Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 69, no. 1766: January 18, 1902

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anu RECORD AND (iUIDE. 99 W - ■^^y '^ ESTABUSHED"-vyM*..v------- Dd/oteO TO I^:al Estate.BulLDI^'G A.RCrfiTECTURE.KousQiou)DEeaRfi]Di). RusitJESs AfJoThemes of GettoyJ. IlftERpsT. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS Published eVers Saturday Oommiialoatlone ahould be addressed to Q_ yf^ SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street, New YorK i. T. UNDSEY, Boainoss Manager Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 •Entered at the Post Ogice at_New York. Jf. Y.. as second-class ma.tte>\' Vol. LXIX. JANUARY 18, 1902. No. 1766 THBEB GENTS A DAT FOR A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF BEAL ESTATE UEGORDS ! Ten-dollars for a complete system and set of real estate records alphabetically arranged, printed aud ready for as easy reference as a word in the dictionary, is an interesfmo proposition for everyone who has anything to do with real estate operations! It is possible for every real estate man- to equip his ojjice with the most perfect and handiest system oj real estate records at a nomi¬ nal cost. ,,, r, .-, J This service is supplied to all subscribers of " lhe Record and Guide Quarterly^'—apublicaiiun issued every tliree months, lhe fourtknumbcr aimually is an issue containing all the records for the entire year arranged alphabetically. The subscription price -is ten dollars a yea/r. Tliose who are not subscribers should investigate the advantages of this publication. All other systems arc needlessly cumbersome and unnecessarily expensive. Start the new year with " The Record and Guide Quarterly. The annual number for 1901 is about to be issued, and u-e will send you ihis number i< ith the following three quarterly numbers for ten dollars-less than three cents a day for a complete set of real estate records. Drop a postal card to the oj}ices of publication, Nos. U-\& Vesey St., or telephone 3157 Gortlandt, and we will gladly show you ihe pablieatioit and explain io you its uses as a time-saver and money¬ maker. THIS -week has seen a further shrinkage in speculative in¬ terest in the stock market, consequently prices only ad¬ vance when professional shorts have oversold for the time being. Commission houses are empty again and the volume of business is steadily diminishing, signs of a sagging marltet and lower prices. The main events of the week bring again into prom¬ inence a fact that has been lost sight of for some time, and that is the existence of a periodical necessity for new capital that besets all great corporations, and particularly railroad cor¬ porations. Under this necessity Atchison has put out a new issue of bonds for improvements, notwithstanding the expendi¬ tures made under that head during the late receivership and the fund provided for the same purpose when the reorganization was completed. The period covered by all these supplies was comparatively short. The new interest charge will add to the difficulty of maintaining dividends on the stock when the lean years arrive, though it does not cut much figure in these fat ones. Then, too, New York Central's new issue of stock em¬ phasizes the great expense that railroads entering big cities must, from time to time, incur in order to conduct their busi¬ ness under modern conditions of city life in this country. What applies in New York city applies also, though in lesser degree, in other cities. Primitive ways, such as running through streets, will everywhere have to be abandoned as time goes on and more expensive substitutes provided from new capital bearing smaller returns. Presumably the day must come, in a not very distant future, when the foot and other traffic will malte it im¬ possible for the New York Central to continue to run freight trains down West street and across Canal to their freight de¬ pot on Hudson street. How the company's right to do this will be cancelled or compromized is an interesting consideration. It may possibly be done, it is well to point out. in a way that would benefit the company. If, for instance, the surface privi¬ lege was abandoned for an elevated one it might help the com¬ pany to solve their difficult city transit problem, and at the same time be beneficial to their stock. THE Appellate Division, in Brooklyn, yesterday handed down a decision in the case of the City v. George Herdje, in which they hold that the new tenement house law is con- Btitutional; that it is a valid exercise of the police power, prop¬ erly passed by the Legislature in the interest of public health, morals and safety, and that the use of the property for which the owners might exact compensation must yield to the require¬ ments for public health. Under the application of these prin¬ ciples it would appear that al! of the provisions of the law af¬ fecting tenement houses existing at the time of the passage of the act. are valid. The original suit was brought by the City of New York to restrain Mr. Herdje from constructing four buildings under plans filed and approved on the morning of the day when the law was passed. At 11 o'clock on that day, and before the bill was signed, Herdje made a contract for the con¬ struction of the buildings. On tne day the Kelsey Amendment was passed the permit was revoked and an injunction obtained by the city. Tiie case wil! be carried to the Court of Appeals. and will be argued in a few weeks. • Coming Changes and the Street System. NKW officials, and old ones Eor that matter, always receive a good deal of advice as to what they should or should not do, and probably one of their most difficult tasks is to pick out of the mass of suggestions the good and discard the bad. Of course, our newly created borough presidents are flooded with this sort of volunteer assistance, much, probably, more valuable inchoate in the minds of the givers than expressed and delivered in verbal form, and much that must be put aside sim¬ ply because of the mental and physical limitations of the per¬ sons to whom it is offered. Not only does our form of govern¬ ment that makes officials so approachable bring them a multi¬ tude of counsel, but the circumstances of the moment here to a great extent warrant this freedom of communication between the official and the civilian. The new charter by its provisions for carefully subdivided local action, and the channels it opens for the expression of the citizen's wishes through local boards and in other ways, tends to foster general interest in local gov¬ ernment, through the only rational means, active participation. It must be admitted that the new officials have shown a praise¬ worthy desire to carry out this object of the charter by inviting suggestions and holding their offices open and themselves ready to receive the public, if not in dressing gown and slippers, still in a really democratic way. There is, then, no reason for either regretting the rush of communications with which the new heads of the city government have been met, or of apologizing for making any small contributions to the stream. So far, the demands, judging from the reports of them that appear in the daily press, come from very restricted sections and concern matters of very localized importance; this little thing or that is clamoring to be done, while nothing is heard of the big ones whose importance is city-wide. This ought not to be, and perhaps is so more in appearance than fact; but such things as the Delancey Street Bridge approach have not been heard of since the old administration went out of power, while something is heard of other improvements that rank very much lower in importance. As to the matter of the Delancey Street Bridge approach no one seems to know just where it is. The late BoariJ of Public Improvements approved an approach—a bad one, by the way^and it was supposed to have gone to the Municipal Assembly, but did it? If so, and if not, where is it now? Did it die legally because all the forms to give it complete sanction \-^.ere not observed prior to the operation of the new charter, or did it pass into the possession of the Board of Aldermen as heirs to the Municipal Assembly? There is another important question that the President of the Borough of Manhattan ought to take up, and that is the capacity of the present street system of the borough in re¬ lation to the great public and private works of improvement, that are underway, a question that must be taken up in a com¬ prehensive manner. At the moment it states itself this way:: What changes are required in the street system to meet any new conditions of traffic that may be created by the building of new bridges, the laying out of new trunk line railway ter¬ minals and the building of an opening of stations on new local lines, etc., etc? This question will have to be taken up first Ini a detailed and then in a general way. For instance, it must be determined how the traffic from each of the new bridges is to be distributed as the bridges themselves are opened; theE whether other improvements, whether made by individuals or corporations call for new public work. That is to say, will it be wise or safe to leave the junction of Broadway. Sixth avenue and Thirty-fourth street as it is now, when the great building going up there now are completed and drawing crowds to that point? Are the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to build their depot on Seventh avenue without any means of dispersing the traffic they will create beyond what are now afforded? When 1