New York panorama : a comprehensive view of the metropolis, Part 44

Author:
Publication date: 1938
Publisher: New York : Random House
Number of Pages: 630

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New York City has the reputation of ruthlessly tearing down older build ings to make way for new ones. And so it does-but not often its tenement: More than three-fourths of Manhattan's residential blocks are occupie by tenements at least 37 years old in 1938. Fifty percent of the tene 19

ments condemned in 1885 as unfit for human habitation are still standing and human beings are still stifled in 200,000 dark interior rooms of thos tenements-rooms with no windows opening to the outer air. The build ing of tenements of this evil kind was effectively prohibited in 1901; the thc are therefore known as "old-law tenements," while those constructed sinc er ,1901 are referred to as "new-law tenements."

Compared with most of the old-law buildings, new-law tenements at relatively fire-safe. Their ground coverage cannot exceed 90 percent c corner lots and 70 percent of interior lots; their height cannot exceed, b more than one-half, the width of the widest street upon which the build ing stands. The size of the rear lot must be in definite proportion to th building's height; and there must be interior courts of specified minimurl dimensions. Every room of the building opens upon a yard, court, or stree and has a floor area of not less than 70 square feet. Each apartment mu: have running water and a toilet. While these and numerous other prov. sions made the Tenement House Act of 1901 "the chief working mode for most of the tenement-house legislation of America since that date, they still left much to be desired. Then, too, owing to the increased co: of construction and maintenance under this act, the rental for apartment in new-law tenements is seldom less than $30 a month, thus excludin most families in the lower income groups.

A considerable proportion of the city's ill-housed population lives in ol single and double family residences that have ben converted (16,000 c them illegally) for multi-family use, residences that were not fitted fc such conversion. Housing conditions for single persons are even more ir adequate than for families. One or more persons are lodged with each c 180,000 families; and the resultant problems, both for the lodgers and fc the families, can be readily apprehended. Rooming houses are usually cor

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rted homes in down-at-the-heel districts; they are characterized by anti- ated front parlors and narrow bedrooms separated by flimsy partitions. hough the city now provides beds for an average of 7,000 homeless each ght, the "two-bit flophouses" in the Bowery and elsewhere are little bet- r than those described by Jacob Riis at the turn of the century.

At the beginning of 1937 there were 135,949 multiple dwellings in the ty, and of this total (which includes dwellings converted for multi- mily use, hotels, high-class apartments, rooming and lodging houses) 2,343 were new-law tenements, while 64,888 were old-law tenements. ccording to the rate at which old-law rookeries were demolished between 909 and 1925, it would take 138 years to get rid of the still existing ructures ; while at the current rate, several lifetimes would be required. In ew of the fact that few old-law tenements are at present providing any turn beyond tax and interest charges, it is unreasonable to expect that a on-altruistic landlord will voluntarily demolish his decayed tenement and ect in its place a modern and wholesome one when the old structure is ringing in all the rental that its tenants are able to pay. Most tenements re torn down only when a bridge or a tunnel is constructed, or (as in the ase of Tudor City) when a block or two of slum area can be utilized for igh-class apartment buildings.

Origins of the Problem

Some of the peculiarities of bad housing in New York have been de- ermined by the narrowness of Manhattan Island, the tidal waves of im- migration that swept into the harbor, and the unexampled exploitation of he land. As the city grew, the rich abandoned their homes and built new nes further north on the island-the only direction for expansion-and heir cast-off dwellings were then inadequately converted for the use of the ess fortunate. With the exception of Brooklyn, it was not until the era f rapid transit and river bridges and tunnels that the other boroughs hared in absorbing the new immigrants. The first thousands of foreign-born out up with the bad housing that was available or soon profitably made vailable-some of them because their homes in the old country had been ittle or no better; others, who had known better homes, because here in he land of opportunity such quarters would be only "temporary." As a result, the demand for better housing was broken down, and a basic stand- ird set up for new construction. The fabulous price of land in New York City did not directly produce its rookeries. This price came about because

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of the low housing standards tolerated. It was the possibility of conge tion, inherent in the gridiron plan, lax building codes, development cos and eventually in taxes, that increased the price of land. In the section be tween Fourteenth and James Streets east of the Bowery to the river, 531 The 000 people were living in 1910, but only 220,000 in 1937. The land c the lower East Side was valued at $187,000,000 in 1912, but only $169 000,000 in 1929 and $148,000,000 in 1933. Overcrowding is the cause a IZ 20 Tome build well as the effect of high land values; and so it is not to be wondered 2 that the 6,000 owners, 20 or 30 to a block, have not formed a "Society fc Decrowding the East Side." The erection of Knickerbocker Village, whic. reco houses 5,200 persons on five acres, helped to bolster the declining pric of the surrounding land.

