July 2, 1910





RECORD  AND  GUIDE







^                             .SSTABUSHm^KM^r-HSlii^iese.

BtfsDfess Atfa Themes of GejIer^I IKtcrjsLj
PRICE   PER   YEAR   IN   ADVANCE   EIGHT   DOLLARS

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C. W. SWEET

Tablished Everff Satardag

By THE BECOBD AND GTJXDE CO,

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

VlCB-Pres. & Gen!- Mgr-. H. W. DESMOND        Secretary, F. T. MILLER

Nos. 11 to IE Bast 24tli Street, New York City

(Telephone,  Madison Square, 4430 to 4433-)





'•Entered at the Post Office at Neio York, N.  7., as second-class matter."





Copyrighted,   1910,   by   The   Record   &   Guide   Co.





Vol.  LXXXVI-





JULT 2.  1910.





No. 2207





NOW that the real estate season of 1909-1910 is over, a
great many people are trying to guess as to the prob¬
able centers of activity for the season 1910-1911; and it must
he confessed that such guesses are more difficult to make
than usual- The coming season, it may be predicted with
some confidence, will not be exceptionally active, either in
real estate or building. In al! probability its activity will
subside to a lower level than that which has prevailed dur¬
ing the past year, but it is equally probable that the sub¬
siding process will be carried further in Manhattan than It
will in the outlying boroughs. The Bronx and Queens may
do better in 1910-1911 than they have in 1909-1910. Brook¬
lyn ought to do about as well, but it is difficult to see just
where any great amount of Manhattan business will come
from. The prospects are for a quiet year with,what activity
there is following customary lines- There will be a certain
amount of building on Washington Heights, but no great
revival is likely to take place in that section until the year
following. The process of building fireproof speculative and
cooperative apartment houses to the east and west of the
Park will be continued, but their number is likely to di¬
minish. There will, however, probably be an increased num¬
ber of eight and nine story buildings erected on the side
streets- In the same way the appropriation of peculiarly val¬
uable locations in the busiest parts of Manhattan will con¬
tinue, but buyers who need such locations will be more cau¬
tious about paying very high prices than they were last fail-
On Fourth avenue little or no new building is likely to be com¬
menced during the coming season. While Madison avenue
may fare better, there will not be much difference. In the
Pennsylvania district, also, conservatism will reign. There
may be a smaller diminution of trading and building in this
particular section than in other parts of Manhattan, because
during the coming year speculators will be able to estimate
more accurately the actual effect of the Station on business
in the neighborhood. Nevertheless, there certainly will be a
smaller number of loft buildings erected, and it is unlikely
that other classes of building will become immediately popular.
The assurance of subway construction is peculiarly neces¬
sary to this district; and until a subway is assured both real
estate  speculation  and  building  will  be  comparatively  dull.





THE objections made by property-owners on the West
Side against the area upon which the cost of the River¬
side Drive extension has been assessed have an indubitable
foundation of justice. A good many hundred property-own¬
ers will be obliged to pay a fairly high assessment for the
cost of an improvement, which will not be of one dollar's
worth of benefit to their real estate. It is injustices of this
kind which make the owners of real property dread improve¬
ments, and which account for the lively local opposition
which is usually aroused when the plans for any improvement
are under discussion. They occur in almost every case of an
assessment for benefit, but they become particularly fiagrant
when an assessment is, as in the present case, spread over
li large area of improved property. The limits within which
any benefit is likely to take place are arbitrary, and no com¬
mission is well-informed enough or has sufficient discre¬
tion to avoid injustices. The tendency of the commissions
is naturally to spread assessments as thin as po,s-
sible so that if there is injustice, it shall not amount to con¬
fiscation; and they are the more likely so to behave because
in  that  case  no  one  property-owner  or  group  of  property-





owners have a sufficient inducement to protest very energeti-
caKy. As a matter of fact, however, protests are rarely of
any avail, and of still less avail are legal proceedings. It
is almost impossible to prove assertions about the value of
real estate; and so many factors contribute to any particular
enhancement or diminution of value that a plausible argu¬
ment can be made for or against any assessment- This fact ■
—that a large measure of injustice is inseparable from the
whole existing system of benefit assessments has made the
Record and Guide doubt the desirability of recent extensions
of the system- Very soon attempts will be made to build
rapid transit lines on the proceeds of assessment-bonds; and
these lines will mean such a heavy charge against the bene-
iitted property that it will amount in many cases to as much
as or more than the whole benefit derived from the improve¬
ment. But if such Is the case it is surely better for the
city to condemn the property out-right at the start, and re¬
imburse itself by the subsequent sale of the lots at the in¬
creased value. Such a method of paying for transit improve¬
ments would place the risk of the improvement and the
benefit where it belongs—that is, upon the whole city, and
no property-owner would be deprived of his property without
it being paid for. We imagine that after a couple of subways
have been built on the assessment method, the property-
owners themselves will begin to clamor for the alternative
method  of  condemnation.





THE delay in advertising for bids on the Broad way-Lex-'
ington avenue subway is annoying and ominous. The
prediction was confidently made during the middle of the
winter that by June 1 the advertisements would be published;
but on July 1, they are still lacking. In all probability the
commission is encountering diftlculties which it did not au-
ticipate. Take, for instance, the westward curve of the
route at Broadway and Vesey st. That curve has been made
so long that the subway at this angle runs under the Astor
House; and it looks as if that time-honored building would
have to be demolished, and the city pay the Astor estate
enormous damages. Similar complications have occurred
on other portions of the route. In every technical respect
the Broadway-Lexington Subway will be a great im¬
provement on the existing subway; but these technical im¬
provements will be very costly, and involve many difficult
engineering problems. Before all these problems are worked
out the actual beginning of the work may still be indefinitely
delayed; and in the meantime all other transit impror«-
meots are being held up.





THE suggestion has been made that the Manhattan Rail¬
way Co. be induced to abandon its elevated structure
on Sixth avenue from 58th street to 31st street and that a
new connection be made through 31st street between the
Sixth and Ninth avenue lines. Upon the advantages of this
proposal, abstractly considered, there can be no doubt. The
removal of the elevated structure from 31st street north,
would be a positive benefit to Sixth avenue and would very
much increase its availability for improvement with a better
class of mercantile buildings. Traffic would be able to move
very much more freely in Greely Square in case that con¬
gested point were relieved of its existing elevated encum¬
brance- An early means would be found to distribute and
collect some of the people who will in a few months be using
the Pennsylvania station- But it is none the less absurd
seriously to consider such proposals—as. for instance, certain
of the daily papers have been considering this one. No cor¬
poration or individual can be induced to abandon a valuable
piece of property merely because its abandonment and the
substitution of something else would have certain desirable
concessions for new transit lines; but here again the sugges¬
tion ignores stubborn facts. The luterborough Company ■ is
already claiming more than the city is disposed to grant,
and to afford that company an excuse for increasing its claims
would be merely to prolong the existing deadlock. There is
no manner of doubt that the Sixth avenue elevated structure
is, because of its location, a peculiarly obnoxious and costly
line of transit, and there can also be no doubt
that its abandonment would cause less dislocation . to
the existing distribution of business ■ and population
than would the abandonment of any other imports^nt
line of transit. But it is equally certain that it will never
be abandoned unless it is condemned by the city and that
the city will never be able to afford the expense of its con¬
demnation. What might be done would be to run a cross-
town line through 33d street connecting the Sixth and Ninth
avenue  elevated  structures,  but even  this  connection  would