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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 87, no. 2247: April 8, 1911

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April 8, 1911. RECORD AND GUIDE 629 ESTABUSHED^ «\fiRPH2i'^'^ 1368, DzVoteD p F^t Estaji . IBlJlLDI^''c ^cKirECTURE .KouSEifoii) Degot^tiwJ, BiJsit^Ess Alio Themes of Ge^JerrI IKterest,^ PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET Pablished Every Saturday By THE RECOR.D AND GUIDE CO. President. CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer. F. W. DODGE Vlce-Pres. Sc Genl. Mgr., H. W. DESMOND Secretary. F. T. MILLER Nos. 11 to 15 East S4tl» Street, New "Sork City (Telephone. Madison Square. 4430 to 4^t33,) "Entered at the Post Off> '.ee at iVcio Yorl: :, y, y., (IS Sfcojid -class h; laficr." Cops righted, 1911, by The Record >.t Guide Co. Vol. LXXXVI. APRIL 8. 1911, No. 2247 FIFTH AVENUE'S TRANSFORMATION. DURING periods of comparative speculative dullness in New York City the place of the speculator in the real estate market is usually taken by business meu who buy or lease centrally situated plots in the service of some specific business. Transactions of this kind usually involve large sums of money and affect high-priced property, and they are extremely useful to the cause of stable values because they maintain prices at a time when speculators might otherwise be forced into making concessions. The most important transaction of tbe current week has been the sale by the City Investing Company of 50 feel, on the corner of 5 2d street and Fifth avenue to a capitalist who will erect a business tiuilding and lease it to a permanent tenant. The transaction merely confirms a tendency which has prevailed during the past few years towards the occupation for business purposes of Fifth avenue as far north as 59th street. It may be many years before the larger mansions on the avenue will be vacated, but all the smaller houses will now be bought for business purposes with some rapidity. There are large num¬ bers of retail firms situated south of 34th street which will have to find locations north of that street, and they are suf¬ ficient in number to occupy most of the remaining space both on Fifth avenue and in the adjoining side streets from 34th street to 59th street. Eventually Madison and Sixth avenues will also obtain a share of this business, which can hardly spread north of 59th street, because of the Park, and which will need much more room than can be obtained on the ave¬ nue and in the side streets. For the present tbat part of Fifth avenue north of 50th street will be occupied by decorat¬ ors, picture dealers and the like, whose business calls only for a few well-to-do customers; but eventually it may well be that the site of the Vanderbilt brownstone mansions will be occupied by a large dry-goods store. ONE of the noblest virtues in a citizen is loyalty, and one of Lhe best ways of showing loyalty is, when one is call¬ ed into the official service of Ins city, to give it the full honest measure of his time during business hours. Some public officers have been known to give the city only part of their time when tbey were being paid for all of it. OUTLOOK FOR WATER-FRONT BETTERMENTS. PRESUMABLY the adverse report of the Committee of the Board of Estimate has killed Commissioner Tomkins' plan for the construction of a freight terminal on the West Side, It looked like a carefully prepare:! plan which would really increase the industrial and commercial efficiency of New York City; but unfortunately it did not arouse any interest in the transportation companies. It was bound to fail without their co-operation, and no indication ever ap¬ peared above tbe surface that such co-operation would be forthcoming- In tbe absence of some plan for the economical handling of freight on the Manhattan water-front it seems certain that the commerce of the past will gradually be transferred to other parts of the water-front. South Brooklyn, after the connecting railway has been built will possess the same facilities which Mr. Tomkins wished to provide for Man¬ hattan, and eventually a scientifically planned system of docks and terminals will be established in Jamaica Bay. In the meantime Manhattan may well lose the passengers as well as the freight business by the development of Montauk Point for fast transportation steamers. The only large cor¬ poration whose interest lies along the liue of developing the machinery for handling freight in Manhattan is the New York Central, and it seems impossible for that corporation to reach any agreement with the local authorities as to the vexed problem of Eleventh avenue and a better freight ter¬ minal. The outlook for better means of handling freight in Manhattan is even less prosperous than the outlook for new subway^. FACTORY LAWS. A REVISED building code and revised factory laws pre¬ pared by the right people and demanded by all the peo¬ ple are likely to follow from the late terrible experience with fire in a crowded city factory. One of the great reforms demanded in a buildiug code, and one which is made neces¬ sary by the remarkable growth of light manufacturing in the center of the city, is a clear distinction between com¬ mercial buildings and factory buildings. And a factory bnilding should be planned under precise laws having refer¬ ence to its being occupied by as many operatives as the law will permit. There should be a limitation on the number of employees based on the amount of floor space, and quick and safe exits provided for the maximum number in case of fire. Of course factories ought not be perched high above the sidewalk, but there are property rights to be considered, and public opinion could hardly he expected to support at this late day a serious restriction on the amount of revenue to be derived from a business site. In fact, the Corporation Counsel's offlce in the past has held that a horizontal restriction on the height of buildings would be unconstitutional, and it will be recalled that the last muni¬ cipal administration vetoed an ordinance of that nature for this reason. AN OFFICIAL POINT OF VIEW. IT IS deemed improbable that the proposed alterations of the charter recommended by the local administration will ever pass the Legislature, Most of these changes tend in the direction of concentrating and increasing respon¬ sibility in the Mayor; and the ruling powers at Albany are not expected to favor anything of the kind. There is a great deal to be said for many of the proposed methods of redis¬ tributing the powers exercised by the several administrative departments, but the fact that some of these changes are desirable does not alter the fact that they will'be considered by the Legislature as not having been prepared with sufficient care or by the right people. It will be said that they have been hurriedly made by the Mayor's own appointees and that in consequence they represent only an official point of view. When a group of administrative departments recommend that their own powers and those of their chief should be increased they may be entirely right in their recommendations, but under the circumstances public opinion will not be likely to consider them disinterested. A good illustration of this fact may be found in the changes proposed in the Comptroller's Department. When these or similar proposals were flrst made by the Ivins Commission they excited little or no opposi¬ tion, but now that they emanate from the Mayor's office peo¬ ple jump to the conclusion, erroneously, no doubt, that they are an incident in the unfortunate hostilities between the Mayor and the Comptroller, There is only one way of pre¬ paring legislation respecting the charter and that is by means of an expert commission, empowered to examine fully into the conduct of municipal business, and emancipated from any suspicion of ulterior motives. Mayor Gaynor did good service last Spring by preventing the passage of the charter changes prepared by a group of up-state lawyers; and the recommen¬ dations prepared by his appointees are more sensible than those with which the city was threatened a year ago. Never¬ theless, under the circumstances, it is far better to leave the charter alone until the time comes when it can be properly; changed. All the amendments proposed since the report of the Ivins Commission was turned down at Albany have been a matter of tinkering with the details of an instrument which requires for its effective improvement much more radi¬ cal changes than have yet heen proposed. DIFFICULTIES OF CHARTER BUILDING. THERE are several fundamental difficulties with the existing charter, and until these are squarely faced there can hardly be any really useful charter revision. The amendments which have been made to the instrument during the last thirty years have tended in two different directions. On the one hand, many changes have been made increasing both the administrative power of the Mayor and his influence over local legislation. On the other hand, most of the powers