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REAL ESTATE
AND
NEW YORK, MAY 13, 1916
WEST SIDE IMPROVEMENT MEANS MUCH
TO FUTURE GROWTH OF THE CITY
Real Estate Board Asks Hearings So That En¬
tire Project May Be Thoroughly Understood
THE plans for changing the New York
Central's West Side trackage sys¬
tem, now before the Board of Estimate
and Apportionment, have been consid¬
ered jointly by the Committee on Rail¬
roads and Transportation and the Com¬
mittee on Docks, Terminals and Water
Fronts of the Real Estate Board of New
York. The following statement has
been issued:
"The Real Estate Board, in the short
time available, has given considerable
study to the question of the proposed
plans for the New York Central's West
Side tracks. The growth and prosperity
of New York has been in a very large
measure due to the facilities for receiving
freight by rail and water from all parts
of the world. Conditions are now chang¬
ing. Submarine tunnels are to a great
e.xtent replacing lighterage. Shippers
now expect and require, in many in¬
stances, that freight cars run up to or
into their buildings. Grade crossings in
a large city have become a great source
of danger to life, and in this instance the
removal of the tracks from grade is the
paramount issue.
"If New York is to remain the first city
of the country, it must compete with
other cities in giving facilities for receiv¬
ing freight from all railroad and steam¬
ship lines that can enter the city in ways
compatible with present day needs.
"With these points in view, it would
seem that the granting of a franchise
such as is proposed and the conserving
of the rights of the people of New York
so far as opportunities for the entering
of other railroads are concerned, should
be given great care and opportunity for
discussion by public bodies that are in¬
terested, and reasonable time allowed for
this purpose. Resolutions to this end
the Rea! Estate Board of New York
has passed and presented to the Board
of Estimate."
The Policy Adopted.
.\t Monday's hearing Chairman Pren¬
dergast announced that the cominittee
had adopted the policy of giving the full¬
est opportunity for remarks from citi¬
zens, but not engaging in any dialogue
at this time. In due time the commit¬
tee would reply to the criticisms in one
document, and in categorical order if
need be.
President Coleman of the West End
.Association read a report to the associa¬
tion from Charles Downing Lay, land¬
scape architect, upon the efifect of the
proposed track changes upon the land¬
scape of Riverside Park. Mr. Lay esti¬
mates that the cost of the restoration of
the park, where injured by building the
railroad structure through it, will be
$572,906. He further says:
"It seems to me of infinitely greater
importance to remove the docks at 79th
and 96th streets, and to fill out the bulk¬
head line, making this large area close
to the water useful to the people, than
it does to deck the railroad right of way,
when decking means the spoliation of
the park, for a small increase of not very
useful park area.
"The present docks are to many peo¬
ple more objectionable than the railroad,
which can everywhere be overlooked and
forgotten, and once electrified, will sel¬
dom be heard.
"It is important, too, to keep the pres-
BOARD ASKS HEARING.
Resolved: That it is the opin¬
ion of the Real Estate Board of
New York that the City of New
York should give to the public the
city's' views of the relative esti¬
mated value of the present fran¬
chise of the New 'York CentrEil
Railroad Company on the 'West
Side of the Borough of Manhattan,
as compared with the estimated val¬
ue of the franchise proposed in the
report of the Committee on Port
and Terminal Facilities, made to
the Board of Estimate and Appor¬
tionment on April 22, 1916; that
the city should likewise prepare
and make public the tentative
agreement with the Railroad Com¬
pany; and that hearings on the
subject should be continued until
ample time has been given for the
consideration of such franchise
values and tentative agreement.
Resolved further: That, after
such information has been made
public, the Real Estate Board of
New 'York be gfiven a public hear¬
ing on the question.
eiit line and width of the railroad right
of way. Encroachment east of the pres¬
ent wall with its consequent injury to
the park should not be tolerated, except
_at Grant's Tomb, where the rising grade
make a location further to the east more
desirable.
