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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 81, no. 2081: February 1, 1908

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February i, 1908 RECORD AND GUIDE 203 Dn^fHfl lb REA.LEsTAji,BuiLDiifc AppKrn:cTUR?.KousEitoiitDEGaRATiorf, BUsn/ESS AttoTHEBES Of'GEjteR^l IKTCRESI.. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET PablisfJed Every Satarday By THE KECORD AND GUIDE CO. President, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, P. W. DODGE Vice-Pres. &. Genl. Mgr,, H, W. DESMOND Secretary, F. T. MILLBR Noa. 11 to 15 East 24tl» Street, New York City (Telephone, Madison Square, 4430 to 4433.) as the new water-supply system. Nothing, however, was done; and the city again finds its borrowing power wholly insui- flcient for its imperative needs. The insufficiency is so od- vious that at last every responsible municipal official is in favor of it. The Governor and the Public Service Commis¬ sion hav,e recommended it, and both the Mayor and the Comptroller have admitted its necessity. It will take, how¬ ever, at least three years to consummate the amendment; and the process should consetjuently he commenced by the passage of the first bill, submitting the amendment during the current session. Organizations, both local and general, representing the real estate interests, should work actively and persistently on behalf of such legislation. It is abso¬ lutely necessary for the future welfare of the city and for the prosperity of its property-owners that the amendment should be passed with the smallest possible delay. "Entered at the Post Office at Ncin York, N. Y.. (IS sccitnd •floss mill r J-.-- Copyrighted, 1007, by The ilecord & Guide Co, Vol. LXXXL FEBRUARY 1, 1908. No, 2081. INDETX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section, . Page Page Cement ......................xii Lumber .....................slii Clay Products ................xlv Machinery ..................iv Consulting Engineers ..........x Metal Work.................ix Contractors and Builders......iii Quick Job Directory ..........vii Electrical Interests ...........x Real Estate...................v Fireproofing ..................li Roofers & Roofing Materials.xii Granite .......................xv Stone .......................xv Iron and Steel..................xl Wood Products ..............xiil CERTAIN regulations for the use and occupation of the streets, recommended for adoption to the Board of Estimate by a special commission, would abrogate the right of builders to occupy one-third of the street, and leave the determination of the area to be occupied, as well as the time of occupation, to the Commissioner of Street Cleaning. As in effect they would under arbitrary enforcement limit the term for the completion of building works, it will be seen that the proposed regulations possibly hold grave conse¬ quences for the building trades, and at any rate should re¬ ceive their attention. The suggestion emanates from a com¬ mission of three engineers appointed last June by the Mayor to investigate and report on some new and improved system of street cleaning. Tendencies and conditions resulting from rapid city growth have so complicated the herculean task of keeping the thoroughfares in order, the Mayor considers that a better method is imperatively demanded. The com¬ missioners have, after studying the problem here and abroad, made an exhaustive report. While they regard the general use of street flushing, rather than sweeping, as the most im¬ portant of their recommendations, there are other directions in which changes are.suggested. The laws and ordinances relating to street-littering of all kinds should be rigidly en¬ forced, and as permits to occupy the streets for building purposes affect the operations of the Department of Street Cleaning more than any other city department, they believe that all such permits should be issued by this department, that a flxed license fee,, based upon the area occupied and the locaton, should be exacted from builders, and that a date of expiration should be named in the permit. A renewal of the permit at double rate would be entirely discretionary with the head of the department. This is a proposition which we think should be carefully studied. No doubt it is well intended, with the object oF reducing street obstruc¬ tions to the minimum, but the power oE determining within what period of time a building work shall be executed is one which, if exercised at all, should scarcely be reposed in such unaccustomed hands. --------.-----«—.-—.—^ WHILE it is improbable that any plaii of charter re¬ vision will be sufficiently developed in detail to pass during the current session of the Legislature, there is one recommendation of the commission that should not fail to receive favorable action. There should be no hesitation in passing the proposed amendment to the State constitution which exempts money spent on remunerative improvements from inclusion within the debt limit, and this amendment should be so worded__as to include dock improvements as well as subways. For years the Record and Guide has been in¬ sisting upon the necessity of action to this effect. When under Mayor Low's ailministration sqme relief was obtained by a general increase of real esta-te assessments, we pointed du-t t>.at such relief could only be temporary; and the time grained should be used in passing an, amendment tbat woula put subway and other paying improvements in the same class BUT whether or not the Legislature passes an amend¬ ment excluding money spent upon remunerative im¬ provements from within the debt limit, the beginning of new subway works concurrently in Manhattan and Brooklyn— even if it is only a section at a time—should not be de¬ layed to that extent. Every effort should in the meantime be made to advance them, with or without private capital. The Record and Guide has always favored as a matter of gen¬ eral polcy the construction of subways by the city, but we fear that just at present the city may lose more by waiting for municipal construction than it would by offering private capital a sufficient inducement to construct the subways that are immediately needed in Manhattan and the Bronx. In view of the over-crowded condition of existing means of tran¬ sit, the disastrous effects of delay iu starting new construc¬ tion does not need much emphasis. Furthermore the con¬ dition of the city's credit is such that for some years as little money as possible should be borrowed. No doubt the value of New York's securities will improve with the general im¬ provement of good bonds, but if the city is obliged to keep on borrowing at the rate it has borrowed since 1900, it will still be obliged to pay excessively for its accommodation, A city such as New York should be able to borrow at 3% per cent.; but it will never reach such a position as long as it keeps on flooding the market with more of its securities than can- be conveniently assimilated. If there is any way, con¬ sequently, of diminisiiiug substantially the output of city stock, such a diminution will mean that the city will be able to save just so much interest on all the securities it issues; and this saving might well amount to many million dollars. Yet the burden of raising-the $100,000,000 soon to be needed for subway construction could be transferred to private corporations, and the result would be undoubtedly to improve the city's credit by half a point during the next few years. -----.------.^------------ WITH the Parker buildiug as an illustration, a commit¬ tee of the Merchants' Association has endeavored to make particularly plain to the Board of Aldermen the mean¬ ing and intent of the building code recently proposed and now again the subject of attention at the hands of a com¬ mission. It seems to be necessary to repeat for the benefit of some that the Parker building was not erected under the provisions of. the existing code, but was fairly typical of the speculative operations of the period. Had the building been constructed under specified regulations identical with those in the code recently proposed for enactment it would no doubt have been a safer repository of goods and light ma¬ chinery,' but would have required a heavier investment of capital and resulted in a building with less rentable space, because of decreased height. The cost per, square foot being greater, the rental schedule would have been in the same pro¬ portion, and the question is would the iuvestment have been a paying one in those times and for that quarter of the city? The building would not have been more than 150 feet high; the large floor area would have been divided in two by a fire wall: the heavy safes and other weights would not have broken through the floor arches; the columns would have been protected by four inches of fire-resisting material, the girders by three inches and the beams by two; and wire-glass windows in metal frames would have shut off one of the lirincipal routes by which flames extend themselves through a building. But would the fire department have been any more efficient in a crisis, au'J can anyone say positively that there might not have been other mischances by which the consequences to the tenants and the insurance companies, if not to the building, would have been much the same as' in' the recent conllagration? SinCe the point has been raisea, it might be well to suggest to the expert builders of the new