The Routes Not Taken Page 11

  On September 1, the BOT informed Bruckner of a plan to build the line to Bedford Park Boulevard with three tracks, swing eastward as a two-track line on an unspecified route, cross Bronx Park, and run to Dyre Avenue via Burke Avenue and Boston Road.

  There wasn’t much reaction. McDonald said little until December. At a meeting of the Joint Committee on Public Improvements in the North Bronx, he vowed to fight for a subway on Boston Road to link with the Concourse line extension on Burke Avenue and sought another meeting with the BOT. The Board of Trade said nothing until January 1929.

  The Bronx Chamber of Commerce opposed the line, according to a September 2 account, astonished that it would be built along Burke Avenue, a street they called “sparsely-populated,” instead of Fordham Road.39 Charles Goldblatt claimed that people with inside information bought property along Burke Avenue in anticipation of a subway being built.40

  Goldblatt may have been right. Early in 1928, before the BOT’s intentions were known, many parcels of land changed hands near Burke Avenue. Huge estates weren’t sold, but rather many smaller properties. Apartment buildings, row houses, and commercial properties sprung up in the White Plains Road line’s service area throughout the middle and late 1920s after the estates were sold.

  A second wave of housing was built between 1929 and 1935, probably in anticipation of the Burke Avenue line. People saw what happened on the Grand Concourse and wanted to take advantage of the same opportunity in the Northeast Bronx. Based on reports in the New York Times real estate section, we know that real estate companies made numerous land purchases in the Burke Avenue / Boston Road corridor.

  The Chamber of Commerce reiterated their position in early 1929. Logan Billingsley,41 a realtor who succeeded Deegan as Chamber president,42 said on March 28 that the plan was “rushed through official bodies in a quiet manner [because of] the friendship that exists between a certain City official and a well-known Bronxite, who has large real estate holdings on Burke Avenue.”43 He didn’t name names; neither did Cokeley, still nursing a grudge. “I want to know, first, what right have they to take away the four-track subway?” asked Cokeley. “I want to know how if there is not enough money, a long spur can be spread over the most sparsely-populated portion of the East Bronx? … Who is behind the Burke–Dyre proposal? Who is dictating this plan? Who is the unknown and unseen power that wants such an extension?”44

  Illich, the Chamber’s vice president, sold 12,500 square feet of property on Burke Avenue early in 1928,45 possibly before the BOT’s plans were known. He criticized the line: “The very people in the East Bronx who now want the extension spur will kick about it if it is carried through. They will find that it will take them far too long to get downtown. Any layman at all could lay out a better subway route than the proposed plan.… It is plain that there is something behind this proposal.”46

  On April 4 the BOT approved the extension to Webster Avenue and 205th Street. McDonald led a delegation to the meeting to speak for the plan: “We are here in favor of extending the Concourse subway to Webster Avenue, but we want to particularly impress you with the urgent need of a new subway line on Boston Road. Extending the Concourse line to Webster and Burke Avenues is a necessary preliminary to further extension of the line on Boston Road to a point near Dyre Avenue.… The community that such a subway would serve has a population of about 100,000 people and apartment houses, now in progress will accommodate 60,000 more.”47

  Delaney responded:

  When the present subway system, now under construction, was laid out, it provided for only half of the subway needs of the city. At that time this was all that we had money for. However, let me emphasize that no one realizes the need for an East Bronx subway more than the officials of the Board of Transportation.… With our 1925 subway construction program well under way, engineers of the Board of Transportation have constructed research work on the needs for new subway lines in the past year. They are now plotting to see what can be done in the way of constructing an East Side subway up either Second or Third Avenues, or along a private right-of-way, into the East Bronx section.48

  This was news. The Home News called the statement “as gratifying as it is unexpected.”49 Wurzbach termed it “one of the greatest projects in years for encouraging the growth of the Bronx, and one in line with proposals for transit relief which we made fifteen years or so ago in advocating a subway under either First, Second, or Third Avenue.”50

