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Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 101, no. 2605: Articles]: February 16, 1918

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REAL ESTATE AND (Copyright. 1917, by Tbe Record and Guide Co.) NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 16, 1918 WAREHOUSE CAPACITY MUST BE INCREASED Proper Facilities for Reserves of Food, Fuel and Materials Necessary—Coal and Milk Situations Similar By Hon. TRAVIS H. WHITNEY, Public Service Commissioner NEW YORK CITY in many ways is the victim of its advantages. It embraces one of the most wonderful natural harbors in the world, with access through the Narrows and Long Island Sound and with the great Hudson River stretching away to the northward, with canal connections to the Great Lakes. Its early advantages, arising from such natural water facilities, like¬ wise caused a radiation of railroads out¬ ward from it to every part of the Union. Shipping has developed here, industries have grown up, population has increased until now there are at least seven mil¬ lion people within the Metropolitan area. This population must have food upon which to live and material upon which to work in enormous quantities. Its residents cannot continue to work nor can they continue to live in any com¬ fort if there is not a constant supply of necessities, such as food, coal, raw and manufactured materials. What has been done to assure a continuous supply of such? I do not know of a more striking or exact way to describe the thoughtless¬ ness of the city in respect to an adequate supply of food and material than to say that it is on a milk basis. That is to say, the population of seven million of people consumes an enormous quantity of milk, which, because of its highly perishable nature, must be brought in day by day from an area that extends as far west as Ohio. If a winter storm or a wreck or other un¬ toward accident ties up an important railroad for a day the milk supply of the city is immediately interrupted. Perhaps this condition as to milk cannot be improved upon ; yet because improve¬ ment is not possible as to the milk supply is no reason why the milk system should be taken as a model for all the other supplies of the city, and yet, strange as it may seem, there are no systematic methods of insuring a supply of necessities for the city over even a reasonable period of time. Cer¬ tain private establishments and certain groups of dealers do place articles of food, such as eggs and chickens, in cold storage, so that, with respect to these, there are at times a considerable quantity of supplies in the storage houses in the Metropolitan area. The situation in respect to coal is nearly that of milk. The greater per¬ centage of the population live in flat or apartment houses, where, because of the high price of land and the cost of build¬ ing, less and less space is devoted to storage purposes, either for food sup¬ plies stored by the tenants or where the landlord may store an adequate supply of fuel. Certain storage space is pro¬ vided, and coal dealers are depended upon for furnishing of additional coal at intervals during the winter. The coal dealers in turn have storage space to a limited extent, and depend in their turn upon regularity of shipments by the coal mines and over the railroads. During the past summer a great cam¬ paign was carried on to induce house¬ wives to can or preserve vegetables and fruits for winter use. If every house¬ keeper in New York City ^anned for winter use the average amoun* of vege¬ tables or fruit usually put ul by the woman in a small town or country, where would such food supplies be stored in the average flat or apartment house? Long ago the city found that private enterprise could not be relied upon to develop transportation within the city adequately and comprehensively to care for the growth of the city, either in respect to relieving actually existing congested transportation or to develop systematically the outlying portions of the city. The city therefore had to enter the transportation field, and has so far invested more than $200,000,000 in rapid transit lines. The great difficulty and the lack of progress is that, great as is the investment of the city, ten or fifteen years of valuable time was lost, so that when the lines now under construction are completed the state of congestion will be nearly as bad as it was when the dual system was begun. In other words, the dual system should have been completed ten years ago and we should now have under construction extensive additions to it. I do not mean, however, to go into a discussion of transportation other than to point out that because it was not being adequately developed by private enterprise the pub¬ lic had to go into the transportation business. Warehouse and Storage Facilities. Likewise the public must go into the business of proper warehousing and storage facilities to the end that the population of this great city shall never be short of food or fuel or material with which to carry on its great industries. When I speak of the public of New York City I mean in realty the Metropolitan area; that is to say, not only New York City proper, but that portion of New Jersey which constitutes a part of the natural city. The west side of the Hud¬ son, Newark Bay and the Meadows must be developed as a part of the whole area, just as the east side of the Hudson, the Brooklyn waterfront and Jamaica and Flushing Bays should be developed with piers and dock facilities, industrial buildings and connecting rail¬ road facilities. It is fortunate that with the neces¬ sities of the present winter emphasizing the problems of the city the Legislatures of New York and New Jersey last winter provided for a Joint Port Inter¬ state Commission, of which Hon. Wil¬ liam R. Willcox is the chairman. That commission has the opportunity to rec¬ ommend on a broad scale a compre¬ hensive development of the great natural opportunities that exist on both sides of the Hudson River, and upon which the city and the municipalities of New Jersey, the States of New York and New Jersey and the National Government can cooperate. Moreover, their co¬ operation is necessary, for literally hun¬ dreds of millions of dollars should be spent in the development of proper rail¬ roads, port terminals, warehouses, storage and industrial buildings. It may be said that an opportunity was presented in the proposed agree¬ ment between the New York Central Railroad Company and the late Board of Estimate for the creation of ware¬ houses and industrial buildings along the west side of Manhattan, which would care more adequately for the necessities of the city. It is true that that proposed agreement gave the opportunity and the right to the New York Central Railroad Company to develop industrial buildings and ware¬ houses from Canal street to 60th street, on both sides of the proposed right of way. My criticism, however, of that agreement on that point was that, although the company was given the right and opportunity to invest in such development, it was not put under the obligation so to do. That is to say, the company was given the right, but there was no provision in the agreement whereby the company must, within a given time, or at any time, do any of the things in respect to industrial or warehouse buildings that were urged as one of the reasons in favor of the agree¬ ment. Had that agreement been signed the perpetual rights granted to the New York Central would have stood as a Chinese wall along the west side of Manhattan against access to Manhattan by the New Jersey railroads, and at the same time the company would have chosen its own time to afford any development for the city whatever. It was perhaps fortunate for the city that that agreement was defeated, even from the point of view of delay, for there is now the opportunity of a com¬ prehensive plan whereby there shall be, from at least 60th street southward, a method of transportation accessible to all railroads and connecting with piers and docks and with sites for warehouses and industrial buildings. In respect to the coal situation, the city, as I have stated, has already entered the transportation field, and is in partnership with the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and the New York Municipal Railway Corporation in the dual contracts. It is essential to the life of the city that these two rapid transit systems shall be in continuous operation, yet the Interborough . Com¬ pany, which consumes more than 2,500 tons of coal a day, has storage capacity in its power houses of only 11,000 tons, which is less than a week's supply. The Brooklyn company, which consumes about 1,500 tons a day, has a storage capacity for a somewhat longer period. Neither of them has a storage capacity adequate for an unusual period. It seems, therefore, only a proper precau¬ tion with the dual system, upon which the city and the companies have and are spending more than $350,000,000, to have included as a part of that system an adequate coal reserve. An additional million dollars would afford storage capacity within the city to the extent perhaps of 500,000 tons. Such a reserve would be adequate in and by itself for nearly four months. Such a situation would free the railroads in an emer¬ gency like the present of the necessity of bringing in daily some 4,000 tons for the rapid transit systems of the city. The city now has an adequate water supply. In passenger transportation it is nearing the completion of the dual system, although that system must undergo constant expansion. It has liardly made a start on the third and fourth great problems which confront it; namely, proper harbor development and proper facilities for reserves of food, fuel and materials. RECORD AND GVIDB IS IN ITS FIFTIETH YEAR OF CONTINUOUS PUBLICATION.