The Indianapolis journal., 1895-05-11


To the Editor of the indianapolis Journal:
To our present Board of Works is due
the distinction of discovering an almost in
exhaustible source of income TO the city.
The beauty OF il Is that those who pay
the money into the city treasury think they
are both saving money and making no
small speculation i'm doing il. IL consists
simply in selling alleys and streets TO the
abutting property owners at almost any
price the board sees iit to ask The ex-
pense of bricking an alley is considerable.
not to mention the keeping up of fences
and the great annoyance of having other
people walking or driving down the alley.
The board has discovered how to avoid all
this-just sell the alley TO the adjacent
owners. who are only too willing 10 buy.
and these at once enlarge their lawns and
save the expense of bricking the alley.
How many such sales have been made or
are i'm process of negotiation have no
means of knowing without examining the
record. but there must be many. ii is so
profitable to both the high contracting par
ties. The city gets the money and the
buyers save the cost of Improvement.
Ii has been supposed heretofore that a
party or the third part had some interest
IN streets and alleys which others were
pound bound to respect. but our board easily dis
presumed by the said board that this party,
commonly called The Public. has no friends
sufncientiy interested TO interfere in any
way, hence the city treasury Is enriched
ana the giver is greatly benefited. As IL
Is Just as wise and proper to buy street
as IL IS an alley no one need be surprised
TO wake up some morning and find the
street he has been using closed. having
been sold TO the adjacent lot owner.
in this whole business? 1 do not, OF course.
allude TO the fraud against the public. The
railroad king who said ''The public be
blessed was representative chracter; but
ii is fraud against the so-called purchas-
er. II will be found on examination that
sfrs the city no no more NOR owns the alleys ana
tains OF the moon. They are trustees to
look after them, and that is all. The right
all the branches together to vacate any
street or alley, for any purpose whatever.
is more than doubtful. BY the right OF
eminent domain they may condemn street
as they may condemn my homestead. but
in that case. under the laws of Indiana,
its ownership passes first TO the owners or
the adjacent property, and must be paid
for by those owners, as their own lots are
paid for. But il can be condemned only for
public use. not for private gain. Do you
not remember the many steps that had TO
be taken 10 get even a show OF title to
Market street, few years ago. that We
might occupy. it with the. new Statehouse?
Ii is even doubtful to-day whether the
State has a good title to il. Nobody else
but that unembodied something we call The
GuDHc ndNlnk "A DetteT tllie, anu Inc t-uD-
lie cheerfully acquiescing in its present use.
there can never arise a controversy as TO
the title. But how about Walnut street
from Meridian to Pennsylvania? No wise
business man would give 500 for Its whole
three thousa nd square feet, yet IL Is In pos
session of the State, and has been for a
quarter OF a century or more. Some cit
liens are seriously embarrassed by the
closing of the street. but one cares to
disturb the modus viyendi because OF the
evident fitness of the use to which il has
been put. But the State has no title TO ~.
nor can have. The consent OF two
thirds of the city could not give title. so
as TO dispossess the other third. Minori-
ties have rights which majorities can not
ignore with impunity.
But somebody has been defrauded in these
transactions. Under the laws OF Indiana
from away back the fee of all such vacated
alleys and streets goes 10 the adjacent
owners so these men, to bribe the board.
as il were, have bought their own lands
If they are willing TO pay such money Tor
the sake of vacating the alleys. perhaps no
one should object. 1t goes into the treas
ury all right, but they get no title thereby
that they had not before. The late Legis-
lature is said TO have somewhat modified
the emergency clause somebody has been
badly swindled; il not il is A swndle all
the same Nevertheless the BOARD deserves
credit for working this mine so well. An@
II anybody still wants TO buy streets an
alleys and run the risks of title, let them.
Some time or other somebody or other
will be examining titles. Many an alley
that seems quite useless to-day may De
quite indispensable even only twenty years
hence. 1t Will be opened then. deco OF no
deed L. Ia SEE.
I,dianopolis Nav g