The Routes Not Taken Page 13

  Delaney said no action would be taken on any line before the 6th Avenue subway. Lyons wanted Burke Avenue to be a priority, but the BOT prioritized the 6th Avenue line ahead of it and the Board of Estimate approved that a week later. Lyons abstained.

  Commissioner Halley scheduled a conference on Burke Avenue on February 13. Lyons would lead a group from the Bronx Civic Congress to meet with Delaney at the conference. He met with representatives of the civic and business groups in the borough a week earlier to organize for the event.

  Delaney wasn’t happy. Responding to the Board of Estimate resolution, he said, “While I am here, I will exercise my own judgment concerning transit routes,” noting that the Board of Estimate had no legal authority to adopt or construct subway lines or order the Board of Transportation to do anything. They could act only on BOT recommendations.103

  “I feel certain that the governing body of the City should not be subservient to Commissioners who are appointed by the Mayor,” Lyons answered. “If the law reads that way, it should be amended. The language of this resolution is definite and if the Board will not adopt a route, legislation should be invoked to correct the situation.”104

  Delaney promised to discuss the resolution with the BOT, but noted problems with local elected officials controlling the transit system: “I would have no objection if the elected officials would take over all responsibilities for laying out transit routes, but while I am here I want to exercise my own judgment. I don’t think you will ever get any transit at all if you leave it to elected officials.”105

  Lyons, Delaney, Commissioners Halley and Frank X. Sullivan, Bronx Consulting Engineer Leo Ehrhart, and Bronx Public Works Commissioner Robert L. Moran toured the area on May 21. They looked at the planned route and one Ehrhart suggested—continuing on Burke Avenue and connecting with the W&B’s local tracks, near the Baychester Avenue station, and running to the Dyre Avenue station, south of the city line. The Board members liked Ehrhart’s plan.106 It looked like a victory for the Northeast Bronx.

  The impending opening of the Hillside Houses and plans for Curtiss Airport affected Delaney’s thinking. He could justify the construction of two unidentified stations along Burke Avenue, but “until the Hillside Homes development came along, there wasn’t enough business here to develop a good bus line” along Boston Road.107 Ehrhart made the airport a selling point, noting that proximity to the W&B’s Baychester Avenue station made it accessible to Midtown Manhattan.

  Lyons and Arthur V. Sheridan reported on this at the May 27 meeting of the Bronx Civic Congress. Lyons felt he had won Delaney over, but despite what Delaney said about Hillside’s impact on the BOT, the Board was considering a plan taking the subway further from Hillside. The Board members thought Hillside residents wouldn’t mind the additional walk—they would. Ehrhart’s plan created a wedge issue.

  Hillside’s opening ceremonies were held on June 29. Governor Herbert H. Lehman, Senator Robert F. Wagner, Aldermanic President Bernard S. Deutsch, Borough President Lyons, Nathan Straus, Jr., and Joseph P. Day spoke. Mayor La Guardia was attending the Police Department–Fire Department baseball game at the Polo Grounds and didn’t arrive until later.108 Lyons spoke for extending subways to the area, hoping that adequate transportation would be provided to the Hillside Houses.109

  The New York, Westchester, and Boston Railway faced severe financial problems. It lost money throughout the 1930s, defaulting on its bonds on January 1, 1936. A W&B bondholders committee, led by stockbroker Irving A. Sartorius, issued a reorganization plan in December. They believed a W&B takeover wasn’t possible until the city’s transit system was unified. They wanted to keep it going by issuing new bonds to finance operations while cutting costs and stopping all capital projects except for two bridges in the Northeast Bronx.

  The W&B tried to reduce costs by reducing service, but Bronx community groups led by Harry Lesser, both counsel to a number of associations and president of DeWitt Clinton High School’s PTA, complained; the Transit Commission blocked the plan. The W&B was allowed to raise fares in July 1936, but that didn’t solve their problems.

  When the proposed city capital budget was released on December 16, it included a number of Bronx projects. Lyons obtained funds for projects that included constructing a viaduct crossing Bronx Park linking East 205th Street and Burke Avenue, but the Concourse line extension wasn’t part of La Guardia’s capital budget. Lyons wrote to La Guardia about the omission on March 6.

