The Connecticut labor press., 1920-05-15
ALDERMAN FOILED LAND SHARKS ON
 CITY HALL SITE
Mayors Approval Settles Plan to Exploit Church Street
 Property.

Despite efforts made to have him exert his veto power, Mayor FitzGerald on Thursday, stood right behind the board of aldermen in it's action on the proposed new city hall site, approved the bill passed by the board and hgura- lively decided to '1et the buzzards scream" The mayor in signing the bill announced he would appoint the com mittee of IA to go ahead as the alder men provided and declared that he felt the farsighted vision of the committee to be named would result to the best in- terests of the city.
 Neither the mayor, the aldermen, nor the committee that reported in favor of building new city hall on the present site, was at all worried by the campaign of vituperation that was waged i'll the attempt to foist the Elm street site upon the city. The more than intimations that the committee was influenced" to make the report it did was almost the cause of the aldermen demanding an investigation. This was halted when prominent businessmen advised the committeeman not to pay any atten- ton to the slurs, especially those pub lished by a local evening newspaper" as everyone in the city who does any thinking realizes that papers attitude on public improvements that might carry a tax and pays no attention to 1t.
 That there was real estate deal be- hind the city hall project however seems to be without question. In fact many of the aldermen are satisfied that there was great big deal in prospect. The deal wasn't however to benefit the city or the aldermen but was instead said to be we'll laid plan of number of real estate sharks to gobble up the Church street property now occupied by the City hall and exploit it. The old postofice site further down Church street is about all done up and more central property is needed to play with and what better than that occupied by the City hall.
 The postofice site is good instance of what can be done. The results there would indicate that there is no great demand for more business land along Church street After the postofice plot had been juggled to here and there and back again, with profits for the jugg1ers all the way round, it is now settling into group of four or five story build ings instead of the magnificent struc- lures that were first touted for 1t.
 The present City hall site would prob ably go the same way if placed on the market and allowed to get into the hands of the speculators. So complete were the plans that only the brass bands were necessary to move the City hall over onto Elm street and give the land on Church and Court streets over to the speculators. Although there were hundreds of prominent businessmen and taxpayers opposed to moving and hun dreds who favored the Elm street site because misled through the wiles of the spectators, none of these facts were ever given to the pubic. The papers wouldn't publish them.
 The committee knew of them, the aldermen as a body understood, and Mayor FitzGerald was also apparently "wise" so thus endeth the second les son-the first having been read to the class some six years ago when com mission appointed by the late Mayor Rice reported just about the same as has done the present board.