But the bad housing in this city, as in cities elsewhere in the Wester; World, is due primarily to the Industrial Revolution and the consequen growth of the urban centers. Since 1800 the population of Greater Lon don has increased from one to eight millions. In the Paris of 1836 ther was an average of 11,000 persons to the square kilometer; in the Paris o 1886, the corresponding figure was 29,000. Comparison of various Ger man and American cities of equal population in 1880 shows that the Ger man cities have grown twice as fast. The story of bad housing is basically much the same in all large cities. The first period was marked by haphazard congestion, with ramshackle structures blanketing all available space in the central sections. In the second period appeared the built-in slum, with standardized tenements constructed expressly for slum dwellers. Unregu lated speculative expansion characterized the third period, and slum dwell ings were put up in the peripheral districts.

As the population of the cities increased, land values soared. But the wings of wages were tipped with lead; and the average family was allowed a smaller and smaller portion of land. Construction costs began to rise as the result of restrictive legislation concerning the height and density of buildings, and increased immensely because of modern improvements in building materials, in plumbing, and in the utilities. And though these im- provements can be sacrificed with less danger in sparsely populated areas, in the crowded cities they are imperative for safety and health. Building evolved into an almost purely speculative business. As a result, the proba- bility of blight entailed high-pressure promotion and sales. The cost of money-the most important single factor in the determination of rentals -increased faster than the general interest rate. In short, all these in- creased costs raised rents; but as wages did not rise in anything like the

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ame degree, the majority of people went on decade after decade living in vil and obsolescent dwellings.

'he Historic Background

When New Amsterdam was only about 30 years old and comprised only 20 houses and 1,000 people, social control of housing had already be- ome necessary. Landowners were obliged under penalty of forfeiture to uild upon their land within nine months of residence-"a significant ecognition," James Ford comments in Slums and Housing, a thorough his- ory of housing in this city, "of the primacy of the community's interest n land." In 1656 a resolution was issued requiring in no uncertain terms hat builders consult with the city surveyor, because "a great deal of bad building has been done not only to the disadvantage of the public but also o the disreputation of the City."

Under English rule, "ruinous and decayed houses" were subject to con- lemnation and qualified expropriation. The Common Council in 1684 pro- ibited the storage of combustible material within dwelling places, and equired that hooks, ladders and buckets be kept in convenient places. The aws governing housing and the general welfare of the community during his early period were notably progressive, and the precedent thus set has een a leavening influence on all subsequent legislation.

Following British withdrawal in 1783, building activity increased greatly ind New York became America's largest city in 1800. The growth of the population to more than 60,000 was accompanied by epidemics known to originate in districts where unventilated rooms and damp cellars were the ule. Three Commissioners of Health were appointed, and their chief con- cern was with sanitary housing conditions. Building on small yardless lots was prohibited, and a law provided for the purchase of such lots and the demolition of the buildings, the land to be re-sold in such manner and for such purposes as would "best conduce to the health and welfare of the city."

There is uncertainty as to when the first tenement designed for multi- family use was built in New York. One writer mentions a "single-decker" for four families built on Water Street in 1833, but the Plumber and Sani- tary Engineer of December 1879 states that a seven-story tenement at 65 Mott Street had been occupied since 1825. In any case, the New York Mir- ror was complaining as early as the 1830's of the "towering" dwellings.

