The New York herald., 1870-06-09
City Improvements-A Plan for the Future
nj the Metr0pOlis.

| striking faotnre in the progress of civilization,
and their proper government involves ques-
tons in political economy which may wei
challenge the highest order OF intellect and
patriotism. Located by mere chance, as most
of the large cities Of the world have been,
their gradual developm snt has been the result
Of causes unforeseen, and therefore unprovided
for by any prearrangsd plan or general sys-
| TEN of improvements; and as an increase Of
population brings constantly increased de-
| mand for facilities of traffic and Intercourse
| there follows a constant shifting of the centres
| OF trade, and whole sections which at one
time were the most crowded marts are deserted
for localities deemed mora favorable for bus-
ness. So marked had become this condition
of things in Paris that it was deemed neces-
sary to reconstruct the entire city, aud within
the last few years, under the supervision OF
the energetic Haussmann, the Paris of yester-
day has been substituted by a magnificent
city, whose broad and stately avenues, pierre
ing through the ancient abodes Of vice and
crime obliterating the narrow and dingy
thoroughfares where the barricades of the
revolutionisis were so easily erected, replacing
| the dens of the g0min and sans cutotte with
| splendid ediices, have made Paris the finest
| and most attractive city Of the world.
| Although New York numbers scarcely as
many decades as Paris does centuries
| q similar condition of affairs exists
here, owing to the wonderful aud rapid
| growth OF the city. While in the
central portion of the island, having for its
immediate focus our beautiful Park, clothed in
all its emerald beauty, ample provision has
been made for the future in the wide boule-
Yards and avenues and streets which before
many years will be lined with the palatial
residences of our wealthy citizens, no well
| digested plan has been prepared for renovat-
| ing the older city, at the lower end Of the
island, or providing for the no less important
wants of the upper section contiguous to the
| Harlem river.
| The old city, lying below Fourte enth street,
will soon be exclusively devoted to the whole
sale trade, leaving for the retail business
upper Broadway and the avenues. In the up
ward movement of the Wholesale warehouses
the value of property in many of the down
town streets. If by proper system Of i'm
provement this value can be restored, and in
ducements thus be offered to property owners
to improve their property by the erection of
suitable buildings, great change will be ef-
| fected, especially in Washington, greenwich
and West streets, which now present most
| wretched and dilapidated appearance To ac-
complish this three things are necessary to be
done-the removal of Washington Market,
the removal of the emigrant depot from
Castle Garden and the extension Of the west
side railways to the Battery.
Washington Market, inside and outside, and
| in all its surroundings, is burning disgrace
| and an offence against common decency that
ought not to be tolerated in a civilized
community for twenty-four hours. The
| human beings that crawl around in its
slime seem more like vermin in a
putrid carcass than rational creatures 1t is
as utterly impossible for decent food to come
out of f.such place as for men of self-respect to
| do business in it. 1t is literally cancer on
which is occupied by the egg and poultry
peddling Jerseymen should be replaced by
fine stone wharves and piers and the Euro
pean steamship lines which they have driven
to the Jersey shore should be recalled to fitting
| accommodations at our own wharves. 1t seems
| up our shipping accommodations to poultry
dealers from New Jersey, and sent over there
three great lines of European steamships-the
Cunard, Hamburg and Bremen lines. The
present location of the emigrant depot at
Castle Garden has not only destroyed the use
part of Greenwich and Washington streets
into emigrant boarding houses What the
cellars are used for is more questionable. The
proper place for an emigrant depot is Bedloe's
Island, where every facility can be afforded
for the necessary distribution of emigrants
and their baggage directly to the railway
depots by water. An arrangement could GER
tainly be made with the general government
for the use of that island in time Of peace for
such purpose. In fact, the whole matter Of
immigration belongs more properly to the
general government; at any rate some change
in the location of the depot should be made
at once. When this is done and the Battery
devoted to its legitimate uses as a peoples
park the whole aspect of that part of the city
will change; and large hotel erected
on State street, facing the Battery, would,
we should think, be more attractive tt
our country friends than the caravansaries ii
Cortlandt street and elsewhere down town
more especially if the west side street railways
run their cars to the Battery. This last is thu
great want of that part Of the city-facilitiel
for business men to get up town.
With regard to the upper end of the islant
there can be no question that the Legitimate
and ultimate locality Of the grain and lumbe