RECORD OF TESTIMONY AND STATEMENTS IN RELATION TO 101 



NECESSITY FOR DISTRICTING PLAN 



We want you to classify in the " E " section everything inside of the 

 Ocean Avenue frontage. We have there to-day exactly what you planned 

 to place in an " E " section everywhere else. The fact that there is a possi- 

 bility of apartment houses being erected on these interior plots has had a 

 tendency to cheapen values. A house that was bought originally when the 

 Ackerson development was made for $16,000, was sold last week for $12,000 

 because the parties in interest were afraid that an apartment house would 

 be built on a vacant lot next to it. This is a criterion of values dropping 

 from a fear of apartment houses going in there. Now you will conserve the 

 values to the extent of $4,000 per house by restricting, and you will also 

 actually relieve the taxpayers from the greater fear of what might come to 

 them. I think that is in brief the story of Fiske Terrace. We can show 

 you a map with ninety per cent, of the property owners asking for unlimited 

 restrictions there. 



Statement by Edmund Dwight, Resident Manager, The Employers' 



Liability Assurance Corporation of London, May 18, 1916 

 Districting will reduce number of accidents 



I heartily approve of the program of the Commission. From the stand- 

 point of accident prevention and accident reduction, any legislation which 

 will reduce congestion is of the utmost importance. 



I have been for thirty years the New York Resident Manager of the 

 Company that began the business in the United States, of insuring against 

 liability arising out of personal accidents, and during that period there have 

 been reported to my office more than 200,000 accidents, the majority of 

 which have occurred in New York City. These have included accidents to 

 the public caused by the use of elevators, and in the streets from vehicles, 

 as well as from many other causes in buildings and in streets. 



My experience has indicated that accidents increase as congestion 

 increases, and any plan which will reduce congestion of population in build- 

 ings or in areas of the city will reduce the number of accidents. 



The proposed limitation of heights of buildings will reduce congestion 

 m elevators, which is one of the prolific causes of elevator accidents. 



Elevator accidents are due in far larger proportion to crowding, to 

 carelessness on the part of passengers, and to unskillful handling which is 

 itself frequently caused by crowded cars, than to defects in mechanical 

 appliances. 



The number of street accidents also in large measure follow increase 

 in density of population, and it is strikingly the case that the proximity 

 of manufacturing operations to crowded residential districts constitutes a 

 peril, because heavy trucking express and similar traffic has to be conducted 

 through streets which are crowded with children. 



There is no question in my mind that limitation of building heights 

 and districting for different classes of use, so that manufacturing operations 

 would be carried on in zones with a minimum residential use, would each 

 tend, in large measure, to the reduction of accidents, and to the safety of 

 the people of New York. 



As an owner of property in various parts of New York, I am satisfied 

 that while in individual cases there might be some hardship, resulting from 

 the proposed system, it should work as a whole to the enhancement and 

 stability of real estate values, and to the great welfare of the community. 



The plan of this commission provides for certain residential streets 