When Wall Street was the fashionable residential center of the colonial

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city, the first slums were roofed-over holes in the ground or shanties nea the foul Fresh Water. The first up-to-date slum area and the most notori ous for half a century was Five Points, where five streets intersected nea fit Foley Square. Conditions in Five Points were as bad as the city has evem known. There were houses in which a thousand persons of all ages an the nationalities and of both sexes slept upon one floor. Here was the Den o m Thieves and Murderer's Alley and the Old Brewery. The latter in its mos pas sanguine period is reputed to have witnessed a murder a night. Dicken Ibro went slumming in Five Points in 1842, recording his shock in the Ameri can Notes. Long after this area was partly cleared and made regenerate? with missionaries garrisoning the Old Brewery itself, writers were point ing their pens at it with horror. The real thing, however, was no longe there, but in Mulberry Bend, the Bowery, Hell's Kitchen, Frog Hollow, the lower East Side and elsewhere. Bio

A fire in September 1835 destroyed 46 buildings; and in December o .¡ qu the same year, the Great Fire razed 530 more. The combined damage wan $16,000,000, but this loss was not followed by any noticeable improvemen in fireproofing. The year of the Great Fire was, however, marked by ar important event in the fight for better housing. Gerret Forbes, city inspec tor of health, reported on the high death rate. The city population wa then but little more than 250,000. "Some cause should be assigned for the increase of deaths beyond the increase of population, and none appears so pe prominent as that of the intemperance and the crowded and filthy state ir or which a great portion of our population live, apparently without being sen of sible of their situation; and we have serious cause to regret that there ardo in our city so many mercenary landlords who only contrive in what man C ner they can to stow the greatest number of human beings in the smallest space."

Another report, made in 1842 by Dr. John Griscom, was the first com prehensive document on the city's housing. When the authorities ignorected his report, Dr. Griscom publicized it in the form of an address which wa:fu later published. He advocated the prohibition of cellars and basements a:ta living quarters; proposed that regulation should be supplemented by phil anthropic building; and assailed the farming out of tenements. Particu 5 larly with reference to the foreign-born, Dr. Griscom said: "We are partie: be to their degradation, inasmuch as we permit the inhabitation of places from which it is not possible improvement in conditions or habits can come. Wethe suffer the sub-landlord to store them, like cattle, in pens, and to compe. them to swallow poison with every breath." of

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The protests of these two men, strengthened by two severe epidemics of holera which originated in the slums but also visited other parts of the ty, were not entirely without fruit. A long era of reform began at the iddle of the century. Stimulated by the Association for Improvement of le Poor, which erected the Workingmen's Home in 1855, a number of model tenements" were built. In each decade tenement legislation was assed, and commissions were appointed from time to time to study the roblem.

egulation and Reform

In 1856 a bill was before the State legislature embodying the recom- endations of the first housing investigation commission. The commis- oners' findings had been duly shocking, revealing that rooms 12 feet quare were occupied by "5 families, comprising 20 persons, of both sexes, nd all ages, with only 2 beds, without partition or screen, or chair or table." 'he cause was ascribed to "municipal neglect" and "exploitation." The bill iled of passage "through press of business," and it was 44 years before ne establishment of a Tenement House Department with the powers rec- mmended by this commission.

The first tenement house law was passed in 1867. Most of it was re- ealed in 1872, and what was left of it was nullified. Though defective in Home important respects-as, for example, in permitting complete coverage f building lots-this law required a transom window for every interior pom, a proper fire-escape, bannisters, a water closet for every two persons, nd the vacating of unrepaired buildings. Its repeal and sabotage resulted the construction of 90,000 shameless tenements-and all the disease nd crime and tragedy that have come out of them.

In 1879, the evils of the "railroad" type of tenement having long been ecognized, a competition was conducted for a better plan. The prize-win- ing design initiated the "dumbbell" type, and thousands of such tene- ents were put up during the next two decades. An intensive development a.s f the upper East and West Sides began in the 1880's, displacing the hantyvilles that had always fringed the city. Stereotyped brick "dumb- ells" marked the East Side, between Ninety-Eighth and 125th Streets; nd on the West Side vulgarly embellished Victorian mansions vied with The similar mansions being put up on Fifth Avenue. Accompanying the xtension of rapid transit (the first elevated train clattered above the streets n 1872), the other boroughs were speedily developed. In 1905, 54 per-

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cent of the city's population lived within four miles of City Hall; by 193 ane the figure had been reduced to but 22 percent.

