114 COMMISSION ON BUILDING DISTRICTS 



other hand where districts jump from one part of the city to the other values 

 and appearances must necessarily suffer. Everybody wants to get the bene- 

 fit of the new district right at the start. Speculative and cheap buildings 

 are encouraged and ultimately both the city and the property owners sustain 

 losses. 



And what of those whose security for loans is real estate, the thou- 

 sands of smaller investors in mortgage loans, the scores of great financial 

 and insurance institutions who hold mortgages? Why, the future of their 

 investments may be as insecure and unstable as water, as has been instanced 

 and mentioned above with regard to lower Fifth Avenue, where many 

 equities have been completely wiped out and more, as has been pointed out 

 above. What chances has the holder of a second mortgage got under pres- 

 ent conditions in some districts ? And of what use are the best brains, the 

 most expert judgment, the largest experience, and the fullest foresight on 

 the part of officers and directors when they are up against an unregulated, 

 haphazard, kaleidoscopic condition of affairs such as has resulted in the 

 Fifth Avenue district? New York is now like a picture puzzle, the pieces 

 shaken up in a bag and thrown on a table, with the pieces placed alongside 

 each other just as they happen to fall out of the bag. We cannot even now 

 have the perfect picture, but what we can do is to try to fix at least some 

 of the pieces where they belong, and keep them from being shaken up in 

 the bag again. 



Transportation of workers 



Transportation of the workers is greatly hindered by having the gar- 

 ment factories on and near Fifth Avenue. No workingman can live within 

 walking distance of his employment. From the far outlying districts like 

 the Bronx and Williamsburg, as well as the lower east side, the workers 

 come in crowded cars, elevated and subway trains, jammed to such an extent 

 that the Board of Health has found it necessary to interfere. In most cases 

 it means two car fares on each trip. In good weather the employees may in 

 some cases save one car fare by walking. In bad weather thousands of 

 these are compelled to walk on account of insufficiency of transportation 

 mediums. Lunch rooms are not provided and cannot be provided for in 

 sufficient quantities near the places where these people work. The relatively 

 high rent makes it impossible to utilize a lunch room merely during the 

 noon hour. As a result of the lack of accommodations a great many of 

 these factory employees do not get sufficient or proper food for the noon 

 meal. A large number of them bring their lunches with them and eat them 

 on the streets, adding to the litter thereon by throwing the refuse on or 

 near the curb. 



Transportation of goods 



If we are correctly informed a large majority of the goods manufac- 

 tured in the Fifth Avenue district are shipped to points outside of the city 

 and principally in the west. Consequently the factories in the Fifth Avenue 

 district are most unfortunately located from the point of view of their dis- 

 tance from the freight terminals. This handicap is greatly accentuated by 

 the fact that the avenues and streets in the district are already the most 

 heavily congested thoroughfares anywhere in the world, because of the mer- 

 cantile, shopping and pleasure traffic necessarily concentrating there, and be- 

 cause Fifth Avenue, owing to its central location, freedom from elevated and 

 surface car lines, and for other reasons, is the main traffic artery of the 

 city. This vehicular congestion is infinitely worse above 23d Street than 



