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The Fifth Avenue Association Inc.
358 FIFTH AVENUE - - NEW YORK
Telephone: WIsconsin 7-1200

BULLETIN NO. 58, JANUARY 1931

TO OUR MEMBERS:

NEW TIMING OF TRAFFIC LIGHTS IN MIDTOWN UNDER CONSIDERATION
So many of our members have written to us about the present timing of the traffic lights, and voicing objection particularly to the short red light period, that we would like to have an expression of opinion at this time from as many of our members as are interested, in order to present a clear case to the Police Department. Any change in the present timing of the traffic lights will not become effective until the new Fifth Avenue bronze traffic standards and lights are installed. Contract for these standards has been advertised, and should be let in the next ten days. There will be over one hundred bronze standards, two at each intersection of the Avenue.

LEGISLATIVE SESSION OPENS -- SERVICE TO MEMBERS INCREASES IN IMPORTANCE
On January 2nd, the 1931 session of the State Legislature was opened. Until the close of the session sometime in March or Aprile, bills will be introduced in the Legislature, many of which will have an important bearing upon the business of our members. Tax legislation, labor laws, the Multiple Dwelling Law, realty laws, motor vehicle laws, public utilities laws, insurance and banking laws, new laws and changes in old laws, all grow in importance to the business man with each new session of the Legislature.
Our Legislative Service Bureau, which in 1930 read and analyzed some 4000 bills introduced in the State Legislature and over 50,000 pieces of city legislation which appeared on the calendars of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, the Municipal Assembly, the Committee of the Whole the Board of Aldermen, the Sinking Fund Commission, the Board of Standards and Appeals, and other branches of the city administration, will furnish information on all bills affecting the business of any member of the Association. Copies of the bill itself will be furnished if desired, and a report on the daily progress of the bill in the State Legislature sent as soon as the information reaches our offices.
This service is becoming more necessary to our members each year not only because of the saving of time and labor effected int eat separation in our offices of bills affecting our members from the great mass of legislation introduced every year, but also because of actual savings resulting fro information furnished by us on legislation which might seriously affect the business or property interests of one or more of our members. 
Last month we sent a form to be filled out by members desiring this legislative service. If you have not returned this form and still want to have your name included, please telephone or write our offices and your name will be placed on the list. Please specify the legislative subjects in which you are interested.

AMMENDMENT TO PARADE ORDINANCE PREPARED
An ammendment to the present parade ordinance further restricting the use of Fifth Avenue as a parade thoroughfare below 65th Street has been drafted by a Special Parade Committee of the Association for presentation to the Mayor and Board of Aldermen, for consideration and action, in January. In support of this proposed amendment, the executive staff of the Association has completed a very thorough brief which outlines not only in general terms but also in considerable detail the detrimental effects of Fifth Avenue parades on business and traffic in the midtown shopping district Midtown merchants have always suffered heavy yearly losses from parades which have passed up the Avenue, and due to the business conditions it is felt that the city administration will be most sympathetic toward the further restrictions which the suggested amendment would set up.

PARKS COMMITTEE TO REPORT ON PROGRAM OF PARK IMPROVEMENTS IN THE SECTION
A comprehensive report on the condition and needs of the various parks in the Fifth Avenue Section has been in the hands of the members of our Parks and Plazas Committee for several weeks and will be discussed at a meeting of the Committee early in January. If adopted, the recommendations will be forwarded to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment and to the Park Department.
The Parks Report, some thirty pages in length, was prepared by the Director of Research for the Association, after a survey extending over last Summer and Fall, and treats in detail the needs of the Section's five parks -- Central Park, Bryant Park, Madison Square Park, Union Square Park, and Washington Square Park. Among the items discussed in detail in the report are vandalism in Central Park and the policing changes necessary to prevent a continuation of the theft and destruction which, the report states, has taken heavy toll already of the $1,000,000 appropriation made for the rehabilitation of Central Park in 1926; treatment of the park frontage on the west side of Fifth Avenue; and plans for Bryant Park and Washington Square Park. Recommendations are also made for Union Square Park and Madison Square Park, which may help speed the work of rehabilitation and reconstruction already under way in these two parks.