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April 8, 1911.
RECORD AND GUIDE
629
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Communications should be addressed to
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By THE RECOR.D AND GUIDE CO.
President. CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer. F. W. DODGE
Vlce-Pres. Sc Genl. Mgr., H. W. DESMOND Secretary. F. T. MILLER
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Cops righted,
1911,
by
The
Record
>.t
Guide
Co.
Vol.
LXXXVI.
APRIL
8.
1911,
No.
2247
FIFTH AVENUE'S TRANSFORMATION.
DURING periods of comparative speculative dullness in
New York City the place of the speculator in the real
estate market is usually taken by business meu who buy
or lease centrally situated plots in the service of some specific
business. Transactions of this kind usually involve large
sums of money and affect high-priced property, and they are
extremely useful to the cause of stable values because they
maintain prices at a time when speculators might otherwise
be forced into making concessions. The most important
transaction of tbe current week has been the sale by the City
Investing Company of 50 feel, on the corner of 5 2d street
and Fifth avenue to a capitalist who will erect a business
tiuilding and lease it to a permanent tenant. The transaction
merely confirms a tendency which has prevailed during the
past few years towards the occupation for business purposes
of Fifth avenue as far north as 59th street. It may be many
years before the larger mansions on the avenue will be
vacated, but all the smaller houses will now be bought for
business purposes with some rapidity. There are large num¬
bers of retail firms situated south of 34th street which will
have to find locations north of that street, and they are suf¬
ficient in number to occupy most of the remaining space both
on Fifth avenue and in the adjoining side streets from 34th
street to 59th street. Eventually Madison and Sixth avenues
will also obtain a share of this business, which can hardly
spread north of 59th street, because of the Park, and which
will need much more room than can be obtained on the ave¬
nue and in the side streets. For the present tbat part of
Fifth avenue north of 50th street will be occupied by decorat¬
ors, picture dealers and the like, whose business calls only for
a few well-to-do customers; but eventually it may well be
that the site of the Vanderbilt brownstone mansions will be
occupied by a large dry-goods store.
ONE of the noblest virtues in a citizen is loyalty, and one
of Lhe best ways of showing loyalty is, when one is call¬
ed into the official service of Ins city, to give it the full honest
measure of his time during business hours. Some public
officers have been known to give the city only part of their
time when tbey were being paid for all of it.
OUTLOOK FOR WATER-FRONT BETTERMENTS.
PRESUMABLY the adverse report of the Committee of
the Board of Estimate has killed Commissioner Tomkins'
plan for the construction of a freight terminal on the West
Side, It looked like a carefully prepare:! plan which would
really increase the industrial and commercial efficiency of
New York City; but unfortunately it did not arouse any
interest in the transportation companies. It was bound to
fail without their co-operation, and no indication ever ap¬
peared above tbe surface that such co-operation would be
forthcoming- In tbe absence of some plan for the economical
handling of freight on the Manhattan water-front it seems
certain that the commerce of the past will gradually be
transferred to other parts of the water-front. South Brooklyn,
after the connecting railway has been built will possess the
same facilities which Mr. Tomkins wished to provide for Man¬
hattan, and eventually a scientifically planned system of
docks and terminals will be established in Jamaica Bay. In
the meantime Manhattan may well lose the passengers as
well as the freight business by the development of Montauk
Point for fast transportation steamers. The only large cor¬
poration whose interest lies along the liue of developing the
machinery for handling freight in Manhattan is the New York
Central, and it seems impossible for that corporation to
reach any agreement with the local authorities as to the
vexed problem of Eleventh avenue and a better freight ter¬
minal. The outlook for better means of handling freight in
Manhattan is even less prosperous than the outlook for new
subway^.
FACTORY LAWS.
A REVISED building code and revised factory laws pre¬
pared by the right people and demanded by all the peo¬
ple are likely to follow from the late terrible experience with
fire in a crowded city factory. One of the great reforms
demanded in a buildiug code, and one which is made neces¬
sary by the remarkable growth of light manufacturing in
the center of the city, is a clear distinction between com¬
mercial buildings and factory buildings. And a factory
bnilding should be planned under precise laws having refer¬
ence to its being occupied by as many operatives as the law
will permit. There should be a limitation on the number
of employees based on the amount of floor space, and quick
and safe exits provided for the maximum number in case
of fire. Of course factories ought not be perched high
above the sidewalk, but there are property rights to be
considered, and public opinion could hardly he expected to
support at this late day a serious restriction on the amount
of revenue to be derived from a business site. In fact, the
Corporation Counsel's offlce in the past has held that a
horizontal restriction on the height of buildings would be
unconstitutional, and it will be recalled that the last muni¬
cipal administration vetoed an ordinance of that nature for
this reason.
AN OFFICIAL POINT OF VIEW.
IT IS deemed improbable that the proposed alterations of
the charter recommended by the local administration
will ever pass the Legislature, Most of these changes
tend in the direction of concentrating and increasing respon¬
sibility in the Mayor; and the ruling powers at Albany are
not expected to favor anything of the kind. There is a great
deal to be said for many of the proposed methods of redis¬
tributing the powers exercised by the several administrative
departments, but the fact that some of these changes are
desirable does not alter the fact that they will'be considered
by the Legislature as not having been prepared with sufficient
care or by the right people. It will be said that they have
been hurriedly made by the Mayor's own appointees and that
in consequence they represent only an official point of view.
When a group of administrative departments recommend that
their own powers and those of their chief should be increased
they may be entirely right in their recommendations, but
under the circumstances public opinion will not be likely to
consider them disinterested. A good illustration of this fact
may be found in the changes proposed in the Comptroller's
Department. When these or similar proposals were flrst made
by the Ivins Commission they excited little or no opposi¬
tion, but now that they emanate from the Mayor's office peo¬
ple jump to the conclusion, erroneously, no doubt, that they
are an incident in the unfortunate hostilities between the
Mayor and the Comptroller, There is only one way of pre¬
paring legislation respecting the charter and that is by means
of an expert commission, empowered to examine fully into
the conduct of municipal business, and emancipated from any
suspicion of ulterior motives. Mayor Gaynor did good service
last Spring by preventing the passage of the charter changes
prepared by a group of up-state lawyers; and the recommen¬
dations prepared by his appointees are more sensible than
those with which the city was threatened a year ago. Never¬
theless, under the circumstances, it is far better to leave the
charter alone until the time comes when it can be properly;
changed. All the amendments proposed since the report
of the Ivins Commission was turned down at Albany have
been a matter of tinkering with the details of an instrument
which requires for its effective improvement much more radi¬
cal changes than have yet heen proposed.
DIFFICULTIES OF CHARTER BUILDING.
THERE are several fundamental difficulties with the
existing charter, and until these are squarely faced
there can hardly be any really useful charter revision. The
amendments which have been made to the instrument during
the last thirty years have tended in two different directions.
On the one hand, many changes have been made increasing
both the administrative power of the Mayor and his influence
over local legislation. On the other hand, most of the powers