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REAL ESTATE
AND
(Copyright, 1917, by The Record snd Oulde Oo.)
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 15, 1917
PROBLEMS AFFECTING BROOKLYN DISCUSSED
Mayor Mitchel Addresses Brooklyn Civic Club and
Answers Questions Relative to Future Expenditures
<<IN response to a request that I touch
^ upon certain questions, I will try to
discuss them one after another.
"What about the question of Borough
autonomy? How far are we to go in
the matter of centralization, and how
far is autonomy to be preserved to the
Boroughs of the city?
"I believe in Borough autonomy, gen¬
uine Borough autonomy. 1 believe in
giving such local control of local matters
as we can; that is to say, as is consisteiit
with the efficient discharge of public
business. I do not believe in further
centralization. The fact is that during
the four years, or the three years and a
half, of the present city administration,
there has been practically no centraliza¬
tion effected that did not exist before.
The centralization that we have today is
a matter of charter and of law and of
departmental organization, before this
administration came into office; and the
only steps that have been taken in that
direction have been the perfecting^ of
certain business details and the elimina¬
tion of certain administratively unneces¬
sary offices. I do not suppose that you
or I would advocate the maintenance of
wholly unnecessary places or wholly un¬
necessary employees upon the city pay¬
roll, and the steps that have been taken
have been merely steps to the elimina¬
tion of those who were unnecessary.
Boroughs to Be Protected.
"As far as further centralization is
concerned, it is no part of the program
of the present city administration,
whether in its present term of office or
in any subsequent term of office to which
it may be elected, to carry forward a
program of centralization that will de¬
prive the Boroughs either of their local
representation in departments or of the
local powers that are now confided to
local offices in the Borough.
"Let us for a moment direct your at¬
tention to one matter which was sought
to be made a detail of this Borough au¬
tonomy issue; the proposal to expand
the Department of Bridges by a change
of name into the Department of Plant
and Structure, retaining its present
functions and adding the functions of the
maintenance and construction of plant.
Now that was not a scheme for central¬
ization, as a good many people seem to
think. It was a scheme for administra¬
tive perfection, for dealing more logi¬
cally with functions that were, are now,
distributed through various departments,
each of which departments is centralized
just as much as it would be under the
Department of Plant and Structure, but
merely transferring the discharge of
those functions into a single department
where we conceived we were convinced
that they could be more economically
and more efficiently discharged than
they are now discharged. For example,
through the Street Cleaning Department,
the Department of Water Supply, the
Police Department, the Fire Depart¬
ment; each one of these four which I
have named being what we might call a
centralized city department. There
would, therefore, be no change in point
of view of local control, but merely in
point of administrative efficiency of sav¬
ing of dollars and cents.
"The next question was a new high
school for Brownsville, relieving the
pressure on the other schools, and so
forth. Now let me say to you that the
Board of Estimate has not attempted to
impose an educational plan upon the
HON. JOHN PURROY MITCHEL.
Board of Education. I mean by that,
we have not attempted to tell the
Board of Education, why you need a
school here, when they tell us, we need
a school over there more. We have be¬
lieved in protecting to thai extent and
in that manner the autonomy of the
Board of Education in educational mat¬
ters. When the Board of Education has
recommended in the order of prece¬
dence high schools, the Board of Esti¬
mate, up to the financial ability of that
Board to respond to the needs of the
Board of Education has furnished funds
to build the schools in the order of
precedence in the order named by the
Board of Education. Now, it is my rec¬
ollection—I tried to verify this before
leaving the office to come over here this
morning, but I did not receive an an¬
swer—I think, however, I am safe in
making the statement that on the last
request from the Board of Education
the Brownsville High School was not
included. The answer, therefore, is that
when the Board of Education places the
Brownsville High School at the head of
its list of high schools required, or near
enough to the head of that list to per¬
mit the Board of Estimate within its
financial resources to supply the funds,
they will be supplied for that high
school and in that order, and the Board
of Education must assume its responsi¬
bility as we will assume ours.
