Vol. LXXXVIII





SEPTEMBER 2, 1911





No. 2268





A VALUABLE SERVICE TO PROPERTY OWNERS.

The Bureau of Information Established by Borough President Miller in the
Bronx—Has   Answered   250   Questions   a   Month   During   Its  First   Year.





THE McClellan administration was
marked by an extraordinary number
of ofliicial inciuiries into the conduct of
city departments. T'he political situation
was of a sort to encourage investigation
arid exposure. The State administration
wbs Republican; that of the city. Demo¬
cratic. Besides, the community was
alarmed by the rising tide of municipal
expenditures, and was insisting upon
economy in puibltc office. The prevalence
of graft and inefficiency, exposed notably
by the Charter Revision Commis.^ion of
1907. was, indeed, an inheritance of long
standing, but in its changed temper the
electorate was not disposed to tolerate
practices which had theretofore been con¬
doned.

During    the    campaign    toy    whicli    -the
present   administration   was   ushered   into





designed merely to furnish employment
for voting place-huntera.

The,Fusion candidates who were elected
were pledged to correct the abuse dis¬
closed by the late investigations. The work
of correction fell mostly to the share of
the Borough Presidents. These officials
exercise extensive powers under the char¬
ter. They have charge of the local street
improvements and other public worlt in
their respective boroughs, and the expen¬
ditures which they recommend is of tho
largest importance to real estate owners.
The flrst of the newly elected Borough
Presidents to work out an effective
scheme of publicity with respect lo pub¬
lic  works  was  Mr.   Miller pf  the Bronx.

In May of last year he estLiiblished a
Bureau of Information, the object of
which   is   to   furnish   information   to   the





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CARD   USED   FOR   STREET   OPENING   AND    TITLE   PROCEEDINGS.





Office, telling use was made of the recent
exposures. Perhaps the most effective of
these related to oft'ices which come into
direct contact with real estate owners.
The Fusion candidates -brought forward
as convincing evidence of mismanagement
the fact that, although the city is the
custodian of a vast bulk of documents
affecting real estate interests, the index¬
ing of these instruments of record, pre¬
served in innumerable departments, was
so imperfect as to be of no practical ser¬
vice. Even the city itself, Avhen in quest
of reliable information concerning the
liens on property which it contemplated
acquiring for public use, was obliged to
purchase the information from private
title companies.

The companies were making a commer¬
cial enterprise of furnishing a service
which the city neglected. They were in¬
dexing for quick reference documents in
the custody of city departments. If, for
example, a taxpayer wished to know what
assessments T\'ere outstanding or falling
due on his property, he could not be sure
of obtaining a complete list without re¬
sort to a private corporation. Because
of the inability of taxpayers to keep
themselves informed about public works
bearing on their real estate interests, there
was no effective publicity to deter dis¬
honest officials from wasteful contracts,
padded   wage   rolls   and   "improvements"





public respecting local improve nients and
matters which have been acted upon by
the various Local Boards. The informa¬
tion given embraces every phase of public
improvements, from their inception to
their conclusion, that come under the
jurisdiction of the Borough President, as
well as other matters of a public char¬
acter.





The bureau is in charge of Henry L.
Bridges. Since it was opened, the in¬
quiries received have averaged 250 a
month. They have, according to Mr.
Bridges, related to petitions for the laying
out of streets, titles to streets and the
dates of vesting of title; confirmation of
titles; dates when title proceedings were
initiated in the Board of Estimate; the
appointment of Commissioners of Esti¬
mate and Assessnient; the status of the
proceedings of such commissioners; the
progress of various proceedings in the
Board of Estimate and Apportionment; the
widening, regulating, grading and paving
of streets; the conslruction of sewers;
advertised public let tings; execution of
contracts; the dates when assessment lists
were forwarded to the Board of Assess¬
ors; the dates when assessments were
confirmed; the ceding of land for street
purposes; outstanding taxes and assess¬
ments; prospective assessments; corporate
stock issues for public schols, and so on.

Formerly, citizens were expected to ap¬
ply to numberless departments, of the
existence of most of which the ordinary
person was unaware, for information that
is now centralized in one bureau. It
would Ibe difficult to overestimate the
value of the service which the new^ bureau
renders. Its estimates of coming assess¬
ments are especially helpful to real estate
owners. A partial enumeration of the
assessments to which the owner of a 25-
foot lot is liable will be sufficient to show
how essential it is for him to know ap¬
proximately what his charges wiil be and
when  they  will fall  due.

He may be called t^pon to pay .^50 to
!?250 for acquiring title bv the citv to a
60-foot street, and $250 to :f750 in the case
of wider streets, while his expenditure in
connection with a street-widening pro¬
ceeding, where ibuildings and property are
taken, may amount to .'jil.OOO or $1,200. as
was the case in Walker avenue. Only
when a street is to be 100 feet or more
wide is he relieved of part of the cost, the
city assuming 13'/( per cent, of the ex¬
pense on a 100-foot street. For regnlating
and grading (including the laying of side¬
walks, flagging, crosswalks and curbs, and
fencing) his average assessmenls are $75
to $150 on 60-foot streets, and from the
latter figure up to $400 on wider streets.
Sewers may cost him from $100 to $400;
and first-class paving, from $150 to $250.

In this connection, it should be per¬
tinent to note that two classes of pave¬
ments are in use, officially designated
Class A and Class B. The latter com¬
prises certain comparatively cheap, tem¬
porary pavements, especially bituminous
pavement, consisting of 1^4 inches of
wearing surface and 4 inches of concrete
foundation. These are intended for use
in outlying sections, where traffic is not
heavy, and are expected to last some ten
years. They cost about $(10 for each 25-
foot lot. When the permanent pavement
of Class A is eventually laid, the city de-





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Deputy Collector of Assessments inJ Arteat:, Boroagfi of The Bronx,

177ik Srrfft aad -Third Av*nus, Barortgh ol -Ric BraQf.
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at  Noii&ciiiori ol  AHCLKDcnu. Bureau lof lhc Co]!cctJan nf Amcuhicuu And  ArTc^n.  De;ilr[inen[ el FiQADCe.  Cil/  of  New VoA, tn  ike  oainc  ot





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A   CARD   THAT  PROPERTY   OWNERS SHOULD   PILL   OUT.