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REAL ESTATE
AND
NEW YORK, JULY 24, 191,5
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I A CONFERENCE ON WEST SIDE IMPROVEMENTS I
Two Sets of Plans Under Consideration by the Port and Terminal |
Committee — Engineer Bolton Would Tunnel Riverside Drive |
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pURSUANT to a call issued by the
â– *. Committee on Port and Terminal
Facilities of the Board of Estimate and
Apportionment, reciting that the com¬
mittee had completed its study of the
proposed readjustment of the West Side
tracks of the New York Central Rail¬
road Company to a point where it would
be valuable to have the suggestions of
those individuals and civic bodies that
have studied the matter and have reached
conclusions with regard to various de¬
tails of the proposed settlement, a joint
committee of representatives of various
organizations interested in this matter
met on Thursday moruing of this week
in the Comptroller's office. The Mayor,
the Comptroller, the Commissioner of
Public Works and the Dock Commis¬
sioner represented the city. Rev. Dr.
Peters appeared as chairman of a com¬
mittee fonned of about fourteen asso¬
ciations interested in the solution of this
important question.
Mr. Harrison, from the office of the
Dock Commissioner, submitted plans
and drawings, showing two plans along
the waterfront. One of the plans
provided for a tunnel and one for a cov¬
ered track from 72nd street to 125th
street. Mr. Harrison also explained at
length the plan for the section between
Dyckman street and Spuyten Duyvil.
The Comptroller requested criticisms
and suggestions of the plan, as it was
submitted, in sections.
The Bolton Plan.
Reginald Pelham Bolton, C. E., offered
some criticisms and in the course of
the discussion produced a complete set
of maps, showing a proposed tunnel far¬
ther east than the plan proposed by the
Dock Department, extending from Spuy¬
ten Duyvil to 72nd street.
Considerable discussion ensued as to
the relative merits of a covered freight
road and a freight road in a tunnel. The
general consensus of opinion favored the
latter plan, which Mr, Bolton had fully
developed, although the cost of either
plan was not announced.
In the course of the argument, refer¬
ence was made several times to the own¬
ership by the railroad of the track which
it occupies along the waterfront, 66
feet in width, and which it was proposed
to exchange with the city for land far¬
ther eastward. Mr. J. Bleecker Miller,
secretary of the United Real Estate
Owners' .'Xssociation and also of the
League to End Death Avenue, remarked
tliat the committee seemed to be under
the same erroneous impression as to
title of the railroad and the city to the
track occupied by the railroad as it was-
two years ago, when the last meeting
of the committee of the Board of Esti¬
mate was adjourned for the purpose of
investigating this very question of title;
that, on this section, south of Dyckman
street to Spuyten Duyvil, the railroad
owned only about one-third and the city
owned two-thirds.
The Question of Title.
The Mayor reinarked that the qires-
tion of title was being gone into ex¬
haustively by the Corporation Counsel
and that no action would be taken until
REGl.NALD PELHAM BOLTON, C, E,
Has submitted plans to the Mayor tor a relo¬
cation of the New York Central's
West Side tracks,
a report on the title of every piece of
land had been received and an estimate
made of its value.
A request for copies of the plan pro¬
posed by the Dock Department, so that
the various property owners' organiza¬
tions mi,ght study it, was met with
a promise to consider the question by
the city officials, Charles L. Craig, on
behalf of the West End Association, ex¬
pressed the hope that the pressing ques¬
tion caused by the docks for removal of
ashes and garbage would not be lost
sight of.
The meeting adjourned to pennit the
Dock Commissioner and his experts to
consider more fully Mr. Bolton's plans
for an all-tunnel route. So soon as they
reach a conclusion, another meeting will
be called by the Comptroller. The plans
provide for removing the Manhattanville
freight yard entirely to the east of the
present tracks and locating it on prop¬
erty now vacant. They also provide for
a tunnel under Riverside Drive from
Alanhattan Valley to 72d street.
Will Speed the Plans.
It was made evident at the meeting
that the city officials have decided to
make an earnest effort to solve the West
Side transportation problem as soon as
possible. Representatives from the Ad¬
visory Council of Real Estate Interests,
the West End Association and the
Lhiited Real Estate Owners' Association
appeared for the real estate interests.
The West End Association has for years
endeavored to rectify the conditions on
the west side of Manhattan Island and
has accomplished much resultant good
to property owners along Riverside
Drive. Its members have consistently
striven for a proper improvement that
will not only be satisfactory to real es¬
tate interests, but will likewise afford
the city and the New York Central Rail¬
road suitable transportation and termi¬
nal facilities. To accomplish the neces¬
sary disentan.glcment of the many com¬
plex and intricate lines involved, the
West End Association has fou.ght its bat¬
tle in the courts and Legislature quite
successfully.
The .Advisory Council of Real Estate
Interests recently decided to co-operate
with the city authorities and the local
real estate owners in their efforts to
solve the problein. A representative of
the council said:
Will Revitalize Real Estate.
"We have conferred with the various
parties interested, particularly impress-
mg upon public officials the need for iin-
mediate action, for the matter has been
lield in abeyance for too long a time.
But lately the State courts expressed
themselves quite forcibly as to the desul¬
tory and dilatory manner in which the
entire proceedings were being conducted.
The Advisory Council then concluded
that it would be expedient for the vari¬
ous real estate interests of the city to
unite with the West End Association in
a consideration of the entire plan, for
in its opinion a proper solution would
do much to revitalize real estate in the
lower and central sections of West Man¬
hattan. In addition a comprehensive im¬
provement should be designed that would
conserve property values and park spaces
along Riverside Drive. However, it is
essential that arteries of commerce and
transportation be so developed on the
lower West Side that the old cominer-
cial and business activity be revived,
and the old marts of industry be re¬
opened. A proper solution of the West
Side problem must provide for such an
avenue of transportation.
"Probably one of the principal rea¬
sons for a decline in property values in
lower west Manhattan has been the in¬
anition of business caused by a lack of
transportation facilities. By depriving
this section of the city of suitable means
to develop its commercial needs there
has been evolved the lamentable depres¬
sion in real estate values that are evi¬
dent to-day. To remedy this situation,
the Advisory Council has decided to de¬
vote considerable attention to a study
of fitting trackage accommodations for
the lower West Side which will simulta¬
neously permit an appropriate remedy
for the annoyance ami objections to the
New York Central development along
Riverside Drive on the part of property
owners thereby affected."
The Brooklyn Marginal Road.
The Eastern railroad companies which
expect to use the Brooklyn Marginal
Railroad have appointed a special com¬
mittee of technical engineers to go all
over the ground and report on the prob¬
able cost of the undertaking, what ad¬
vantages would accrue to the railroads,
and, in fact, on everything involved in
the big project. The committee com¬
prises Engineer Stuart of the Baltimore
& Ohio, Engineer Kitridge of the New
York Central and Engineer Rogers of
the Pennsylvania.
Tliese three experts have been pro¬
vided with nuarters in the office of the
Dock Department, at Pier A, Manhat¬
tan, and are now engaged in their in¬
vestigation. Their report will be made
to the committee representing all the
railroads concerned, which is headed by
Ralph Peters, the president of the Long
Island Railroad. Until this report is
made the negotiations will wait.