The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-14
WILL BE A COSTLY STREET.
London to Cut "a New ThOrOughfare
at "a Cost of &3,5OO,OOO.
San Francisco Chronicle.

san Francisco OHTOIllClS
The city of London is about to undertake
another of those gigantic operations which
have marked its development during the
greater part of the present century. in the
opening of new street for the convenience
of commerce. extending from Holborn to the
Strand. 1t will be cut through a district now
intersected by crooked and narrow thor
oughfareS and inhabited by a population OF
about 5000 artisans. The improvement re-
quires the eviction of these people from
their homes, and the London Council has
agreed to rehouse them within a mile Of
their present quarters, so as not TO disturb
their vocations. 1t is eStipated that 1t will
cost the municipality 81 100000 to do this
being an average of $1,000 for each family.
The rent to be derived from these artisans
when quartered in their new homes will
represent only q small share of the interest
on the capital invested, but that is the pen
atty which the municipality has been will
ing to assume in making the changes IN
volved in the main improvement, which will
cost $500 600
Incidentally the measure has introduced
a curious problem into municipal govern
ment, for in rehousing the evicted working
people employed on the line of the new
thoroughfare il has virtually established
the principle that the municipality shall re-
serve a part of the constantly expanding
and high-priced areas within 1T, which are
devoted to commerce and warehousing, for
the housing of the laboring people en-
ployed in them, and that the municipality
must bear the difference between what the
working people can reasonably be expected
to pay for such accommodations and the
actual interest due on the oasis OF sur
rounding land values. The experiment has
been made there on a small scale for years
past with some degree of success.
The great cities Of the world Nave grown
during the present century as they never
grew before. Modern travelling facilities,
the development of manufacturing indus
tries and the growth of commerce have
steadily drawn into them the population of
the rural districts. AS consequence the
crowding has been so great and rapid with
in them that many such improvements as
the one which London now contemplates
making to relieve a gorge, which We're little
dreamed Of in the earlier part of the CEN
fury, have, in the latter half of 1t, become
imperative necessities. Within the past
fifty years the ground plans of Paris and
London have been materially altered
through the opening of new thoroughfares
through congested districts in the interest
of convenience. adornment and comm
During this brief period all the boulevards
which makes Paris the city beautiful and
the magnificent sewer system which makes
it the best drained city in the world have
been constructed. So, also, the Thames en-
bankment and the great sanitary problem
involved in the relief of the Thames of the
city's sewage, which it carried with 1t; the
opening up of great thoroughfares through
congeSted districts, the construction of new
bridges to accommodate the eVer-increaSing
transriVer traffic. and the construction of a
subterranean system of metropolitan rail-
roads. have largely changed the face of the
British metropolis.