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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 86, no. 2207: July 2, 1910

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July 2, 1910 RECORD AND GUIDE ^ .SSTABUSHm^KM^r-HSlii^iese. BtfsDfess Atfa Themes of GejIer^I IKtcrjsLj PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Communications should ba addPesBed tft C. W. SWEET Tablished Everff Satardag By THE BECOBD AND GTJXDE CO, President, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, F. W. DODGE VlCB-Pres. & Gen!- Mgr-. H. W. DESMOND Secretary, F. T. MILLER Nos. 11 to IE Bast 24tli Street, New York City (Telephone, Madison Square, 4430 to 4433-) '•Entered at the Post Office at Neio York, N. 7., as second-class matter." Copyrighted, 1910, by The Record & Guide Co. Vol. LXXXVI- JULT 2. 1910. No. 2207 NOW that the real estate season of 1909-1910 is over, a great many people are trying to guess as to the prob¬ able centers of activity for the season 1910-1911; and it must he confessed that such guesses are more difficult to make than usual- The coming season, it may be predicted with some confidence, will not be exceptionally active, either in real estate or building. In al! probability its activity will subside to a lower level than that which has prevailed dur¬ ing the past year, but it is equally probable that the sub¬ siding process will be carried further in Manhattan than It will in the outlying boroughs. The Bronx and Queens may do better in 1910-1911 than they have in 1909-1910. Brook¬ lyn ought to do about as well, but it is difficult to see just where any great amount of Manhattan business will come from. The prospects are for a quiet year with,what activity there is following customary lines- There will be a certain amount of building on Washington Heights, but no great revival is likely to take place in that section until the year following. The process of building fireproof speculative and cooperative apartment houses to the east and west of the Park will be continued, but their number is likely to di¬ minish. There will, however, probably be an increased num¬ ber of eight and nine story buildings erected on the side streets- In the same way the appropriation of peculiarly val¬ uable locations in the busiest parts of Manhattan will con¬ tinue, but buyers who need such locations will be more cau¬ tious about paying very high prices than they were last fail- On Fourth avenue little or no new building is likely to be com¬ menced during the coming season. While Madison avenue may fare better, there will not be much difference. In the Pennsylvania district, also, conservatism will reign. There may be a smaller diminution of trading and building in this particular section than in other parts of Manhattan, because during the coming year speculators will be able to estimate more accurately the actual effect of the Station on business in the neighborhood. Nevertheless, there certainly will be a smaller number of loft buildings erected, and it is unlikely that other classes of building will become immediately popular. The assurance of subway construction is peculiarly neces¬ sary to this district; and until a subway is assured both real estate speculation and building will be comparatively dull. THE objections made by property-owners on the West Side against the area upon which the cost of the River¬ side Drive extension has been assessed have an indubitable foundation of justice. A good many hundred property-own¬ ers will be obliged to pay a fairly high assessment for the cost of an improvement, which will not be of one dollar's worth of benefit to their real estate. It is injustices of this kind which make the owners of real property dread improve¬ ments, and which account for the lively local opposition which is usually aroused when the plans for any improvement are under discussion. They occur in almost every case of an assessment for benefit, but they become particularly fiagrant when an assessment is, as in the present case, spread over li large area of improved property. The limits within which any benefit is likely to take place are arbitrary, and no com¬ mission is well-informed enough or has sufficient discre¬ tion to avoid injustices. The tendency of the commissions is naturally to spread assessments as thin as po,s- sible so that if there is injustice, it shall not amount to con¬ fiscation; and they are the more likely so to behave because in that case no one property-owner or group of property- owners have a sufficient inducement to protest very energeti- caKy. As a matter of fact, however, protests are rarely of any avail, and of still less avail are legal proceedings. It is almost impossible to prove assertions about the value of real estate; and so many factors contribute to any particular enhancement or diminution of value that a plausible argu¬ ment can be made for or against any assessment- This fact ■ —that a large measure of injustice is inseparable from the whole existing system of benefit assessments has made the Record and Guide doubt the desirability of recent extensions of the system- Very soon attempts will be made to build rapid transit lines on the proceeds of assessment-bonds; and these lines will mean such a heavy charge against the bene- iitted property that it will amount in many cases to as much as or more than the whole benefit derived from the improve¬ ment. But if such Is the case it is surely better for the city to condemn the property out-right at the start, and re¬ imburse itself by the subsequent sale of the lots at the in¬ creased value. Such a method of paying for transit improve¬ ments would place the risk of the improvement and the benefit where it belongs—that is, upon the whole city, and no property-owner would be deprived of his property without it being paid for. We imagine that after a couple of subways have been built on the assessment method, the property- owners themselves will begin to clamor for the alternative method of condemnation. THE delay in advertising for bids on the Broad way-Lex-' ington avenue subway is annoying and ominous. The prediction was confidently made during the middle of the winter that by June 1 the advertisements would be published; but on July 1, they are still lacking. In all probability the commission is encountering diftlculties which it did not au- ticipate. Take, for instance, the westward curve of the route at Broadway and Vesey st. That curve has been made so long that the subway at this angle runs under the Astor House; and it looks as if that time-honored building would have to be demolished, and the city pay the Astor estate enormous damages. Similar complications have occurred on other portions of the route. In every technical respect the Broadway-Lexington Subway will be a great im¬ provement on the existing subway; but these technical im¬ provements will be very costly, and involve many difficult engineering problems. Before all these problems are worked out the actual beginning of the work may still be indefinitely delayed; and in the meantime all other transit impror«- meots are being held up. THE suggestion has been made that the Manhattan Rail¬ way Co. be induced to abandon its elevated structure on Sixth avenue from 58th street to 31st street and that a new connection be made through 31st street between the Sixth and Ninth avenue lines. Upon the advantages of this proposal, abstractly considered, there can be no doubt. The removal of the elevated structure from 31st street north, would be a positive benefit to Sixth avenue and would very much increase its availability for improvement with a better class of mercantile buildings. Traffic would be able to move very much more freely in Greely Square in case that con¬ gested point were relieved of its existing elevated encum¬ brance- An early means would be found to distribute and collect some of the people who will in a few months be using the Pennsylvania station- But it is none the less absurd seriously to consider such proposals—as. for instance, certain of the daily papers have been considering this one. No cor¬ poration or individual can be induced to abandon a valuable piece of property merely because its abandonment and the substitution of something else would have certain desirable concessions for new transit lines; but here again the sugges¬ tion ignores stubborn facts. The luterborough Company ■ is already claiming more than the city is disposed to grant, and to afford that company an excuse for increasing its claims would be merely to prolong the existing deadlock. There is no manner of doubt that the Sixth avenue elevated structure is, because of its location, a peculiarly obnoxious and costly line of transit, and there can also be no doubt that its abandonment would cause less dislocation . to the existing distribution of business ■ and population than would the abandonment of any other imports^nt line of transit. But it is equally certain that it will never be abandoned unless it is condemned by the city and that the city will never be able to afford the expense of its con¬ demnation. What might be done would be to run a cross- town line through 33d street connecting the Sixth and Ninth avenue elevated structures, but even this connection would