Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 82, no. 2104: July 11, 1908

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July II, 1908 RECORD AND GUIDE 69 ESTABUSHED ^ M.ftRpH SIV.^ 1863. De/oth) to RuvLEstate,Bb^LDl^b %cKitecture,HouseKcu)DEeoRATiorf, Basii/Ess Mo Themes or GiKeraI Interest, PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Communications should be addressed to C W. SWEET PubUsfied Every Saturdat; By THE RECORD AJVD GUIDE CO. President, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, F. W. DODGE Vice-Pres. & Genl. Mgr., H. W. DESMOND Secretary, F. T. MILLER Nos. 11 to 13 East 24th Strccf. New Vork City (Telepboue, IVIadisoa Square, 4430 to 4433.) •■En cixd at the Post Office at New 1 'ork. N. y.. ir.s S'cjnil chis s matter." Copy rigli ted. 1003, by The Record & Guide Co. Vol. LXXXII. JULY 11. lOOS. No. 2104. THE plans for the New Equitable Building, as published last week, have provoked less comment and less' oppo¬ sition than might have been expected. This new building project raises the w-hole question of the desirability of un¬ restricted construction of skyscrapers iu its most acute form, and if any action is ever to be taken it should be taken at an early date. The new Equitable Building makes two points tolerably definite. It probably indicates the limit of safe and profitable construction at the present time. Until engineering and economic conditions alter very considerably it is inconceivable that any taller building and tower,than this will be projected. On the other hand, it is also prob¬ able that wherever an opportunity for a building of this size can be created capital and capitalists will in the course of time be found to take advantage of it. The Equitable Life Assurance Society doubtless has special reasons for wishing to construct the biggest building and tbe highest inhabited tower in the world, but other financial institutions will be impelled by similar, if less lively, motives. These sliy- scrapers are far from being mere freaks of advertising. They are being erected by speculative building companies, because of the opportunities for profit which they contain, aud unless prohibited or restricted they will continue to be so erected. If thirty-four story buildings remain a legal, an economic and an engineering possibility property owners may soon be tearing down twelve-story buildings in order to replace them with structures thrice the height, and such structures will be erected as fast as it will pay to erect them—as fast, that is, as tenants can be found to occupy them. This will necessarily be a somewhat slow process even in New York, but it will be so fast that in case any public interest is involved in the restriction of the height of such buildings it should he promptly asserted. And it can hardly be claimed that no public interest is involved. A financial district covered with twenty-story buildings may be a safe locality .in which to do business, but a lower New York even partly covered with buildings from thirty to forty stories high would no longer be either a safe or a wholesome place in which to live. The congestion would be too great, considering the miserable street system, in which these buildings would stand. The erection of buildings covering whole blocks thirty-four stories high should be postponed until the problem of aerial navigation has been completely solved. THE increasing popularity of the Galveston plan of municipal government is one of the most interesting developments in the forms of American municipal govern¬ ment. The Record aud Guide has frequently called its readers' attention to this plan which was adopted in Gal¬ veston as an emergency measure after the partial destruction of the city In 1901. It consisted in the abolition of the Mayor, the Common Council and the "other ordinary Ameri¬ can municipal officials and tbe centralization of their power in the hands of a commission of five men, each one of w^hich was responsible for one important administrative depart¬ ment, and w^ho were jointly responsible for the good govern¬ ment of the city. The experiment succeeded so well in Galveston that it is gradually being adopted in other Western cities. According to an account of the progress of the move¬ ment contained in the Outlook. Houston was the first city to follow the example of Galveston. Fort Worth, CbJllas and El Paso, all in Texas, followed in quick succession, Last year Iowa and Kansas enacted general laws permitting cities in those States to adopt a modified Galveston plan; and already Leavenworth, in Kansas, and Cedar Rapids and. Des Moines, in Iowa, have taken advantage of these laws. Of course it is too soon to predict that the experiment, which has been so successful in Galveston, will be equally success¬ ful elsewhere; but the results have up to date been all that could be desired. In the Texan cities the plan has worked with uniform success, while Des Moines is congratulating itself upon the cleanest streets and In general the most efficient government of its history- The success of this ex¬ periment should provide the New York Charter Revision Commission with food for reflection. It is not to be sup¬ posed that the Galveston plan could be adopted without con¬ siderable modifications for a city like New York with over 4,500,000 inhabitants, but the lesson of this hitherto suc¬ cessful experiment should nevertheless not be overlooked. In one way or another administrative power and respohsi- bility should be centralized; and the only way in which such centralization can be effectually achieved is by means of the suppression of the Board of Aldermen. The decision of the Charter Revision Commission to make another attempt to renew the usefulness of a local legislative body has been its one serious mistake. Such attempts have been made again and again, and they have always failed. It is merely a superstition which keeps alive this expensive and useless piece of machinery. Indeed, so far as it is endowed with any real power and responsibility it is worse than useless, be¬ cause it merely acts as a hindrance to the efficient and smooth operation of the local administrative machine. The lesson of New York's experience in municipal government has been that its best servant is a Mayor and a Board of Estimate, endowed with full administrative and legislative responsibilities; and in the new charter advantage should be taken both of this experience and of the success of the Galveston plan. AT the expiration of their first year of service the chair¬ man of the Public Service Commission sent to the newspapers a detailed account of all the commission had accomplished in the course of the year, and some little dis¬ cussion followed as to the value to the city of the services of the commission. The truth is, of course, that it is en¬ tirely too early to assert that the experiment in local govern¬ ment represented by the commission is either a success or a failure. No one will question for a moment the ability and the integrity of the members of the commission or their honest desire to serve the city; and their appointment has undoubtedly been followed hy certain improvements in the service of the several corporations submitted to their juris¬ diction. In the long run the mere fact that a commission possessed of such enormous supervisory power exists will uudoubtedly help effectually to keep the corporations under its control more solicitous about the standard of their serv¬ ice. Any question as to the effect of the establishment of the commission must be in a wholly different direction; and the chief question, which remains very doubtful,-concerns the ability of the commission to secure the co-operation of private capita! in providing those additional facilities re¬ quired by the growth of the city. It remains, that is, very doubtful whether capitalists will wish to place their money iu enterprises over wdiich they retain no effective control. The commission, in its relation with these corporations, is placed in an extremely difficult position. It must serve the public, without at the same time alienating- tbe corporations and private capital. Every order it issues for an improve¬ ment of service costs more money to some corporation; and if in the long run an accumulation of such orders makes the property of these corporations less valuable the consequences are easy to predict. Private capital will refuse to invest in a kind of business which is subject to such drastic supervision. The commission will have sacrificed the greater benefit of a constant construction of new lines to the smaller benefit of an immediate, but still inadequate improvement oT service. /T^ HE Record and Guide does not mean to predict that the -*■ commission will prevent the investment of private cap¬ ital in the services under its supervision. We wish merely to point out that such in the long run may be the case, and that a possibility of this hind constitutes the gravest question connected with the success of the commission's work. More¬ over, it is particularly in relation to improved means of transit that the question must be posed. The orders of the comraiseion have resulted in a certain improvement in the transit service; tjut t!i? iPiprovement has not served to make