RECORD OF TESTIMONY AND STATEMENTS IN RELATION TO 143 



NECESSITY FOR DISTRICTING PLAN 



scrapers and erect them in the one principal and most beautiful street of 

 New York City, where there are as yet relatively few of these unsanitary 

 and unsafe structures. 



A second danger, although not purely medical, but which as a citizen 

 and physician I nevertheless have the right to call attention to,- is that of fire. 

 Standpipes have not proven sufficient protection for most skyscrapers. It 

 is for this reason no less than for the others already mentioned that the time 

 for limiting the height of buildings in our crowded streets has come. Too 

 many lives are sacrificed directly and indirectly through the erection of too 

 tall buildings. 



The section of Fifth Avenue between Twenty-third Street and Fifty- 

 ninth Street' is bound soon to be lined with business structures. Let these 

 business structures be sanitary, beautiful and safe and limited in height. 

 Let us not make a canyon of this section. It is not merely a question of 

 beauty or aesthetics but of danger to property in the event of fire that there 

 should be a limitation to the height of buildings, on what is left of Fifth- 

 Avenue. This limitation is an urgent necessity because it will help to 

 diminish the danger from infectious deadly diseases and fires. 



There is one more danger arising from allowing factory buildings to 

 be located in the zone above mentioned. I refer to the danger from con- 

 gestion in strikes or other labor manifestations, as was clearly shown only 

 yesterday when there was a stoppage of all traffic for nearly an hour near 

 34th Street — the center of the shopping district of New York. 



Statement by Nelson P. Lewis, Chief Engineer, Board of Estimate 



and Apportionment, May 4, 1916 

 Effect of high buildings on street traffic 



It has seemed to me that in considering the control of the height and 

 arrangement of buildings, their use and occupancy, consideration should 

 be given to the effect upon street traffic of the uncontrolled and unrestricted 

 development of the city through building operations, and the entirely uncon- 

 trolled location of industries and business. 



It is obvious to anyone that in certain portions of the city, notably in 

 lower Manhattan, the enormous day population of the office buildings, most 

 of whom come to their work in the morning and leave in the afternoon 

 within a very limited time, now over-taxes the public streets, and while we 

 are reasonably free from earthquake shocks, or even tremors, you will 

 recall that in 1884 and again in 1886 there were violent vibrations which 

 caused a very panicky feeling. You may remember the explosion in the 

 Tarrant Building, perhaps twenty years ago, which created a great panic in 

 the neighborhood. It is easy to see what would happen if, in the office 

 building district downtown, a violent explosion or earthquake tremor were 

 to occur, which would result in a mad rush from office buildings to the 

 streets. The panic in the streets would be almost inconceivable, and would, 

 under existing conditions, be about as serious and fatal in its results as those 

 which occur when people try to leave a theatre in case of an alarm of fire. 



I am speaking now only of pedestrian traffic, but the vehicular traffic 

 which will result from the over-intensive use of land in the city must also 

 be considered. 



Use districts will segregate different kinds of traffic 



Perhaps there are those who might fear that the result of a segregation 

 of heavy manufacturing, of light manufacturing and business, and of resi- 



