The morning call., 1890-09-26
PUBLIC HIGHWAYS.
South San Francisco Streets Will
Be Renamed.
TIE Federation of Improvement Cubs Asks
That Market Street Be Extended
In a Straight Line.

Marsden Manson, Engineer of the Harbor
c commission, appeared before the Street
Committee of the Board of Supervisors yes
terday morning to speak Of the bad condi-
ton of certain streets on the water front,
char acterizing some of them as simply i'm
passibe. others as in very wretched con-
dition, and all burning disgrace to the
city.
The Harbor Commission had directed
him to take some steps toward their i'm
provement and that was his purpose in
coming before the committee. He would
make beginning, he said, by soliciting the
aid of the Supervisors for the Improvement
of Howard, Folsom, Harrison and Main
streets, where they terminated on the
water front.
MIR. Manson maintaine ed that transporta-
ton had been alarmingly Interrupted and
blockaded by private individuals in using
the unimproved streets and the consequence
is that the city is losing great deal OF COM
merce.
THE LAW is n OF CLEAR.
Clerk Russell called attention to the fact
thar the streets had been neglected because
the law providing for the control OF the
water front streets is not clear. remedy
Could only be found in enactlng new law.
Mr.. Russell further stated that the city had
uUt llOuty tuOuSu ~ iuplOfO tbO n6tci
front streets The amount appropriated for
the Street Department is insufficient. and
that Is due to the fact that political c0nYen-
tons would not permit the raising OF suffi
Gent amount OF money.
MIR. Manson replied that while it is the
duty of the city to keep the streets in repair,
he was confident that not $500 had been eX-
pended on the alter front streets in eight
years.
1t was finally arranged to hold a confer
n.,l L. nr-tNA
Commission next Tuesday morning at 10
o'clock.
is IT AN OPEN STREET?
Sydney Smith ana Thomas Magee asked
to have Stalios alley, off Suffer street, be-
tween Hyde ard Larkin. eXDuDged from the
Sabina fleetwood had been paying taxes on
it for twenty years, and although 1t had
been closed all that time, it was a cloud On
her title
Kingwell moved TO recommend that it be
eXpunged.
Barry said that the City Attorney had de-
Glazed that II Is public street, and he
thought il advisable TO lay the matter over
for further consideration.
The committee was next fairly beSieged
by property-owners interested i'll the estab-
Gshment of the grade of Seventeenth street.
One faction, represented by BehreDd Joost
and others, wanted one kind OF grade, and
another faction, represented by DIR. Merritt
and others, declared that JoOSts grade meant
confiScation of their property. Joost replied
that out of the 1900 front feet concerned in
the grade, those objecting represented only
500 feet.
j. Ii. Bartlett said that the Federated In
proyenent Clubs Endorsed the grade pro-
posed by Joest The grade wanted by the
proteStants is a l4-per-cent grade and would
lnJure the whole street.
VIRTUAL CoNFISCATIoN URGED.
Denis Kearney, one of committee ap-
pointed by the Seventeenth-street Club,
said that cut is proposed to be made on
Clara avenue and Seventeenth street of
thllty-Seyen feet, which would be combs
cation Of land.
The rear of my lot is just forty feet
higher than the front and the hill back of me
is still 100 feet higher. Adopt this grade
and you confscate the property of all these
| poor men, who bought these lots year
SO ago on the inSialment plan. There are
| some thirty or more of them who do not
| know anything about this scheme, and it is
only fair that they should be notified that a
proposition is on foot which involves their
| holdings.
He protested against the interference of
outsiders, saying that this is a simple matter
between the property-owners affected and
the committee.
Mr. Bartlett. in reply, gave to understand
that the federated clubs represented 5000
property-owners, who would not be sup
pressed by 1000 Denis kearneys.
The committee decided to postpone the
matter one month 10 let the opposing fac
tions agree. if they could.
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO NAMES.
For long time the residents of South
San Francisco have been Inconvenience by
the oddly named streets in that section.
Ten years ago or Whereabouts they were all
changed from lettered streets running one
way and numbered avenues intersecting.
1t " as tine result of more or less inconveni-
and cOnflIS i0n a the DOStaI 1ppl rtmpnt
and the whole scheme, originated and gener-
aled by the postal department, passed
through the board to final action before
the residents had any idea that change
was contemplated.
If the catalogue of geographical names
from Tinbuctoo to Kamchatka had been
canyassed more outlandiSh collection could
not have been made, and the result has been
in streets named Kaskaskia, Algeria, Mani
toba, Tallapoosa, Teneriffe, Honduras, Car
thagena, Nicaragua Yncatan Paraguay,
Monongahela, YaZoo, VassalborO, SusQue-
hanna, Lahaina, Tombgbee, Barneveld, Ven
ezuela, MalquesaS, Montenegro, Guada-
| loupe, Uruguay, Martinique, To0ago,. Bar
| BADGES, Guiana, Malacea, Dominica, Mauri-
titus, Gibraltar, Madagascar and others too
numerous to meHtion.
The residents were dismayed when they
| learned what had been done, but instead Of
raising the protest that the new names
would justify, simply refused to recognize
| them and chung to the old names. The re-
suit has been that the great jargon OF
! sounds is never heard and the names are
nowhere to be found except on the official
maps.
NURsED FOR YEARS.
For many years the residents Of South
San Francisco have nursed the scheme of
having the old names replaced, simply pre-
fixing or annexing the word south as to
distinguish them from the streets and ave
nues Of the Park districts. A petition con-
in in n M nf nj
senled asking the board to make the
change, and yesterday a deputation repre-
senting tile Federated improvement Clubs
appeared before the committee in support of
it.
Chairman Bingham asked why it was that
ten years had been allowed to pass without
protest, and the project only set in motion
at this late day.
The answer was that the change had been
proposed time and again, but never passed.
The committee saw the ridiculous list Of
names, and thought the petition very well
founded. 1t will recommend the change,
and order the usual resolution of intention
framed.
MARKET STREET EXTENSION.
The Market-street extension case was
again called up, somewhat in the manner of
side dish, however, and the Federated In
provement Clubs protested against the
scheme to extend that thoroughfare in de-
fected course southerly from its present ter
minus.
Mr.. Bartlett, representing the federation,
argued that it would be little less than ca
lamIty for the city to pursue any course that
would bar it from obtaining the right of way
on the straight line The property-ownerS,
he said, had no objection whatever to the
extension of Market street anywhere or in
any direction, but they would protest to the
last against any extension or any course
that would bar the city from securing the
right OF way in direct line to and over one
OF the Twin Peaks. The city would not be
asked to build the road-the property-own-
ers would DO that. Indeed, nothing more
would be asked of the city than to eecure
the right of way. Nothing should ever be
done 10 mar the beauty and uniformity of