780 THE URBAN COMMUNITY 



" Our opponent maintained that our exacting ordinances would put 

 a stop to city building and cause the rents to rise enormously, thus 

 terribly cramping the working classes. ' Well, be it so/ we an- 

 swered. ' In that case, both the outskirts of cities and the neighbor- 

 ing country where land is less expensive will be utilized; suburban 

 villas will be built, a result which is highly satisfactory. Indeed, it 

 becomes more and more apparent every day that large cities with 

 their railroad stations, their ports, their proximate canals, their 

 market-place, their exchange, their workshops and their warehouses, 

 are destined to become, in the course of time, business centres. The 

 tramway enables their inhabitants to have a dwelling-house at some 

 distance and there quickly to enjoy the open air in the midst of 

 nature.' This reasoning seemed to be acceptable, and we need not 

 add that the building spirit has not in any way suffered. On the 

 contrary, the same rule that made order prevail in the growth 

 of the city has given it fresh life. The thing is plain enough. A 

 great contractor pointed out to me that if our buildings are not as 

 high as some would have wanted them, our houses at least, thanks 

 to the existing laws, are not liable to be depreciated by the enormous 

 and brutal sky-scraper. The tenements of the city being less 

 numerous, we obtained higher rent for them, the more so as many 

 of these, provided with lifts, are used as offices and command larger 

 prices than ordinary flats. If building technicalities are sometimes 

 rather aggravating, we accept them, however, in consideration of 

 the benefits derived from them. 



" Our Building Code has proved a decided success. We have gone 

 into minute details in order to defeat the objections that were raised 

 against the system. Just one or two instances. In new houses we 

 have fixed the height of the fagade cornice, but having heard that 

 in other cities builders evaded this rule by constructing a kind of 

 second edifice above the regulation cornice, we have determined also 

 the conditions of structures for the roof itself. 



" And again, a small paragraph in our code, like a snake in the grass, 

 would have made it possible for the authorities to infringe the code 

 itself. We did not permit the introduction into it of exceptions to 

 the stated ordinances. We were opposed to such sentences as this: 

 ' However, in certain cases the authorities will have a right ' well, 

 not to submit to the law. We have avoided giving carte blanche. 

 Why should the public powers be authorized, not to say encouraged, 

 to do the reverse of what the code established? 



"To sum up: three leading interests have inspired us in drafting 

 our legislation for the city of the future: sanitation; public safety; 

 beauty. 



" (6) Sanitation. Streets drawn according to the compass, as has 

 been stated, are favorable to sanitation, but further dispositions are 



