The Portland daily press., 1892-06-11
THICKLY POPULATED.
A Spot in New York City that is Very
Densely Settled.

Nothing Like It Anywhere-Ne Other
Place Earth Eas So 1Iany Inhab-
itants in Ono Square EE.Ie-There Are
$4,000 People Living in This Section.
One square mile Of New York city's
area, inclusive Of streets and public
squares, has population of moro than
B5O,00o. Tt is possible to plot on the
map an irregular district covering a
territory Of a square mile which Will
have population of half million, but
to do that one would have to zigzag
over the map, picking out thickly popu-
lated blocks. 1t is not possible to plot
an area with population of more than
400, 600 living in compact and contigu-
GUS territory. That population of more
than 35o,0oo to square mile is not ex-
ceeded anywhere else. Tt is the most
thickiy populated spot ON the earth.
The large population is possible be-
cause the builders and real estate own
ers OF New York are more modern and
more inventive than those in European
cities The densely populated tenements
IN New York are not usually the property
Of estates, handed down from generation
to generation, Like the property of the
Astors and the Duke Of Westminster
the largest real estate owner in London.
No man can manage large block Of
tenement property SO well as several
small owners can. He will not get
much revenue from it, and he will not
see that 1t is filed with tenants; neither
will heimproye it SO promptly.
The most thickly populated quarter
Of New York. is owned by hundreds OF
men and many comparatively small es-
tates. The owners, or agents, give their
whole time to the management Of prop
erty, and whenever they can get rate
of income or 2per cent. higher they
viii tear down an old building and put
up the modern tenement in its stead.
They cannot afford to let their land lie
idle and pay their taxes and assessments
on it for its prospective profits, as do
the large landowners of Manhattan
island. Many of the owners have bought
tenements with their savings in thesame
neighborhood where they made their
money. The tax rolls show that large
share Of the tenement property is owned
by men of foreign names and birth who
eame to New York as poor immigrants
and now own the property where more
recent immigrants live, and where the
owners store as many of them as they
can and charge as much rent as they
can get.
No known form Of habitation will
hold more people than the lower class
lodging houses and cheap tenements on
the east side and the west side between
Ninth and Twelfth avenues. Neither
Chinatown, in San Francisco, the low
est quarters of an Asiatic city, nor the
slums Of London or Paris will hold SO
many people to the acre, because three
and four story buildings are compare
lively rare in either place, while a five
story tenement is seldom known. In
the poorer quarters of London the own
ers spend little money on improvements
when they are not compelled to by the
health authorities, because any expen-
diture for improvements would have to
come out Of their income at first, and
they do notwant their incomes curtailed.
The most denssly populated square
mile in New York does not include Five
Points and Chinatown. 1t might be
made to zigzag over to the Tombs, TAX
ing IN Pell and Dover streets, the Null
berry bend and Baxter bay, but Para
disc park, the Tombs, the new criminal
court house, and the numerous inter-
secting streets in that neighborhood
take up SO much of the space that the
section is not so thickly populated as
that near" Stanton and Riyington streets,
where Avenue g begins, and down Pitt,
Ridge, Essex, Ludlow and the other
east side streets which stop at Houston
street. Close by Houston street and
Avenue @ isthe most thickly settled
block, with a rate of population of more
than million to the mile.
The most ti1ickly populated square
mile includes the whole Of the Eighth
assembly district, all of the Twelfth ex-
cept the three election districts along the
water front, all Of the Sixth west Of
Lewis street, all Of the Fourth except
the FIVE districts along the East river,
and all of the Tenth and Fourteenth ex-
cept the ten election districts between
Second avenue and the Bowery and
Third avenue. 1t includes Tompkins
square, which is as large as three avenue
blocks and has no population, the small
squares at the intersections Of Canal
street and the large manufactures. The
exact boundaries are Fourteenth street,
Second avenue, Houston street, the Be
cry, Catharine street, Cherry streeo,
jackson street, Grand street for block
Sixth street fer a short block, and Av
nue. D back to Fourteenth street.
In that district, not counting the
squares and places at the intersections
or diagonal streets, are 228 blocks, most
of them small blocks, the whole averag-
ing less than 500 feet ono way by 200
feet the other way; 81 in the Fourteenth
district, "a in the Twelfth, 80 in the
Tenth, 58 in the Eighth, 43 in the Sixth,
42 in the Fourth. The popuIation Of