RECORD OF TESTIMONY AND STATEMENTS IN RELATION TO 147 



NECESSITY FOR DISTRICTING PLAN 



express the wish that the Commission had gone even further in its limita- 

 tion than is proposed. 



Undoubtedly, a comprehensive transportation system could be more 

 intelligently planned if those responsible for planning it knew in advance 

 what kind of development would be possible in the various districts through 

 which it would pass. 

 Sensational building along subway 



I remember the sensational development, o'f the Washington Heights 

 district on the completion of the present subway. It came very suddenly, 

 and you will see the same thing happen in Corona in a very few months, in 

 a district nearer in time and distance to the center of Manhattan and where, 

 in deference to the persistent demands of property owners to save the 

 expense of widening some streets which were originally laid out at fifty 

 feet, those old widths have been maintained, and unless there is some 

 restriction upon the kind of development which can occur, I think we will 

 have a serious problem for the city to deal with in that district. 



Sewerage 



This sudden and unusual growth of apartment houses and tenement 

 houses has severely taxed the sewer system of the city. They have made 

 it quite obvious that steps have got to be taken to protect the harbor and 

 the rest of the city from being fouled by this sewage, although when we 

 talk about taxing the existing sewer system, I think that as a hydraulic 

 problem it is very much exaggerated, as we are still providing sewers to 

 accommodate both surface water and house drainage, and the amount of 

 house sewage is almost negligible in comparison with the surface water 

 for which provisions must be made. Large sections directly, along the new 

 lines of the dual rapid transit system are as yet unsewered. There would be 

 an extensive development of tenement houses in a number of these sections 

 were it not that the tenement house law prohibits the occupancy of a tene- 

 ment house unless it has a sewer connection. There are a number of tene- 

 ment houses in Queens to-day which cannot get occupancy permits because 

 there are no sewers to connect with. 



The sewage problem is greatly intensified where the only system is a 

 sanitary system. By that I mean that the sanitary system does not permit 

 even of a connection of a yard and a roof of any building with the sanitary 

 sewer without danger of surcharging the sewers yet the Tenement House 

 Law requires that all courts, yards and roofs shall be connected with the 

 sewer. In many cases the only sewer in the street is a sanitary sewer, and 

 to connect the roofs and yards and courts with it would surcharge it, 

 causing a backing up into other houses. 



Districting a protection against fire 



After a study of the great city fires and conflagrations, like the Balti- 

 more fire, the Chicago fire, the Salem fire and the San Francisco earthquake 

 and fire, I think it is manifest that the segregation of industrial buildings 

 should be had in the City of New York, purely from a fire fighting point of 

 view. 



Effect of districting on land values 



In my judgment, the adoption of this plan, while it might check sensa- 

 tional increases of value in certain districts, will undoubtedly result in a 

 greater total tax value, far better diffused than has heretofore been the 

 case. 



