Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24

Closely following and in direct sympathy
with the statement published in The star
a week ago that alley conditions In " ASH
ington greatly needed improvement. par.
ticulariy VITA reference TO the So-caileu
private alleys, the Commissioners nave
appointed a special "alley board Which
will have jurisdiction over these small
streets In the future, and which Will be
charged with finding ways and means ior
the eradication of existing alley evils.
The members of the new board are f. NJ.
Talcott, assistant engineer In the engi-
neering department; III. n. Moss, superin-
tendent of streets. and James NJ. Wood,
superintendent Of the street cleaning de-
partmen;. This board. or committee. will
formally organize this week and i'm
mediatey proceed to business.
In his motion making the appointments,
Commissioner West declared there are
more than 800 alleys In the District or
Columbia which come within the unde-
sirable class. either from being too mar
row, crooked or dark. or from being un-
opened for their full lengths and unpaved.
and therefore impossible of access 10 the
Street cleaning gangs. These undesir-
abIes will be taken up in the order, the
worst coming first. and the improvements
necessary in each case will be reported
to the Commissioners, together with such
recommendations as may be necessary 10
give immediate effect TO the campaign for
cleanliness and good order.
One of the most veXatious oil all the
alley problems, yet at the same time one
Of the easiest to solve IL the property
owners In different sections would CO.
operate with the authorities, lies In the
correction of the lines of the small back
streets by moving fences backward or
forward as the case may be. and the
dedication of such small plats of ground
as may be needed to give uniformity.
Lack of System Prevailing.
In some Of the private" alleys certain
property owners have made the dedica-
tons necessary, while others have merely
set their fences on what would be the
line Of the thoroughfare, and others again
have paid no attention whatever to alley
lines, placing fences or stables and sheds
directly against the line OF the property
extending through the block from the op-
posite street Not infrequentiy II deyel-
ops that an alley will be open for Its run
width in part OF block. open for only
half It's width In another part and en-
tirely closed against all traffic at one or
more additional points. thus making it
absolutely useless to all residents or the
square. An example of this condition OF
affairs is afforded in the reproduction
elsewhere on this page OF the -lat of
typical block in Mount Pleasant For
obvious reasons the block used for illus
tration is not identified. because there Is
no desire on the part of the authorities
to foist criticism upon any particular
group of property owners. and the pic
ture is used solely to give ocular demon-
stration of one of the evils Of the 'ori-
vate'' alley.
In almost countless cases the voluntary
remedying by the property owners con-
cerned Of such conditions as THAT depicted
has been prevented by the more or less
well intentioned spreading of misinfor-
nation about the expense OF opening.
grading and paving alleys. Actua! in
stances can be cited by the heads OF the
District engineering department where
property owners have been led 10 be-
lieve that the opening OF alleys would in
volvc assessments for sewers, for water
mains and for other municipal improve
ments, when the property all along the
block or blocks involved was being served
at the time by water mains and sewers
located in the main thorOughfares.
Property Values Helped by Alleys.
AS a matter of fact. it has been pointed
out by well informed officials that there
is rarely case where the opening of an