  Delaney replied to Lyons. The route would cost $9.5 million110 and take forty-eight months to complete. It followed Ehrhart’s plan, running from Webster Avenue and 205th Street to Burke Avenue and Eastchester Road to the W&B. There was no explanation as to why this budget item was hard to find. Seemingly, all was going well.

  Or maybe not. Halley invited a group of Bronx civic and business leaders to his office and told them that a decision on Burke Avenue would be made at that week’s Board of Estimate meeting: “It is up to the Bronx civic groups to urge the Board of Estimate to appropriate the $5,700,000111 which will be needed at this time for the construction of the new subway up Boston Road.”112

  Having taken Halley’s advice, a parade of elected officials and community group leaders attended and spoke about the potential for growth in the communities to be served by Burke Avenue. The Board approved the funding a week later, reverting to the 1928 plan, running via Burke Avenue and Boston Road to Baychester Avenue.

  Halley met the Northeast Bronx representatives again on April 6; $300,000 was available for planning and legal work. Plans for at least one line segment would be ready for Board of Estimate action by the end of the year. This included property appraisal along Burke Avenue in order to obtain consent or easements from landowners. Halley said the BOT thought Ehrhart’s plan was the best for the line. If an agreement with the W&B wasn’t possible, the Board would consider a parallel route.113

  The BOT sent a new plan to the Board of Estimate on May 25. A model of the viaduct across Bronx Park was prepared. It would go underground by Bronx Boulevard, run under Burke Avenue to Eastchester Road, where it would turn northeast and go to Kingsland Avenue.114

  Things should have come together. The subway line many people had worked on for years was going to the Board of Estimate. There were few objections to the viaduct connecting 205th Street and Burke Avenue, mostly coming from area baseball players, who would lose the one diamond in the area at the time, which was in the path of the viaduct.

  Ehrhart’s plan had consequences, though. When Delaney presented it to the Board of Estimate on June 18, Lyons asked why Ehrhart’s route was proposed. Delaney said that the original line was abandoned due to “natural difficulties” and increased costs.115 The Unity Taxpayers Protective Association and the Boston Road Subway Committee opposed the plan. They thought it would take the line through a less-populated area, away from the Hillside Houses, which would make it more useful to Westchester residents than Bronx residents. Louis Elkins, the Boston Road Subway Committee’s chairperson, said the new routing would bypass areas along Boston Road where property valuations rose in anticipation of the new subway.116 Petitions circulated by the Boston Road Subway Committee opposing Ehrhart’s plan were sent to the other Board of Estimate members and the BOT.

  Figures 4-10 and 4-11. Two views of the Board of Transportation’s model of the planned viaduct that would have been built for the Concourse Extension and vehicular traffic across Bronx Park. (Courtesy of the New York Transit Museum Archives)

  The Board of Estimate hearing lasted three hours. Elkins and his committee presented petitions with 3,500 signatures. Their signs read, “We want a subway on Boston Road,” “Why rescue a bankrupt railroad at the expense of taxpayers?” and “Why build a five-cent fare subway for Westchester residents?”117 Lesser spoke for opponents of Ehrhart’s plan, criticizing Delaney’s belief that the original plan was more expensive than purchasing the W&B’s local tracks would be. “I must interrupt,” Delaney responded. “The statements that
are being made are totally erroneous. The Board of Transportation has no thought of connecting, leasing, buying, or using the tracks of the New York, Westchester and Boston. The terminus of the subway extension will, however, be within 25 feet of the railroad.”118

  Figure 4-12. The Bronx Home News ran this map on May 22, 1935, showing the two options under discussion for the route of the Concourse Extension. The dotted line on Boston Road represents the original plan. The dashed line east of Boston Road is the routing suggested by Leo Ehrhart.

