112 COMMISSION ON BUILDING DISTRICTS 



tray the conditions in such a plain manner as to make further comment 

 superfluous. 



Conditions are of course also very bad in the morning and evening at 

 the beginning and end of the working day. In the afternoon especially the 

 sidewalks on the side streets are crowded with tens of thousands of workers 

 scurrying eastward, all leaving work about the same time. 



Congestion of vehicular traffic 



There is a very close relation between the presence of factories in such 

 a limited area and the presence of traffic congestion. Why this is so is at 

 least in some respects quite obvious. The manufacturer's goods, when 

 finished, must be transported elsewhere in trucks. But this close relation- 

 ship need not be surmised at or reasoned out. The entire point of Vehicular 

 Congestion is so fully covered in the statement relating to traffic, dated 

 March 30th, submitted by the Fifth Avenue Association to the Commission, 

 as to require no further restatement here. 



Congestion in factories 



The factories themselves are crowded to the utmost capacity. Rents 

 and overhead charges are high in the Fifth Avenue district, and the manu- 

 facturers must use every inch of floor space in order to produce the neces- 

 sary income. The height of the factories varies from ten to twenty stories; 

 and the number of those employed from 150 to 200 people on a floor. The 

 elevator facilities provided for this large number of employees consist 

 merely of the freight elevators, and, of course, receiving and shipping 

 freight takes precedence over the transportation up and down of the em- 

 ployees. How much time is lost to the individual employee is plainly shown 

 by the fact that at the noon hour the majority find it more convenient and 

 quick to walk down the stairs even as high as from the tenth floor in order 

 to reach the street promptly. Very often one elevator will be out of com- 

 mission at lunch time, because the elevator boy is out to lunch. Pushing, 

 shoving and actual fighting for a place in the elevator is a daily occurrence 

 in some of the buildings. In the morning the employees dribble in. It 

 takes about three-quarters of an hour for them to come. In the evening, 

 all of them leaving at the same time, every exit facility, elevators and stairs 

 alike, are taxed to the utmost. In spite of this, however, 45 minutes elapse 

 before the tall buildings are emptied. 



What a contrast is found in the factories further west, near and beyond 

 7th and 8th Avenues, where rents are cheaper and the necessity for economy 

 of floor space not so vital! Whereas in the Fifth Avenue factories there 

 are generally only two elevators or less, in the district further west the 

 average number per factory building is four to five. In the Fifth Avenue 

 district there are practically never over two elevators per factory, while only 

 two or three blocks west there are practically never under two. 

 Reduction in values 



When the speculative factory movement began the market value of 

 real estate between 14th and 23d Streets on Fifth Avenue increased and 

 kept on increasing until it struck the high level about 1906. Since that 

 time the decrease has been gradual but constant. The same thing holds 

 good for the side streets. When loft buildings replaced private dwellings 

 used for boarding houses assessed valuations were raised, but afterwards 

 the assessments were slowly reduced and are still on the decline. 



The question of decreased assessments is a very complicated one. As a 

 rule assessments were on the increase below 23d Street up to about 1910. 