"The crossing of the railroad for ac¬
cess to the river is not a difficult matter,
as anyone knows who has studied the
many beautiful bridges in Central Park.
There is no doubt but what the railroad
can be made as inconspicuous in River¬
side Park as the transverse roads in
Central Park. Indeed, with skillful
planting, well-designed bridges and some
modelling of the surface on the westerly
side of the railroad, the park will be
more picturesque and beautiful than
with the wide strip of more or less badly
disguised covering of the deck.
Developing Bulkhead Line.
"That the city's money would be spent
to better advantage in developing to the
bulkhead line and improving this area
than in deckin.g the railroad.
"It must be seriously considered
whether such a large terminal as pro¬
posed for _133rd-155th streets could not
be placed in some other and less beauti¬
ful spot. So little of New York is re¬
served from commercial development
that it seems a pity to give up any of the
beauties of our famous drive.
"Giving the city a bridge at 70th street
does not mean that the docks above will
be_ abandoned without a fight, and cer¬
tainly 70th street should not be made a
thoroughfare to the new dumps when
68th street is so much better."
Charles L. Craig, chairman of the Law
Committee of the West End Association,
made an extended criticism of the plan
so far as it relales to Riverside Park.
He said some of the published reports
of the plans had been vitally mislead¬
ing in respect to landscaping outshore
of the park after the railroad had been
Mr. Craig said: "Where the published
illustrations show a finished park and
promenade outside of the railroad tracks,
the plans indicate merely an unfinished
sloping off from the tracks, without
landscaping or surfacing of any kind
west of the tracks.
"The fact is that a great stretch of
the present park east of the railroad,
approximately 100 feet in width and
nearly three miles in length, extending
from 73rd street to 129th street, is cut
away; thousands of trees, bushes and
shrubs are excavated in order to move
the railroad tracks eastward from their
present location, so as to occupy the
present landscaped park. widening at
the south end into a railroad yard of
twenty tracks, over which rises a roof
35 feet above the rails. This roof, north
of 72nd street, consists of four and one-
Iialf acres of gravel six inches thick,
which is called a playground. To ac¬
complish this result requires an excava¬
tion approximately twenty feet deep run¬
ning from 72nd street to 129th street,
and extending eastward into the present
park in some places more than 100 feet
and on an average throughout the park
approximately 75 feet."
Questions Statement.
Mr. Craig further said: "In its re¬
port the Terminal Committee says:
'These advantages will be secured to the
City of New York without the expendi¬
ture of city funds and without the sur¬
render of any of the city's waterfront to
the exclusive use of the railroad com¬
pany.' (Report, p. 28).
"It is incredible that such a statement
should be made. From 42nd street to
Slst street, in order to provide a right
of way for the railroad company, the city
obligates itself to the relocation of
Twelfth avenue so as to move it east¬
ward a considerable distance. In order
to do this, condemnation proceedings
must be taken and a large amount of
private property thereby acquired for
the relocation of Twelfth avenue. Every
dollar of the damages to be awarded
against the city in such condemnation
proceedings must be paid by the city.
The railroad pays nothing. Change of
grade damages are also involved in the
intersecting cross streets resulting from
the relocation of Twelfth avenue. It is
impossible accurately to state in this
report the extent of the foregoing dam-
ages,_ but as the private property to be
acquired extends for nearly a half a mile
along the waterfront, the awards for
damages will ' e large.
"In the present right of way through
Riverside Park the railroad tracks can
be depressed from 5 to 10 feet, and when
so depressed the park improvement can
be easily and inexpensively carried over
them. In fact it is not indispensable if
the tracks are depressed that they should
be roofed over at every point when elec¬
trically operated. This is vastly prefer¬
able to the arrangement proposed. It
involves practically no expense, for the
very work that the railroad must do to
electrify its lines will depress the tracks.
"The extension of the stockyards and
60th street yard northward into River¬
side Park, whether east or west of the
present tracks, should be eliminated from
further discussion.
"No man can foresee the future New