Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 74, no. 1903: September 3, 1904

Text version:

September 3, 1904 RECORD AND GUIDE 477 Dev&teD to RpA,L Estate , BuiLDiffc AftcKiTECTURE .}{ousnioiD"DEefflifTiDt(. .Bi/sniEss Alio Themes Of GeHer^I 1K7er,est. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS PabUshed eVery Satrtrday Communications should bo addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14=16 Vesey Street, New YorR J. T. LINDSEY, Business Mana^-er Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 ••Enleeed at the Post Office at Nem Torlc. N. Y.. i ind-class matter." September 3. 1904. IT is becoming more and more apparent that nothing stands in the way of a good real estate and building season, but the continuance of the lockout in the building trades, and the me¬ chanics by the attitude they have assumed have already taken a good- deal of prospective, as well as ready, money out of their own pockets. Conditions become constantly more favorable. In spite of the large emigration irom Manhattan into Brook¬ lyn, the Bronx and New Jersey, owing to the higher rents, the excellent demand for tenements and fiats, which still continues, shows that the emigration only disposed of a surplus. Brokers repeat that this demand is felt in every part of the city and in every grade of property. The Bast Side is solidly filled, Harlem, except on a few blocks, is almost as full, and both the upper and lower West Sides are filling up rapidly. Neither is this state of things confined to residential property. As the Record an'd Guide showed in its news columns last week, loft buildings are also very well occupied, and the renting of this important class of property so far from feeling the pinch of hard times is in a very excellent condition, which means, of course, that builders will continue to erect them in large numbers during the coming year. Offices in the financial district are not in such good demand, but if the recovery in the stock market" con¬ tinues they are likely to be in much better demand next spring. General conditions are plainly improving, and the real estate market will not suffer from stringency of money rates as it has during late years. In spite of all these favorable conditions we do not believe, even if there.is little danger of labor troubles next spring, that any very remarkable activity will supervSne, just because confidence in the chances of successful speculation is so profoundly disturbed by the lockout. But there should be a sufficiency of wholesome and well-distributed activity, and something more than that in certain parts of Washington Heights and the Bronx. The great public works which are being undertaken by the railroads and the city will not only keep labor well employed for years to come, but will produce so many alterations in real estate values and the distribution of' population that the mere necessities of readjustment alone will effect a great deal of activity. THE new developments in respect to the lockout in the building trades during Lhe past week hive all looked towards an early and favorable settlement of the trouble. The resignation of Weinseimer removes the man who bas been re¬ sponsible more than any other single person for the existing lockout, and it is probable that he wili disappear as a factor in the situation as completely as Sam Parks did. His successor is talking a settlement, in,3te3d of warfare, and can even find some good things about the arbitration agi-eement. It is conse- .cjuently probable that the unions will reach the conclusion he- lore long that a w*'ll-employed winter plus the arbitration agreement will be more to thoir interests than a. winter minus the arbitration agreement. The loyal acceptance ot the agree¬ ment means, steady work for the mechanics, just as it means steady basiness conditions for their employers. The delegates of the plasterers' union, who complained that in spite of the high wages, a plasterer earned on the average only $11 a week throughout the year, simply proves that the existing conditions prevent the mechanics from earning anything like as much as they are entitled to earn. The man -who earns only $11 a week, but who ought to earn between $20 and $25, is in a worse way than the unskilled workman who does not look for more than IR cents an hour. Probably it will bo found that the difference between the $24 which the plasterer ought to earn and the ?11 which he does earn is accounted for chiefly hy the time lost, because of strikes and lockouts so that the loyal acceptance of the arbitration agreement would do more to raise his wages than twenty-five years of aggressive striking and warfare. It is one of the absurd results of the present situation that al¬ though the skilled mechanic does not actually earn very much more than the unskilled laborer, the cost of building is as high as if he obtained his full wages, so that nobody, and least of all the consumer obtains any advantage from the poor pay which the mechanic receives. ■^ HE New Haven Railroad has announced juct what it In- ■*- tends to do in order to improve the character of its local service. The plans are very elaborate, and include the laying of six tracks between the Harlem River and New Rochelle, and possibly a branch from West Farms to Woodlawn, Four of the tracks will be equipped for electrical service, two for express and two for local trains, and the roadbed and equipment will be as good as money can buy and engineering skill can devise. It is the purpose of the company in case the traffic proves suffi¬ cient to run their oars without stop over the tracks of the Interborough Co. to lower Manhattan. These plans have been made most undoubtedly for the purpose of affording as ex¬ cellent service as possible, one which will place th^ New Haven Company in a position to compete effiectually with either the Port Chester or the Westchester Railroad Company, or both, and together with the proposed improvements on the Central lines the tracks of the competing companies mentioned above, and the plans of the Rapid Transit Commission for elevated roads on Boston, and Jerome Avenues, a rapid transit system will be provided for the Bronx and Westchester county, which will open up the whole of that beautiful and healthy region. Large as are the present boundaries of the Greater New York, the city will outgrow them within a few years after.these rapid transit improvements are completed. Of course, the population will be much mors widely distributed than it is at present, because accessible land will be very much cheaper, but it will tU be essentially one city. There is no reason why a radius of fifty miles from the City Hall in every direction should not be inhabitated easily by peciple who work in Manhattan. The chief defect in the arrangements now being made is the lack of express tracks, whicli will carry long distance passengers to lower Manhattan. The efficiency of the whole service de¬ pends upon its ability to land passengers in and near the finan¬ cial district without change of cars, and no sufilcieut prepara¬ tions have yet been made to accomplish this result. In addition to thft two express tracks already built, only one additional track has as yet been planned by the commission, whereas there will be needed within a few years at least four additional tracks for the express service alone. IN a recent number of McClure's Magazine, Mr. Lionel Stef¬ fens, whose characterizations of municipal corruption in the different cities of the country, have recently attracted so much attention, insists vigorously on the idea that municipal corruption cannot be divorced from corruption in State politics. He shows, for instance, that the municipal reformers both in Chicago and Illinois could not accomplish their designs until they managed to exert an effective infiuence in the State capitol as well as in the City Hall, the consequence being that reform candidates are now running for the governorship both of Illi¬ nois and Missouri. In the same way, of course, the municipal corruption in Philadelphia and Pittsburg is ineradicable so long . as the present Republican machine prevails in Harrisburg, The interest, however, of Mr. Steffens' remarks consists in. their tearing upon the conditions iu this State, "fhe organization which stands for reform ir New York Citv, the Citizen's Union, is an exclusively local organization. It has abjured State poli¬ tics, because it,claimed to be a non-partizan body and conse¬ quently wished to keep clear of all questions which involved party distinctions and loyalty. Yet it is almost as true in New York as it is in Missouri, Illinois and Pennsylvania, that the problem of good local government is essentially connected with State politics. The chief dilemma which helps to make every reform administration unpopular is of course, whether it will or will not enfoi-ce the State excise laws, and it is not to be questioned that as long as liquor selling is illegal on Sunday, except in '■Raines Law" hotels, the cause of municipal reform in New York will have no chance of more than temporary success. At the same time, however, it must be admitted that the Republi¬ cans at Albany are allowing the city an increasing amount of local self-government, and do not interfere as much a^ they- once did in purely local matters. Governor Odell has not given the city as much control over its local business as the city is entitled to, but he has at least prevented the perpetration of such an outrage on the principle of local self-government as (hat contained In the proposed State Police Department. And