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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 85, no. 2200: May 14, 1910

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.May 14, igio RECORD AND GTHDE 1027 PRICE .iSTABUSHED'^ OfS^'ti 21*^^ 1868. iB^TgftTof^i-EsTMt-BuiLDifiG Ap&f(iTEeTU!^^.Kousa(oiDDEea[tfTM(l. BiTsdJess Afto Themes or GEjiER^l Ifrtti^si., PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET TubUshed EVerg Satardap By THE RECORD AND GOTDE CO. President, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, F. W. DODGE Vice-Pres. Sc Genl. Mgr,, H. 'W. DESMOND Secretary. F. T. MILLER Noa. 11 to 15 East 24tli Street, New York City {Telephone, Madison Square. 4430 to 4433,) "Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. 1'., as second-class matter." Copyrighted. 1910, by The Record Sc Guide Co. .r^ Vol. LXXXV. MAY 14, 1910. No, 2200 THERE is much to be said on behalf of the position as¬ sumed by Grosvenor Atterbury in his discussion with Mr. Benjamin C. Marsh about urban congestion in the National Coulerence for City Planning recently lield at Rochester, In his paper on tlie "Causes of Congestion," Mr. Marsh had argued iu favor of the plan proposed by the "Committee on Congestion of Population," of dividing New York into certain districts determined by the local scale of land values and of preventing in those sections iu which prices are still comparatively low, the erection of buildings of more than a certain height and covering more than a certain percentage of the lot. Mr, Atterbury protested on the ground that there is a difference between congestion and centralization. Great density of population within a given area did not necessarily mean congestion, because the whole population within that area might be living in apartments, which were not overcrowded. Population may be dense, but so long as people are properly housed, there is no objec¬ tion to be raised. On the other hand it frequently happens that in an English village there is no considerable density of population, and yet the inhabitants are actually crowded into a few badly ventilated rooms. Unwholesome congestion depends chiefiy upon the combination of poverty with a low standard of living; and the attempt to check it by restricting the amount of tlie lot to be occupied is as fallacious when applied to the Bronx as it would be to Manhattan, Such a policy would inevitably tend to increase rents, because it would necessarily increase the pressure of population upon space, and the increase in rents would, of course, merely tend to lower the standard of living of those who would be obliged to pay them. The whole policy of the city govern¬ ment should be directed to the result of keeping rents as low as possible; and this policy is but realized by encourag¬ ing the erection of the largest practicable amount of living accommodation within a given area. That the height of tenements should be restricted and that every room in every building sliould be required to possess a certain minimum amount of light and air. must be not only admitted, but vigorously asserted, hecause such restrictions merely pre¬ scribe certain necessary sanitary conditions. But that is as far as the police powers of the state can be effectively used to prevent congestion. For the rest, other and more funda¬ mental means must be adopted of which the most important are cheap and abundant rapid transit, and the Increasing distribution of centres of employment. The Bush Terminal Co., for instance, by means of its well considered enterprise of building up a manufacturing, warehousing and shipping centre in South Broolvlyn, is doing more to relieve congestion of population in Manhattan than any other single agency in the city and yet if the policy of the committee on congestion were adopted, that company would gradually be hampered in its work by heing prevented from erecting the most eco¬ nomical and efficient class of factory buildings, ■ There is a certain amount of congestion which is irremediable at the present time, because it is really merely one symptom of the fundamental fact of poverty: aud insofar as congestion is remediable by state or municipal action, the remedy must take the form chiefly of enabling wage-earners to reach cheap land without getting too far away from their place of employment. OBJECTIONS have been raised hy possible bidders to the form of contract prescribed hy the Public Service Com¬ mission for the Broadway-Lexington avenue route; and such objections suggest an inquiry as to the situation, in ■which the city would be placed if private capitalists refuse to ac¬ cept the prescribed terms. How far can the city go towards the constructiou of new subways on its own credit? Some $13,000,000 has already been set aside by the Board of Estimate out of the existing borrowing capacity tor subway construction and within a few weeks about $47,000,000. will become available as the result of the recent legislation at Albany. This $60,000,000, would not be more than about half enough to construct the Broadway-Lexington avenue route but, by means of cutting down other improvements and increasing the assessed valuation of real estate wherever possible, additional means might he found iu the course of five years to complete this particular line. Iu order to do so, however, an additional $10,000,000 would have to be found every year; and this necessity would impose a terrific strain upon the borrowing capacity of the city. During those five years no other subway construction could be begun, ex¬ cept by means of assessment bonds. After the Broadway- Lexiugton avenue route was in operation, the money spent upon the Manhattan section of the subway would become available for ne'w construction, because that part of the route would be remunerative almost from the first day in which it was operated. But this means that under the necessary conditions of construction with the city's money, no other Manhattan subway could be started until the Broadway- Lexington avenue route was completed, and that the lower West Side, for instance, would have to wait for eight or nine years before obtaining any relief. Such a delay would be intolerable. It is obvious that unless the city can offer private capitalists acceptable terms its development will be retarded, congestion will be indefinitely increased, and its citizens subjected to insufferable inconveniences. Much de¬ pends, consequently, on the negotiations of the next few months, and still more upon the attitude to be assumed by the management of the Interborough company. Its directors have remained obdurately silent; and the public is as much as ever in the darlv about the nature of the new plans which are presumably being prepared in the offices of that corpor¬ ation. Every New Yorlver must devoutly hope that these plans when announced will prove to be adequate. If the managemeut of the company makes another bull, there is danger that public opinion will become completely disgusted. ANYBODY who will scrutinize the map, published in the last issue of the Record and Guide, of the Broadway- Lexington avenue route as compared with that of the existing subway, will be able to draw sorae interesting conclusions. In the first place the sections of the new route in Manhattan run along a much straighter line than do the corresponding sections of the existing subway. Prom the Harlem River to 14th street there is not a single curve, and the diagonal taken to reach Broadway does not make a bad angle. There¬ after the route again takes a practically straight course until it turns east at "Vesey street. The new subway should, consequently be able to make better running time from the Harlem to the Battery, than does the old one; and the dis¬ tribution of the stations should contribute effectively to the same result. The new route saves, as compared to the old, two or three local and one express station. It is probable that several minutes will be economized between the Harlem River and the Battery—an economy which, will he very much increased, in case the crowds at the express stations can he embarked and disembarked more quickly. Another conclu¬ sion which may be inferred from an examination of the map is that a great waste in time for a great many people will be the result of different operating companies for the new and the old lines. In an economical system of rapid transit the Bronx line of the existing subway would be connected with the Broadway-Lexington avenue system, and thus avoid the long circuitous route by way of Lenox avenue and the West Side, which its patrons are now obliged to pursue. In that case a connection could be made between the Jerome avenue line and the Lenox avenue subway, which would in¬ volve a much smaller waste of time. The Record and Guide is still wholly unable to understand why the Interborough Co. does not bid upon this new route and operate it in con¬ nection with its present system. The only possible ex¬ planation is that the company has been warned off the prem¬ ises by a superior power in the Kingdom of Finance, The Record and Guide talks weekly to the Owners of SEVEN BILLIONS