New-York tribune., 1902-05-18
TRUE CIVIC UNITY.

The determination of the Rapid Transit Com
mission TO plan a complete system of rapid
transit for all the horoughs OF the greater city
means much for the convenience of the public
III means quite as much for the civic life of the
metropolis. New-York City is a political crea-
fion, but it is not a community. 1t is collec-
fion of communities. and is bound TO remain so
until the natural barriers which separate the
parts are effectively surmounted and the people
of every section are enabled on equal terms 70
enter into those activities and interests which
pre- characteristic of the centre of every great
rity.
When the present metropolis composed
bf separate municipalities they naturally de-
~eioped centres of their own, so far as consisted
with the overwhelming predomnance of the
pld city over its slji.--''z Even with consolida-
ton the communit,, ,ill lead separate exist
ences. The outer boroughs have risen 10 a
sense of metropolitan citizenship with regard
TO politics. but they have not risen to it in other
respects Conversely the Manhattan intelli-
gence has been slow to grasp the notion that
residents Of other boroughs were really New
Workers, and that the Brooklyn householder
was as much within the circle Of metropolitan
Interests and activities as the Harlem fat
dweler. On both sides the failure has been
natural and inevitable. There can be no vital
without the removal OF these borough provin-
cialisms; but they never can be removed until
physically the centres of city life, financial,
business, artistic, intellectual and social as
we'll as political are made the common prop
erty OF the people of the whole greater New
York. This can only be done through easy &C
cess from every part of the city TO every other
part So long people in Brooklyn find it
hardship TO reach Thirty-thrd-st. compared
with people living no further away on Man
haitian Island, so long will vital unity and
operation in the works of common public spirit
be lacking. Likewise the Manhattan narrow
ness which considers everything beyond the in
sular barriers as a sort of wilderness, and with
Justice regards il as a terra incognita being
densely ignorant thereof, will remain. New
Workers are not yet really New-Yorkers. They
are ManhattaDites Brooklynites or Staten
Island folks or something Of that sort, with
rare exceptions, and they will stay so until all
isolating barriers are removed.
II is reported that the Rapid Transit Commits
sion in considering the form of contract for the
projected Broadway and Brooklyn extension of
the subway has been nsistent upon an agree
ment for through trains for a single fare from
upper Manhattan To the Long Island station in
Flatbush-ave. This is a wise attitude. The
prime and essential feature of any system of
interborough rapid transit worth the name is
provision for easy access from convenient points
fn Brooklyn 10 the centres OF various features
of New-York life. 1t is not enough to bring
Brooklyn people to the edge OF Manhattan The
bridge and ferries do that now. They do it
badly, it is true because of the congestion. But
even If there were the bridge a seat for
everybody at every hour such facilities would