RECORD OF TESTIMONY AND STATEMENTS IN RELATION TO 113 



NECESSITY FOR DISTRICTING PLAN 



The increase from 1895 to 1910 amounted to about 45 per cent, roughly 

 speaking. Since 1910 the decrease in the assessed valuation has been at 

 the rate of 10 to 25 per cent a year in some years, and five per cent in 

 other years. Today the decrease in assessments is about 40 per cent from 

 that of 1910. Above 23d Street the assessments were gradually raised 

 until in 1912 they reached the maximum in the district between 23d and 

 ' 30th Streets. During seven years assessments were increased by from 

 20 to 60 per cent, according to location, averaging about 35 per cent for 

 the block square. The first cut in assessed valuations between 23d and 

 28th Streets appeared in 1914, and 1915 and 1916 present some more cuts 

 in assessed valuation. On the average, the reduction in assessment for 

 taxation purposes amounts to about 28 per cent per square block t and 

 specific cases of decreased assessments are to be found everywhere. Prac- 

 tically none of the buildings erected prior to 1910 is today assessed at 

 more than about 65 of 70 per cent, at the utmost of the assessed valuation 

 in the period from 1910 to 1912. 



According to the Real Estate Record and Guide land value maps in 

 1911, five years ago, the front-foot value for assessment purposes of lands 

 along Fifth Avenue ranged from $8,500 at Twenty-sixth Street (Madison 

 Square) to $17,000 at Thirty-fourth Street. Today they are appraised by the 

 same authority, the Tax Department, at from $6,300 to $14,000. 



Owing to the factory invasion and the decline in values the Fifth Ave- 

 nue real estate market has been stagnant below 34th Street. There has 

 been little change in the owners of property during the last two years in the 

 region lying between 14th and 34th Streets. But during the last three years 

 at least eleven parcels of land with the buildings erected thereon were sold 

 at auction in proceedings to foreclose the mortgage. The equities in the 

 properties, after deducting the first mortgage, which amounted to about 50 

 to 60 per cent of the assessed valuation, were wiped out. 



Let us take a few specific instances of reduction in assessments. The 

 building at 34 to 46 West 23d Street, the old Stern Brothers building, de- 

 creased in valuation from $3,330,000 in 1908 to $1,119,000 in 1915. The 

 property at 27 to 29 West 16th Street, on which there is a practically new 

 factory building:, in 1908, before the improvements had been put in, was 

 assessed at $118,000, and in 1909. after the improvements, at $248,000, stood 

 on the tax books in 1915 at $190,000. The building at 186 Fifth Avenue, 

 southwest corner of 23d Street, assessed at $620,000 in 1908, stands now at 

 the assessed value of $220,000. 



General desirability of stability of use in districts 



In this city, as in any other city, stability in use of certain geographical 

 sections makes for stability in values and stability along certain lines of 

 business. The downtown section, for instance, which has been now for 

 nearly a century the financial center of the city has as a district undergone 

 few vicissitudes from the point of view of property and rental values. As 

 an example of the contrary policy, we have the district lying around Canal 

 and Walker Streets, west of Broadway, which today is practically empty and 

 unused. This is a great detriment not only to the owners of the property 

 there, but also to the city on account of the loss of taxes. Wherever there 

 is any district where any attempt of permanency is made values are apt to 

 be stable or to rise and the district has an architecture of its own suitable 

 to the uses to which the buildings are put. An incentive is also given to 

 builders to put up as good buildings as can be profitably erected. On the. 



