CUTTING UP NEW YORK

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 26, 31 January 1923, Page 13

CUTTING UP NEW YORK

BIG BOULEVARDS PLANNED

SOLVING TRAFFIC PROBLEMS.

Wholo blocks 'of buildings in New j York City must be torn down to make way for gloat crosstown boulevards divided into spaces for slow-moving vehicles and for express traffic moving. at thirty-five miles an hour, according to Dr. John A. Harries, Special DeputyPolice Commissioner, who recently made public his latest and most comprehensive plan for the relief of New York City present and future, reports the "New York' Times." Dr. Harriss says "you might .as well 3top the manufacture of automobiles" as limit the use of passenger cars on New York City streets by legislative Act, as suggested by Magistrate House, and while motor-cars are used for transportation space will.have to be provided for them. i j Between the North and East Bivere, j and somewhere between Forty-seoond and Fifty-ninth streets, Dr. Harries says that building after building must be torn , down to make way for the first of the | four great boulevards, each 360 feet in . width, conecting with marginal ways en- j circling Manhattan Island and leading to | Long Island and New Jersey. He proposes that the first boulevard be built in the Forty-second street zone because here the traffic problem is now and for years will be the most acute. The next crosatown boulevard would be put through in that section between Twenty-third and Forty-second streets, the third between Fourteenth and Twen-ty-third streets, and the fourth between j Fourth and Chambers streets. : I THE ESTIMATED COST. , Dr. Harriss said that he had assessed the value of every building in the path of the boulevard between Forty-second and Fifty-ninth streets, and that he had i figured ■ out that the cost would be approximately 50,000,000 dollars to carry the project to completion. To connect ur> the proposed crosstown^ thoroughfares ■with the viaducts on either side oil Sixth Avenue, which h« proposes for immediate construction, would bring the total cost of the first boulevard and the viaducts to 70,000,000 dollars. , Discussing his plan for the city of the present and of the future, Dr. Harriss said: ' " j "If the City of New York, is not inundated or destroyed by some unforeseen catastrophe, we will have, in my .opinion, based upon the present increase of people for periods of ten years, an estimated' I'esidential population of 25,000,000 people in' 2022, and an estimated population in 2222 of approximately 45,000,000 people. "To shelter and take care of this enormous population it will be necessary to provide approximately seven times the amount of area and housing that is now r-equired for living purposes. Wh»re can such additional land be secured for houses, streets, and highways? There will be no choice, and we will be forced to take the only available property for the solution of the traffic problem. We cannot proceed to the south, of Manhattan Island nor Brooklyn. Therefore the natural growth of the city must eventually be: .' "(1) Westcheater County and up toward Poughkeepsie and. from the Hudson River to Long Island Sound up the State line of Connecticut. "(2) The Borough of Queens and up .through Nasau County, extending fax into Long Island. OUTLINE OF BOULEVARD PLAN. "In anticipation of the remarkable growth of automobiles and the limited apace lor them and for pedestrian traffic on the streets of this city and on the highways of this State, it behoves those that have- it in their power to make ; known and put into action such; practical suggestions and methods as will rllieve. this serious situation. "I respectfully submit the following for careful consideration by all those interested in the welfare of the city:— "A boulevard 360 feet wide from the Hudson to the East River. Thig will necessitate the wrecking of an entire 200 feet of buildings from river to river at approximately a cost of 50,000,000 dollars. . ' ■ "The boulevard would be 360 feet wiare from building line to building line,' and extend from the Hudson to the East Biver, and-would be arranged as follows :— Feet. Sidewalks, 30 feet wide'/ ■ 60 West bound traffic," next to curb .... 100 East bound traffic, next to curb.... 100 Centre of boulevard made up as follows:— ■ . - West Jjpund express traffic •. 50 East bound express traffic .'. 50 360 "The express traffic would pass under all of the north and south bound streets, with ramps to Sixth Avenue express highway and an artistic Park Avenue viaduct. The turning.of vehicular traffic or crossing of pedestrians permitted at street intersections only. Theatre zones east and west end of boulevard with automobile terminals and parking hotels. Beneath the boulevard provision would bejnade for the parking of cars. "This express highway to connect with the elevated express highway on either side of the present Sixth Avenue elevated road, each forty feet wide, as originally suggested .by me in 1918.; "The express highways would connect with the marginal way express highways or express streets on the extreme west side and. east side of Manhattan Island. ''As the centre of serious increasing congestion lies in the zone between Forty-second street and Fifty-ninth street, and as this condition has become acute and requires immediate relief, it is suggested thai the other cross boulevards be--not considered at this time, as it is just likely that within the next twenty-five years the entire lower section of the city may be adequately provided for, as I am firmly of the belief that Manhattan Island below Fourteenth street will be given over to storage and warehouse provision, and will eventually be forced to utilise the large office buildings downtown for this purpose., CITY OF THE FUTURE. "The signs of the future as now indicated will find the financial district housed above Forty-second street and reaching to Fifty-ninth street, and I should imagine that one of the firsfc streets as a whole to give way to financial and commercial activity will be Park avenue, with its long rows of available apartment houses and-hotels which will provide excellent office space for the new financial district of New York within the next twenty-five years "As I visualise and imagine this vast city with its limited available land fast being built, upon, I can picture New York within 100 years with a population of 25,000,000 as follow:----"1. Battery, to Forty-second streetStorage and provision' warehouses. "2. Fourteenth to Forty-second street —Manufacturing and wholesale buildings. 13. Forty-second to Fifty-ninth street —1 manual. All north and south avenues and streets commercial and office buildings. "4. ; Fifty-ninth to 110 t- Street—De luxe nhoppina district, Fifth !iv«nn« SWy-uiuih to'HQth street, C 6 ntvaJS -Want, Cw,t»»l J?«k .South Md. JSortkJ

being the ultra-fashionable shopping thoroughfares. "5. 110 th to 125 th street—Additional shopping district. Many' bridges will cross the Hudson from Fifty-ninth street to Nya-ck. "6. 125 th Street to Harmon, across Westchester to Long Island Sound to the state line of Connecticut, crossing many new Concrete draw bridges over the East River to Queens, which is deßtined to be thickly peopled, and extending far into Long Island. ■"Riverside Drive will always renSain residential from Seventy-second street, and will provide superb residences all the way to Poughkeepsie, and is destined to be New York's magnificent driveway along the picturesque Hudson.

"Atlantic steamers will dock on the Atlantic seaboard on Long Island, and only merchant ships will dock up to Twenty-third street to deliver and load from the manufacturing and huge storage warehouses^". . '.