Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

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56. RECORD AND GUIDE Jiily 10, 1909 offer, which has been actually made, they will probably re¬ ject, because the advantage of the Interborough Company's plan over its own is not sufficiently overwhelming and incon¬ testable. THAT the offer made by the Interborough Company is at its face value more advantageous to the city than the offer made by the Bradley-Gaffney syndicate, seems to the Record and Guide to be emphatically the case. The con¬ struction of the Broadway-Lexington avenue route would be of immense benefit to the upper East Side, but south of Forty-second street it would merely supply an additional Subway to a part of Manhattan already well served. The phin of the Interborough Company would do just as much as the rival plan for the upper East Side; but it would in addition provide the lower West Side with a Subway, which is most gravely needed. Both plans arrange for a Jerome avenue route in the Bronx, and both of them for an excellent service over the Manhattan Bridge. The syndicate's offer includes the operation of a South Brooklyn Subway, pro¬ vided the city pays for construction, which is just what the city cannot afford to do. The old Rapid Transit Commission, which had thoroughly mastered the principles" which ought to govern the laying out of Subway routes, would not have hesitated a moment between the two offers; but every action and public utterance of the existing Commission leads one to expect that it will reach a different decision. Whether th;s anticipation is correct remains to be seen; hut if it is correct, and if the Public Service Commission abandons the advantages of a coherent and symmetrical development of New York's Subway system, there would be, as the Record and Guide has frequently pointed out, only one ground on which such an action could be successfully defended. If the New Haven Company was to operate a Broadway-Lexington avenue-South Brooklyn Subway the advantages of that plan might outweigh its disadvantages. Even then, we believe that a very much better entrance to Manhattan for the New Haven Company would be provided by a Third Avenue-Bow¬ ery route, and before granting a Broadway-Lexington avenue franchise to the New Haven Railroad the attempt should be made to satisfy it with a more easterly line of entrance, to which end the Interborough Company's proposal to build two express tracks under Third avenue should be rejected. On the other hand, if the New Haven Company could give good reasons for desiring a Broadway-Lexington avenue route, and that only, it might be worth while to let the company have it. But the difficulty now is that we^are kept in the dark as to whether the route is really intended for the New Haven Railroad, and as long as no public official acknowledgment is made that the New Haven Company will operate the independent route, the balance of argument is against it- This is the aspect of the situation which needs clearing up; and as long as it remains ambiguous, the Rec¬ ord and Guide will support those parts of the Interborough Company's plan which apply to a new Subway construction— the Third avenue line alone excepted. Whatever happens all four tracks should run under Lexington avenue. STATUS OF BUILDING CODE REVISION. The new building code is still in the Committee on Build¬ ings of the Board of Aldermen. It w^as the expectation that the committee would report at this week's meeting of the board, but Chairman Kenneally said that more time was needed for con¬ sideration. If, in view of the imminence of a stirring political campaign and the strong: feelings that have been aroused by the revision proceedings, the w^hole matter should be put over until next year, it would verify some predictions. The Record and Guide is authoritatively informed that the Building Committee still has two reports in view. One is signed by six members and the other by five. The signatures were af¬ fixed on Friday of last week, when the final vote on the adoption of the majority report was taken. Since then the committee has taken no action afCecting the code. The situation is complicated by the nearness of the time for the summer adjournment of the Board of Aldermen. There wi!l be a regular meeting of the board next Tuesday, and one on or about the 20th of the month to fix the annual tax rate. The board w-ill then, following the usual course, take an adjourn¬ ment until September. If the report goes over now it is likely to be further postponed on account of the political campaign. This is now the third year that the Building Committee has been working continuously on the code, and the powers would like to have it disposed of, but in a fairly satisfactory manner to all interests affected. Certain amendments have been made to the majority report since it was sent back to the committee, of which some information was given in these columns last week; but the minority members are still dissatisfied. REDISCOVERING THE HUDSON. Hudson River traffic has been increasing more rapidly than is generally realized, and when taken in connection-with the expan¬ sion of the metropolitan district the fact has a new significance. Where people go in numbers for a day's