Agitation for reform reached its height in the late 1890's, partly due tegen the books of Jacob Riis and others. In How the Other Half Lives, Riis delleca scribes the fin de siécle slums. Names, at least, were picturesque. Among Es the streets were Blindman's Alley, Penitentiary Row, Battle Row, Povert the Gap, Bottle Alley. Among the tenements were the Ship, Bandit's Roost velo House of Blazes, the Dirty Spoon. In the last named, fire broke out si: 1 times in one year; the fires, however, were smothered by the dirty wallslim There were four grades of licensed lodging houses, with accommodation the at 25 cents, 15 cents, 10 cents and 7 cents, respectively. Signs on somellen tenements proclaimed: "Five Cents a Spot" or "Standing Room Only.'wer Space in hallways rented at three cents. utru

A third State commission investigated the tenement situation in 1900 hot and its recommendations resulted in the law of 1901. This law had twofor distinct purposes-to set up standards for future construction, and to createy) minimum standards for existing tenements. In attaining the first purpose14 the law was successful. During the 1920's the conversion into roomingRoc houses of completely unregulated buildings became so important a menacetap that the legislature revised the law in 1929, 1930 and 1931, bringing un der it hotels, lodging and rooming houses, clubs and dormitories. Thesco revisions also legalized the illegally converted dwellings provided that theyhar conformed to certain minimum requirements, but enforcement in this con rep nection was postponed by a moratorium until 1934. Additional morato ple riums further weakened the law. The revised act of 1929 is known as thees K Multiple Dwelling Law, and replaces for New York City the Tenementor House Law of 1901. hat

In spite of sabotage and nullification and moratoriums, many of thetun worst evils in the tenement situation have been eliminated or alleviated. Dueing to the comparatively vigorous efforts of the Tenement House Departmen tra under Mayor La Guardia's administration-and to the fires of 1934-theten number of occupied old-law tenements has been reduced by at least 6,000 and more improvements have been made in those still occupied than dur Po ing the previous 33 years. Nevertheless, according to a report of the Tene ment House Department, "the number of old-law tenements which fully comply with the law is virtually negligible." Experience with moratorium:wit shows that very few landlords do anything to improve their buildings dur flo ing the period of grace allowed. bu

Providing minimum safeguards for the lives and health of the ill-housec ma

ONE-THIRD OF A CITY 433

3he-third of New York's population-the more than 2,000,000 persons ho live in old-law tenements and converted dwellings-remains an ur- tent and tremendous task. But enforcement of the law is also a boomerang: ecayed buildings that should be demolished are given a new lease on life. Even when old-law tenements are brought into minimum compliance with the law," states the 1937 report of the Department, "they are distinctly selow any acceptable standard."

The City and Suburban Homes Company, the leading promoter of mited-dividend developments, was organized in 1896, and since that year me buildings under its management have yielded an average annual divi- end of 4.65 percent. Its buildings on Marie Curie and York Avenues Here the most important model apartments in Manhattan prior to con- ruction of the Amalgamated Dwellings on the lower East Side. Another dotable enterprise is the Paul Laurence Dunbar Apartments in Harlem, or Negroes. This co-operative project, completed in 1928, was financed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Monthly payments were fixed at an average of 14.50 a room, including upkeep and payments on principal. In 1936, Mr. rockefeller foreclosed, re-imbursing the former tenant-owners for their apital payments.

The New York State Housing Law, enacted in 1926, created a State stlousing Board to co-operate with municipal authorities in constructing and managing limited-dividend and co-operative housing. Fourteen projects, presenting an investment of approximately $30,000,000, have been com- oleted under the supervision of the State Board of Housing. One of these Knickerbocker Village, on the lower East Side. Of the ten others in New fork City, the most interesting are the Amalgamated Dwellings in Man- attan and the Amalgamated Housing Corporation in the Bronx. Both are lin as co-operatives, and are partly sponsored by the Amalgamated Cloth- mg Workers. Ventures such as these-both started just before the financial trash of 1929-are not likely to be repeated. Few workers can afford to gent a modern apartment, let alone buy one.

ositive Measures

The current intensive concern with housing and slum clearance coincides with hard times. The lowered standards of millions, the evictions, fore- rlosures, doubling-up, etc., have not been accepted passively. Then, too, uilding is the country's second major industry, and builders and material chanufacturers, as well as disinterested individuals and groups searching

434 HOUSING

for recovery, want a vast housing program. Residential constructionro dropped from a total $3,500,000,000 in 1928 to $300,000,000 in 1933-tubli a decline of over 90 percent. Building continues to lag far behind othe A major industries.

