The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-05-27
East Side Congestion and the Remedy

Figures showing the congestion in the
Borough Of Manhattan on the East Side
south OF Fourteenth street are fascinating
when the problem Of the population of
Greater New York at the same ratio of
units TO acres is worked out. For the
total we are indebted TO Federation,
always a maze and marvel Of statistical
information. In 1905 there were 432.s
persons to the acre in the territory east
OF Broadway and south Of Fourteenth
street. If all OF New York were popu-
lated as densely there would be 90, 549, $40
persons within the legal limits. The
calculation is worth while If only to focus
attention on an evil which grows alarm
ingly in spite OF improved facilities Of
transportation.
Since 1900 the increase Of population
south Of Fourteenth street, and chiefly
on the lower East Side, has been SO, 1927
estimated UP to the end Of l9O5). On
the lower East Side the population has
increased fifty per acre during the five
years. In the Sixteenth Assembly dis
trict, bounded by the East River and
Avenue B, on the south by Rivington
and Stanton streets, and irregularly on
the north with a part Of Eleventh street
as the furthest boundary, there are 57o.9
persons to the acre. No less than twenty
thousand persons, most Of them Austro-
Hungarians, have come into this district
since 1900.
~ fIa oroo 1T 4 900 apran nm thA lNrap
East Side only $500 are in squares and
parks, including the 1928 acres Of City
Hall Park. The largest breathing space
Is Tompkins Square, with 1850 acres.
The park area, Federation suggests,
should be extended to oure the conges-
ton. 1t proposes that the blocks of
densest population be turned into recrea-
ton and play grounds, and that t9 help
along the work of distribution the lower
East Side be provided with an adequate
system of Transportation, and unimproved
land be "e~quitably taxed" with a view
to compelling the use Of it for building
purposes. Razing tenements to drive
their occupants across the East River
or north to Harlem and The Bronx would
be heroic treatment indeed. The plan
takes no account of the passion of the
East Siders for flooking together for bust
ness and pleasure, nor of their desire or
need to be near their work.
1t may be a lamentable fact, but It
cannot be disputed, that most of them
would rather be oongested than dis
tributed. Put them out in East New
York or Astoria and they would suffer
from nostalgia. Those, however, who
want more elbow room and could be
weaned from the promiscuous sidewalk
and the neighborly fire escape by the
attractions of suburban life-a cam
paign Of education might be necessary
would never be able to change the scene
unless new subways, bridges and tun-
nels are built. Better accommodation
for the lower East Side is one of the
most pressing transportation questions.
Rents are on the rise, yet tenants are
not lacking; and every shipload Of aliens
swells the population.
1t may be doubted whether the East
Side will get Equitable taxation" of
~unoccupied land, whatever that vague
but apparently radical term means; and
enlarged park areas are impractioable,
because they would cost the city a heap
of money if gold mine tenements were to
be torn down to provide the space. New
subways are the only practical relief for
overorowding in that part Of the city.
1t is idle to say the relief is in sight. He
would be an optimist who should talk of
subways and tunnels for the East Side
in five or ten years with the franchise
question still in the air. But the ques-
-tion has got to he. settleds-apd-sEarzA