  The BOT approved the specifications for the Concourse line’s first phase on May 3. Anna Mahler, president of the Bronx Division of the League of Women Voters—claiming to represent the Bronx Ridge Civic Association, the Chester Improvement Association, the Northeast Bronx Civic League, the Central Chester Taxpayers Association, the Wakefield Taxpayers Association, and the Bronx Chamber of Commerce—spoke against the second-phase plan. “You do not represent the Northeast Bronx Civic League. Members of that organization are in favor of this improvement for their section,” McDonald said. “The extension will be a means of providing a subway for Boston Road, and that is what the people of the Northeast Bronx want.” “I spoke to James W. Holler, the President of that organization,” Mahler replied, “and he told me that he was opposed to the construction of the extension of the Concourse subway to Burke and Webster Avenues.”51 Frederick S. Loewenthal objected. He represented the Northeast Bronx Civic League, disavowing Mahler’s statement. Holler, P. B. Willis of the Central Chester Taxpayers Association, and Emil J. Cavanaugh of the Chester Improvement later denied that Mahler represented them, and spoke in support of Burke Avenue.52

  On May 6, Bruckner brought University Heights residents to a BOT meeting, seeking a Concourse line branch in that area. Hunts Point, Clason Point, Union Point, and Throggs Neck groups formed the East Bronx Allied Association on May 20. John Moroney of the Throggs Neck Property Owners and Taxpayers Association outlined their goal of a subway line serving their communities, a campaign he led for the next two decades.

  The Curtiss–Wright Corporation announced the purchase of 250 acres of land across the Hutchinson River from Pelham Bay Park on June 4. They were buying land for airports across the nation. Charles W. Cuthell, Curtiss’s general counsel, stated that the airport would be “entirely for the people of the Bronx and Westchester County.… The airport will be a local improvement of the finest sort. It will be one of the few airports that can be built within the corporate limits of the City of New York.” “… The site is well located,” he continued, “and in selecting this land, the necessity of tearing down structures on the ground was avoided. It is in a highly strategic position for transit purposes, and the new Hutchinson River Parkway will make it easily accessible to all parts of Westchester County.… The field will be laid out so that it may easily be regarded as an adjunct to Pelham Bay Park.”53

  The W&B’s Baychester Avenue station adjoined the site; the New Haven Railroad ran east of it. The Boston Road line would be built nearby. Bruckner compared its potential impact to an earlier Bronx project: “Airport development will undoubtedly bring other activities to the section involved.… When the Yankee Stadium was proposed there was some opposition to the closing of the streets, but I think that having the Stadium in the Bronx has been a great advantage to the borough. I think the Curtiss airport development will be of even more benefit to the Bronx than the Yankee Stadium has been.”54

  Figure 4-3. The Bronx Home News published this map of the original Curtiss Airport property on June 2, 1929.

  News of the 2nd Avenue subway came out in August. It would run on Lincoln and Brook Avenues and Boston Road in the Bronx, linking with the Concourse line at Burke Avenue. The BOT would “recapture” the White Plains Road line at 177th Street from the IRT. The trunk line would link with it and a branch would run along White Plains Road to 241st Street. The IRT line would terminate at the Bronx Park station.55

  The Home News editorial on September 3 found benefit in the Burke Avenue line, but suggested that a better route would be for it to go
via Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway to Boston Road. The paper hinted that the beneficiaries were “certain real estate investors who have bought wisely and well, and with truly remarkable foresight.”56

  The areas around Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway were being developed and served by existing lines. Building a subway line through less-developed areas would have a greater impact on their development. The potential for growth and increased tax revenues along Burke Avenue and Boston Road must have influenced the BOT’s thinking.

