The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-09-29
GOING TO MOVE?
WHERE--AND HOW
Nightmare of October 1 Is
More Vivid This Year Than
Ever Before.
PARKS ONLY PLACE TO GO
And Moving Van Sharks De-
mand $40 an Hour to
Land You There.

Only that family which has to move
out of its old and into a new apartment
Tomorrow or Wednesday can appreciate
that which follows. Folks who figured
that it was just as easy to pay 5000
more for a new lease on the old fat ae
to pay from $50 to s3oo to be moved by
van to a new home may read and con-
graduate themselves
For whether you stay where you are
and pay more rent or move and pay
that extra rent to a moving van COM
pany that may and may not get you
into your new rooms within twenty
four hours of the time 1t agreed TO,
YOU are interested in-and incidentally
idismayed at--the fact that New York Is
entering upon its annual moving day
nightmare a nightmare moro VIVID ana
horrible than ever.
Briefly here is the New York city
housing and moving situation. Realty
companies and real estate men have
not been building new apartment
houses. The costs of labor and materials
have frightened all but a few builders
who figure that bad as conditions are
they are going to be worse. so 1t is
better to build now than never build
al all.
Rents have gone up from 10 to SO
per cent. If you can't pay the demanded
rent you are told that there is some one
who can and out you go to make room
for the more affluent one. But where to
go? Either you decide to move into
fat that is SO much worse than the
one that you have been living in that
It makes you feel like the worlds great
est failure or you move TO the outskirts
of the city to an apartment or halt
house that costs just as much as your
more convenient town fat did before
the landlord raised the rent.
It takes about three or four hours
for the van company-the company you
engage to move your furniture-to get
from it's headquarters to your house,
load your furniture and take it TO your
new home. Your furniture may consist
OF enough to fill one, two, three or four
big vans 1t was probably enough to
furnish FIVE or maybe six rooms. When
new, and at the prices of its purchase
day, the furniture cost you about $1,000.
Understand. this has to do with the ordi-
nary salaried man of medium family /;
the average citizen who is neither pow
erty stricken nor rich.
Vans at $40 an Hour.
Well. theni You are informed that
for each van assigned to moving your
furniture you will pay $40 an hour from
the time it leaves the stables or garage
until the time it returns after having
deposited your now rather well worn
stuff In your new place Of abode. AS
has been said, each van Is at your ser
vice four hours. You can figure for your
self Just how much it is costing Mr..
Average Citizen to move. And do not
rI,a io
of the pay for the men who travel
with each van as crews. You pay them.
Don't forget that
The man who uses three vans Tor
four hours will pay something like Sl5o
to move when all is taken into account.
Compare that with the increase in your
rent and then decide whom to pay-the
landlord or the moving man
This is, of course, taking II for granted
that you can get a moving man 10 move
your goods at the time you must move.
There is always the probability that the
chan who Is moving in will be luckier
than YOU. or that you will be luckier than
the fellow into whose fat you are NOV
ing, and either you will find the new
conner clamoring for entrance and occu-
pancy, as he has a right to do, or you
win be pounding upon the door OF the nat
that you thought was yours until you
got there and found that the passing ten
ant can't get out because his moving
man hasn't arrived.
Somebody's going to sleep in the open.
Either you or your successor or the man
you succeed is going to hold forth in the
street surrounded by furniture that the
moving man hasn't had time to move or
couldn't wait to move into the house to
which he dragged it and found no place
to put it
It sounds fearfllly involved-an this.
But the situation Is really more involved.
What Ordinance Says.
There is an ordinance on the books in
City Hall. Il says q motor van of ninety
square feet floor space shall fetch its
owner $3.50 an hour plus the hire OF
moving crew. Then there Is a joker in
that ordinance that has it that in emer-
gency times the moving man and the
man who Is moving shall enter into
contract concerning the price of NOV
ing. A week ago Robert l.. Moran, Pres
ident of the Board of Aldermen. an
nounced that he would see about having
the Joker eliminated before October l.
1t is here repeated that the reputable
moving men who are trying to be fair
and law abiding-those men who are
Owners Association. for instance-are
charging $40 an hour. And they are
turning down business. They have more
orders than they can fill.
The free lance van owner, however, Is
bound by no $40 limit. He is demand
ing and getting anywhere from SIS to
$25 an hour, and you who have to move
can take his price or leave 1t, and there
you are, What are you going to do
about it? The answer is Nothing"
Reliable van owners and moving men
are describing the conditions as "appall-
ing" Charles Norris secretary of the
Metropolitan Storage Company, is one of
these. These legitimate moving men say
they are overwhelmed with business
that landlords are adamant in their de-
to have old tenants out and
new tenants in October /. There are
situations where two or more families
are moving out Of one apartment house
and two or more families moving In.
All this must be done October mo
later. Conditions are such that 1t can
be done no earlier.