In New York City, important housing pressure groups are the Housin Bank Study Guild (led until recently by the late Henry Wright), the Citizen the Housing Council, the Housing Division of the Welfare Council, the Repon gional Plan Association. And, in addition to the trades unions themselveslivio active tenant unions are now grouped in the City Wide Tenants Councilm th Rent-strikes, picketing of banks, mass resistance to evictions and fore ects closures have done much to publicize the housing problem, secure enforceest ment of existing laws and enactment of new ones, and in general counter that act the powerful pressure of the realty interests. gati

The Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership set up bywag President Hoover issued a report (1932) indicating that nearly three-quar bet ters of the country's population was inadequately housed, but the repor for offered no immediate solution. Late in President Hoover's term, th Reconstruction Finance Corporation aided in the financing of Knicker bocker Village by lending $8,000,000 to the enterprise. At the outset o Fo the New Deal, housing was cast for the major role in the Federal publi works program. Many agencies were set up, and housing has been front par page news ever since. But in the four and a half years previous to Januaryer 1938, less than $134,000,000 was put into low-cost housing, and onlyof 29,928 dwelling units were constructed-21,800 units in apartment house fim in the larger cities, built by the Public Works Administration, and 8, 12&lup farmstead and suburban units built by the Resettlement Administration.

In 1934, ninety-nine years after Gerret Forbes' report, the State legisla. o ture passed its first law aimed at slum clearance and government-subsidized ta low-cost housing. The enactment of the Municipal Housing Authori- of ties Law of 1934 proves by itself the inadequacy of limited-dividenc and co-operative housing. Doubt as to the legality of this law helped to th hamper the start of any housing for more than a year. Finally the New so York Court of Appeals upheld the validity of the statute. "The menace of th the slums in New York City," the Court said, "has been long recognized as so serious as to warrant public action . . . The slums still stand. The t menace still exists . . . Slum areas are the breeding places of disease . . Juvenile delinquency, crime and immorality are there born, find protection and flourish ... Enormous economic loss results ... The cure is to be wrought, not through the regulated ownership of the individual. but

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ructic rough the ownership and operation by or under direct control of the 933 blic itself."

oth At a recent hearing conducted by the New York City Housing Authority ncerning the threatening housing shortage, every witness-tenant and ousinank president alike-testified that government subsidy in one form or an- tizenher is the only solution of the housing problem. The lowest possible e Ruonthly room rental that private enterprise is able to offer is $II. Limited- elve vidend developments such as Knickerbocker Village, the Hillside project unci the Bronx, and other similar projects, average $11.30. And these proj- forats (nearly all tax-exempt) received government loans at 4 percent inter- forcat and are limited to dividends of 6 percent. But the unescapable fact is ntemat $6 a room is the highest monthly rent that the one-third of the popu- tion now living in the city's unregenerate fire-traps can pay. Only if jages were doubled (and prices kept from rising) would the differential juartetween the cost of building a dwelling unit and what the worker can pay pozor it be wiped out.

orward Steps

During the Coolidge period, New York, like the rest of America, was a ontparadise for land-speculators and real-estate promoters, and the city then xperienced its most intense and chaotic building activity. This was a period hof unusually rapid development in the suburbs and outlying sections- seenany of the houses being flimsy frame structures which, though sold to the pper income groups, were soon smitten by blight. Every dwelling begun n the city from early in 1921 until well into 1924 was tax-exempt in part abor in whole until 1931. This meant a direct cost to (or subsidy by) the axpayers of about $200,000,000. The indirect subsidy-the eventual cost iof foreclosures, tax arrears, premature utility developments and the other wastes of rapid depreciation-will be much greater. During approximately this same period, Germany, Holland, England and other countries of not- so-prosperous Europe, with a combined population only slightly exceeding that of the United States, built four and a half million government-aided dwellings. These dwellings rehoused about 20 million people, nearly all of them in the lower-half income group. None of these countries cleared its cities of slums or fully solved its housing problem ; but the new dwellings did establish concretely the minimum standards of good housing. 2.

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New York panorama : a comprehensive view of the metropolis, Part 44

Author: Publication date: 1938 Publisher: New York : Random House Number of Pages: 630

Author:
Publication date: 1938
Publisher: New York : Random House
Number of Pages: 630