Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-03-29

contracts with private parties for
refuse disposal are serious The
Board of Trade shows in its report of
1910 that the contract of that year was
not we'll enforced. In the crowded
tenement sections collections are stat
ed by tenants to be too infrequent in
summer time. Collections are appar-
emily not made at certain quarters
NASSAU place, Landers alley and
parts of the island and Silver Lake
districts where garbage is dumped in
vacant lots). Overlooking pals, and
especially a lack of covers for gar
bage receptacles, are general through
out Newark. In the Eighth avenue
block only seven out of twenty-seven
families had metal pals for house
hold swill, and not one of these was
found covered
Ins1911 Newark had 1873 buildings
of brick or stone and 1886 of frame
construction. The former are largely
Industrial commercial buildings,
but comprise also many hundred resi-
dences and tenements, most of which
lie within the city fire limits.
Fire Danger Is Great.
Newark is a city with a serious con-
flagration risk. Within the fire limits
of the city old inf1ammable buildings
crowd against their neighbors-in the
new quarters building is chiefly o.
wood, and new frame buildings MAJ
be constructed within three feet o.
the lot line. Frame buildings may b
constructed three stories or forty feet
high and may house six families So
that the carelessness of each is a con-
tinuous menace to his neighbors,
above or below and on each side (the
brick partition in new six-family
houses partially reduces the lateral
risk. Brick tenement houses of less
than six stories are fireproof as to ex-
terror and halls. but dangerous within
and no barrier to conhagration. New
ark .thus has all the conditions-close
building in wood, or in brick and
wood. infiammable roofs and piazzas
which made possible the great Chel-
sea fire of Boston three years ago. A
fire well started among the wooden
tenements, with high favorable wind,
may at any time destroy millions of
dollars of property-and perhaps the
lives of many people.
The housing problem of no city is
met until that city can legally pre-
vent the erection of any new building
that is prejudicial to health, safety or
morality, The preceding section shows
that buildings unsafe from fire may
still be erected. 1t is also still pos
sible in Newark to erect buildings
that will be unhealthful from lack of
proper sanitation, adequate sunlight
and ventilation. The lodging house
ordinance, although excellent in its
sanitary provisions, permits the use
of unventilated windowless cubicles
for night lodgings
The danger from confiagra ton in
Newark is so serious that a radical
change Is needed in the fire provisions
of the tenement house act. In sec
ton 60 is the requirement that every
tenement house hereafter erected six
stories or more in height shall be
made fireproof throughout Tene-
ment houses from four to six stories
in height are permitted to be of sec
ond-class construction. with brick ex-
terror and stair halls; three-story
side the city fire limits. These pro-
visions should be amended to require
that every tenement house hereafter
erected four or five more stories in
height shall be fireproof throughout,
and that three-story tenement houses
should have a brick exterior and q
fireproof stair hall.
Restrict frame Buildings.
Article H., section 1, paragraph 65,
permits frame buildings, three stories
or forty feet in height to be erected
of wood, and TO accommodate six
families and to be built within three
feet of the lot line. To secure COM
plete safety from confiagration, and
adequate circulation of air, this pro-
vision should be corrected to~require
that no frame building shall be built
more than two whole stories in height
or to be occupied by more than four
families in all.
The building department is provided
with a force of only II employees, 10
of whom are building inspectors. Yet
there are from 500 to 500 new build
ings in the process of erection in the
city all the time. Obviously the de-
partment has very little time for any
activity save inspection of new build
ings
The Board of Health Is charged
with elimination of conditions caus-
ing disease, or, to state the function
positively, with the maintenance OF
conditions which will promote the
health of citizens. The number of
health officials in Newark should be
more than doubled. At present the
board employs only is for the whole
city-an obviously inadequate num-
Der. Within his district each sanitary
inspector must look upall complaints
(there were 3,4SS in 1910, inspect
plumbing. stables, markets, etc, and
then may devote such time as is left
to the voluntary inspection of dwell
ings.
City planning within the heart of a
built-up city involves schemes for
dealing in a large way with insani-
tary districts. An extreme example
of such a district in Newark com
prises the major part of Arlington,
Augusta, Shipman and Nicholson
streets. In portions of this district
the houses are highly insanitary and
are beyond repair-positively unsafe
and dangerous to health and moral
ity. There are many ways in which
districts of this sort can be treated.
First, it may be neglected, as it is
today, by health and tenement de-
partments that are overworked and
unable TO deal with problem so large