New-York tribune., 1919-05-22
Building Operations
Here Are Nearing
Pre-War Activity
Four Borough Superintend-
cnts Report on Work in
City; Big Brooklyn In
crease; Urge Commission

The stagnation in building in New
vork City is nearing it's end, according
~ four borough building superintend
ants who testified at yesterdays ses
.;on Of the Joint legislative commit
Toe investigating the housing and ice
s;tnations. Joseph P. Day and other
-eaI estate men agreed last night that
tse natriot;sm of big business men will
.ause the INTO give their aid, even
.houeh investments in building might
rot be attractive from an economic
standpoint.
Albert f. Kleinert, Supe erintendent of
Buildings for Brooklyn, said building
in his borough in the last four months
has been on larger scale than for
The spending period of the last
FIVE or six years. 1t is 100 per cent
GREATER than in 1918, he said. Plans
Sled in Brooklyn numbered 1850, call
ing for an expenditures in building op-
erations of s20,146,741, he said The
following buildings are under construc-
tion:
one-family dwellings, 571: two-fam-
fly dwellings, Ala; tenements for three
families, SO: tenements for four and
more families, GS.
Blames Chaos to Gamblers
Forty-fve PEI cent of the total of
buildings of all character in the city
are in Brooklyn, Mr. Kleinert said. He
sscribed chaotic conditions in Browns
vile to the gambling building ele-
ment" Only to per cent of build
ers are substantial. he said
William E. Walsh, Superintendent of
Buildings of Manhattan, said 1874 plans
for buildings have been filed in his
office for the first three months of
1919, compared with four in the entire
year of 1918. He reported building in
speedily reaching pre-war proportions.
Ninety of the plans filed with him are
for tenements, he said.
In Queens, John W. Moore, Building
Superintendent of that borough. said,
1,547 frame buildings, costing $780,,
900, were under construction during
the first four months of this year. The
brick buildings total 10, at cost of
$4,000. In all of 1919 only ISL build
ings were erected.
$1,000 Lots at sl0o
Fifty thousand lots at 500 each are
for sale in New York City, James
Nolan, Richmond's Building Superin-
tendent, said, adding that development
in Staten Island was so neglected dur
ing the war that nine thousand me-
chancs, most of them shipyard work
ers, were forced to commute. There
are five hundred new buildings in the
course of construction, most of them
one and two family houses, he said.
The next session of the committee will
be held to-day at City Hall.
Joseph P. Day praised the plan of
government building loans, but said
the United States as a real estate
owner was not success, being too
easy landlord and losing money
which must be recovered through
faxes.
Nathan Hirsch chairman of the
Mayors Committee on Rent Profteer-
ing, said an exhibit OF architects
plans and models for new houses for
this city viii be held in an unoccupied
space in the rotunda of the Hall of
Records. The date has not been set.
The Housing Committee of the
Merchants Association reported that
the plan for q state reconstruction
commission for stimulating building
could not be permanently effective,
but it should assure the completion,
before next winter, Of housing for
several thousand families.
The plan would establish a corpora
tlon which would advance 20 per
cent loan to builders, leaving title and
Insurance companies to lend 60 per
cent and the builder to make up the
other 20 per cent.