  The BOT released the plan for the IND’s second phase on September 15, calling for one hundred miles of new lines to be built at a cost of $938 million ($12.3 billion in 2011 dollars, according to MeasuringWorth.com), of which 38.12 miles would be in the Bronx, built at a cost of $75.9 million ($1.84 billion in 2011), with an additional $2.1 million ($27.6 million in 2011) being spent to “recapture” the northern part of the White Plains Road line.

  The branches of the 2nd Avenue line planned for the North and Northeast Bronx were expected. A third wasn’t, leaving the trunk line at 3rd Avenue and 163rd Street, running to East Tremont Avenue via 163rd Street, Hunts Point, Seneca, and Lafayette Avenues.

  A significant portion of the Bronx routes would be elevated. The 2nd Avenue Trunk Line would be elevated from Vyse Avenue and 177th Street to its connection with the White Plains Road line. After 180th Street, the Boston Road line would go underground at Garfield Street, become elevated again at Mace Avenue, and remain elevated to the Baychester Avenue Terminal. The Lafayette Avenue branch would be a subway through Edgewater Road and Seneca Avenue; from there it was elevated. The Burke Avenue line would cross Bronx Park as part of a viaduct including a vehicular roadway, becoming elevated to link with the Boston Road line.

  The new els drew the most attention. The Home News assailed the idea:

  The elevated railway has long been regarded as obsolete. It is a killer of property values, an eyesore and a general neighborhood nuisance. It obstructs the vehicular roadways of a city that has no roadway space to spare.… Let them look at the horrible example of Jerome Avenue. Had the rapid transit line there been underground (as is the Manhattan section of the route) Jerome Avenue, a through north and south artery running into Westchester County, might have been a fine residential avenue, or a productive high-class business street. It has every advantage of location. It might have been pouring a maximum value of tax money into the city treasury.57

  “How much greater would the folly of starting on new elevated lines at this late date, when the arresting and dismaying example of Jerome Avenue has been before us all these years,” Billingsley fumed. “… It will be said that the elevated structures are cheaper than underground routes. That is true. But it is high time that all of our officials realized that cheapness and economy are not synonymous.”58 Wurzbach asked, “Why put up such antiquated structures in the Bronx? … Look at Jerome Avenue, especially just north and south of Fordham Road. What kind of stores do you have there today?”59

  Aldermanic President McKee praised the overall plan in a letter to Delaney, but condemned new els:

  My conviction is based on the sad experience the Bronx has suffered in this respect. Jerome Avenue was one of the great arterial highways in our borough. It might have developed into a high-class thoroughfare with valuable frontage for business of the best type. The return in taxes to the City would have been incalculable.… But what has happened? A short-sighted policy during a former administration dictated the building of an elevated structure and today, instead of a high-type avenue, the street for the entire length has been ruined, and is now fit only for garages and other unrestricted activities.60

  Joseph P. Day supported els: “It should have a stimulating effect on real estate in general, and particularly on vacant and improved properties in the territories which the new lines are routed.… In the Bronx, the territory to receive the greatest benefit from the proposed subway along Boston Road is that section north of the Pelham Parkway and east of Boston Road. While it is served by the New York, Westchester and Boston Railway and bus lines, it should obtain added favor by reason of the Grand Concourse subway now under construction.”61 The BOT didn’t seem to expect this opposition. Ryan was the only Board member to speak. He said he had nothing else to say.62

  The BOT approved the final section of the Concourse line’s first phase on September 26 and anticipated that work would soon be underway. The 205th Street Station would be the Concourse line’s terminus until the Burke Avenue line was built. A tunnel was built to 205th Street and Webster Avenue, where it would run across Bronx Park on a viaduct.

  The year 1929 featured a mayoral election. Mayor Walker ran for reelection against Congressman Fiorello H. La Guardia. Transit was a major topic of discussion. Walker’s campaign committee issued New York: The Wonder City, a publication hailing the accomplishments of his administration’s first four years, giving major play to the plan.

