Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view
About OCR text.
April 15, igir.
RECORD AND GUIDE
681
ESTABLISHED-^ fAMtPH Sl^."^ less
Dd/oteD p Rea,lEstate.BulLDI^b ApofiTECTURE.HouseholdDEGORATiorf.
Bi1s[i/e:ss AttoThemes of GEfta^L IKterest,,
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
Communications should be addressed to
C. -W. SWEET
Published EVeri; Saturday
By THE RECORD AND GUIDE CO.
President, CLINTON W, SWEET Treasurer, P. W. DODGE
Vloe-Prea. & Genl, Mgr., H. W. DESMOND Secretary, F- T, MILLER
Nos. 11 to 15 East S4th Street, New Tork City
(Telephone, Madison Square. 4430 to 4433,)
"Entered
ai
the
Posr Off.
ice at
Ncio
York,
N. Y.. as
SfCOlI
d-clii
,ss matter."
Copy righted.
1911,
. hy
Tho Record &
Guide
Co,
Vol,
LXXXVI
APRIL 15
, 1911.'
No.
224S
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN.
IF the Madiaon Square Garden lias been actually turnt?d
over, as reported, to a real estate operator, it will i)rob-
ably be fouud that the man is acting as agent for other in¬
terests. The improvement of a whole block witli a series of
ioft â– bLiildings would reciuire an amount of capital and would
involve a degree of risk which not even a very resourceful
and daring operator could venture. It would he necessary to
improve the whole block at once or within a very short
period, because after a part of the building were torn down
the rest of it would be useless. But if it were improved all
at once, such an enormous addition to the supply of new
lofts in a single district could only be very slowly rented,
and the operation would have to be financed on a basis which
provided for a long period of semi-vacancy. In all probabil¬
ity, consequently, either the operator is acting as agent for
the existing owners or else lie is the agent of outside inter¬
ests, who know how they can use a certain fraction of the new
building, but who do not wish their names as yet to appear.
In any event some arrangement may yet be made to save the
building. Unprofitable as it has been it is certainly needed,
and the people who need it may yet be able to work out some
plan of preserving it. On the other hand if it is pulled down
something must be done to replace it. New York needs a
large amphitheatre and one situated in a better location and
more economically planned could be made to pay. It is very
much to be hoped that arrangements can be made to save the
existing Garden, both, because of its archilectural interest
and because its destruction would really leave New York City
for a while without a large Hall of any sufficient size in any
really advantageous location.
DISTRESSING SUBWAY OUTLOOK.
ONE of the most depressing aspects of the Subway sit¬
uation is that whatever the outcome of the negotiations
with the Interborough Company now under way, any new
Subway construction will not serve the purpose of even tem¬
porarily relieving the existing congestion. If an arrange¬
ment is reached with the Interborough Company, the upper
East Side and the lower West Side extensions will develop
a large amount of wholly new traffic, which wili be suffi¬
cient to crowd the new tunnels; and when the normal in¬
crease in travel during the four years required for their
construction is also added, the inference is obvious that a
year or two after the new tunnels are in operation, the city
will be in precisely the same condition as it is at present,
On the other hand, the construction of the Broadway-Lex¬
ington Avenue routes, while it might temporarily relieve
the congestion in the existing Subway between Forty-second
street and the Brooklyn Bridge would be equally or more in¬
capable of providing anything but a momentary relief. In
either event the question of additional Subways would im¬
mediately become critical- The only other serious propo¬
sition before the city is that of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit
Company for a line up Broadway and Seventh avenue, con¬
necting with the Queensboro' Bridge. This route has much
to recommend it, for the purpose of improving the service
between Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens; and it would have
a certain value for local Manhattan traffic. But the local
Manhattan traffic developed thereby would either be new or
would be drawn from the Sixth avenue elevated, and the
amount of money which the city would have to provide
would seriously diminish the capital which it can use for
more important transit purposes. Whatever plan or combi¬
nation of plans is adopted the city's borrowing capacity will
be exhausted by the new construction which will be under¬
taken; and the construction of any other lines will have to
be postponed until the new Subways are being operated. The
outlook for any kind of rapid transit which will permit fhe
citizens 'of New York to travel with some degree of com¬
fort and decency is uUerly discouraging; and about the
last interest which the majority of the Board of Estimate
ever think of considering is that of the travelling public.
They will stew for months over minor points in the contract
with the Interborough Company, which make no essential
difference, and in the meantime ignore the fact that the city
is losing far more from the delay than it will ever gain—
even if the Interborougli Company eventually complies with
their demands.
GOVERNMENT BY COMMISSION.
MR, S, S. ^McCLURE, who is an ardent advocate of the
commission form of city government, which is becom¬
ing so popular all over the country, recently declared in a
speech that the adoption of some such system was neces¬
sary to the economical and effieient government of New
York. Still more recently he was severely critic'ged by
the Bureau of Municipal Research for this assertion. Iu
the opinion of the Bureau the present Charter is well de¬
signed to secure economy and efficiency; and if economy and
efficiency are lacking, the fault is due to the men, and not
to the system. Such an assertion gives one a very poor idea
of political intelligence of the directors of the Bureau, No
doubt the Mayor has complete technical administrative re¬
sponsibility and can discharge and appoint the heads of de¬
partments as he pleases; but his heads of departments have
no similai' responsibility, for their subordinates, who are
protected by the Civil Service laws, and are substantially
independent of the commissioners. It is notorious that In
the Police Department, for instance, the courts always re¬
instate a policeman unless be can be convicted of law-
breaking. Furthermore, while technical administrative re¬
sponsibility is concentrated in the Mayor, the Mayor is only
one member of the Board of Estimate; and it is the B'oard
of Estimate that determines the city's economic and finan¬
cial policy. Wlioever heard of a private corporation that
made its President independent of its Board of Directors.
The technical administrative chief and the governing Board
are separated in responsibility, and in organization; and the
peculiar advantage of the commission form of government,
advocated by Mr, McCiure, that it does away with this fun¬
damental division of responsibility. The commission is abso¬
lutely and exclusively responsible for the good government
of the city. The men who appropriate the city's money are
the men who spend it; and the individual commissioners in
making their demands for departmental appropriations are
always checked by the consideration that they must assume
the I'esponsibility for tiie whole Budget, as well as for the
work of their own office. In New York, on the other hand,
the only idea of a Departmental head, is to secure just as
much money as he can for his department. In view "oi this
division of responsibility between the men representing the
fundamental aspects of municipal government, it is absurd
to claim that the New York Charter makes for any effective
concenti'ation of power. The old baleful theory of the sep¬
aration of executive and legislative functions is just as ac¬
tive in the existing political organization of New York as it
was in the days of a powerful Board of Aldermen. The only
difference is that the executive head has a seat in the gov¬
erning board.
SAN FRANCISCO'S BOOM.
SAN FRANCISCO, now that it has succeeded in getting
the Panama-Pacific Exposition, is tackling the difficult
problem of selecting a site for its World's Fair; and the rest
of the country will watch the outcome of the existing dis¬
cussion with lively interest- If San Francisco expects to
induce many thousands of people to cross the continent in
the summer of 19113, the city must be prepared to offer an
unusually seductive entertainment, and such an entertain¬
ment can hardly be provided by any of the ordinary attrac¬
tions of a world's fair. The Panama-Pacific Exposition
must, if possible, be given a peculiarly novel character, so
that people whose appetite for this kind of entertainment
has been diminished by satiety can be tempted to make the
journey. Moreover, San Francisco has a perfectly obvious
opportunity of giving its exposition precisely this unique
character. Alone among all the cities which has proposed