138 COM. MISSION ON BUILDING DISTRICTS 



established, but those who have not; and those who may complain of the 

 effect of these regulations on their particular properties and who think that 

 they should be left free to build as high as they please and use as they 

 please, may, if nothing is done, and they do anticipate their neighbors and 

 make a greedy improvement, find a much greater loss confronting them in 

 the future depreciation of their new buildings. I believe such depreciation 

 is sure to come from a continuance of the present policy, and such owners 

 will lose less by the adoption of the restrictions now proposed. These 

 restrictions will tend to steady values and enable all real estate owners to 

 make reasonable use of their property. This is certainly better for the city 

 as a whole than to continue to allow a few out of many to make unfair use 

 of their property and depress still further the value of the remaining prop- 

 ertv and ultimately their own as well. 



Statement by John Kenlon, Chief of the Fire Department. May 



18, 1916 



Traffic congestion an obstacle to movement of fire apparatus 



In the thirty years that I have been connected with the Fire Depart- 

 ment, lower Manhattan has changed from a five-story to a twenty-five story 

 city. There is great congestion there at the present time ; during the day 

 time it is difficult to move apparatus in response to fire calls in the lower 

 end of Manhattan Island. Increased congestion of people and traffic in 

 this section will cause very serious delays in getting apparatus to work 

 around the scene of a fire. Even at present it is very difficult until the 

 police reserves arrive and establish fire lines at a safe distance from the 

 scene of the fire. The same condition prevails in the uptown section from 

 23d to 45th street, particularlv at certain hours. The men who laid out 

 the old part of the city 250 years ago had very little conception of the con- 

 ditions that obtain today. Those gentlemen could not possibly see the great 

 10-ton and 15-ton motor trucks running around on our streets. Downtown 

 today it is almost impossible to get through the streets. In ten years from 

 now horses will be a very rare sight on the streets of New York. The small 

 buggy has been superseded by the Packard, which takes four times the 

 space. The streets are too narrow in the lower part of Manhattan to take 

 care of the traffic. It is a serious matter; it requires a great deal of ex- 

 perience, a good hand and a strong arm to drive fire apparatus through the 

 streets of lower Manhattan. Any plan that will in a measure prevent the 

 increase of congestion in the central portions of the city, is a plan in the 

 right direction. 



Fire fighting in high buildings 



We never attempt to fight fires from the street level in very high build- 

 ings, except where the fire occurs between the curb and the sixth floor. 

 Such buildings must have the means of controlling fires from within ; that 

 is, they must be furnished with standpipes, pumps, hose, and all other 

 auxiliary fire appliances necessary to combat a fire. From the sidewalk 

 we can not combat a fire at a greater height than 100 feet. The Fire De- 

 partment is better equipped to fight fires in the heart of the city than in 

 the outlying sections. We have provided more powerful apparatus and 

 stronger equipment there. But I would not use that as an argument for 

 limiting the height of buildings. We can change our equipment to meet 

 changing conditions, the difference being in the cost. High buildings, if 



