The record-union., 1891-08-20
SOME PLAIN TRUTHS FOR LOCAL
DIGESTION.

DIGESTION.
A potential reason why the Q-street
grant to the electric railway should be
made is that it will open up a very large
area Of property to thick settlement, that
without it must for many years remain
but partially developed. This area, lying
upon the south, is all within the city
limits and its boundaries embrace almost
as much territory as the already i'm
proved and occupied sections.
Now the proposition is, simply and
plainly, to bring all this property upon
the assessment roll at higher valuation
and thus to lessen taxation. 1t is esti-
mated by good judges that the north part
OF this south territory will be enhanced
in value by fifty per cent. by reason of
the proposed railway construction. The
company will, therefore, be actually Gre
ating values for the city, precisely as all
diminution of distance between outlying
and market sections by rapid transit al
ways does. This truth has been exempIi-
fed in every city in the Union where
electric, elevated, cable and other rapid
transit roads have been built into sparsely
settled sections.
The inacceSsibility of region usually
has more to do with its depressed values
than any other factor Let the road be
built out @ street, and it will amount to
guarantee of that or some other line be-
ing early constructed into, and up and
down the heart Of the region between r
and streets. That is as certain to result
as darkness succeeds daylight. This as
surance will from the very outset give
increased activity to land interests in all
that region. In the main, the sec
ton so far as occupied is
populated by people of very
modest means; some few blocks are
owned by capitalists, but the vast major
ity of the lots will become the homes of
those of limited means. In that direction
mainly can the city find speedy and
healthful growth, and this will begin the
moment line of street railway along its
border is constructed, and @ street is
practically its northern limit.
The O-street line of street railway oper-
ated in precisely that way when it was
constructed few years ago and brought
all the region from NJ to p streets, east Of
Twelfth, into new value. The result is
that the section is to-day as thickly
settled as any in the city, and within it
we find the most beautiful homes of Sac
ramento and the best land values.
The region upon which the Q-street
line viii operate lies south of that street;
north of it no new influence will be felt,
and therefore there will be no real rivalry
between the new and existing lines. 1t
may not be generally known, but it is a
fact nevertheless that the area of which
we are speaking is especially salubrious.
Its health record is superior. 1t first re-
ceives the south breezes, and it is in
largest part higher than the north and
west portions of the city.
There are, therefore, two overwhelm-
ingly powerful reasons why the grant
that has been asked for should be allowed
that it viii lessen taxation, and that it
will afford those who desire to possess
small and modest home plats opportu-
nifty to build, which is now denied them.
These alone ought to be sufficient to out
weigh any possible objections to graQting
the electric company the right to build
the feeder to its line.
In itself that construction viii be bene-
fetal to the city, because to permit it is
to promote industry and interest capital
more and more in Sacramento's devel-
opment. If the company has large pos
sessions just without the city that escape
municipal taxation, in the name of rea-
son let us avail Of its proposition to ere
ate infinitely greater values within the
city, as we have shown.
In all this matter the RECoRD-U UNION
has but the prosperity and highest good
of the city at heart. 1t has neither friends
to reward, enemies to punish nor axes to
grind. 1t champions the cause of the
asked for grant unsolicited and unad-
vised, save by its observation, judgment
and experience. 1t has never yet ill-ad-
vised public movement, or pushed a
claim without invincible merit Its sole
aim in local matters is TO conserve the
greatest good of the city in which it has
its existence. The ideas this journal
advances in this matter of the proposed
railway grant appear to it to be unan-
swerable, and that refusal of the fran
chise would be suicidal and the rejection
of economic propositions that the COM
monest business sense approves.
1t is not a question of this, that or the
other road: of the number OF passengers