Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 80, no. 2056: August 10, 1907

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Angtist lo, [907 RECORD ANB GUTDE 209 ESTABUSHQ)'^ Í^ARpH £1^ 1868. Itoi6TEDĩoRfA,LE:swE.BiJlLDijfe ftĩĩp}íiTE(mjRE.F[aiJsnlOLDØEi3ũĩîAnotí, Biísnfess Ai&THajæsofGejiÍeiî^I li/iEflfsi.; PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Cooimunications should he addresséd to C. W. SWEET Pablisfied EVere Saturdap By THE BECORD AND GUIDE CO. Presideut, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, P, W. DODGE ViCG-Pres. & Genl. Mgr,, H. W. DBSMOND Secretary, F. T. MILLBR Nos. 11 to 15 Enst 24tl» Street, New York City (Telephone, Madison Square, 4Í30 to 4433.) "Entered aî tke Pont Office at 'Ncw Tork, N. 1'., fis sccoiitl-claan matlcr." CopyrightGd, 190T, by The Record & Guide Co. Vol. LXXX. AUGUST 10, lílOT. No. 20511. INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertisĩng Section. Page, Page, Cement ........................xiv Lumber .....................xx Cousulting Engineers ..........xv Macbinery ...................vi Ciay Products ................xvii Metal Work ..................xvi Contractors and Builders .......iv Quiek Job Directory...........xx Electrical Interests ............ix Reai Estate ...................jx Fireproofing...........■.........ii Roofers & Roofing Materials. .vli Granite .....................xviii Stone ......................xviii Irou and Steel ...............viĩi Wood Products ...............xxi THB ONE CLASS of improvement in which sonie signs of overbuilding may develop in the near future is that of the comparatively expensive apartment house. Incliiding those which come under the head of Ijeing eoôperative, an unusually large number of them are being cre^ted to tJie east, south and west of Central Parlt, and they will be placed on the market for reutai at a tiiiie of enforced economy on the part of raany well-to-do people. There is a danger, consequently. that they will not rent so easily as their pro- jeecors anticipate, and in this event the losses will fall not only 011 speculative buiĩders, but upon the people who are inyesting their money in coiiperative apartment houses. The financial success of all these coôperative plans depends upon the success of the company in renting a certain proportion of the apartments. These rentals are supposed to pay the interest on the mortgage, -the taxes and the ruuning ex- penses of the buildings; and if they should considerably di- minish, the difCerence would be assessed on the stoclthoĩd- ers, many of whom could ill afford to pay it. Those of the eoôperative companies which were flrst in the fleld wiil be able to pull through without any tronble, but it is an open guestion whether it wouid not be safer to flnance these schemes on a different basis. The realiy safe and conserva- tive method of erecting a cooperative apartment house would certainîy be to charge the stoclíholders for an apart- ment a sum sufficient to pay a proportionate shareof the whole cost of bnilding and land, so that the buiiding would not be subject to a mortgage. Uuder such a plan the apart- ments would eost their owners probably a third more. and eacli- apartment would, in addition, be subjeet to an assess- ment for taxes and running expenses; but the increased seeurity of the stockholder's position woijld eompensate him for the increased expense. Some of the newer enterprises are, we believe, being organized on this basis, and if such is the case, it will mean that these eompanies can regard with îndifference the ups and downs of the renting market. Furthermore the individual owner of each apartment would be in a mucli better position to rent his apartment, if he so desired, than he Is under the current method of flnancing. He wilî not be eompeting with the large number of apart- ments rented .by the eompany. least must elapse before any more subways can be buílt or completed, and in the meantime the traffic will inevitably and enormously increase. The service of the company should consequently not be stretched to the limit until definite ar- rangements^ are made for the enlargement of the subway system. If these conclusions are true, they bring with' them eertain consetiuences which should be carefully con- Eidered by everybody interested in the prosperity of New York City and the well-being of its inhabitants. What is realiy needed is not so much an investigation into the busi- ness of the Interborough-Metropolitan Company. The Com- mission was bound to undertaĩĩe the examination which is now' under way; but the first inference from such an exam- ination will be to show its own insufíiciency. The really necessary anc! helpful