Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 43, no. 1109: June 15, 1889

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June 15. 1S89 Record and Guide. 831 ESTABLISHED'^ WARpHsi-^iaea/^ DEV&JeD to f^L Es WE . SuiLOIf/O Aji,Ct(lTECTvJRE ,HoUSEl(OLD DHSOR^Tlorf, ■ BUsit^Ess Af^D Themes of Ge^eraL I;Jt£i\es7 r PRICE, PER VEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TELEPHONE, . « . . JOHN 370. Communications should be addi-essed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. T. T. LINDSEY, Busmess Manager. Vol. XLIII. JUNE 15, 1889. No. 1,109 A dispatch in the New York Tribune, dated Indianapolis, June llth, and marked " special," said: " Anstia Corbin is liere inspect¬ ing the lines of the Indiana, Bloomington & Western Railway, in which he holds a controlling interest. He says he has sunk half a million dollars in tlie properfcy, and that even now it is hardly earning the interest on its indebtedness," There is a freshness aboufc fchis message which would quite suggest that Corbin himself waa the writer. The control of a property lies in its stock, and no ono believes that Corbin has any bnt the slightest interest in its stock, while bis statement, fchat he has sunk half a million doUars in the property, must make his associates smile. It is this once great railroad wliich brought Mr, Corbin oufc of his obscurity in Davenport, la., and the profits he made in it formed the foundation of his fortune. He was its first president, and has regularly succeeded himself every annual election. If it is on the rocks, he alone has been at the hehn, lie has enjoyed singular immunity from criticism in his performances with the I,, B. & W., but things cannot much longer keep on going from bad to worse without a storm in which lightning may strike somebody. Mayor Grant continues to show that where he is not conti oiled by his political committals lie has both the will and the power to be a good May(ir. His treatment of the repavement business, in its con¬ nection with the electric subways, has been very sensible and busi¬ nesslike. Everybody who knows anything about New York knows that in tlie natural course of events everybody who had any work to to do under the pavement would wait until the pavement was laid and then proceed to rip it up, and, ha^'ine dawdled over his work, relay the pavement very badly, so thafc it would not be a decent pavement even at the beginning. The Mayor proposes to prevent this nonsensical nuisance, so far as the subways are concerned, by ceeing to it that they shall be laid in all streets where bofch they and the new pavements are authorized after the pavement is taken up and before it is replaced. This will settle the matter as far as they are concerned. Naturally objections were raised in tbe Board of Electrical Conti-ol, in which the Mayor's proposition was made. It was much too sensible to pass unopposed in an offic.'al body of this municipahty. Of course it sbouid be adopted and enforced. It would not be ont of piace to notify all the gas and sfceam heating and other companies fchat use the streets under the surface to take the opportunity when the pavements are up to overhaul their pipes and put them in good condition. In 1878 fche number of leasehold conveyances (uot leases) recorded JQ New York City was 473. Five years later the number had increased to 644, and last year it was 960. Stated in percentages, the increase between 1878 and 1883 was 36 per cent., and between 187S and 1888 103 per cent. Now the increase in the number of convey¬ ances during tiie same period—that is, between 1878 and 1888—was only 99 per cent.; so that in the last ten years there has been a somewhat greater increase in leaseholds in this city than in convey¬ ances. JMoreover, the greater proportional increase in the number of leaseholds, as compared with the increase in conveyances, is really larger than the figures show, for the total of the transfers has, of late years, been enlarged more than ever by merely nominal conveyance of iiroperty from one person to another, which does not occur, at any rate not to the same extent, with leasehold conveyances. -------------■------------ In the number of recorded leases (in contradistinction to lease¬ hold conveyances) the increase in the last ten years has been very heavy. In 1878 they numbered 618 and last year 1,750—an increase of 184 per cent., about double the increase in the conveyances during thesame time. These figures clearly show that the leasing of property, both for loug and short periods, is increasing in this city more rapidly than the pm-chasing of properfcy; and while the figures do not warrant any extreme deduction, they point toa tendency in real estate matters worth watching. The foregoing facts are especially interesting in view of the very powerful effort which is being inade in England to enfranchise leaseholds. The hill for this purpose in the House of Commons provided, "tbat every lessee or sub-lessee, with a term of twenty years unexpired, should be entitled to acquire the reversion of his property