Los Angeles herald., 1908-10-09
HAVE LAID OUT LOTS
REGARDLESS OF RULES
REAL ESTATE DEALERS GIVE
LOTS OF TROUBLE
Grades of Streets, Sewage and SImi.
lar Requirements Ignored in
Order That Tracts May
Be Sold Out

Gardner Curran, editor of the West
ern Insurance News, gave the MEM
bers of the fire commission a plain talk
yesterday on one of the biggest prob
lens which the city has to deal with.
by reason of its rapid growth. The
city engineer, superintendent of streets
and water and fire departments fire.
ouently find serious questions before
them because various tracts now in the
city, but laid out Independent of any
municipal regulations so as to meet
the demands for lots, conform to any
sort of plan but the right one. Realty
dealers have sold the lots without con-
sideration of sewage or similar Sys-
TENS, and ignored entirely the grades
of streets or their uniform naming and
numbering. This has permitted them
to split up the tracts to good selling
advantage, but has multiplied the work
of city officials.
Mr.. Curran, who is president of the
newly formed College Tract Improve
ment association, appeared to present
the modest request of that association
for a few fire hydrants in the neigh
borhood surrounding Forty-eighth
street and Gramercy place, and the
commission made a recommendation TO
that effect to the water department.
incidentally, Chief Lips, who Inspected
that neighborhood Wednesday, asked
Mr.. Curran the meaning of the board
ing up of streets on the tract, which Is
making it difficult for the department
to answer an alarm.
"Its a thing that ought to be taken
up all over the newer pars OF the CITY,
said Mr.. Curran. "Those streets show
the end of the tract, and there is
difference of a foot and one-half in
the grade. This is due to the same
reason that has occasioned the renum-
bering of streets in the southern part
of town, making all sorts of confusing
streets and places and drives. Tracts
have been laid out without figuring
their relation to the city as a whole,
and they don't fit properly"
Ever Present Problem
The city officials who have practical
work in connection with Improvements
recognize this problem every day. 1t
comes up in one form or another at
nearly every meeting of the board OF
public works, and is the occasion of
numerous neighborhood complaints
from citizens who think they are get
ting too much water or who have other
street troubles.
The College Tract Improvement as
sociation has established and equipped
it's own fire station and has employed
James Wilson to take charge. Another
volunteer department has been estab-
lished in the vicinity of Fifty-sixth
street and Western avenue, and the
water department has been asked to
place several fire hydrants in that
neighborhood.
The fire commission has appointed ii.
B. Howard and Albert T. Kenyon hose
men, and reinstated HOseman Harry
Hicks One of the appointees takes the
place of Walter G. Abbott, who re-
signed from engine company No. s.
Captain C. H. Balzer has been granted
a leave of absence for thirty days on
the recommendation of Chief Lips.
An attempt will be made by the fire
commission to secure the waving of
the age limit by the civil service de-
partment in behalf of c w. Hatfield,
who is four years over the limit but
whose examination stands as the high
est made so far. Mr.. Hatfield has been
employed as an emergency man in the
fire department and has given service
for which he is recomme nded by Chief
Lips. He is an experienced man with
horses, but so far the age limit has
stood in the way of his appointment.
The civil service commission will be re-
quested to ignore the technical side of
the rules and decide in favor of merit.