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MARCH 16, 1012





MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENTS IN THE BRONX.

A City ol the Rank of Galveston is Built Each Year in the Borough^
Varied Activities Induced by an Annual Growth of 35,000 in Population.





THE pointiation" of the Bronx is grow¬
ing at the rate of about i!.j,000 a
year. Each year a new city of the rank
of Galveston, Texas, is buUt within the
borough. The building of a city of this
size involves many activities besides the
construction of houses. Streets have to
be extended into undeveloped areas;
sewer, gas and water mains have to be
laid; transit lines have to be constructed;
schools and police sta-tions have to be
erected, and a multitude of necessities
and conveniences embraced under the
general t-erni of real e£.tate improvements '
have ■to be supplied by public and private
investments of capital.

The  annual  aggregate  of  such  invest¬
ments in the Bronx is t-Ruce as large as





suits. If it is possible anywhere to pros¬
per by "gTOW-ing up ■\vith the .town," it
is possible in the Bronx. In a boom town
the merchant and the pliysieian, as well
as the landowner, enjoy unearned incre¬
ments.

The Bronx embraces some forty square
miles. One ■^\-ho wishes to profit by its
growth must make a study of its physical
development. Let us assume that a third
of the borough is already built up. The
bulk of the increase of population next
year or in the next ten years wiill be in
the remaining two-thirds, but it will be
concentrated in relatively small neighbor¬
hoods. To profit hy the growth of the
borough, one must foresee what neighbor¬
hoods will be the boom neighborhoods of
the near ftiture.

The most reliable indexes of coming
booms are the street improvements plan¬
ned by the borough administration. A
deal   of  preliminary   public  work  has  to





rent activity in public works in the
Bronx. From a study of these it will be
possible to form an intelligent opinion as
to the directions which the expansion of
population and housing within the bor¬
ough will take in the immediate future.
Special attention will be given to local
improvements, w-hich are carried out by
the borough administration and which
constiitute a principal factor in determin¬
ing the lines of expansion in ciuestion. In
making local improvements the bor¬
ough administration is strongly influenced
by prospective 'transit routes. Such
routes will consequently also be discussed.
Finally, a general survey will be given of
the public improvements, including
schools, fire houses, police stations,
bridges, docks and otlier works provided
fay the city administration.

By way of explaining roughly the prac¬
tical    difference    between    local    improve¬
ments  and  public  improvements,   it may







IIUIDOE   OVER   TUE   BROXX   RIVER   AT   16UTH   STREET.
A   good   e.xample   of   simplicity   and   economy.The  structure   is   built  of  concrete  blocks.





the assessed valuation of all the taxable
property listed in Galveston. During the
last two years it averaged $4S,OOU,000.
Here is a table show'ing the amounts in¬
vested in real estate improvements in the
borough in 1910 and 1011:
Local improvements (assess¬
ments)    ....................$5,525,100

Puhlic   improvements   (corpor¬
ate stock)   .................    l,23-'>,S7g

Private  buildings   ............  ftS,0i)5.');-!T

Schools   ......................     3.187,000

Park  department   ............    2,O.''i4,103

Police  department   ...........       G06,SG1

Pire department   ..............        5(il,000

Dock  department   ............          59,824

Department    of   water   supply,

gas and electricity   .........10,!)0.>,0&i*

Railway    construction.........     .'),(;,^0,nOO

Total  ....................$97,841,304

The permanent improvements indicated
h-y these figures help to explain the ad¬
vance in real estate values tliat is re¬
flected by the rising tax assessments. The
Bronx is a boom town. Its marvelous
gTow'th opens up the most varied oppor¬
tunities for business enterprises. An ad¬
dition of 35,000 to its population each
year creates room for new stores, fac¬
tories, places of amusement, for the prac¬
tice of the learned profession, for multi¬
farious speculations and investments, for
innumerable gainful occupations and pur-

"Covei-s Manhattan and the Bronx. II i,"; es¬
timated that five-sixth of the sum was ex¬
pended   in   tbe  latter  borough.





be clone before sites can be profitably
built upon by private owners. Streets
must be opened and must -he supplied
\vith water, gas, pavements and other es¬
sentials. It is the business ot the bor¬
ough adminiatralion to undertake such
preliminary work in a given neighborhood
just at the time when tlie nelgliborhood
is ready for a considerable building mo^-e-
ment. If the work is carried out before
it Is needed, property owners are involved
in useless expense. Capital is sunk in the
form of assessments for utilities wiv-.ch
can not be employed for years, and the
loss of interest on this idle capital may
never be recovered in the final selling or
renting value of the land.

The borough administration conse¬
quently plans its assessment work in ac¬
cordance with what it believes to be the
immediate reciuirements of the different
undeveloped neighborhoods. The admin¬
istration is guided hy the petitions of
property owners to the Local Improve¬
ment Boards, by its knowledge of pros¬
pective transit lines and by its observa-
■tioiL of the current huilding activity. The
borough admhiistration is the most im¬
portant single agency in. providing accom¬
modations for the annual growth of pop¬
ulation, and there is no better informed
attthority on the needs of the different lo¬
calities for the preliminary street im¬
provements indispensable to private
building activity.

The purpose of this article is to indi¬
cate  the  main   seats  of  recent  and  cur¬





bs said that the former precede and make
possible private huilding operations, while
the latter generally attend or follow such
operations. The period covered by the
article is that during which the borough
administration had been directed by Presi¬
dent Cyrus C. Milier, a period mai-hed
by a notably well defined and efficient
policy w-ith respect to local improvements.

Local Iniprorenaeuts.

Before any physical improvement can
be accomplished, il is necessary that ex¬
tensions to the street system be planned
and legalized. Such extensions are adopt¬
ed in the form of alterations in the City
Map. Proceedings for acciuiring title to
the proposed streets may thereupon be
linitiated. After this physical improve¬
ments can be authorized and contracts
■for carrying them out can be executed.

Prior to January 1, 1910, but a very
small portion of the street system of the
large area east of the Bronx River had
been adopted, though considerable work
liad been done toward the preparation of
maps for t-he same. Since that time the
Miller administration has devoted a great
deal of energy to getting out the final sec¬
tions of the maps of this territory, with
the result that Sections 32, .'54. ^5. 30, 37,
40, 41. 42, A.n, 45, 40, 50, 51, 52. .'>3_and i»4,
each covering an area of about 375 acres,
have been adopted by the Board of Esti¬
mate and Apportionment.

In certain cases, where the laying out
of single streets was of special necessity.