by purchase." That is, the landlord must sell out, and if terms cannot be agreed upon out of Court t!ie County Courts are to be empowered to fix a price upon the basis of the present interest plus the reversion. The measure naturally has been met by great opposition even in the House of Commons, which itself established a precedent for such a m-^asure bytbe Irish Laud act of 1887. The argument of the advocates of the bill, which by the way has the support of the Radicals and Labor-men, is that the leasehold system produces over¬ crowding, ill-housing and over-renting, and it checks improvement. Undoubtedly this is true, as a general thing. Liverpool, Manches¬ ter, Bristol, Birmingham, and some other large towns in England have always opposed " short" leases (that is, leaseholds for ninety- nine years or less) with beneficial results. London is the great centre of the " short" lease system, for outside of the metropolis about 69 per cent, of the population live upon freehold or long leasehold property. But in London short leases prevail, and much of the overcrowding in unsanitary buildings, vvhere excessive rents are charged, is said to be due to this fact. On the other hand, the opponents of the bill argue that the facts do not justify the assertion that short leases are the cause of the evils referred to, and allege that some of the most degraded prop¬ erty in London is freehold. The famous Seven Dials district, so malodorous physically and morally, was in the hands of small freeholders from the end of the last century until it was wiped out of existence a few years ago. Of fche property afi'ected by the Cross aud Torrens Acfc, 1,023 holdings were declared unsanitary,and of these 463 were freehold, though the average of leases to free¬ holds was as high as seven to one. Besides, it ie pointed out that the aboUtion of leaseholds would nofc remedy the alleged evils unless the owner was compelled to live upon his own property. And as a final argument it ia said the people do not wish the meas¬ ure. In many cases, especially where tradesmen and small manu¬ facturers are concerned, the leasehold is preferred, as the money tbat would otherwise be locked up in real estate can be put to more productive uses. Certainly, at one time all the buildings on the Holborn Viaduct in London were freehold, but in the last few years without a single exception they have been converted into leaseholds. —-—■ ■ «■----------------— The State Board for the Equalization of Taxes has an equitable name for a very unjust proceeding. It was one of the results of the resolution made wJien the government of tbis city from Albany was instituted. When the State once took the power to govern the city—to control its revenue and expenditures and its taxation—it gained a power thaft it wUl not willingly lay aside, and that it will be hard to take away from a majority; for even if the city should come to contain more tban half the population of the State, it will be difficult to unseat the present majority in the hands of the rural counties. The city for many years has paid much more than its share of the State tax. It thus relieves the rest of the State from its due share of the burden for interest on the State debt, for State expenses and local schools and education. This inequality the State Board of Equalization increases. They have for their prey the wealth of the city, and as there is no uniform rule of valuation throughout the State, nor can there be under present laws, they charge on the city a portion of the tax regularly accrued on the State. Tlie simple justice of giving the city a member of this Board would afford the cifcy an opportunity to protest, but not any reUef. To open a discussion on uniformity of valuation would be like startuig on a tempestuous sea which has no horizon. This is one of the evils that has no direct remedy. It leads either to a radical reform in the methods of taxation which has been discussed for forty years, or to the restoration of home rule to the city, and the investigation of the hardest of all political problems, that of municipal government in a democracy. But to this we shall come at last. The trustees of the Cooper Union, in their annual report which has just appeared, while acknowledging the donations of news¬ papers, books, etc., refer specially to the gift of two "complete" sets of certain cheap paper "pira.te" hbraries. The "practical" considerations involved are perhaps too great to permit the hope tbat the consumers of sentimentality who support these novel libra¬ ries wiU seek their literary hashish in "authorized editions" only, and thus effectually protest agaiust an iuiquiloua system of legally sanctioned robbery, which disgr.aces the nation that permits it; but these "practical" considerations should have no wight with a moral educational institution under any circumstances, and espe¬ cially in this case where the books were a gift. The proper thing for the trustees to have done was to have returned the volumes, and if any publicity were given to the matter It should have taken