outing they subse¬ quently go to live. Coney Island, with the intervening lands, is an example; the baseball parks in most cities are another. Hud¬ son River trains, steamboats and automobile roads were crowded during the holidays as never before. Twenty years ago it was thought that steamboating on the Hudson had entered upon a permanent decline, but more steamboats have been built for this river during the last five years than ever before in the same length of time, except possibly in the early days of steamboat¬ ing. Oftentimes the regular lines cannot accommodate all the trafRc that offers. One of the central Hudson ferry companies only last week contracted for the building of a third ferry boat, as the automobile traffic has exceeded the capacity of the two boats now on the lines; and one other ferry company had to charter an extra boat for the recent holidays. This year the Hudson-Fulton celebrations have generated or revived a wonderful amount of interest in the Hudson River country among New York people, for most of the travel is from New York, and this is the important thing to remember. It has long been a mystery to the building interests here in the city why the business and residential overflow from Manhattan has been so slow in moving up the river. The president of an im¬ portant cement company was captivated at once when he studied the advantages of the Hudson Valley as a site for a cement mill, and his company is now preparing to build a mill in the shadow of the Poughkeepsie Bridge. Manufacturers on the Hudson command not only the New York and New England markets by either rail or water, but they also get their coal at a more mod¬ erate price than we do here in the city, because they are nearer the mines; they get the same freight rates from railroads as New York City shippers do, and all the elements making up the costs of production are less up the river than in the city. As a region for the production or manufacture of building materials and building equipment for this market, it is not easy to see where the Hudson is surpassed. Once it was an iron and machinery center to a much greater extent than it is now, and various other industries long settled on the river have not expanded numer¬ ically in the last quarter century. Why it is, no one can tell, except that it is alleged that the New York Central lines have not encouraged local traffic and local enterprise as much as real estate interests require. "While there may be different opinions as to the responsibility of the railroads. It is realized that they are getting into a posi¬ tion where they will be able to do a great deal for the Hudson River counties if they are so disposed. The counties on the west side of the river are hoping for the time when trains from the West Shore will run into the Grand Central Depot, and that this will be the next great improvement undertaken by the New York Central lines after the completion of the terminal improvements now in hand is considered highly probable. The feeling of State pride counts a great deal in real estate development; a native of New York State on general principles prefers to live within its boundaries to going elsewhere; and the fact of the matter is that old "York State" has never derived from the metropolis that measure of benefit from its growth and prosperity that she considers herself entitled to by reason of political and family ties—certainly not so much as New Jersey and Long Island. A railroad tunnel to Weehawken would work a greatly desired change in the relations between the up-State counties and the metropolitan district. It would not only give the "West Shore a direct run into town, but would also let the New York Central lines utilize some of the New Jersey meadow land for car-stor¬ age, in the same way and for the same reason that the Penn¬ sylvania is utilizing the lands at Sunnyside on the Long Island meadows. No one can figure the exact time when the Hudson River boom will set in, but the time is the only uncertain factor. THERE COMES A TIME w^hen every man needs the good offices of his ancestral church, and then he feels that he is en¬ titled to its ministrations if he has contributed regularly to its support. So it is witli the building, material and equipment trades; there are times when they wish their representative paper to say a word for them, if not to stand out and fight for them, and they feel better entitled to its good offices if they have been regular contributors to its work. —Six Otis traction elevators, capable of lifting a load of 3,000 lbs., at a speed of 600 feet per minute and operating on direct current of 110 volts pressure, are installed in the Metropolitan tower, five of which terminate at the forty-first story and the sixth at the forty-fourth story. Two of these elevators are ar¬ ranged for lifting safes and will handle a load of 5,000 lbs. The twelve lower stories will be served from the elevators in the adjoining section. Despite the enormous height of this tower, a passenger stepping into an elevator at the ground floor can be carried to the top in less than one minute. —The City of Binghamton awarded a street paving contract last week at the lowest rate for a brick pavement it has ever obtained, namely $1.58 per square yard.