RECORD OF TESTIMONY AND STATEMENTS IN RELATION TO 209 



NECESSITY FOR DISTRICTING PLAN 



district — the area of maximum congestion. They have been worked 

 out with a view to securing as much light, air, relief from congestion 

 and safety from fire as is consistent with a proper regard for business 

 requirements and existing land values in this area of maximum 

 congestion. * * * We believe that the needs of each district 

 should be studied in the same way that we have studied the central 

 office and financial district and restrictions worked out that will best 

 serve the peculiar needs of each district." 



It is this principle of height and area restriction so stated by the Heights 

 of Buildings Commission as the result of their investigation and delibera- 

 tion — the principle of the greatest protection against growing and spread- 

 ing congestion that is consistent with due regard for existing conditions 

 and values, the principle that you have more nearly followed in Manhattan 

 than elsewhere, which we urge you to follow in Brooklyn and the other 

 outlying boroughs. Instead, you are permitting eight and nine stories 

 where three or four now prevail ; and the crowded Brownsville tenement 

 where the one and two-family house is now being built, or development has 

 hardly begun; thus allowing at the very outer limits of our great city the 

 typical central Berlin tenement. 



Vacant land in city 



It may be said that Manhattan congestion is necessary within Man- 

 hattan distances from City Hall in order to provide housing within the 

 five-cent' transit limit by the new dual subway and elevated system for 

 access to City Hall and its environs. To this there are many answers. 

 There is a vast area still available in Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx. 

 Surface cars and transfers will provide transportation to these areas as 

 need for them gradually arises. Better still, decentralization of industries 

 essential for so many reasons will develop subsidiary centers. Much of 

 Jersey is still near; or, if local patriotism forbids such a suggestion, Staten 

 Island, almost unoccupied and large enough to hold all New York City, 

 can be brought by subway within twelve minutes of City Hall. Even the 

 land speculator should know by this time that the greedy do not always 

 become rich. If the skyscraper does not pay, why should the use of an 

 excessive proportion of the lot continue to do so in these days when we are 

 beginning to demand light, air, sun and space for outdoor life? 



Suggested amendments to tentative plan 



These are the principles which with earnestness and full conviction we 

 urge you to follow. For the putting of these principles into effect, we make 

 the following recommendations : 



1. The establishment of a fourth use class, to consist of shops, with- 

 out industry, on the ground floor, with residences above. 



2. The application of the residential classification, or the fourth use 

 classification, to streets in the neighborhood of parks, especiall)' the smaller 

 ones. 



3. The study of the needs of the small park as a neighborhood center. 

 For instance, the large theatre should be excluded, but not the neighborhood 

 theatre ; all the minor public buildings, too, should be allowed. 



4. The further study of the problem of the garage, so unpleasant 

 and dangerous near residences, and so destructive of business values on the 

 block front on which it is situated ; with a view to excluding the garage so 

 far as possible from these neighborhoods. 



