Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1857-03-14

The rAird street Grade.
To the Honorable Members Of ths Common
CouHcl: ss8 ssaas.
GENTLEMEN I'll learn that you purpose to acl
to day upon the "Third Street Grads," and,
having the greatest oon6dence in the sincerity Of
your intentions, aud desiring to lay before your
honorable body and the people whom you repre-
sent, u few facts for confederation, /, - one Of
your constituents, respectfully address you.
,n In deciding upon measure 90 important and
extraordinary in it's character a. the adoption Of
tho 'Heavy Grade cutting down The principal
street Of the city Twelve feetEone question only
presents itself prominently before us Is IT Ne.
cxssARY? This interrogatory finds its answer in
the solution of the primary one: WIN the pos
sible benefits exceed the certain cost Let us see
1t will provide for q more gradual decline Of
hobart street from Third to the Leyee. It will
give employment to few hundred laborers, who
can find plenty to do elsewhere. It will mako q
straight line, out of a street now gently undula-
ting, and-what else will it do2 Enough else
1t will make it an absolute necessity to exosvate
and ssgrade' in all oother intersecting streets,
thereby mourning debt of few extra thousands
for the city to shoulder. It will leave all the
stone and brick stores, and the commodious bust
ness houses of Third Street, (the finest buildings
in the city, high and dry above terra .6rma ex-
tending to the occupants the alternative of eth
er vacating the premises or building . base
ment down about twelve feet, to accommodate
the 'sgrade." 1t will lay an embargo on all the
business of the street-except the work Of the
blasters. by making it dangerous for citizens to
patronize the stores along tho line of the "im-
provement." It will ruin many Of the merchants
on the invaded street, by causing an utter de-
rangement and suspension of business. 1t will
levy an enormous tax upon the city, and throw a
burden ten times greater upon the individual
property-holders and, after all, do in reality no
substantial good. The s'two foot grade,'' which
the citizens do not protest against if found prac
tieable, will provide for an easy ascent of hobart
street from the Levee. =
On the one hand, then, we have questionable
accession of beauty and cloim of material con-
venience which must be decided by unborn gen.
erations. On the other hand, is an enormous
expenditure of public money, a more enormous
destruction of property and an invasion of indi-
vidual rights, coupled with inconvenience, dam
ger, prostration and ruin. Gentlemen Councillors
are the scales even?
Then, perhaps, even the claim of increased
beauty may not be so apparent. Utility is the
legitimate standard of beauty. Hogarth's curve
may be very graceful, sometimes, but round
door would be very ungraceful, because it would
be very inconvenient. So, q geometrical straight
line may relieve the whrl of an endless confu-
sion, yet doubt whether any additional beauty
would be added to Third Street, were this (very)
dwelling ''heavy grade" adopted, and the stores
placed in such condition that customers must
either climb fight of stairs, or descend precipi-
lately into the cellar! Who sees anything par
ticularly convenient or surprisingly beautiful, in
this state of things? aa /
Again, Messrs. Councillors! who are these men
to whom your decisive action of to-day may
prove so fatal ? They are the bone and sinew Of
our city linen who, with nothing but their own
industry, enterprise and skill, have struggled and
are still struggling to retain competence
headed, hard-6sted men, who are jealous of their
hard-earned store, and. defenders of the rights of
ali-men who are rearing the thriving city Of
their abolition into the full sun-blaze of vigor-
Gus and well-developed maturity, and who
have given her whatever creditable reputation
she possesses abroad. These are the men whom
it is proposed to PROSTATE and palsy, by gigan-
tic scheme of speculation! Think of it, at least
twice, before you act stTEaz
Why is Third street more valuable than Fourth
Fourth than SEVENTH Seventh than the streets
on the bluff? Simply because each, in its nu-
merical order, possesses commercial centrally.
And here, in the very focus Of the converging in
terests of the city-and hence in the centre Of
the mercantile business of the Territory-here
where many of our elf-dependent merchants are
battling with tremendous ground rents, heavy
taxes and moderate sales. striving to rise above
the malicious twirls of Fortunes wheel-this is
the place it is proposed to invade; these are the
men who are to be perplexed with year of dis
traction and tumultbefore their very doors, and
'scrushed out" under the heel Of soulless mo-
nopoly! Many of these merchants, perhaps three
fourths, do not own the ground their buildings
stand on. They have leased the lots from the
proprietoRs, and erected thereon suitable houses
for theprosecution Of their business. Now, GEN
tlemen Of the Council, you propose to take Of
twelve feet of the most frequented street of the
city, and leave the buildings on stills Some Of
our merchants have already suspended payments
capable, worthy contemplating men -overwhelm-
ed by large taxes and enormous rents, and dis
appointed by the vacillating, unreliable patron
age ola new town. Adopt this "heavy grade''
and leave the Dry Goods and Provision Store.
elevated in mid-air, accessible only by fight of
stairs, and you will discover-but alas, too latel
that while you perhaps increase the symmetry
of the streets, you cripple and palsy the CONNER
cial interests of the citythat, while you are lev
cling the road, you are leveling the merchants
also! ssa /
Again: the prosperity of . growing city like
st. Paul, rests not half so much on her own pro-
ductive wealth, as on the absorption of strength
and capital from abroad. It is Q channel Of in
dpstrial transit; busy avenue of commerce; q
municipal strait, between whose narrow shores
flow the life, energy and wealth Of The brimmine
East into the great Pacific Ocean Of Western Op.
portunity. and through which the billovs of :
future harvest shall roll back again, to break il
golden ripples Of Plenty on the Atlantic shore
We must absorb and assimilste our wealth-rnot
manufacture it. 1t becomes Us then to open and
improve the channels Of communication to thu
country around rs, rather than to 90 into con.
vulsions over gentle slope, and turn the city
upside down for q very doubtful good
Build bridge to West St. Paul, and facilitats
our meana of travail ;nto Dakot. coonAxr. coy,