  Straus suggested approving the line as far as Burke Avenue and Boston Road, leaving the rest for future study. Lyons agreed, but that met a storm of opposition. No vote was taken. Lesser was a lone voice of support: “This could be laid over for two months as the controversial part of the route is concerned, and everybody could go out of here smiling.”119

  Figure 4-13. Supporters of the original plan for the Burke Avenue line at City Hall on June 18, 1937. (Bronx Home News)

  La Guardia tried bringing the meeting to order: “This mob scene does not do anybody any good. This is the only country in which people like you are given a hearing at all. Please don’t spoil it with a mob scene.”120 Lyons said this behavior didn’t reflect the feelings of the people of the Bronx: “Some may have overstepped in the heat of the controversy. We don’t want Chairman Delaney to think that we’re opposed to transportation.”121

  Loewenthal, representing the Edenwald Taxpayers Association, supported Ehrhart’s plan: “We have been fighting for transportation in Edenwald for 20 years. This opposition comes from those who have lived along an existing subway line. We have nothing in Edenwald. It costs us 15 cents to get Downtown. This is what I would call an eleventh hour monkey wrench.”122

  Hillside’s representatives contended that Ehrhart’s plan required a longer walk to the subway. Delaney was unsympathetic. He thought it would do more to develop the area: “I don’t think that it is good policy to put a subway along Boston Road. Even those people [Hillside residents] would have only three blocks to walk to new route. There is no reason to go any other way than we are going, and you might just as well abandon the rest of the route if you do.”123 A vote would be taken a week later.

  The Boston Road Subway Committee held a rally on June 20. About one thousand people from eleven civic groups attended. Many would attend the next morning’s hearing. Straus asked why taxpayers were asked to save “a decrepit and bankrupt line.… Get up on your hind legs and demand your rights!”124 “Unfortunately at this time the [W&B] stands in the background as the proposed beneficiary to offer us, out of its wreck, insolvency, and bankruptcy, its two tracks, either for sale or lease, in conjunction with the City-owned subway,” Lesser said. “… We are told that it is more economical to lease the right of way to build an independent line. Simply to be told so blindly is not legal and does not appeal to good logic.”125

  Divisions widened; more groups spoke up. The Allied Civic Associations of Old Eastchester, a coalition of Northeast Bronx civic groups, became the lead group supporting Ehrhart’s plan. “We have conducted a comprehensive and thoroughly accurate house to house survey of the entire area between the zone of adequate service of the White Plains subway and Pelham Park,” their statement read. “The results of that survey give conclusive evidence that the route sponsored by the Board of Transportation will give service to the greatest number of people, now wholly without adequate rapid transit service.” “… We further contend that the opposition to this route has a selfish motive,” it continued. “The list of associations mentioned by the opposition, with the exception of Hillside [Houses], is all grouped within, or very close to, the zone of adequate transportation of the White Plains subway, and wouldn’t be benefited at all by the extension of the Concourse line up Boston Road to Baychester Avenue.”126

  Louis Elkins wrote to La Guardia. “We are delighted with Mr. Delaney’s statements and feel that so far as the use of the railroad tracks is concerned, the matter is closed, but there are certain inconsistencies to this statement that we feel it is our duty to call to your attention.”127 He claimed that the BOT wanted the right-of-way and had surveyed the W&B’s property.

  It was difficult to vote in that highly charged atmosphere; the Board of Estimate deferred to July 9 to allow La Guardia and Lyons to tour the area. Comptroller Frank J. Taylor asked Delaney what the Board of Estimate’s role was in establishing new routes. Delaney response was succinct: “Nothing.” “We can reject it or approve it, that is all?” Taylor asked. “Yes,” Delaney responded.128 “… I appointed Chairman Delaney and I take the responsibility for anything he does,” said Mayor La Guardia.129

  La Guardia and Lyons visited the area on July 8, joined by Ehrhart, Straus, and Sullivan, walking Ehrhart’s route and the 1,500 feet from the Baychester Avenue station to Hillside. La Guardia gave wouldn’t discuss his view: “It’s the same argument that may be advanced wherever a subway route is proposed. You always find opponents to a route if it does not go past their front doors. Subways, as you know, cost many millions of dollars, and you can’t have one running under every street.”130 The Allied Civic Associations met that evening at Breinlinger’s Hall on Boston Road.131 A crowd of one thousand people supported Ehrhart’s plan.

  Figure 4-14. Using old Board of Transportation papers, Jeffrey Erlitz of the Electric Railroaders Association prepared a track diagram showing the alignment and stations for the section of the Concourse Extension from 205th Street to Gun Hill Road.