  Figure 4-4. Mayor James J. Walker in 1929. (Queens Planning Commission)

  The Chamber of Commerce sent questionnaires to the candidates asking their opinion of the BOT’s plan. James W. Welsch, the Republican–Fusion candidate for borough president, replied:

  With all due respect to Chairman Delaney and members of the Board of Transportation and their knowledge in problems of rapid transit, I must say that they certainly did apply the fundamental principles of psychology and subterfuge to cause Bronx officials and city official[s] to focus their attention on only one phase of this very important phase of this very important engineering problem.

  … The Board of Transportation should be required to give the people of the Bronx a complete and comprehensive plan for transit lines needed in this borough.63

  Walker was in a bind. La Guardia was no proponent of els. Opposition to them was growing. This could affect the election. He had to speak out, and speak out he did at Jamaica High School on October 2:

  Not one foot of elevated structure will be constructed unless with the unanimous approval of the citizens.… Since the announcement of the new plan by the Board of Transportation there has been some discussion about elevated railroads. The major part of that new program is composed of subways, but there are some elevated extensions in the outlying parts of the city.… I agree with the critics of elevated structures. I do not like to see them in the streets. The engineers tell me that there are parts of the city where the surface of the ground is so near the level of the sea that subway construction is impractical.… All new subway routes must come before the Mayor for his separate approval and therefore the Mayor will consider another provision in the constitution which requires that the consent of the owners of the property must be obtained on every street in which a railroad is built, and the owners of the property, in the last analysis, are those who are the most directly concerned.64

  Bronx civic and business leaders discussed the plan on October 3 at a meeting of the New York State Society of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors at the Concourse Plaza Hotel. Arthur V. Sheridan,65 their president, said els were “obsolete, unsightly, noisy, dangerous to traffic and a source of depreciation of real estate values far in excess of the initial saving effected in construction cost.”66

  Walker spoke again on October 19 at Evander Childs High School: “There are some who are annoyed about certain elevated structures for new elevated lines, but let me bring you the assurance tonight, if you please, speaking for myself as a member of the Board of Estimate—no little reason to assume that my mind runs along the same mind as the other members of the board—there is no necessity for running a high temperature about the proposed elevated routes.… There will be no elevated routes of the rapid transit line in the City, unless the people of the City want them.”67 New subways became a moot point shortly afterward, when the stock market crashed on October 26. The main effort would be completing the first phase of the IND, rather than beginning the second.

  Day auctioned the Hammersley and Crawford estates in the Northeast Bronx on Elect
ion Day. He emphasized the proximity of the land to the proposed subways and Curtiss Airport. He pointed to the increased value of the Claflin estate, by the Jerome Avenue line, in a decade, and how the value of the Gleason estate, by the Pelham line, had increased by almost seven times in about two decades, seemingly answering critics of elevated lines.68

  Walker defeated La Guardia on Election Day; Bruckner won a fourth term. In the Bronx, the Curtiss Airport Corporation bid $5,00069 for five of the lots Day put up for auction along the western boundary of the airport. Day was also successful in selling other properties in the area. Despite the Stock Market crash, people still had big plans for the Northeast Bronx.

  The BOT’s second-stage construction program was poorly received, but it planned to award contracts totaling $25 million70 in the fall of 1930 and to hold sixteen public hearings on the plan. Three hearings affected the Bronx. The first, on February 10, dealt with the 2nd Avenue Trunk Line; the Burke Avenue and Boston Road lines would be discussed on February 19; and the Lafayette Avenue line hearing would take place on February 28.

  The els had some supporters. August F. Schwarzler of the Bronx Real Estate Board said that his group and the Board of Trade supported them, particularly in the East Bronx. Wurzbach disagreed. The Board was “absolutely opposed to the construction of any elevated lines in the Bronx and has not changed its opinion.”71 Many realtors attacked Schwarzler, although Real Estate Board President Samuel E. McRickard gave mild support: