The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-02-19
Things that Are Nobody's Business
suggestions TO tho Ma or.

Suggextfons to tho Ma yor.
Ely what splendid reputation he might
earn for himself and how much good he
might confer upon his fellow citizens by
close attention to trifes. Our aim was to.
show also that he need not waste his time
in grand schemes of reform if he sought to
improve the administration of city affairs
| 1t is with the same object that We now wish
to call his attention to the numberless mat
tiers that seem to be nobody's business
under our system of municipal government
If he will only make these matters his
special business we promise him a career of
usefulness which will be rewarded by last
ing fame.
The Common Council has from time to
time enacted ordinances for the regulation
of public traffic in the streets, for the abate-
ment of nuisances and the suppression of
disorders of various kinds Yet we suffer
just as much at present from i'll regulated
street traffic, from dangerous nuisances and
from social disorders as if we never had
legislative department clothed with any
authority by law, Why? Because it be-
came nobody's business TO see that the
proper officials carried out the pro-
visions of the municipal laws, and no.
body volunteered to do so. Whose business
is it, for instance, to compel the horse car
companies to obey the ordinance of the
Common Council recently passed regarding
the increased comfort of the street cars?
We venture to assert that there is not the
least probability that any attention will be
paid by the car companies to that order un-
less somebody in authority makes it his bust
ness to enforce it. 1t is now some weeks
since tho farcial ordinance was passed,
and yet the scientific Board of III Health
has not yet, perhaps, satisfied itself whether
or not clean straw is more hurtful than cold
feet. BY the time that we are ready for our
summer clothing this wonderful Board
Police Department sold garbage to con-
tractors for filling uptown lots. and it
became the business of nobody in the
department to see what was done with
the vile compost. The Health Department
did not interfere. 1t was none of its bust
ness what was done by or under the Police
Department. But in the meantime the hor-
rible work went on, endangering the lives of
large community. In like manner it was
nobodys business to investigate the causes
of the foulness Of the Croton water last fall
and it was not until the HERALD called pub
lie attention to the dangerous condition Of
the water supply that any notice was taken
1T by the Department of Public Works.
When at another time the engineer of the
department deemed it necessary to inspect
the boilers of the High Bridge pumping en-
gines it was apparently not considered any
body's business to notify the public when
the water was to be cut off and turned on
again, and the results were water famine
and deluge up town.
Surely some official jurisdiction must ex-
tend over the navigation of the Hudson and
East rivers within the metropolitan limits;
yet we hear every day of ferryboat collisions,
steamboat racing and other evidences Of the
absence Of all restraint on malicious and
reckless persons engaged in our river SER
vice. Whose business is it to look after
these and prevent such outrages against
public safety? We imagine that the author
ity which issues ferry licenses and grants
ferry leases can regulate the manner in
which the transportation of passengers shall
be managed and rendered free from danger.
When new buildings are being erected and
the streets and sidewalks are encountered
with piles of material; when lime is Stacked
and mortar made in the open thoroughfares.
covering passers-by with clouds of dust, we
are at loss to know whose business it is to
protect the public from such outrages. Is it
the Department of Buildings or that of Pub
lie Works, the Bureau of Encumbrances, the
Health Department, the Park Department,
north of Fourteenth street? Is it possible
that there is no redress for persons
suffering inconvenience or injury from
this nuisance? To whom must we appeal?
If heavy fall of snow occurs and the horse |
car companies clear their tracks for their
own convenience by heaping the snow into
the cutters and along the sidewalks until all
chance of its removal by melting and drain
age is destroyed, whose business is it to in
terfere and compel these corporations to re-
move the snow from the street, or at least to
pay some part of the cost Of doing SO? Has
any department the necessary authority to
give us free streets, and if So why are the
thoroughfares of New York encountered to-
day by the snow that fell in December and
the early part of January? 1t is possible to
enumerate hundreds of instances in which
the public suffers from the neglect of its in
terests because it is nobody's business to
attend to them. This neglect gives us filthy
streets, encountered sidewalks, bad pave
ments, defective drainage. 1t causes a waste
of water and produces water famines. 1t
permits extortions by cab drivers and nm
;.,zolo.at I'd Of aaiaLlic riahtc h,. hareo