the proposed improve¬
ment is that of providing a new thoroughfare through the
heart oE the district, directly connected with Broadway and
Canal street on the south and Broadway and Forty-second
street on the north. Not only, consequently, would the
expense be comparatively small, but the city would he
reimbursed for its share thereof, by a rapid increase of tax¬
able values in the neighborhood. If a certain part of any
city remains dead in spite of the fact that it enjoys the same
advantages of accessibility as other parts of the city, the
local government is under no obligation to spend money on
its resuscitation, but Greenwich Village has been killed
by the defects of the street plan, and the improvement there¬
of is not merely a matter of expediency, hut of Justice. The
property owners in the vicinity are absolutely united in favor
of the plan, and now that the city has money to spare for
the purpose, there is no reason to delay its authorization
and execution.





way in the viciuity of Canal street and rejoin it at Forty-sec¬
ond street, and from Twenty-third street north, it would run
within striking distance of the busiest part of the middle dis¬
trict. The Hudson street-Eighth-avenue thoroughfare serves
no similar purpose, because it starts at an inconvenient place,
and does not reach a really central point until it runs into Co¬
lumbus Circle. Thus, a Seventh avenue thoroughfare would
constitute a peculiarly valuable addition to the general street
system of Manhattan. There are other considerations also
which should have weight with the Board of Estimate. Seventh
avenue from Fourteenth street to Thirty-fourth street is des¬
tined to be used hereafter for comparatively important busi¬
ness purposes. At the present time a considerable numher
of twelve-story loft buildings are beiug constructed between
Sixth avenue and Seventh avenues, and this number will be
doubled during the coming year. Within flve years a similar
process of business improvement will be taking place between
Seventh and Eighth avenues. Seventh avenue itself is des¬
tined to become an active centre either of wholesale or of
retail trade. All this will mean a considerable growth of
local traffic aud will increase the desira.bility of providing
some better means of reaching and leaving the district from
the south. In fact, the business development of tbe whole
part of the middle West Side is fore-shadowed as one of the
certainties of the next ten years. If Seventh avenue is ex¬
tended now this necessary process of business development
wiil be encouraged at a very small expense to the city. If
on the other hand it is delayed, the district will he retarded
without being prevented, and when the extension is finally
made as ultimately it must be made, the expense to the
city will be considerably increased.





NOT only are there no vali(3 reasons for delaying the au¬
thorization of the Seventh avenue extension, but there
are certain urgent reasons why its execution should be
hastened. The cutting of a continuation of Seventh avenue
through to Varick street and the widening of Varick street
would be of great assistance to the city in the laying out of
a lower West Side rapid transit route. One of the difficulties
connected with a Seventh avenue subway has always con¬
sisted in the lack of a really satisfactory extension of Seventh
avenue south of Eleventh street, and this difficulty would be
removed by the proposed improvement. The new subway
would then have the benefit of an inevitable and straight route
as far south as Canal street or thereabouts, and this would
accelerate the running time of the trains, cheapen construc¬
tion, and enable it to serve its purpose in every way more
effluently. Express trains could be run all the way Irom
the Pennsylvania station to Cortlandt street without a single
'stop, and by so doing bring a most important centre of busi¬
ness down town within about five minutes of the most im¬
portant centre of business in the middle district, and the
advantage which the extension would be to a West Side Sub¬
way affords an indication of the advantage which the whole
street system of Manhattan would derive from a new longi¬
tudinal thoroughfare. Such a thoroughfare would relieve the
pressure of traffic on Broadway and other parallel avenues;
and it would serve this function with peculiar efficiency, be¬
cause Seventh avenue would then start from a central point
and virtually end at a central point.    It would leave Broad-





ALTHOUGH the total vote has not been finally and satis¬
factorily counted, it is certain that the proposal to
amend the constitution for the purpose of allowing the city, if
necessary, to build self supporting subways, has heen accepted
by the electorate, and the city is to he congratulated on this
result. Its immediate effect will he to increase the city's
borrowing capacity by the equivalent of the cost of the ex¬
isting snbway and certain docks. But that is its least de¬
sirable effect, because, the subway question apart, the city is
already able to borrow as much money as it really needs for
other purposes. But its ultimate eiTect will be to enable the
City to extend its subway system as fast as the expansion of
business and population warrants. It is to be hoped, however,
that city stock will not he issued for subway construction, pro¬
vided private capital can be obtained on fair terms. No
doubt the legislature will impose conditions on the issue of
new subway municipal securities that will effectively guaran¬
tee their employment on remunerative enterprises, hut the
plain fact is that the security market has for the last ten
years heen deluged with a much larger supply of city stock
than it could absorb with economy. It is desirable, cju-
sequently, that the issue of new stock should be kept at the
lowest possible point until the city's credit has in some meas¬
ure recovered. Undoubtedly Jt would be more economical to
pay even more than four per cent, for borrowed money,
rather than lease subway privileges on unfair terms, because
in that event the loss on the subway contract would balance
auy gain that might accrue to the city from its ability to bor¬
row at a lower rate of interest. But there is no reason in the
world why the city's credit should he used, provided new
subways, over which the city obtains effective control, can
be built with the credit of a private company. And according
to indications, at least two private companies are willing to
build new subways with their own money. A formal offer is
in existence, which obligates certain capitalists to construct
the new Broadway-Lexington avenue route under the fair
conditions laid down in the new Rapid Transit Aet; and there
are good reasons for believing tha-t the New Haven R. R. Co.
stands behind this offer. Only last week President Mellen of
that company stated to a Massachusetts commission that the
suburban traffic of his railroad made it necessary to secure
an entrance by subway into the heart of Manhattan. In the
same way the interborough Company stands ready to build
with its money extensions along Madison avenue north of
Forty-second street and along Seventh avenue south of
Forty-second street, and the progressive improvement in the
credit of that corporation will douhtless make it still more
willing ito 'continue the same policy hereafter. It is to be
hoped consequently that the additional power, enjoyed by the
city to borrow money for subway purposes, will be held in re¬
serve rather than actually used, and indications of the
policy to be adopted in this respect hy the new administra¬
tion will he awaited with interest.