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SUPPLEMENT TO THE Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. YoL. XXIY. NEW YORK, 8ATU11DAY, DECEMBER 13, 1879. jSo. (')1o Publuihed Weekly by CbeBcalCBstatcEctortrlissottatxan. TER5IS, OKK VKAR. in advance.. ..SIO.OO. Conimiinicaiiona should be adtiressed to v. W. SWEKT, No.s. Ii5 ASD 1^7 BaoAWWAY THE WEST SIDE. Mr. Simeon E.. Church's Paper on Street Openings. Proceedings of the West Side Association. Mr. Cammann on the Removal of Shanties. The meeting of the West Side Association, on the evening of Saturdaj-, December (1, was an exceedingly interesting one. Numerous projierty owners listened attentively to the proceedings, and encouraged the oflicers and speakers bj- constaufc applause in their laudable efforts to improve everything connected tvith the west and northwest side of our city. Owing to the unavoidable absence of President Dwight H. Olmstead, Mr. H. H. Cammann pre¬ sided, who called upon Mr. Simeon E. Church to read his report on Street Openings. STREET OPENINGS. Papei' rend before the West Side Association, hy S. J'j. Church. Among the duties which this ABSOciation, aa a a body, has undertaken to perform toward its members, is that of " Caring for, protecting and promoting the proprietary interests of the Owners of Real Estate," within the district known as the West Side. To shield our property against unjust and op¬ pressive taxation and assessment is obviouslv among tho highest interests thus to be protected. It is obvious that so far aa it tends to the improve¬ ment of x-eal estate and the building up of the waste places of the city it is not only in the interest of the particular lot owner whose properiv is im¬ proved out also of every taxpayer of the city, bince It relieves hiiu of paying taxes by just so much as somebody else will pay them np'on iuiproveineuts which thoy are thus encouraged to make. If a va¬ cant lot is worth $1,000, the tax revenue deriveil from it at 2i per cent, is $25. If by good laws aud a careful and faithful adminiBtration of them and by the encouragement of surrounding improvement and development the lot comes to bo worth $10,000 the owner of the lot i^ a great gainer, bnt so is the public, for the tax revenue now derived from it is $250 instead of $25 and if the owner by these same surrounding improvements, is encouraged to build a house upon it worth SlO.OOO more, the tax revenue UOW derived from it becomes $1,250 instead of the original $25, and the whole city and every taxpayer in it is a gainer by just so much, in a strictly money point of view, to say nothing of the general influ¬ ence which such improvements make upon the general growth, advancement and prosperity of the city. If our West Side had felt the influence of these iniiirovoinoiits, lis has the Iv.ist Siib', by llic wist' anil ])rt>])cr ollcl•llrn^'enu■IlI ot iiiii>itiv(iii
'-e, fiiitis us without a I siii^'lf street or avenue in the whole district eom- j jiletely fuiisheil, ami reatly ftir iin]n-ovemoiit—many | of them as Wf shall seo hereafter, not even ii])f iietl. \ And I think we may feel the more ready to say it j when .ifter niiieli etlbrt by this Association to t,'et the Common Comieil to pass the neeessiiry ordi- | minces for regulating, jiaving and sewering i;ertain | strt^ots whieh aro imperatively reiiuired ftir imme¬ diate building improvenient we tind the Mayor of the city, under the leatl of the Commissioner of Public Works, iiow ciiiruged in vetoing them. The rule under whiidi these departments profess to aet of reqtiiriiif; such street imiiroveineiits to be prcceeded by a p.-tition of a majority of tho lot owners, is a rule of obsolete utility. It may have had some apology before rajiid transit was accom- ■ jdisiied, but now, when every street is retpiired i for imiirovement, when building is only kept hack i boinuise lhe streets are not ready for it, to insist i upon enforcing such a rule ar^'ue-s an entire want | of appreciation of these departments that this ptirtioii of our city has uiitlergone any cliange. ! " It must be easy,"these ticntlemeii tell us, "to ^et j a petition signed by a majtirity of the lot tiwners, if they want a street opeueii or improved;" but if } they think so, they manifestly have had but little i experience <.>f what they speak. A block ol ground ortliiiarilv contains sixty-lour lots, of which by sub- divisioiis'of titles, there are oftentimes more than a hundred owners. They do not resitle on the land ; their names are rarely fonnd correctly upon the tax or assessment btioks. To hunt these up— to find where th»y live, to exphiiu what is wanted, and to get their signatures, imposes an amount of labor oftentimes exteuiling into months, which few- can comprehend, except him who undertakes it. It will servo to illustrate this by a case iu point. The Board of Health, moved by the action of tliis .Association, have been actively engaged for tho past four weeks in the effort to timl who are the owners of eight lots on Ninth avemie between Eighty-second aud Eighty-third street, upon which and in front of a row- of brick dwellings is a pesti¬ lence breeding pond of stagnant water, formed by damning np a city drain in order to make a floating place for ducks, with the intent that the nuisance shall be abated ; but, uj) to this time, their labors have bee'li in vain, the ow-ners are "still onknown," and tho nuisance continues. If it takes a whole department with all its facilities a whole month to finil who are the owners of eight lots, how long should it naturally take private intlividuals to hunt up tbe owners or a majority of them of half a dozen blocks, in order to ^et their signatures to a petition for the opening or sewering or paving of a street. The time and labor is none the leas though evt'iy signature, as it usually is. Is cheer¬ fully Kivcn when the owner is found. The labor usually falls upon the most euterpriHing and striv¬ ing of our citizens and is, by just so much, a jiun- ishment for enterprise, and a penalty lor improve¬ ment. To remedy this evil, in a great measure, was one of the objects of the formation of this Associ¬ ation. It ia made up of property owners on the w-holc West Side. It rellccts the sentiments and presents the wants of tho whole West Side. Its past history and past influence iu shaping tbo leatures of the West Side, are not unknown to the departsienta and to the public, and we think it hut reasonable to ask that its call formally made for spcciflc improvemeuts, in specific streets shall be recognized by the depaitmcnts, as some evidence that these impi-ovemeuts aro needed. Ihe rule re¬ quiring petitions preliminary to a street opening or gradiug, never had any legal authority or sanc¬ tion. Theibityof the dt-partnieiits is to nse thiir le'^id {unctions so as to proiiitite the intt-rests of the wholf city, ami not to stay ihfir action ujioii the ap|>fal or remoiistriiiifi; of a iiierti imlividual. It is a riih'whifh has coiitribtiicd lai:j;ilyto kf"p liufk the West Side to wlieie it iniw i^. ami if stii! lurtlit-r cnroi-fi-il will teml to fontinU" it iu th.-it eomlilion lor years to toiiif. The thpart'iiint.- shoultl nmUrstaiiil ilvA sincf tin- ailvint tii !;tpi.l tran.-it, the whole Wtst Siiif is wantftl lor im- lirovfimiit a.ml eainiot Ix- put in condition for it a iiioim-jit loo s.itiii. II' thiif is aiiylioily in a p::r- tii-iiiar localion who for a iiartieiilar reasiiii df.~ires that his strei:t shoultl not he improved, it is siiit Iy timt; now to reversf tlie rule ami re
