The San Francisco call., 1909-05-30

prised probably TO learn that there are
many men who are making their bread
and butter in San Francisco living in
Hayward or San Leandro.
New places are being constantly
opened across the bay and investors
men. What is the secret of this pop
ularity?
Simply, good car service.
When a man is assured by an enter
prising transbay real estate operator
that he can find an ideal place for a
home in Oakland or Berkeley or Ala
media. with excellent car service, so
that he can be deposited at MS nome
without trouble, he almost wins him
over.
CARS AND POPULATION
He is then told that the two great
transbay transportation companies in
tend to improve their present service
still more by building new electric
lines. and the intentions of the South
ern Pacific are held up as an argument,
as that company intends to electricize
all the railroads serving the SUBURBAN
towns That man is won over nnaiiy.
Good car service means population
and the transbay towns, having long
ago come to this conclusion, put forth
to their cities by giving good trans
portation. and they have succeeded
San Francisco faces this problem. II
simply resolves itself in this: Are we
10 lose population because our present
transportation facilities are inadequate
to the handling of the business offered
during the rush hours2
II man is asked why he lives across
the bay, he will tell you that 1T Is
easier TO live in Alameda or in oak
land. or watever the case may be, for
he is sure of seat on the boat also
a seat on the steam or electric cars
What must be done, and at once, is
to improve our streetcar service. Real
estate men, merchants and land owners
are all convinced that we are losing
population because the streetcar serv-
ice of San Francisco is inadequate.
They brush away the objection that we
are handicapped because we possess
really only one great artery, Market
street. TO relieve the congestion in the
city proper.
SPECIAL CARS NEEDED
This can be easily overcome, they
assert. if the managers of the street
car system ran special cars to the out
lying districts. Despite the fact that
the present car system is poor, and
that the person who lives on the out
skirts Of town is badly served with
transportation, there has been g great
growth in the Mission and also in the
Richmond districts. and it is from
these districts that complaints come,
They say that if the streetcar com
pany paid more attention to their
needs there would be built up soon a
large residential quarter. but their
neglect is compelling people to seek
other places for homes
They advance the argument that
other cities build up outlying COM
munities by excellent car service. They
specify Los Angeles, and say that the
car companies have solved this diff
Guilty of serving distant communities
by operating special cars which do not
stop at every street corner, and thus
enable people who are living at dis
tance to make good time either rel
turning home or going to business dur
ing the rush hours. Across the bay
the Key Route has special trains and
so has the Southern Pacific, and the
public has been educated up to their
convenience. This could be done here
also.
Real estate men in discussing this
matter take up the Excelsior district
which is coming rapidly to the front
as a residential district. They claim
that II is badly handicapped by the lack
of car service. This, they say, could