Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-03-09
ABOUT THE STREETS.
The First Street People Talk
About Grades.
AN INTERESTING DISCUSSION
A Union Pacific RumOr-Other News
of More Than Ordinary
Importance.


street, west of Broadway, and on the in
tersecting streets within one block, be-
tween Broadway and Besudry avenue,
met at the rooms of the Board of Trade
last night for the purpose of providing |
ways and means for opening First street,
between the points named, Sin accord
ance with an agreement heretofore made |
with the property owners, and duly |
signed by very large majority which |
agreement was duly presented to the
Honorable Council of the City of Los
Angeles, and which seems to have been
lost sight of, and no attention paid
thereto"
Mr.. s. B. Lewis, president of the
Board of Trade, was unanimously elected
chairman of the meeting, and Mr.. @. H.
Connell oficiated as secretary.
The object of the meeting having been
stated, suggestions we're invited from the
property present as to the best
means of accomplishing the desire of
the meeting in having First street
graded, and to bring such influence upon
the members OF the Council as would at
least secure hearing in the matter.
Attorney o. 0. Trantum made a lengthy
Grafton in favor of traffic grade, but
vigorously opposed the absurd notion OF
cutting down the hills in order to com.
pete with the thousands of acres of level
land in the plains round the city. He
argued that people like MIR. L. L. Brad
bury chose the hills in preference to the
valleys as residence sites, and paid
prices in proportion to the altitude of the
hills for such sites; that in time this
very hill country, which everyone was
now crying down, would be the crowning
glory of the city, and that Nature, or
God, or both of them created them for
that special purpose. lie said that a
petition had been sent to the Council,
asking it to give the property
owners traffic grade, but that
| it had been unheeded. The
petition had been held back until the
Council could attach to it a gigantic
scheme of connecting the West Enders
with the city by means of tunnel
| through Second street. He maintained
| that First street could not be opened to a
traffic grade" because the property ad-
joining it could not bear the expense, and
| that the expense of tunneling Second
street would cost at least double the esti-
mated amount of 100000. He stated
that Eaton's estimate would turn out to
| be like that of his Ballona outfall sewer
at least so per cent. short. He said
that it ought to be the sense of the meet
| ing to face the music and say to the
Council, once for all, "Keep your hands
off," He said that the hills which it was
now proposed to cut down or tunnel had
stood as they were for ages, and would
remain untunneled, in his opinion, long
after those men had ''turned up
their toes to the daisies" This
was not the proper time to tunnel
Second etreet merely to benefit small
percentage of property owners on the
corner of Second and Spring streets. The
speaker and Contractor j. F. Donegan
became involved in controversy about
the grading of portion of Flower street
at this juncture, but Mr.. j. H. Dock.
weller rose to point Of order and asked
that the five-minute rule of parliamen-
tary usage be enforced upon the gentle
man. The chair, however, allowed Mr..
Trantum to proceed, and at the conclu-
sion of his defamation in favor of the
grading of First street as petitioned for,
Mr.. j. Robson moved that it be the sense
of the meeting that the Council estab-
lish grade in conformity with the petit
ton. Mr.. ]. II. Dockweiler vigorously
opposed the projected grade Of one in
ten, on behalf of the owners of
the block between Broadway and Hill
streets, and objected to the idea OF
being called upon to pay the same per-
centage OF assessment as the residents OF
First street between Olive and Grand
avenue. He also objected tospolling the
cross streets with the rise of six feet at
the crossings, as proposed, merely to
gain two feet in q block. Contractor
Donegan informed the meeting that be.
fore any new grade was established he
wanted to know whether contractor had
any rights, as he already had contract
for the grading of First street from Grand
avenue to Broadway, and he was not CO.
ing to lose about SIS 900 already put in
without struggle. Mr.. w. w. Robin
son said that change of grade would
not affect Donegan, and the chair ruled
that the meeting was not called
for the purpose of considering
Donegan's rights, as that was a
matter for the courts to decide, whereupon
Mr.. Donegan subsided. A lengthy de.
bate ensued, in which Messrs. Trantum
Biles, Robson, Dockweiler, Walker, Rob-
inson, Blanchard, L. N. Breed and Con-
nell took part, and at its close the motion
of Mr.. Robson was put and carried.
Mr.. Robson's motion that the chair
appoint committee of three to carry out
the objects of the resolution by present
ing it in proper shape to the Council, also
prevailed, and Messrs. J. Robson, 4. T.
Wright and Robert Steere were appointed
as such committee. A collection was
then taken up to defray the expenses of
the meeting, and an adjournment was
made.
A Union Pacific RumOr.
A rumor was in circulation yesterday