Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 48, no. 1230: October 10, 1891

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Ojfcabar 10. Record and Guide. 429 ^- -. ESTABLISHED^ NlARPHaiu"^ 1868,^ De/ojeD to I^L Estwe . SuiLdij/g Ap.ct(iT£eTai\E .KousEriou) Desoi^^tioiI. Rusih/Ess Alto Theme? of GeKeiv^ Int£i\est PRICE, PER YEAR I!V ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. Tblephonb - - - . Cortlandt 1370. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St. J. J. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol, XLVIII OCTOBER 10, 1891, ■Mo. 1,230 The exhibition of architectural drawings is now open in the exposition rooms of The Record and . Guide, at Nos. 14 to 16 Vesey street, to which the public are cordially invited, free of charge. This display of drawings is one of the finest that has ever been made in New York City. It contains about three hundred works from the boards of the leading architects. Among the per¬ spectives of more than ordinary interest are those of the several large hotds now building in this city, and the designs submitted in competition for the new cathedral of St. John's. No one who unshes to study the principal recent architectural works in the metropolis and the contiguous suburban district should fail to pay a visit to the exposition. CONSERVATIVE owners of stocks have no reason to feel dissat¬ isfied with the dullness which bas overtaken the market and with the comparative immovability of quotations. The prices of securities have advanced smartly in response to a manifest improve, ment of conditions, but they liave not advanced too much, and it is better that they should not. It seems likely that in spite of daily fluctuations the present level of prices will be maintained until some substantial effects of the increased prosperity are shown Already there is beginning to be talk about a higher rate of dividend on many lines of securities, while in some cases it appears probable that stocks which have long been non-dividend payers will take their place on the dividend list. When this time comes, or when these events are umistakably fore¬ shadowed, it will be time fora further advance. Nothing of the kind is likely to take place this fall; and very shortly Con¬ gress will make a disturbing element. If stocks, hon ever, are about as high as tliey should be at present, the same is not true of bonds, . In the beginning there was some improvement in many good mortgages; but it soon ceased, and many excellent issues are still selling at very low prices. Evidently, the buying has been of a speculative, but not of an investment character; and if there should be a further advance in stocks, without a corres]ionding one in bonds, it would be a sign of an empty and precarious rather than a stable and legitimate movement, - —9 ------------ TN Europe the flnancial situation remains unchanged, France is -*- StiU cheerful and sanguine in spite of her bad crops, while in Berlin the bears still control the market. In the latter place the strength displayed by Paris is both inexplicable and a matter for envy. Comparisons are drawn between and comments made as to the high market prices of the French Three Per Cent Rente, and the low quotations of the Imperial and Prussian three per cent loans. Some Germans do justice to the energy displayed by the French nation in the reconstruction of her political, economic and flnancial position ; others argue that it is all a bubble and will burst some day-. But even those who take this view frequently betray a trace of admiration for France, though as soon as they talk on political questions, they are as emphatic as anybody in denouncing the exuberant mood of the French, which prompts them to advance any amount of money to Russia, They pretend that Russia at the present wants only the money of the French; and that in order to get this money, the Muscovite states¬ men are making security out of France's hatred of Germany, Nevertheless, according to one well-informed authority, many people are preparing for grave international eniergencies. The subdued anxiety is naturally a big impediment to all attempts to impart new life to the stagnant markets. It is feared that one day France will discover that she is unable to support the present mar¬ ket price of Russian loans, that the latter will give way, and that a disastrous crisis in Paris will be the result. The change of German opinion iu regard to Russia is curious and jnstructive. In the jnidst of the rise ip Russian notes and loans a year and a-half ago the Empire was designated as the " country of the future," and unmeasured praise was bestowed on its prog¬ ress. The bad crops, the meeting at Cronstadt, and perhaps some part of Russia's domestic policy has put a quietus on this hypocrit¬ ical enthusiasm. The country is now believed to be on the verge of ruin. IT will be remembered that the bill constituting the present Com. missioner of Street Openings in North New York provided that within two years and a-half from the flrst of last January the new commissioner must complete a survey of the streets in his dis¬ trict, and arrange them according to some fitting plan—a plan which will subsequently be submitted to the Board of Street Opening and Improvement for approval. If the Board finds the plan satisfactory it will settle for all time the general street system of that part of the city. Local changes may aud probably will be made here and there; but a stable determination of street lines is so essential to property-owners that no other general alteration will ever be attempted. It is consequently very necessary no mistake should be made either in the general system or in the details. What a mistake brings with it we have an ample experi¬ ence in that part of the city south of 14th street. The commis¬ sioners who laid out the city in the early part of this century stuck very largely to the lines of the old roads, and consequently the municipality has since been obliged to go to a very heavy expense in cutting through blocks and widening streets to meet the trafllc requirements. At the present time two expensive improvements of this kind are under way, that of Bethune street and that of College place, while one other, that of Elm street, is imperatively required. North of 14th street another egregious error was committel. In a city like New York, which is far longer than it is broad, the traffic naturaUy runs up and down town more than across town. Consequently the avenues ought to have been placed nearer together than the streets —that is provided a. rectilinear plan was adopted. With singular foolishness, however, exactly the opposite course was taken, and the consequence is a totally unnecessary concentration of traflSc on comparatively few thoroughfares. Of course no errors of this character could be made at present, although the imcertainty which attends any anticipation of local development of the 23d and 24th Wards makes it probable tbat some errors in detail will be made. There are, however, other conditions to be met than those of traffic requirements, and these can be anticipated with exactitude. When the present maps were made, the street lines -were planned on the supposition that the North Side would be given over mainly to villa sites, and that consequently wind¬ ing roads would meet all requirements and be more pic¬ turesque than straight ones. Mr. Heintz finds, however, that the demand is not for villa plots, but for the usual rectilinear par¬ cels on which city houses are built. Consequently he intends, so far as possible, to reform the street lines of the district on the checker¬ board plan, so common in this country, and in doing this he will undoubtedly have the support of the property-owners and brokers in his district. In the southern part thereof the demand will cer¬ tainly be for the same kind of parcels as those needed in the lower wards, but it may be doubted whether the northern part of the North Side wiU not take rather a suburban form. However that may be, the property-owners of that section may well consider whether they will not lose more than they gain by the adoption of a checker-board plan. Is that dead level of uniformity, the East Side of this city, no lesson'to them ? In Europe cities are not buUt so quickly as here, but they are built more enduringly—and more effectively. It is, however, waste time to advocate the creation of a street system on any plan which would subordinate the individual to the general interest. WE regard the Evening Post as one of the very few " influ¬ ences " in this city that make for decency and intelligence in public matters. It is an excellent fighter and its cause is usually a good oue, or at any rate a strong one, from its point of view. The paper is particularly noticeaole, in the present degraded state of " journalism," for the lack of the fictitious in its columns—the sensational, the trumped-up opinion or argument, and all the other insincerities, devices and subterfuges practised by the showmen and fakirs who " run " the local press at present. Consequently few of the Post's readers can follow with satisfaction its utterances recently about the Rapid Transit Commission and the Greathead system. Clearly, the paper has said either too little or too much on that score. If the Post is in possession of any positive informa¬ tion that the Commission-^composed, as we all know it is, of citi¬ zens who have hitherto and do still occupy a high place in commer¬ cial and social estimation—is rejecting plans and concocting others so that a sordid lot of scurvy politicians may plunder the com¬ munity, why does not the Post make the facts public? Or is it that the Post is allowing a political bias or, if one prefers, a just antipathy to a not over estima¬ ble organization, to overthrow its poise, judgjnent an^