"A more competent administration of
the Health Department in Brooklyn
through the appointment of a Deputy
Commissioner, and so forth: I imagine
that that matter is solved. The Health
Commissioner, after the holding of the
necessary competitive examinations, has
appointed a Deputy Commissioner for
Brooklyn, a resident of Brooklyn, who
came first on the list after the competi¬
tive examination. He is appointed un¬
der the title of Deputy Commissioner
and Sanitary Superintendent.
"The next question on this list is con¬
cerning a crosstown subway, linking
Brighton Beach with the WiUiamsburgh
Bridge, to Manhattan. Now, gentlemen,
this is a matter of financing. I am as¬
suming that that crosstown line is a de¬
sirable rapid transit link, articulates with
the rest of the system, would be a splen¬
did thing as soon as it could be built.
When it can be built is a ouestion of
financial resources. Now, this project
must be taken into consideration in
connection with other things^ we are
considering. The Public Service Com¬
mission has under advisement the Ash¬
land place connection, which involves
the Fulton street question. That will be
at an estimated' cost of from $3,000,000
to $3,500,000. The available unencum¬
bered margin of municipal credit—I am
also fearful of stating the sum—I asked
the Comptroller for it over the tele¬
phone before I came over this morning,
and he said it was romewhere around
two to three million dollars. Of course,
that is going to be increased. It will be
increased some. It will be increased
enough to provide the funds for the
Ashland place connection, but it will not
be increased enough to supply funds for
the Ashland place connection and for
the crosstown subway now.
"The next was a question of a new
municipal building. That is answered in
precisely the same way. We recognize
that Brooklyn wants a new municipal
buildmg. We are perfectly willing to
furnish a new municipal building when
the funds are available, but when we are
considering the relative importance of
these things, and you have transit con¬
nections and a marginal railway and
schools as the first cause of your margin
of credit, the answer, the frank answer
that I must make to you, in honesty and
truth, is that the municipal building will
have to wait for two or three years.
The Marginal Railway.
"The next question was as to the
marginal railway. Just a word on the
history. It was proposed first by Com¬
missioner Calvin Tomkins. It was re¬
cast as to plan by the Terminal Com¬
mittee of the Board of Estimate. That
committee secured from the railroad
companies, all of the trunk line rail¬
roads, an agreement, a verbal agreement,
to become the joint operators of the
enterprise if the city would build it and
on terms that would make the line a
self-sustaining investment. That was in
1913. It required an enabling act to per¬
mit the railroads to enter into that plan
of joint operation. We failed to secure
the enabling act that year. Then came
a period of bad business for the rail¬
roads; at least, thev regarded it as such.
The railroads in 1914 notified the com¬
mittee of the Board of Estimate that
thev could no longer stand obligated to
their promise to become joint operators,
that they would have to take the ques¬
tion UP pnew.
"In 1914 we went to the Legislature
and did not get the bill. I forget
whether it was 1915 or 1916 that we final¬
ly secured a bill to which all agreed,
enabling the_ railroads to enter into this
contract as joint operators, but by that
time the railroads had come to the con¬
clusion, one of two things, either that
the Interstate Commerce Commission
was going to make a ruling such that
they could collect a differential against
the City of New York and against the
Borough of Brooklyn, and therefore it
would no longer be necessary for them
to go into this joint operation of this
terminal railway; or else they were
jockeying for place, and I am inclined
to suspect the latter, meaning by that
that they were waiting to try to force
the city either to give them this enter¬
prise on a much more advantageous
basis for them or else to build it itself,
and then for lack of an operator it would
fall into the hands of railroads on a very
RECORD AND GUIOE3 IS IN ITS FIFTIE:tH YEAR OF
(Continued on page 330)
CONTINUOUS PVLLICATION.