USE DISTRICTS 



17 



less ground area per industry without greatly changing the aggregate require- 

 ment for ground area. 



The segregation of factories will directly reduce production costs. It 

 will make it possible to have the best rail and water terminal facilities and 

 the best express and mail facilities. It will reduce trucking and thus improve 

 street traffic conditions. It will tend to the segregation of heavy trucking 

 from other classes of street traffic and thus further tend toward the improve- 

 ment of street traffic conditions. 



Furthermore, the segregation of factories along the rail and water 

 terminals and their consequent exclusion from the residence sections will 

 improve living conditions throughout the city. A factory is usually a 

 nuisance in a residence section. It is often directly injurious by reason of 

 noise, odor, dust or smoke. It always brings heavy trucking with attendant 

 noise and danger to the safety of the children, especially in crowded tene- 

 ment districts. It often subjects the neighboring residents and property 

 owners to increased risk from fire and explosion. 



The problem of congestion of population is closely related to the loca- 

 tion of trades and industries. 1 Employees working long hours at low wages 

 can afford neither the time nor the money to live far from their work. It 

 has been shown that a very large proportion of such employees will live 

 within walking distance of their work, even though this necessitates their 

 living in the most congested and unwholesome quarters. While the pro- 

 posed plan for residential and industrial districts will not cure existing con- 

 ditions it will help to prevent an extension of such conditions. This is 

 insured by providing adequate housing areas adjacent to the factory areas 

 and preventing for the future the encroachment by the factories on areas 

 required for housing. 



While economic forces are quite effective in securing the segregation 

 of industries of the heavier type close to the water and rail terminals, there 

 are in New York City an unusually large proportion of industries that are 

 not subject to this segregating influence. New York City is pre-eminent as 

 a light manufacturing center. Of the 680,510 persons employed in indus- 

 tries in New York City in 1909, 422,769 were employed in the following 

 light industries : 



Artificial flowers, feathers and plumes 9,759 



Boots and shoes 9,177 



Boxes 9,414 



Bread and bakery products 20,401 



Buttons 3,635 



Clothing, men's 77,543 



Clothing, women's 110,567 



Confectionery 7,641 



See Figure 7 and Figure 20. A comparison of these two spot maps, showing 

 resident and factory population, indicates graphically the relation between congestion 

 of factories in lower Manhattan and congestion of population in the lower East Side. 



