The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-06
THIRD STREET.

Persons who object to bonding the city
for the purpose of street improvement
should look at Third street; they should
stumble along the full length of it, gaze on
the wretched wrecks of buildings and
smell the odors. 1t is an epitome of all our
denominations, an evidence of silurianism,
typical disgrace; and serves no good pur-
pose save that of emphasizing the demand
for improvement and demonstrating the
need of it.
AT one end of Third street is the South
ern Pacific depot and at the other is the
Palace Hotel. 1t is of necessity therefore
one of the main thoroughfares of the city.
Hundreds of visitors pass through it every
day. Their first sight of San Francisco is
this highway that seems and smells like an
entrance to the slums. In another year
the Coast road will be opened, and then
nearly the whole course of Eastern travel
from the south will pass through Santa
Clara Valley to reach San Francisco at this
depot. Third street will then be our re-
ception avenue for tourists, and-oh, We
gods, what reception it will give.
Save the line of electricians and here
and there building whose excellence is a
reproach to the wrecks around it, there is
not upon the street a single evidence of
thrift, progress or enterprise. except what
is manifest by some merchant who is
struggling hard against adverse influ-
ences and silurian rents, to make head
way in business. The street is i'll
graded, i'll paved, i'll repaired and i'll
cleaned. The sidewalks are narrow, IN
even, dirty and disagreeable. The build
ings should have been burned for bonfires
or torn down to avoid fires long since In
short, every aspect along the way from the
depot to Market street suggests a new feel
ing of disgust. A sense of the vileness of
sllurlanism penetrates to the mind through
eyes and the nose at every step. And yet
1t is along this route that all our visitors
will come, and from this they will get their
firstimpressionso of San Francisco and form
their prejudices of its people.
1t is not difficult to imagine the evil
effects this vile street will have upon us
when the Coast road is open and all the
host OF tourists come through it. Fresh
from the citrus fairs and fiestas of beauti-
ful cities of the south, coming to the city
through the bloom of Santa Clara Valley,
with the glow OF the rose gardens of San
Jose and the fair parks at Menlo still bright
IN their minds, they will be borne into the
city OF the Golden Gate through Third
street. Can any man doubt what the re-
suit will be? Every judgment will be a
condemnation. Every letter that goes
East will denounce us. We shall have
that street Haunted before the world until,
like the NANCY dogs of ConstantinopIe. it
will be notorious among the nuisances of
earth and reproach to San Francisco all
around the globe.
Something must be done for Third street
and it should be done before the Coast
route is open. We can never make it a
grand avenue, but we can make it decent
thoroughfare--a clean highway. We can
pave it properly, cover it with asphalt and
keep it in repair. We can clear the side
walks and make them level and neat. We
can purify the atmosphere of the foul
odors that permeate it. We can give
those who live on it a chance for pros
perity. These things the city can do, and