Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 75, no. 1925: February 4, 1905

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February 4, 1905 RKOORT) AND GUIDE 235 "eX ESTABUSHCD "^ tf^ARpH2isi^ 1368. DE/oTEDiDRfJvLEsTWt.BuiLDif/c A,RPfiTECTJR.£,HouseholdDEOaRfiiDil, BUSil^ESSAlJoTKEUESOpGEttER^l IHTER^SI. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS 'Pabllsfied eVerg .Satnrda^f Communications Btioulil be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14=16 Vesey Street, New YorE J, T. LINDSEY, Bu3lno83 Manager Teiepiione, Cortlandt 3157 ••Entered at the Pjst C at New York, JV. Y., as second-class matter." PEBRUART, 4, 1905. irkir-k-k-k-k-k*-k*-k-k-k-k-k*-k-ki^*:i^-k-k-k-kirk-k-kirk-k*-k-k-kirk*-k-k:k TWO OF A KIND The Record and Guide is now issued as two papers: 1. Tlie Record and Guide—Manliattan and the Bronx edition; 2, The Record and Guide—Brooklyn edition. The Eormer will be supplied to readers and subscribers, at present, for $6.00 a year, or 15 cents per copy. The latter will be sold for $3,50 a year, or 10 cents per * copy. Those who desire both papers will be supplied for J ■ $8.00 a year. j Any subscriber, whose paid subscription is still cur- f rent, may, by dropping us a postal card stating his de- j sire, obtain both editions without any extra charge what- j soever during the life of his existing subscription. Of f -* course, at the end of the subscription, it will be open to * J him to elect which edition he needs, paying for one or the j * other, or 'both as the circumstances may be, * I t AS usual the Stock Market has had its ups and doY/ns, with the ups rather more promineut than the downs. Little by little the prices of securities are being forced to a higher Ifevel, and the argument behind the process turns upon the bet¬ tor dividend prospects. Speculators are anticipating that some¬ time within the next two years several important railroads will be shifted to the class of the Burlington and St. Paul, and they are trying to make out with some certainty which of them can be counted on to 'become gilt-edged stocks. That these anticipa¬ tions will be justified there is every reason to believe; but the consummation is still remote, and in the meantime, it will bo essy to discount too quickly these pleasant expectations. There is still uo reason to suppose that the market will not remain for some months, at bottom a waiting market—although a mar¬ ket in which there are many good things to be picked up. Speculators must be prepared for patience, and must not be too fore-handed. It would be easy to build up a superstructure of values, which would again come down with a crash. rpHE past week has broken all records in the real estate ac- * tivity reported. The total number of transactions pub¬ lished in our "Gossip" columns is not far from 250 in Manhat¬ tan and 40 in the Bronx, Tho aggregate for the two boroughs is a little less than 300, which is larger even than the aggregate of the largest week last Fall or Spring. The mid-winter lull is over, and the Spi-ing trading is well underway. If it keeps anything like its present volume until the middle of June, it will keep real estate brokers and operators busier than they have ever been before. Moreover, the Spring business foreshadowed by the transactions of the week is unusually good in char¬ acter. During the Fall a very large proportion of the sales was furnished by the speculators in Bronx lots. Now the Bronx furnishes only about 20 per cent of the total, the other SO per cent being well distributed throughout the whole of Manhat- tou. There have been few large transactions; but a good demand is shown for business property, for tenements, for resi¬ dences, and for vacant lots. If no new tendencies appear in the sales, several familiar ones receive further conflrmation. Thus many sales are reported of the cheaper business prop¬ erties east of Broadway; vacant lots are active, both on the West Side and Washington Pleights; groups of small dwellings on the upper East Side and in Harlem are being turned over to ■builders, for improvement with flats; and there is no abatement of the interest in Sth Ave., and in 34th St. property. The most im¬ portant item of news respecting Sth Ave., has been the announce¬ ment that one of the largest of the remaining Broadway retail firms—Van tine's—will oven a branch on 5th Ave. This is a very, different thing from a complete removal; but it is an additional tribute to the necessity for a 5th Av. location for retail stores of a high class. Two new improvements on the avenue are also announced which indicate the pressure which the present level of values places on owners to obtain more incomo from their property. Altogether it has been an extraordinary weclc, con¬ firming the most sanguine expectations as to the Spring business. * S the weeks go by the city of New York does not seem to i*. move one inch towards a satisfactory solution of the traffic problem created by the Brooklyn and the Williamsburgh Bridge. The Borough President of Brooklyn is proceeding cheer¬ fully on the assumption that public opinion in New York will countenance the erection of a Centre and Delancey St, elevated road connecting the two bridges; but that is a dangerous as¬ sumption to make. He will find in the end that the opposition to any more elevated reads in the crowded streets down town id invincible. One of the difficulties of the situation is that pub¬ lic opinion in this city has no confidence in the present admin¬ istration of the Bridge Department, and the recommendations of that department are received with comparative indifference. ■ Public opinion is as much opposed to a temporary structure in City Hall Park as it is to a Centre St. elevated road. On the other hand the Poulson plan, which is economical both of money and space, and promises to be a complete solution of the terminal difficulties, and which the Bridge Departmnt, of course, . opposes, is constantly growing in public favor. Is there not some method of reaching a decision about this most important' matter? Has not anybody aumcient power to obtain coopera¬ tion between the several responsible authorities, and insist upon a practical solution—if only by the process of elimination? T NASMUCH as everybody seems to be agreed that a longer ■^ term for the Police Commissioner is a necessary condition of a reformed police department it may not be irrelevant to sug¬ gest that the. Police Department is not the only one which would be benefited by a permanent ofiicial at its head. The fact is that the chief of every branch of the city government, except those who are elected, should serve permanently and should be a man specially qualified by training and experience to administer the department. The reasons which are convinc¬ ing iu the case of police, would apply with equal force to the Health Department, that of Docks, Bridges, Buildings, Highways, Law. Water Supply and so on. This is the way in which the ad¬ ministrative work of all large private corporations is conducted; and the only reason why the city's business is not conducted in th,3 same way is that changes with every new mayor are sup¬ posed to he politically desirable. They certainly are not desir¬ able on any other ground. There is good reason for a constant shiftiug in the membership of the Board of Estimate, corre¬ sponding to the drift of public opinion as to which local party should be retained in power. The Board of Estimate deter¬ mines matters of general policy, and should be responsible to the voters. On the other hand the department chiefs attend merely to administrative detail. They should be responsible to the mayor or to the Borough Presidents, in the sense that they nierely carry out their superior's orders and can he removed for cause; but they should retain their positions as long as they prove to be efficient and houest public servants. Their sense of respon¬ sibility would be increased rather than diminished by, making their positions compai-atively permanent, and their chance of ef¬ ficiency would, of course also be very much increased. We are a long way still from the time when the departments will be per¬ manently organized in this manner; but as the desirability of higher administrative efficiency becomes plainer, we believe that the methods of organization and discipline now'being applied to the Police Department will with suitable modifications, be ap¬ plied to other departments as well. A N authoritative account will be found in another column A*- of the work, which the Architectural Lengue is doin'' and the purpose which it seeks to fulfill by means of its an¬ nual exhibition and its monthly dinners. What the League is at bottom seekiug to do is to increase the popular interest in architecture and the allied arts. It is an up-hill job, because although Americans do much more building than any other