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REAL. ESTATE
AND
k^ BUILDERS
NEW YORK, JULY 25, 1914
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WEST SIDE W^ATER FRONT IMPROVEMENTS
What the Board of Estimate Hopes to Achieve for the District
South of 60th Street—Explained by a Former Borough President.
By HON. CYRUS C. MILLER
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IS anything more forlorn looking than
a deserted hottse in which human be¬
ings have dwelt? This melancholy pic¬
ture is intensified when a whole section
of the city is changed from a place of
trade, alive with the energy of a busy
people, to the lifeless quiet of a deserted
village. If anyone will walk through
that part of the city, west of Broadway,
between Chambers str-jet and 23d street,
he will wonder at the number of vacant
buildings and the general air of deser¬
tion.
The reports of the Tax Department
show that within the area mentioned a
shrinkage of real estate values amount¬
ing to many millions of dollars has taken
place within the past five years. Why
is all this? There are some who will
say that it is becavise trade has moved
away. But why has trade moved away?
It may be said it is because rapid transit
lines have taken the people to other sec¬
tions and trade has followed. This might
be so with the retail trade, but not with
the wholesale. There must be some
other reason.
Like New Blood into a Withered Limb.
The conclusion is easy that the main
reason is the lack of adequate freight
handling facilities for the district. If
the tracks of the New York Central Rail¬
road and other roads coming into the city
were carried down the West Side, so
that a merchant in the district could
send his truck load of goods down to
the foot of the street, and deliver at a
freight-receiving platform without delay,
it would have an efifect like bringing new
blood into a withered limb, to restore
it to its former strength.
On account of the agitation against the
operation of the New York Central Rail¬
road on grade below 60th street, and the
necessity of better freight handling facili¬
ties for the city, the Board of Estimate
and Apportionment early in 1910 entered
into negotiations with the railroad for
the following ends:
(1) The discontinuance of the occupa¬
tion of public streets by the railroad
tracks at grade.
(2) Such municipal improvements as
can be effected as part of, or incident
to, the proposed changes of location or
grade of the railroad tracks.
(3) Enlarged and improved railroad
facilities for the shippers of the city.
These negotiations were divided into
two parts, from Spuyten Duyvil to 60th
street, and from 60th street south. Neces¬
sarily, in an article so short as this, many
details of the plan agreed upon by the
railroad company and the committee of
the Board of Estimate must be omitted.
Advantages Desired.
For the district south from 60th street
to 30th street the committee endeavored
to achieve:
(1) The removal of surface operation
by the New York Central south of 60th
stree;.
(2) That the convenience of shippers
and of consumers and the needs of the
commerce of the port must be served.
(3) That free access to and from the
waterfront for surface traffic must be
preserved.
A NUMBER of civic societies,
â– **â– including the West Side tax¬
payers' associations, are pressing
for a settlement of the problems
connected with the Hudson River
water-front improvements and for
the completion of the plans. The
article herewith by a former Bor¬
ough President, who was a member
of the Board of Estimate's com¬
mittee on terminals, discusses a
section of the proposed plans in
an interesting and informing man¬
ner. The section referred to is the
lower West Side. Limitations of
space prevent consideration of the
plans in their entirety.
(4) That elasticity of the waterfront
must be preserved in such a way as to
permit the use of the upland in con¬
nection with the waterfront for the
spread inland of waterfront terminal fa¬
cilities in order that the most intensive
use thereof may be realized.
(5) That as much of the waterfront
must be liberated from railroad occupa¬
tion for the ptirpose of marine commerce
as is consistent with the efiicient and
economical transportation of railroad
I'reight.
(6) That the appearance of the city wa¬
terfront must be preserved, and the con¬
venience, comfort, and safety of its citi¬
zens safeguarded.
A Four-Track Subway.
The result of the negotiation was an
agreement whereby the committee of
the Board of Estimate recommended that
the railroad company be permitted to
construct, at its own expense, a four-
track subway through what is now pri¬
vate property from 59th street to 44th
street, the railroad right of way to leave
the 60th street yards at the corner of
Twelfth avenue and 59th street immedi¬
ately west of the westerly corner of the
Interborough's present power-house, to
curve thence eastwardly through private
property to a point sufficiently distant
from the waterfront to permit of the con¬
struction of 1,200 foot piers with appro¬
priate bulkhead * space, to pass south¬
wardly through private property at a
grade identical with that of Twelfth
avenue as it exists to-day, to a point on
the southerly line of 44th street, at which
point the railroad right of way will curve
back to Twelfth avenue. Between 59th
and 44th streets it is proposed that the
railroad company construct at its own
expense a roof over its entire right of
way 100 feet in width which will con¬
stitute the surface of a new Twelfth ave¬
nue or marginal way between 59th and
44th streets. It is further proposed that
the railroad company, entirely at its own
expense, both as to construction cost and
grade damages, change the grade of each
side street between 59th and 43d streets
to conform to the new grade of the new
marginal way as laid out over the roof
structure covering the railroad tracks.
South of 30th street the agreement was
as follows:
The company consents to construct,
at its own expense, a two-track subway
southward from 30th street under the bed
of Tenth avenue to --------â– street, thence
under the surface of the present Ganse¬
voort Market site to the head of Wash¬
ington street to Canal street; thence
under Canal street to Varick street, at
which point the subway will enter the
company's new and extended St. John's
Park yard.
The company requests the right to con¬
struct two tracks under the easterly side
of Hudson street, from Canal street
southward to Beach street, such occu¬
pation by the company, however, to be
terminable at the option of the city at
any time upon the adoption of plans for
a passenger subway in Hudson street.
The company further requests the priv¬
ilege of exercising an option to substi¬
tute for the subway through Canal street
a continuation of the subway southward
under Washington street to Barclay
street, such election to be made at or
before the final signing of the contracts
to carry this settlement into efifect.
Option to Purchase.
The agreement also provided for an
option by the city up to November, 1913.
to purchase from the company, at a price
to be agreed upon, its perpetual and
exclusive franchise for its tracks in the
streets and avenues south of 30th street.
So that the city, upon the exercise of the
option, might construct or cause to be
constructed proper and suitable rail fa¬
cilities south of 30th street either to a
point opposite St. John's Park or to Bar¬
clay street, including at least two main
tracks, with provision for proper con¬
nection with freight stations which the
railroad company may acquire or own;
and also such industries, warehouses,
etc., doing an amount of business which
would justify a siding or private track,
which facilities shall be open to the use
of the New York Central and all other
roads upon equal terms.
This option reserves to the city the
power to extinguish all of the rights of
the New York Central Company to its
tracks in the streets and avenues south
of 30th street, and to establish, if the
means can be secured in the interim, a
joint terminal freight railroad into which
the Central will come as a customer upon
terms equal to those offered to all other
railroads. Such a railway, it is this com¬
mittee's conviction, can be established
only in connection with tunnels or bridge
to New Jersey to be constructed simul¬
taneously.
Modern Freight Facilities Contemplated.
The improvement contemplates a
modern railroad with sufficient tracks,
terminals, warehouses, switches and
other accommodations, from Spuyten
Duyvil to Battery Park. It is not to
be supposed that such a vast enterprise
can be carried through without some
valid objections being made to it. The
most important one is the opposition of
the citizens along Riverside Drive to
the open freight yard from 135th street
to 155th street. It is proposed to screen
this from Riverside Drive by trees, so