The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-01-19
THE skvsoaApea PROBLEM.
New York Finds Itself In a Dilemma
with Several Horns.

There is one 1S story building in the
whole of Europe, erected by the in
domitable Dutch at Amsterdam
Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Cincinnati,
Pittsburg and New York have no lin
1t. Chicago specifies 26O feet, but has
waived the rule in favor Of certain
number of higher buildings. st. Louis
fixes 206 feet; Cleveland, 200 Baltl-
more, IT'S; Boston, 1875. Washington
has placed its lowest, 100 feet on
streets 40 feet wide, while there is not
a European city allowing structures
higher than the width Of the street on
which they face.
San Francisco since her disaster has
been rushing up vertically higher than
ever on n CONSTRUCTED area. In aban-
doning the Burnham design for Sane
reconstruction she has but repeated
the mistake of London, which, after
the great fire had razed 436 acres for
her, tucked away in the archives of
Oxford the plans of Sir Christopher
Wren for a nobler London and allow
ed the city to grow up haphazard.
Europe distanced us long ago in
civic foresight, says Harper's Weekly.
While Philadelphia, in its consolida-
tion act of 1854 was forgetting the
one redeeming feature of Penn's rect
angular plan, which would have pro-
vided the city with $50 public squares
instead Of the present 45, Louis Ma
polecn was summoning Baron Hauss-
mann to make Paris a world model OF
municipal architecture and conven-
lence.
Long before that in 1907. New
York's commission had obliterated
from the city map all curves above
Fourteenth street save that Of riot
ous' Broadway, and by establishing
the 25 foot frontage committed her
citizens to owning no more than YER
tical slice OF the island.
That arteries of traffic and hence of
business form themselves along dag
onal streets is abundantly shown by
Philadelphias Ridge avenue and New
York's Broadway. In the narrow low
er end of the latter the persistent ef-
fort of every one to get on the main
thoroughfare gives the appearance OF
the side streets being built up.
The more careful observer will note
that Broadway really marks the citys
tendency to vertical Improvement
The corroboration is found in the pro-
portion of buildings six stories or un-
der below the City Hall-over SS per
cent. OF the total, and about 2 per
cent more than the proportion from
City Hall to Eighty-sixth street.
A fiat limit would satisfy sanitary
engineers, who are pointing out that
the present system of sewage disposal
In lower New York, calculated in ex-
cess of any known rainfall, is already
overtaxed by the millions of gallons
OF water flushed into 1t daily from
huge Office buildings, so that an epi-
demic of typhoid may soon prove to
the city the necessity for amplifying
its drainage.
Such a limit would somewhat allay
the anxiety of transportation inter-
ests The 20 story skyscraper means
the gathering upward of 5000 persons
above small area. The elevator
equipment of the most modern office
building is calculated TO hold 10000
passengers an hour.
The average capacity is perhaps
5000 an hour, while the capacity OF
the most modern transit station. such
as the one at Wall street on the sub
way, is about 10000 passengers an
hour. Allowing ten tall buildings to
each existing rapid transit station, it
is evident that the limit of facilities
has nearly been reached in lower New
York
Far from having an economic neces-
sity, the skyscraper works positive
damage to developers of outlying real
estate. Each tall building locks up
molety of available mortgage mon
ey sufficient 10 finance the erection of
700 small homes or the purchase of
thousand farms; and the money is
kept out of circulation far longer than
If the gigantic enterprise were divided
into several smaller ones.
In fact, goodly proportion of real
estate owners. even in the congested
neighborhood of lower Broadway, are
In favor OF lower limit than that pro-
posed, Property there is now taxed
on the basis of what 1t would be worth
IL improved TO the height of about 80
stories, while in many cases the pos
sibllity OF such improvement is pre-
empted by contiguous structures which
have stolen the necessary light and
air.
On the other hand, II would be |
equally unjust, having taxed land own
ers for years on the basis of improve
ments next door. to suddenly forbid
those improvements These are the
horns OF the dilemma with which New
York is confronted in her efforts to
regulate the tendency she has taught
her sister cities.