New-York tribune., 1905-01-30
B0ULEVARDS NEEDED.
Professor Charles Sprag~e Smith
Suggests System for the City.

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: A hasty reading of the report of the m
mission appointed by his honor the Mayor to
suggest plans for permanent improvement of New
York City and a glance at the accompanying dia-
grams have convinced me that it would be pre-
sumptuous for layman TO advise in matters that
have demanded large expenditures Of time and
thought from experts. so I will turn aside from
criticism and bring forward suggestions that come
from other sources
A picture rises constantly in my mind of a walk
I took in Paris March morning in 1877 from my
hotel IN cuI de far from the Palais Royal
I had come on from Berlin where had been
student for two years. The German city. number
ing then less than million inhabitants. i'll paved
and unattractive resting under a brooding
gray sky in the dull atmosphere of winter. I had
scarcely seen the there in months There was
no suggestion in Berlin Of green things, of re-
awakening nature. A stranger to Paris. I
tered where chance led Before long
out into the Place de la Concorde. and followed
slowly upward the superb Avenue of the Champs
1lysees. Arrived at the crest near the Arch of
Triumph. where like the rays of star wide
streets reach out in all directions, selected
that seemed more attractive than the others, called
then LAvenue de PImperatrice. At I
surrounded by springtime; clear blue sky
head. birds ohattering in the branches, flowers
blooming in parterres and the grass fresh and
green as it IS only once year, when spring first
calls life forth from the earth. The contrast be-
tween beautiful Paris, stately, symmetrical. full
head, and dull. gray Berlin made impression
upon which has remained ever since. Later
on. as French student Of the great
bouevards on the left bank of the Seine pushing
its way resstlessy through the crisscross maze.
the dank closeness of medieval constructions
Down they went street after street, centres, per-
chance in other times OF interesting civic life,
but in the nineteenth century ht only to be the
lurking places Of ignoble things The house where
Marat met his fate at the hands Of Charlotte Cor
Gnvr r-k~E n4hn
visited the historic bathroom before it disappeared
Some years later I similarly the noble Avenue
of the Opera, like a splendid wave. wash away
other relics Of mediesvalism.
Every suggestion of betterment in New-York
seems TO be more less servilely bound to old
conditions. We fail utterly TO assert the freedom
OF the architects Of new Paris Because our pTede-
cessors builded unwisely, seeing only their own
ume-as why should they not?-we consent to wear
the civic clothes they cut for their generation.
They could not foresee that by 1920 the metropolis
Of the world 10 stand at the gates OF the
Hudson. Because Of this. they led all the broad
streets up the length Of the island and the
streets across. Unnaginatve folk, they could
not conceive of curve. and only in two
instances OF a diagonal: therefore, we must, for
sooth in the old city and its extensions, be the
slaves OF the ancestral grtdiron with its one mar
row orossbari
What is the result? A backbone occupied by the
wealthy for business and residence; in direct ratio
TO the distance from this backbone. IN the
upper part Of the city, and there in some in
stances. slumsl To change materially the plan Of
the centre is impossible Palace stands beside
palace the land is more valuable than any gold
mime. As we get away from this centrs. line. land
city through bridges and tunnels, the Long Island
teiIIHTy IS psco+lng an LnlegIsI PaIL OF dahna
long lines running exclusively north and south are
Is it too wild dream to conceive of some applloa-
tion of the boulevard system which shall sweep
west sides. of the central area? or OF avenues
n 1e IRON SGoH fS T to as b me ne%
structed the hour for such refashoning has struck
Condemn land in areas of relatively little value
with the absolute surety Of recoupng itself
We have NOT ony the probem M OF e p fbe
present facilities Of transit above and below ground
ana Of beautifying the city, but also fully
important and not as yet sufficiently emphasized
Paris. through her boulevards, sweeping away the
tangle of medieval streets wiped out of dark
by driving broad shares Of light and air through
mighty blow against the whole slum structure We
want, for the cty's sake, and for their own sakes
on Manhattan Island TO be done away with forever
WIN tn real rapid transit under municipal control
syailaole; The city might pre-empt large sections
municipal direction. Here again appreciation Of
values would assure a generous return, In short
raise the question, Is It not within the bounds
Of possibility that new broad routes may be led
municipal control shall become models of beauty
and symmetry. street after street and squares
struggled perhaps at three levels first. for lighter
and third. as in Chicago. for truckage? BY this
means. the tenement regions being Invaded, the
congestion OF inhabitants there-the worst in the
wordsworth be broken up, and, with simultaneous
municipal pre-emption OF large on the ont
skirts, model suburban homes would gradually
take the place Of squad tenements. Is not possi-
BILE that the ghettos and new race aggrega-
uons Of all sorts now forming the east and west
sides Of city might thus be permanently done
away with and better chance be given for the
development Of an Americanism matchmaking and
effacing and religious differences? That the
suggested new avenues would be correlated with the
old paths for and beast marked out for us bv
the Dutch COWS Of earlier days or the gridiron
imagination OF later times is clear But hapIv
some is saying better for civic purposes the
instinct OF the COW the usefulness of the grid
iron than "such stuff dreams are made of'9l
So viii close with last word New-York is to-
day among the greater cities of the world the most
anarchistic in architecture, the most mechanical
and inartistc in structural lines the least stlI-
laung. through mans treatment OF nature 10 the
higher life Yet its situation is least as noble
as that Of Of its sisters hold It be peerless
IN IT'S station beside river and ocean. Why not
socialiZe, beautify redeem render worthy our cifv
lis? CHARLES SPRAC;TTE sSFTTy44 IL
New-YOrk. Jan 10. rs. H.
OBSTRUCTED STREETS