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The Fifth Avenue Association INC.
EMPIRE STATE

350 FIFTH AVENUE : : NEW YORK
Telephone: PEnnsylvania 6-7900

BULLETIN NO. 68, FEBRUARY, 1932

TO OUR MEMBERS:

MEETING OF MADISON AVENUE INTERESTS LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO REMOVE STREET CARS
  One hundred and fifty leading business men, real Estate operators, property owners, and professional men joined with the officers of the association and the members of our North, Central, and South Madison Avenue Committees, on January 20th at the Hotel Roosevelt, to discuss plans for the removal of the Madison-Fourth Avenue Street Car Line. The most important interests on Madison Avenue pledged their aid to the association and our Madison Avenue Committees in their efforts to secure the removal of the street cars.

President Reviews Case

In reviewing for the committee the efforts of the Association to have the cars removed and in presenting the case against the street car line, the president of the Association declared that these street cars held in check the development the of Madison Avenue both from the viewpoint of business and real estate, that they contributed tremendously to traffic congestion in the midtown district, and greatly aggravated the noise nuisance along Madison and Fourth Avenues. He said: "The car line is obsolete as a transportation facility in this section. Its equipment has not been improved since 1907, and the losses suffered by the operators of this car lien since 1923--approximately two million dollars--should long ago have forced this line into oblivion. There is no single improvement which could do more to help Madison Avenue and this entire section than the removal of these street cars and the substitution of buses along Madison Avenue south to 23rd Street and on Fourth Avenue south. We believe that an agreement to bring about this change is possible, and, with the proper backing, our committees will leave no stone unturned to have these cumbersome and noisy cars taken off Madison and Fourth Avenues. The Committees, in accepting the responsibility for this improvement, look to our membership, particularly to the property owners along the route of the car line, for the assistance necessary to bring the interested parties together."

Menance to Health and Realty

Dr. Jacob Golub, director of the Hospital for Joint Diseases, spoke of the effect of the noise of the street cars on patients in his hospital and declared that the convalescence of these patients was delayed by this noise. Mr. James Cobb, president of Abercrombie and Fitch, said that the street cars were no longer a source of income to the stores along the avenue because they were not used by shoppers. Mr. Douglas L. Elliman, president of Douglas L. Elliman and Company, said that Madison Avenue property values were one-third less than those of Park Avenue, principally because of the street car annoyance. He told also of the difficulty of renting stores or apartments along the route of the street cars.

Committee of One Thousand Authorized

A resolution was unanimously adopted authorizing the Madison Avenue Committees to proceed with the organization of a Committee of One Thousand to urge the New York and Harlem Company, the owners of the line, and the proper city officials to confer on a plan for removing the cars and substituting buses. An Executive Committee of twenty-five members of the larger committee was also authorized.
A brochure outlining the proposed improvement and the efforts needed to realize it was distributed at the meeting and will be sent to those invited to join the larger committee.

PARK AVENUE COMMITTEE HOLDS FRUITFUL MEETING WITH POLICE OFFICIALS

One of the most constructive meetings of the new year was held during the last week of January when our Park Avenue Committee met with Deputy Commissioner Philip D. Hoyt, of the Police Department, and other traffic officials to discuss remedial measures for abuses of traffic regulations on Park Avenue. The meeting emphasized the importance of our frequent sectional conferences.
The president of the Association, at the request of Mr. E. Clifford Potter, chairman of our Park Avenue Committee, submitted a complete report of traffic conditions on Park Avenue, and this report was discussed in detail by the police officials and members of the Committee and the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association, a number of prominent Park Avenue residents and property owners sat in on the conference and added their voices to the Committee's plan that some immediate steps be taken to assure greater safety for pedestrians in crossing the wide roadway of Park Avenue. More than 300 persons have been injured and nine killed during 1931 on Park Avenue between 46th and 96th Streets, and tenants in the neighborhood are so apprehensive of the constant dangers of crossing the wide roadways of Park Avenue that many of them are seriously considering moving away from that street. Members of the Committee interested in real estate declared that the traffic situation, particularly as it affects pedestrians, has affected rentals on the Avenue and side streets.