Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 94, no. 2418: Articles]: July 18, 1914

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1 REAL* ESTATE AND %) BUILDERS NEW YORK, JULY 18, 1914 iiiiiiiiiiiililliili REAL ESTATE BODIES ACTIVE FOR PUBLIC I The Advisory Council Extencding Its Organization—Uniteci Owners' Associations Open Permanent Office—Moving Against Death Avenue l^il iiiwiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ OWNERS of real estate are finally to have headquarters and a central bu- reavi of information of their own. The need of a meeting place where all mat¬ ters afifecting realty may be discussed, where city affairs and realty problems may be considered, has been sorely felt for years. The United Real Estate Owners' Associations have just estab¬ lished such a place and have opened per¬ manent offices at 170 Broadway. Every facility will be ofifered to taxpayers: pamphlets and literature from the mu¬ nicipal and State departments will al¬ ways be available for distribution and the latest realty records, periodicals and atlases will be kept on file. Taxpayers are invited to visit the headquarters, to transact their business there and to use the conveniences of the office for their own purposes. Henry Bloch. president of the asso¬ ciations, in outlining the program, stated yesterday: "The time will come, and before long, when our headquarters will be the rec¬ ognized exchange for property owners. We will have experts to advise, without charge, as to the requirements of city and State departments. We will have every known realty record. We will furnish appraisements. We will have private conference rooms. We will have an executive secretary and a staff of competent assistants. In a word, we will have a meeting place for every real estate owner in New York. In this way our association will accomplish constructive work efficiently and effec¬ tively. "The United Real Estate Owners' As¬ sociations have increased tremendously in membership during the past year. There are now eleven large associations, having a combined membership of thou¬ sands of owners of real estate, affiliated with the central body. The value of the realty represented aggregates hundreds of millions of dollars." Council Extending Its Organization. The effectiveness of real estate asso¬ ciations has frequently been undermined by the belief that such bodies adopt no course of action upon public questions unless such action is extremely favorable to the real estate fraternity or reflects selfish desires of a few leaders, who may be the vital factors in the mainte¬ nance of such organizations. W^ithout doubt, unfounded suspicions of this character have often off-set the good work whicii the various real es¬ tate bodies have accomplished, and si¬ multaneously invidious criticisms have not augured well for the real estate pro¬ fession as a whole. As a matter of fact, many property owners and real estate brokers have, at considerable expense, devoted their efforts to the betterment and welfare of the city and have un¬ selfishly contributed th^r time to.ward the civic development of Greater New York. In order, therefore, to he in perfect consonance with this admirable public- Spirited tendency, on the part of many ^"THE REAL ESTATE BODIES of "*■ the City of New York are stead¬ ily following up their successes of last fall and winter and are putting their strength more and more to better ac¬ count. They have come to the front as the most effective and powerful civic force of the day in the defense of public rights. The Real Estate Board, the Advisory Council of the Allied Real Estate Interests, the United Owners' Associations, the tax¬ payers' associations of the West Side of the city, the City Club and Citizens* Union, are all prominent in the news of the day and are rendering real service to the real people of New York in important channels. real estate owners and agents and brok¬ ers, the Advisory Council of Real Es¬ tate Interests will endeavor to make its final decisions upon public questions of such a broad and liberal character, that, although primarily conserving the inter¬ ests of the real estate owners, they will simultaneously be for the best interests of the city itself. The proper and reasonable conserva¬ tion of the interests of property owners should be analagous to the best interests of the city, inasmuch as the real estate constitutes the chief source of city reve¬ nue. Co-operation between landlord and tenant, between the public and the prop¬ erty owner, and between the city and real estate organizations, is thus the key¬ note of the work of the advisory coun¬ cil. A Publicity Committee. In order to I)e fully advised upon every public question that may arise and in order to make its decisions as far re¬ moved from self-interest as possible the council has appointed a publicity com¬ mittee, consisting of the real estate ed¬ itors of the New York newspapers. This committee will advise the council with reference to public sentiment and gen¬ eral feeling among the citizens of New York as to the various propositions that will be considered. It will seek to make known through the press and other means of publicity, the wishes and true interests of real es¬ tate owners, and secure for them proper consideration in the regulations of their own affairs. It is hoped that by being thus advised upon serious questions by representatives of the various newspa¬ pers, that the conclusions of the coun¬ cil will reflect both the views of the city and the public, as well as of the real es¬ tate owners. The West Side Terminal Improvements. The question of the proposed altera¬ tions in the freight line operated by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company along the west side of the city was revived during the past week by a communication presented to the Board of Estimate and Apportion¬ ment on behalf of the City Club, the Cit¬ izens' Union, the Independent Club of the West Side, the West End Associa¬ tion, the Twenty-third Street Improve¬ ment Association. the Washington Heights Taxpayers* Association, the West Side Taxpayers' Association, the Greenwich Village Improvement Asso¬ ciation, the Chelsea Association. Wom¬ an's Municipal League, League to End Death Avenue, The Merchants' Asso¬ ciation of New York. The deliberate plans and far sighted views of the signers of the memorial entitle it to become the basis for a cam¬ paign which shall at last settle finally and successfully the one great unsettled undertaking on which the future of Man¬ hattan depends. Investigate Titles. The allied associations have not for¬ gotten the rock on which the well-meant plans of the sub-committee of the Board of Estimate were wrecked last year, i. e., the failure of the city authorities to in¬ form themselves in advance of the legal status of the title to the eight miles of water front involved in this transaction. This communication insists that "the title of the city to lands along the wa¬ terfront should be investigated." and if it contained no other recommendation, it will have served an important purpose, if it impresses upon the city authorities that this is the necessary initial step in the whole transaction, and that no short¬ cut scheme, undertaken without a full comprehension and fair appreciation of the city's legal rights to the water front, will receive any support from these im¬ portant organizations. The West End Association has profited greatly by the thorough understanding of the legal sit¬ uation in Riverside Park, by its coun¬ sel. Mr. Charles L. Craig, and, if the rights of the city and of the citizens along the remainder of the eight miles of waterfront were only as well under¬ stood and represented, as has been con¬ tinually insisted on by Mr. J. Bleecker Miller—there would be great hope that an agreement would be reached in which the rights of the city and of the citizens would not be sacrificed. _ A Good Cause. The recent decision of the Appellate Division in the case of Hearst against New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, in no wise prejudices the rights of the citizens, as heretofore assumed to exist in Riverside Park, for in that case it was stipulated that the railroad was entitled to occupy the main right-of-way, which its tracks then occu¬ pied. There was no such stipulation in the former case of W^illson versus New York Central and Hudson River Rail¬ road, which was tried by Mr. J. Bleecker Miller, and in which an injunction was awarded, although it was never enforced hy Mr. Hearst's lawyers. There is there¬ fore every reason for W^est Side citizens to keep up their courage in this fight and insist with vigor on the preservation of the most beautiful part of the great¬ est city of this continent froin becoming an unsightly noisome freight yard,