  A large crowd attended the July 9 Board of Estimate meeting. When Loewenthal tried to speak, La Guardia stopped him, saying he wasn’t helping his cause.132 Lyons raised Straus’s compromise, but Manhattan Borough President Samuel Levy and Queens Borough President George U. Harvey said they wanted new subways in their boroughs if there was no agreement. His colleagues wanted Lyons’s decision. “I want subways in the Bronx,” he said. “Due to this unfortunate difference of opinion existing, the entire subway route is threatened with delay. Perhaps it would be better if a compromise could not be reached so that the route could only be constructed up to Boston Road, leaving the controversial part to be settled at a later date. However, in view of the fact that we may lose the subway entirely if we do not adopt the route as recommended by Chairman Delaney, I vote yes.”133 The resolution passed unanimously.

  The Allied Civic Associations celebrated. Louis Elkins was happy a subway would be built, but he claimed that “a serious mistake has been made in not including Boston Road in the route for the Concourse extension.” “… It is my honest opinion that the first train will not have left the Eastchester Road station of the new subway before the people will realize this mistake,” he continued. “I venture to say that when the Westchester and Boston Railroad unloads its thousands of Westchester County residents at the new terminal of the Concourse subway at Kingsland Avenue, there will be no seats left for Bronx residents.… Today’s vote is a great victory for Westchester County residents who will receive a five-cent fare at the expense of New York City taxpayers.”134

  Lyons was satisfied that any subway would be built, but “it was through my efforts that the provision for the construction of the Bronx subway extension was included in the Capital Outlay Budget. I was disappointed at the difference of opinion existing among the people of the Northeast Bronx, although I could understand both sides of the question. However, I was much concerned that the controversy would result in a stalemate and that the Bronx would lose the subway extension entirely, inasmuch as other Borough Presidents were anxious for subway routes to be constructed in their boroughs.”135

  Delaney reported that groundbreaking for the Concourse line extension would take place, but there were problems. According to Comptroller Taylor the city’s financial status affected the capital budget; the W&B’s financial problems worsened. Federal Judge John C. Knox, overseeing the line’s bankruptcy proceedings, ordered Judge Edwin L. Garvin and James L. Dohr, its receivers, to close its New Rochelle–Port Chester Division. Th
e last trip ran on October 31; service on the rest of the line was assured only through December.

  Figure 4-15. The New York Times published this map of Robert Moses’s plan for the Express Truck Highway on December 1, 1938. The route that the New England Thruway would eventually follow is shown as a dashed line.

  This was particularly felt in the Northeast Bronx. Westchester had transit alternatives; there was none in the Bronx until Burke Avenue service began. It was hoped the BOT would take over, but Delaney, for unclear reasons, insisted he had no interest in doing so.

  New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses advanced another plan. He wanted to build new parkways and highways and wanted the W&B for one connecting the Bronx and Westchester, using use land set aside for a highway between Pelham and Port Chester that had been halted due to funding issues.

  Moses’s plan is largely forgotten. However, it inadvertently provided the impetus to extend the subway system into the Northeast Bronx.

  Moses wrote to Garvin, who wanted to sell the W&B for use as a parkway, on November 5. “The answer to the parkway is definitely no. The right-of-way has no value whatsoever for this purpose,” Moses answered. “My own offhand opinion is that the right-of-way might be useful as a through truck route because more and more attention must be given to express truck roads.”136 He discussed the “Express Truck Highway,” suggesting that Garvin approach La Guardia with it. A few days later, Delaney advised La Guardia of the BOT’s lack of interest. He didn’t think revenue from use of the W&B’s tracks would fund a rail line’s operating costs, so he endorsed Moses’s concept.137

  The impending end of W&B service, along with Moses’s plan, spurred Bronx groups to action. The Allied Civic Associations of Old Eastchester met on December 2 to discuss plans, including working with the towns in Westchester to keep the W&B operating and encouraging the city to acquire it for use as a rail line. They supported a plan drawn up by William E. Schramek, the leader of Westchester groups wanting to save the W&B, calling for the creation of an authority to operate the railroad.138