The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-29
uNFoRTUNATE BROOKLYN.
nm Of Particulars From q Victim Of lite
Car service.


To THE EDITOR OF TIE SrH--Sir: As Tar
back as / can remember Brooklyn has been
the butt Of more or less ridicule from every
New Yorker. The native Of Manhattan speaks
Of 1t IN terms Of cheap sarcasm and the strah-
ger TO this city soon learns that It's smart 10
poke fun at the borough across the rlver.
Within the last few years this form OF alleged
humor at the expense Of Brooklyn has grown
noticeably, and Il doesn't take much Keen
insight to learn the reason.
With street car service that would not be
tolerated for a minute in any town Of 10000
inhabitants, the only marvel to me 10 that
Brooklyn persists In growing at all. We are
called slow over here. How can we be other-
wise when cars traverBing thlckly populated
districts. like Tompkins avenue and ~.
Johns place, run on actual Roadway OF twelve
to fifteen minutes and stop at l A. NJ ana
sooner7
Unless the Brooklynite can afford TO take
a cab or doesn't mind walking eight or ten
blocks he Is compelled when he goes TO q
theatre In Manhattan to time himself as
closely as though he committed 70 the WHO'S
Of New Jersey. And he doesn't like " q plt.
let me tell you.
Complaints do no good. In fact. the Brook
Ign Rapid Transit company seems TO nave
lent itself to a practice which looks Ike q mno
form of bunco.
Last summer. when Eastern Parkway began
to be built up. / bought a house on that beau
tiful boulevard than which New York city
has nothing 6ner) In the belief that the car
service was what 1t appeared to be. The
Tompkins avenue line. which taps the park
way near my home. ran on a four or hve
minute headway. The st. Johns, place line.
which then went to the Brownsville district.
had a similar schedule. This was emlnently
satisfactory and ! had no trouble in persuade
mine. And then what happened? Gradually
the Roadway was heightened oh the Tompkins
avenue line until now It is. In fact. about
you 1t is six. The st. Johns place line, which
some months ago changed its route and runs
siderably short Of the BTownsvnie district,
now has a schedule that Is so abominably
slow that few II any Of my neighbors take
The service is bad enough. but the carsl
u npu on 0uf che !! fom nse 1neta avenues MSs' line T,sn and the
roof Of the car was 80 loose that every time
we bumped, over a cross track I feared 1t
arks there are holes in the sides and bottom
big enough for a man to put his fist through.
dence Of It. And I have mentioned but two
iine fbs I similar s S9n sa55ost PbFe eSsass o9 1be el% Sse
the Brooklyn. Rapid Transit parallels the
lines of an independent company. There
creatures marooned on the Eastern Parkway
il is cold comfort to know that our friends
two miles away can get four cars while we
wait for one.
And so / say, and maybe the foregoing will
cause you TO agree with me, that Brooklyn
is laughed. at because it Is in the grasp Of the
able transit corporation on earth. We who
live here and have to put up. with Y don't
more than a million inhabitants and growing
more rapidly than any other in spite of it's
handicap can't sensibly be called dead. Give
ne daoant Car aaryira and the lanQh Will he ON
| Manhattan before many years.
BROOKLYN, March 81. w. Y. HIRsH,