OCR Text |
Show 'BABBIT TOWERS' FACING - ' MOST FIERY CRITICISM 1 irs perietal p.Mdc ico-ali" P , j tu jar toslortfcv. J ' , I vhis is mauxcipal mu-rdei-; Cur ran &nl ioe allow U Id k ou v disadvantages to this concentration. Loss of time from congestion is almost inculoahle : -motor trucks, have boms of enforced idleness every day. The skyscrapper itself is not a good investment. Above the first two or three stories no more rent is realized than is necessary to pay the interest." The answer to the skyscrapper proidem is centralization, says Cm-ran. That will mean smaller buildings and more space, room Jor motor cars and pedestrians to move quickly and safely. American cities must learn to grow horizontally. If they must have tall buildings, space should be provided around them that is equal in area to the room that would be taken up if the buildings build-ings were laid on their sides; ri-ohlein In Chicago 'Chicago, with its small loop district, dis-trict, faces the same problem as does New York the attempt to multiply many-fold the area of business bus-iness district,'' be pointed out. , -Oilier cities, however, are bothered bother-ed needless because of a mistaken municipal pride and inter-city rivalry. rival-ry. For instance. Detroit is to have an Sl-story building the highest in the world. -Modern buildings, in the main, are ugly as sin. They are square, uninteresting blocks looking like upended up-ended trunks in a baggage room. A building ordinarily should he - no higher than the street on which it - faces. If it does go higher, it shotild have an additional equivalent of open space around its base. 1 -Strict zoning laws are the only way out. We do not object to sky-sci-appers simply because they are high, but because they mean-'congested traffic and consequent 'ncci- dents, unhealthl'ul criwiling", lack of light and air. dow-nright ugliness, and loss of time. Correct, those faults and .you may build a mile high if you like."- ' BY PAI'Ij HARRISON ' XEA Service Y liter ' i NEW YORK, The cock-a-doodle-doo idea of civic pride is one of tbe direct menaces to the lives of workers work-ers in American cities. Every (lay, millions of dollars are I utterly wasted through idleness enforced en-forced by congestion. The dance of death in crowded streets claims a number of victims every week that is equal to a major catastrophe. liuildings? Applesauce "'(lb, but these things are inevitable," inevita-ble," says Municipal Pride. "We are a great city. We must have tall buildings to be truly metropolitan." "Applesauce !" responds Henry II. Cut-ran, who made the foregoing criticisms. 'T.abbitts and liabel Towers are threatening our livbs. Like weeds, cities are growing fast and tall. Also like weeds, they are giving no thought to cultivation.' , This man Curran, who dares to call the haughty skyline by harsh names, is lending the fight against the skyscraper invasion of Xew i'ork. lie is counsel for the City I'lali, which believes' that decentralization, decentral-ization, is the only solution to ar, Increasingly serious problem. He is 5 n former soldier, once nominee for mayor and ex-cominissioner of immigration. im-migration. "Probably our most startling ' Kgiunent against building conges-L conges-L lion is furnished by this statement from fire headquarters in Xew York. Scven-DePp In Streets '"If, in the uptown theater and garment sections or in the downtown down-town business district, all the buildings build-ings were emptied simull aneously of their usual throngs, the streets would be piled seven-deep with humanity.' "This is not the nightmare of an alarmist.' says Currnn. "If a hurricane hur-ricane or earthquake did strike Xew York oven though only enough bricks anil windows fell to create a panic the greatest tragedy in our history would result from the sudden sud-den jamming of millions into the streets. "Traffic conditions already are intolerable. Streets cannot be widened wid-ened further; the oily cannot afford to build more subways. Anyway, if we attempt to lessen congestion that way, relief is temporary. l!y the time new subways are completed, they are lined with new skyscrapers. skyscrap-ers. "These same conditions are true, to a somewhat lesser extent, in almost al-most all our major cities today." Already there are more than 2,-(XH!,0l)tl 2,-(XH!,0l)tl people who travel in and out of Manhattan every dayi in addition ad-dition to the throngs that live on the island. Hy the end of Ii)2ti plans will have been filed for' nearly Kid new factory anil office buildings of skysiTnpr.er proport ions. These will be occupied by ."i(l.O(i() new people enough to fill I'M ten-car subway trains. "Three persons are killed everyday every-day by motor vehicles' in New-York." New-York." says Curran. "This is double the death rale of five vears ago. but slil'l it increases. And one at these three dead is a child of less than 15 years. Whore children lack parks, they play an exciting game of hide-and-seek with motor trucks and too often the trucks win. This is municipal murder and we allow it to go on. "There are pleuly of economic |