RECORD OF TESTIMONY AND STATEMENTS IN RELATION TO 123 



NECESSITY FOR DISTRICTING PLAN 



of that kind. Besides, residence streets have been ruined, made unattractive 

 and undesirable by the invasion of undesirable trades and industries which 

 have no place there. 



Larger courts and yards in lieu of parks 



Many one and two family house sections have large open spaces in the 

 rear or front where the children can get recreation and fresh air. If we are 

 going to allow these sections to be taken up by large tenements we are going 

 to take away that feature from their lives. The relatively small park acreage 

 of Brooklyn should be considered in this connection. In Brooklyn only 2.29 

 per cent of the area is given over to parks, whereas in the Bronx 15.13 

 per cent and in Manhattan 10.25 per cent is reserved for such use. It is 

 necessary, therefore, to compensate for this loss by providing larger open 

 spaces about the houses. This we feel you have not sufficiently considered 

 in your recommendations. 



Overcrowded schools 



In some of the congested sections of Brownsville, the schools are not 

 only overcrowded, but overcrowded to the extent of violating the Sanitary 

 Code. Many of the rooms have a placard which says, " legal capacity 45," 

 yet they probably have 60 children. This condition the Department of 

 Education has to meet as best it can. The point is that the neighborhood is 

 too congested for the school facilities which the city can provide. Besides, 

 many children can go to school only half-time because of the overcrowded 

 condition. By spreading the population over wider areas and in smaller 

 housing units this problem would at least be partially solved. 



Statement by Ernest P. Goodrich, Consulting Engineer, 

 March 30, 1916 



Height limit will stabilize real estate values 



I believe that a limitation of the height of buildings will stabilize condi- 

 tions and consequently make rents and sale values more uniform, and 

 thereby remove that condition which is called a gamble in real estate. To 

 that I attach very great importance and believe that there will not be so 

 many changes in occupancy if we have these height restrictions. 



Traffic 



I am more familiar with traffic conditions. Traffic conditions make 

 real estate values. In Newark where we took traffic statistics, one of the 

 requests that was made was by the Board of Appraisers, who wanted to 

 modify their appraisals on the basis of the people who walked in front of 

 the show windows, believing that a larger number made property of greater 

 value. I can give you an instance in connection with the Borough of Man- 

 hattan. One man came to the office and objected to an encroachment 

 removal. When the statistics were shown him that 35,000 people walked 

 in front of his window, he scratched his head and said, " I will raise the 

 rent " and the consequence was that without further objection he went 

 back and removed the encroachment. 



Relation of districting to health 



You are endeavoring to arrange this limit on the basis of business 

 policy, so as to conserve health and preserve life and limb and thereby con- 



