The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-10-04

owner of q certain steam railroad commencing
at or near the southwest corner of Third and
Townsend streets in the City and County of
san Francisco and running thence in q gen.
eral westerly and southerly direction through
the said City and County TO the southerly
boundary thereof and thence running to the
city of San Jose
That the line of said railroad crosses Six
teenth street in said City and County at point
where the same interferes to some extent with
improvements which are proposed to be made
by the property-holders thereon, and your
petitioner has been requested by said property
holders to make such modification in the loca-
ton OF its said railroad line as will obviate
the present objection.
That after careful examination your De-
utioner finds that the only practical relief
which can be afforded will be by changing its
line from point on Harrison street south of
sixteenth, SO as to run over, along and upon
Harrison and Division streets to York street.
mat SUCH change line will not injuriouslY
AFFECT the use of the public generally of said
streets and Will be OF great and permanent
value to the adjacent property-holders on Six
teenth street and to the public in the use of
said last-nemed streets.
wherefore your petitioner prays that your
honorable board viii grant il franchise to
lay down, maintain and operate single or
double track railroad with all necessary
switches and turnouts across, along and upon
the following named streets in the City and
County OF San Francisco. TO wit:
From point on the main line of the South
ern PACING Railroad at the intersection of York
and Division streets, thence along said Divi-
sion street to Sixteenth, thence along Sixteenth
and along Harrison to an intersection with the
main line OF the Southern Pacific Railroad
Company at a point between Sixteenth and
seventeenth streets.
John Center, claiming to represent the
property owners interested, asked that the
petition be granted. The petition was
recommended to the board for action.
;. The street-sweeping contract caused q
lively overhauling of facts and figures.
Superintendent of Streets Ashworth sub
mltted long communication signed by
J. +. Carpenter, clerk of the street-sweep-
ing department, the gist of which was
that the streets were being cleaned lust as
well under Ashworth as they were under
the Merchants Association. He said:
There is no disputing the fact that the low
est bid received under the last call of the
Board OF Supervisors will make the cost less to
the City, but 1t can only be accomplished by
even more machine work than now done by
you, or through a very low rate of wages.
would take this occasion TO suggest-With-
out prejudice to labor, but rather with a view
to extend assistance 10 greater number-that
II a living compensation could be fixed (say 20
cents per noun as good results could be ac-
compEshed as contracting the work and con-
s1der1ng the present condition of the labor
market j.! think no sensible laboring man
would object or seek to take advantage of anv
techn1cality OF law to deprive others of the
advantage of employment enjoyed by himself
This change, together with the advantage
that you have OF cleaning only portion of a
street, as necessity requires, would, in my
opinion, give results satisfactory to all. This
cannot be done when specifications say,
1.-THE entire surface of the roadway must be
cleaned"
Superintendent Ashworth reported that
he had cleaned "a, ga, 800 square yards of
streets from August to September 80 at a
cost OF $16,955. The average cost per 1000
square yards was SO cents. At present
there are liz men employed in the depart
ment. Ninety-two carloads of sweepings
were sent to Golden Gate Park.
He claimed that the difference per day
between the number of square wards
cleaned by the Merchants Association for
the first forty days of their contract when
a full force was employed for twenty-four
hours and the first forty days under him
self with like conditions was about At, OOO
square yards in favor of the association.
Ashworth said he could clean the streets
for 65 cents thousand square yards.
The City Improvement Company offered
to do the same work for 1867 cents a
thousand square yards.
On motion of Supervisor Spreckels it was
recommended that the work be let to the
lowest bidder
The contract runs to June 81 next and is
for street-sweeping alone. The successful
bidder must give bonds for $25, 600 The
work has to be done TO the satisfaction of
the Superintendent of Streets.
The street-sprinkling contract was re-
lecteo, and 1t was recommended that par
ties who wanted their streets sprink led
must pay for work themselves.
Notlce was given requesting the Market
street Railway Company to inform the
board OF what action the company pro.