Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-04-19
LAYING OUT STREETS
Innocent Properly Owners Often
 Made 10 Suffer.


 s It all one cannot help thinking that
 the city has made mistake that
 hitherto had no legal existence and
 which could not be located except by
 the owner of the property or the sur
 yeyor who made the map A man
 has a right to employ surveyor to
 make a layout of his land and get
 him to cut it up to his own advantage
 no matter how it affects other inter-
 ests, so long as he does not connect
 them with public ways and that is all
 he can do about it unless he secures
 the good graces of public officials to
 put the scheme through ard talk Oth-
 CTS into following lines drawn solely
 with a view to robbing unsuspecting
 citizens, who have no means of know
 lg what is going on. The charter cOy-
 CTS this and provides fine of $50 a
 day for every day such streets are
 opened, but nobody takes any stock
 In 1t. In one sense it looks silly to
 hear so much talk about charter
 amendments in Waterbury when the
 whole book with all it's provisions is
 rarely used as Il guide to anything.
 The land speculator aided by the sur
 veyOr is the most successful and at
 the same time respected lawbreaker
 In the community. He plies his game
 without let or hindrance, robs right
 and left and when his victims find
 out what have happened to them he
 smiles and tells them, if he cOnde- scends to make reply at all, that they had an opportunity to get hold of Il surveyor and work the same game on
 him and that if they neglect it they had nobody but themselves to blame. This sounds all right. but the charter does not leave anybody at the mer- cey of his neighbor in the laying out of streets. It provides method which if followed compels all 10 first get permission from the city govern ment. which it presumes would not be granted unless all interested parties were properly safeguarded. but that Is dead letter and as a consequence some pretty sharp deals are being worked of here almost everyday in the week. As rule streets are laid out and worked anywhere from six months to six years before the alder men are petitioned to authorize a survey of such layouts and then when all concerned are notified to come in and be heard people who feel ag- grieved are asked why they didn't make a "holler" before. How could they! They had received no official notice that anything was being done that unn11 hind hn s,ttt people are busy with their own af- fairs and have no time or desire to keep track of what their neighbors are doing. It is the duty of the mayor, the aldermen. the board of public works and the police officers when they see new street being made to find out if the parties are acting in accordance with the char ter and If not to stop them then and there. If this is not so what do the charter provisions regarding tine opening of new streets mean? What were they printed in the hook for. when it was first issued and why were they produced few ye,irs ago when the city paid for printing few new copies of the book?
 There is another side to this street question which is almost as far reach Ing as the actual damage done to the fellow who owns the adjoining prop erty. For the past few years wide awake fellows have been buying tracts of land in the outlying dis tricts. in some instances as low as $S an acre and getting 1t put on paper. As rule the streets have high sound Ing names and a person not acquaint- cd with the town would suspect that all the nabobs of the place resided in them. What are the facts? There's nothing there but brush lots that won't be developed during the prcs- eilt century, If ever. The bright men back of these projects are selling these lots in all parts of the world. some of them being put on the market as far off as the Pacific coast, where they are offered for sale at S5 a piece. In time the victims find ont that they got buncoed and they never | look after them. The assessors never can locate the purchasers and nobody | gets anything out of the game except | the so-called speculator. It is right | that the board of aldermen should he | in such traps and continue to | furnish opportunities to adventurcrs | to rob .ts own citizens who can't see and don't want to sec any way of | evading their inst obligations? The Idea of designating some place out in the lots public street, putting 1t in the directory and giving orders for sign to erect at its inter- section with some other public WHY" In the wilderness is ridiculous. Eyi- dently if COW broke It's leg in one Of these swamps or a horse got hurt the city would have to pay the dam- ages. Why not so long as the alder men have vote,l fhem public streets of With all due respect to the good judgment of the aldermen and the board of public works. and with a full appreciation of their bon rsty of purpose. nobody can help feel Ing that In the matter of opening streets ad naming streets. they are
 easy. so man should feel abused nt being bliged to obey the laws of fhis town. None of them Is abItrary and it Is hut fair to assume that on Inc whole they are impartial, conse- luenfly m order to get the upper hand of his neighbors and make the game work I'll law had to he evadcsl snd that Is what has been done in Waterbury. in many instances. for Fears. and inasmuch as it went with ut serious opposition. in time it he anne aeoptei as the order of pro- ,rdure in almost all cases.
 It ls vicious practice. The alder