investigation would be mueh more comprehensive. It would include the whole problem of the congestíon of traffle in the several boroughs of the city, and the measnres necessary for relief. Its object would not be to expcse and to injure the traetion eompany, for just in so far as that company is injured its efflciency as a public ser- vant is diminished, Its object would be to reach full in- formation in respeet to every aspect of^the traffic problem, and an equally comprehensJve poliey for the relief of the existing congestion. I THE TESTIMONY which is being elicited by the investi- gation of the Ĩnterborough-Metropolitan Co. is, on the whole, justifying the conclusion in respect to the business of that company recently advanced by the Reeord and Guide. This conelusion was that, whatever improvements may be made in the eompany's service through administra- tive orders by the Commission, these improvements will ac- complish very little by way of relieving the existing con- gestion. The system of the company, at least in Manhattan, is being operated very near to its limit at the present time; and, in view of the necessary future increase in trafũe, it is desirable to leave a certain margin. Four or five years at WHILE the most important part of a comprehensive metliod of relieving the existing congestion would be the construction of new subways, and essenttal as it is that sucli subways sliculd be built, other means of relief are demanded which are almost equally important. New subways would, for instauce, do very little to relieve the congestion on the surface lines. Tliey would diminish the number of long-distance passengers who now travel ou the surfaee; but their plaees would scon be taken by an increase in the short-distance passengsrs. Subways and surface lines com- pete ouly within narrow limits. In a well regulated transit system the respeetive services offered by the two kinds of transit lines would not be competitive at all; they wouid be made by means of liberal transfers supplementary one to another. No matter liow many new subways are built, the congestion of surface traffic wiĩl remain, and the efficiency of the whole transit system will be very much diminished thereby. The surface cars should really do the work now performed by the local trains in the Subway; and they eould do it most effleiently, provided trafíic on the surface could move freely. A contiouation of the existing congestion on, the surface lines will, consequently, not only cause incon- venienee and loss of time to the passengers in those cars, but it will stand in the way of the most economical and ser- viceable method of tying together the different parts of the transit system of New York. How, then, is the congestion 011 tlie stirîaco liiio.^ to be relieved? Perhaps the 'answer will be made that the cure ís the operation of more and big- ger cars, Doubtless something can be done by the operation of bigger cars; but it can scarcely be claimed that the oper- ation of more cars durlng the rush hours will be of any help. One of the worse cau;:es of overcrowding and delays at the present time is the cougestion at important intersecting points in Thirty-fourth and Forty-second streets, while it will not be long before a similar condition wilĩ develop at Fifty-niulh aud Cnt: Ilundred and Twenty-flfth streets. Nor is this all, The overcrowdiug and the slowness of the surface cars is due, not merely to the fact that they interfere with one another at intersacting points, but that they are con- stantly delayed by the increasing number of vehicles whlch use the streets. The President of the Interborough-Metropol- itan Co, particularly emphasized this point in his testimony, and it is, indeed, a matter of prime importanee. It is the chief reason for the failure of the surface lines to obtain their sliare during the past flve years of the inerease of passenger fares in Manhattan. The number of trueks and delivery wagons has increased enormously sinee 1900, and their area of distribution is mucli larger. The surface cars have much less room in which to move thau they had; and an increase in the number and size of the ears would not enable the company to move them more freely through the streets, The streets themselves are eongested. It is not merely the tran- sit system of i\lanhattau whieh is breaking down; it îs the street system. THIS failure of tho street system îs a serious thing for the whole city, as well as for the Metropolitan Co., because it is destined to become even more serious iu the future than it is at present. As the Record and Guide has frequently pointed out of !ate, the future development of Manhattan will take the form of an increase in buslness