The herald., 1895-05-18
REALTY AND IMPROVEMENTS
Building Operations in the City
and Vicinity
THE RECORD IS MAINTAINED
Getting Ready to Start the Main Street
Boom
Right to Regulate It-Work In
Progress and Prospect

Building operations in and around Los
Angeles show no sign of cessation; TAX
ing it week by week the dealers in build
ers' material and builders hardware are
probably enjoying a larger and more sat
i'factory trade than those engaged in any
other branch of merchandising. 1t is
satisfactory to note, and gives evidence
of metropolitan tendencies that the IN
clinatlon to build up some specially
favored locality is less noticeable than
formerly. Buildings for business pur-
poses and buildings tor residence, build
ings for the use of the owners and for rent
are going up all over the city and in the
outskirts of the city, of class which
seems in the minds of the constructors to
be warranted by the use to which the
structures are to be put and the popula-
tion of the particular vicinity chosen for
improvement.
During the week ending last night
forty-four permits were issued by che city
superintendent of buildings, the total
cost as stated being $99.60O The per-
nit covering largest expenditure was
issued to Messrs. Maier & Zobelein
for additions to their brewery plant.
to the amount of $50. 900. Nearly all
the others were for residences of moderate
cost, and very many are to be erected for
the use of newcomers. 1t may be re-
garded as certain that very much the
larger proportion of these homes repre-
sent permanent addition to the popula-
tion of Los Angeles.
4 Il 4
The city is growing in other directions
than home building. The oil pipe line
from the Second street oil district to the
storage tanks in the river bed. near the
Santa Fe and Southern Pacific depots. is
nearly completed and another company IS
in the act of taking advantage of the
privilege accorded by the franchise to
transport oil by means OF pipe line and
force pump instead OF tank and truck.
The establishment of these pipe lines
is a long step toward the recognition
oil production as substantial and per-
manent industry. There has been de-
cided inclination to regard the deposit OF
petroleum IN the Second street. district as
merely pocket" which was certain or
likely to be soon exhausted, and that Its
exhaustion would see the end OF the 'oil
craze, at least within the city limits.
But the building of the pipe lines indi-
Gates that those most capable of Judging
and having the heaviest financial reasons
to induce them to defer action until opin-
ion should become certainty, have be-
come convinced that the oil deposit at
large one or that it is basin which upon
depletion will be promptly refilled from
sources of supply as yet undiscovered.
If the supply proves permanent. even
with no special increase or its pr sent ca
pacity, opposition may delay but cannot
prevent its dev velopment. Granting the
permanence or the capacity OF producing,
the question of the rights OF surrounding
property becomes serious one. The pro-
duction OF oil must be large indeed if it is
TO compensate for the effect on values of
residence property in one of the most de-
sirable sections of the city; foi values
have already fallen and will be yet fur
ther Deprecated if the oil business is to
be largely developed after the methods
adopted up to the present time. But
there is really small danger that the crude
methods adopted during the stage of ex-
pertinent will be followed when the oil
industry shall have become recognized as
u substantial business, warranting the in
vestment OF large sums of m oney for work
ing plants.
1t is scarcely likely that an enormously
profitable business can be cboked off bY
opposition on the part of adjoining land
owners; but it is very certain that the
very profitableness of the business will
warrant little stretching of the police
powers which are inherent rights of every
municipality, and which reach to the eX
tent of the right to insist that every busi-
ness shall be carried on in manner least
Objectionable to the community and that
only such machinery and appliances shall
DE used as present the fewest objection
able features and that it shall be operated
by thoroughly competent men. At pres
ent the derricks are ungainly, the machin-
cry for the most part tho output OF Junk
shops. and the work done so carelessly
that refuse oil finds its way into the gut
tiers and public zanjas and the smoke
from badly constructed and worse man
aged burners pollutes the air for leagues
around.
But it looks now, from a business and
legal Iont OF view. as If the householder
must make up his mind that the oil bust
ness has come to stay; and if that is true,
the oil we'll owner on the other hand
must make up his mind that he must
conduct himself to be as little of nuis-
ance as improved machinery d skillful
mechanics will permit. Under late
development of mechanical science ''im-
proved machinery" does not mean a sec
Ond hand boiler and engine of the vint-
age of the last century; for steam engines,
unlike wines, do not l.nprove with age.
1t means Il modern engine and u boiler
with the very latest burner to heat the
water in tit may mean under some
what stringent police regulations the es-
tablishment of central power house in
the locality where it is least objection
able. and the operation of the machinery
at the wells by dvnamos which neither
shrek nor smell. And above all there
will be no sucn practices permitted as
will allow crude petroleum to find its way
into the irri eating water TO the destruc-
tion of vegetation and the ruin OF asphalt
payements.
h 4 4
Building booms and investment hooms
are commonly inclined to strike in
patches, some times to the manifest
neglect OF deserving localities. at least for
time. C. Il. Mayne successful real
estate dealer with II good reputation wider
than several states has turned his special
attention to Main street property. He rep
resents a large amount OF capital whose
owners have decided that South ern Cali
fo:rnia in general and Los Angel-se in
particular is the place for profita bic in
vestment. but who desire the Judgment
of conservaT v expert Il, to the specific
properties in VIII c!. they shall invest.
Mr. Ma.ine Ian lied the great South
Omaha stockyal"s property which made
so'many milionaires few years ago.
and is credited with inaugurating the
movement at Ogden which resulted in Il
1000 increase oi population in nine
months. He afterwards built the Metro
politan railway in San Francisco and
made a tremendous boom in the prop
erty south OF the Golden Gate park. He
has great faith in Southern California
and Los Angeles. its metropolis, and has
selected MAN street as the special field OF
1t. To la