Innumerable instances might be cited to support the contention that city land values have risen. For example, the New York City Commission on Congestion of Population cites the increase in the cost of lands purchased for school purposes. On the Island of Manhattan, the land in connection with School No. 14, at No. 33 Greenwich Avenue, cost, in 1849, 79 cents per square foot; in 1851, 84 cents per square foot; in 1890, $8.40 per square foot.; in 1897, $9.56 per square foot; and in 1905, $12.37 per square foot. In the Bronx, School No. 18, on Cortland Avenue between College Avenue and 148th Street, secured land in 1848 for 3 cents per square foot; in 1885 for $1.07 per square foot; and in 1896, for $2.18 per square foot. School No. 34, in Brooklyn, at Norman, Eckford and Oakland Streets, purchased land in 1867 for 23 cents per square foot; in 1904, for $3.16 per square foot; and in 1906, for $7.16 per square foot.[1]
A very effective study was made by the New York City Club (Homer Folks, chairman of the transit committee) regarding the increase in land values resulting from the construction of the rapid transit lines. Along the route of the new subway, assessment values, as given by the Department of Taxes and Assessments, were taken for the year 1900 on vacant lots. These were compared with the assessment values of 1907, the figures in each case representing one hundred per cent, valuation.
To ascertain the proportion of the increase in land value attributable to the building of the subway, it was necessary to deduct from the total rise what might be termed a normal rise, or the increase that would have taken place through the natural growth of the city, without added stimulus of a new transit line.
This normal rise was determined by taking the increase from 1893 to 1900 on the same territory. The study shows that up to 110th Street the increase in land values between 1900 and 1907 was about forty-five per cent. This equaled the normal rise previously determined. The Subway apparently made no difference in this land, because excellent elevated connections already existed. Between 110th Street and 129th Street the increase "was much more noticeable, averaging about seventy per cent." The location of Columbia University at this point rendered the calculations of little value. From 135th street northward the problem appears stripped of complications. "The aggregated rise in this land from 135th Street to Spuyten Duyvil was about $69,300,000." The estimated normal rise of $20,100,000 was therefore exceeded by $49,800,000 "apparently due to the building of the subway." This increase is one hundred and four per cent, increase on the value of 1900. A similar rise in the land values of the Bronx was shown. Between the
- ↑ Report of the New York City Commission on Congestion of Population, February 28, 1911. New York, Lecouver Press Company, pp. 56-57.
