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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 75, no. 1922: January 14, 1905

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January 14, 1905 RECORD AND GUIDE 57 "eV ■* ESTXBUSHED '^ /AWPH SV-T^ 186B. Dev&TED to Rf>,L£lsT«T.BiiiLDif/o A,RC>(rrE!m;RE.h(oiJSEU0LDDEOCH«iDK. BushIess Alto Themes OF GE[fcR^! IfiTER^si. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS Pabfisfted eVers Saturday Communications stioulil be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Sireet, New YorK J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager Toiophone, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered al the PjsI Offi,?e al New York. N. Y-. as second-class matler." Vol. LXXV. JANUARY 14, 1905. No. 1922. THE clue to the current stock market seems to be that it goes down because it has particular reason to go up. Stocks do not tempt people at the present prices, and nothing is likely to happen during the next iev: months to make them more valuable. Increases in dividends are apparently over for the present, and while some of them will be forthcoming in the course of the year, they will not be made until the railroads and industrial companies have gatliered some of the fruits of renewed prosperity. For a time the stock market is likely to he slow, with occasional spurts either up hill or down. There can be no doubt, however, that a less of several points in the \alu6 of securities would encourage renewed buying. The sit¬ uation is essentially sound and does not warrant much of a movement either in one direction or the other. THE real estate market is as interesting and as active as ever. The week's business has been concentrated along one or two lines, but it is good, wholesome business, which helps to confirm the pleasant promise of 1905. The whole length of that part of Sth avenue which i.= devoted to business is still extraordinarily active. During 1905 four corners between 18th and 15th streets, inclusive, will be in the course of improvement with store and loft buildings. This part of the avenue is pass¬ ing so completly into the possession of the wholesale trade that the piaco and the other stores still lingering on its blocks will soon lind it necessary to move further north. But the retail part of the avenue is even more active than the wholesale dis¬ trict. During the past week there has been one big purchase, at a very high price, for improvement, and another for invest¬ ment. The number of corners on which new buildings will be in the course of erection is uncertain as yet, but if the negotia¬ tions now under way develop, that number will he very large. All the expensive property left in the hands of the realty com¬ panies is being either improved or sold, and these companies will doubtless soon he in th'i market for more property of this kind. Residences of all kinds continue to be in good demand, considering the period of the year, and an unusually large num¬ ber of them will undoubtedly be built in 1905. On the block in the eighties recently purchased by Mr. Dowling, alone, half as many private residences will be built as there were started in the whole of Manhattan in 1904. It is noticeable also that the activity in tbe Bronx is being transferred to the line of Jerome avenue and to the heights in the western part of that borough. It is very desirable that property-owners in that part of the l^orough should combine to maintain a high level of improve¬ ment. T^TT E. BIRD S. COLER is doing the city a valuable service ^*^ in again calling attention co the necessity of making rad¬ ical alterations in the constitutional restriction on the city's debt. It is not to be supposed the amendment which h© will have introduced into the Legislature will immediately pass that body and will be approved by a large popular majority, because very few people understand what a straight-jacket that limit will become within the next few years, and what an awkward and clumsy restriction it is. The constitutional provision was pro¬ posed and passed at a time when public opinion was frightened bj the rapid increase in the municipal debt, and when it had no conception of the future expansion of the city and the fin¬ ancial necessities of such expansion. Hence it was blindly im¬ posed for the purpose of absolutely limiting municipal indebt¬ edness; and it did not discriminate between a debt representing a productive improvement and a debt incurred for a non-pro¬ ductive purpose. The consequence is that, as Mr. Coler points out, the more income-producing docks and subways the city owns, the less money it can borrow. A similar provision in¬ corporated in the charter of a railroad company would bar that company from making permanent improvements absolutely essential to the expansion of its business and to its successful competition,with its rivals; and this is precisely the effect it will have upon New York City. Our city is peculiarly a city of great and necessary corporate enterprises. The stupendous process of reconstruction and expansion which is continually' being carried on by individuals must e paralleled by equally stupendous plans of public improvement. The delay of such plans in the past has cost the city heavily, and in the future if subways, new docks, an additional water supply, and necessary street improvements are postponed because of this debt restric¬ tion, the loss will be still heavier. What is equally as bad however, is the fact that if th3 city evades its responsibilities'' owing to Its lack of capita!, there is always a danger that pri¬ vate corporations will take advantage of its negligence or in¬ capacity. Thus the lack of the money necessary to construct cv. entirely adequate new acqueduet and reservoir would be the opportunity of the Ramapo Co., while private corporations will undoubtedly take advantage of the necessary economy of the city's credit in bidding on the new subways. Apart from the debt limit, there is no reason why it should be any advantage to New York to allow private corporations to use their own credit m constructing subways; and it would be much better from the public standpoint, for private corporations to make their bids attractive by other inducements-such as unlimited Lransfers, cheap fares, or short leases. As it stands, however the hoard would necessarily be much infiuenced by an offer on the part of the Interborough, or any other company, to finance without the help of the city any extension to the subway system In thts, and in many other ways, vital corporate activities of New York wilt be paralyzed by the debt limit, and it will be un¬ able to provide sufhciently for its own growth until the terms oi that limit are modified. T_^ OW long will it be before it dawns upon the people of New York that its police force wlH, under existing conditions, itever be reformed? One well-intentioned Police Commissioner succeeds another, but they all fail because they are unable to exercise any effective authority ov'3r their subordinates. As long ^s under the law the courts reinstate members of the force, ex¬ cept when absolutely convicted of gross official negligence, so long will the members of the force be an independent body, which can stubbornly resist any attempt to reform abuses. Ihere can be no discipline where tLere is no authority, and the jiolice commissioner has no authority. He can give orders, but he cannot compel them to be executed, because he has no power of dismissal. Instead of being a semi-military organization, Ftrictly subordinate to civil authority, the police force is prac¬ tically an independent body of men, who can defy the laws and their superiors. This condition has come about gradually, and the members of the force, although they take advantage of the situation, are not wholly responsible for it; but, whatever the CE.USO, it is obvious that discipline must be restored before any abuses can be reformed. The Legislature should put it up to the Folice Commissioner really to reform the force by bestowing on him the power of dismissal, and this action should be taken in spite of any and all opposition. ■^ HE increase in the provisional real estate assessments for ■^ 1905 over 1904 appears small, hut it is probably all that is warranted by the course of real estate values in 1904. There was a well-distributed enlargement in the value of five-story flats and tenements, which dia not receive much notice from the assessors; but, on the whole, they were right in restricting the increase in assessments to about the value of the improve-- ments completed during the year. The list has been criti¬ cized because of the small increase in the Bronx, and in other existing centres of speculative activity, but this activity is too recent to receive notice from the assessors. It will be their duty to revise the whole list of Bronx and Washington Heights assessments during the fall of the current yeaj-, because by that time values will have reached a definite level. But just at pres¬ ent the recent increases are too young and doubtful to alfect \alues for tax purposes. Washington Heights Announcement. The Record and Guide is authorized to make an announcement, which throws an interesting- light upon conditions on Washing¬ ton Heights. The lots on Broadway, owned by the syndicate of which Mr. Chas. T. Barney is the leading- member, are with¬ drawn from the market at the prices which have hitherto pre¬ vailed. This announcement is, of course, equivalent to decl-ar-