VOL. 5, No. 6, Whole Number 54

THE

HE city of Yonkers possesses certain advantages of location not found elsewhere in the Port of New York area. Possibly I ought to say, instead, that certain well-defined measures for relieving Port congestion point directly to Yonkers for their solution. It has come to be recognized that traffic conditions throughout Manhattan are past being remedied by regulation and that the only corrective lies in relocating the principal causes of congestion, which are the demands on passenger and freight transportation that spring from a too centralized state of manufacturing and distribution on Manhattan Island.

The Rim and the Hub of the Port

It is a comparatively simple matter for industries to relocate at Yonkers or elsewhere on the rim of the Port zone. They are doing that to a greater degree each year. The change is beneficial to passenger traffic insofar as it removes the factory workers from Manhattan's daily in and out haul on surface, subway and elevated lines. The gain in relief from freight traffic is less certain, for it frequently occurs that the decentralized industries make even greater demands on Manhattan streets for the hauling of their product by motor trucks to rail and water terminals. In a word, the Port's need is, first and foremost, relief from the burden of out-bound factory products. Today the Port of New York is traveling on its hub instead of its rim, a decidedly awkward business at best.

So it is not enough to accomplish the relocating of the industries on the rim, unless means is found similarly to decentralize the manufactures that come out

turer to reach both rail and water terminals without truck hauling into or through Manhattan. As I have been asked to express an opinion as to the relation of the city of Yonkers to Port of New York development I shall endeavor to express the view that seems most directly in line with the declared aims and objects of the Port Authority and the Regional Board. I will add that I have found it important to also keep in close touch with the projects of the Parkway Commission, for they have a distinct bearing on the proposition as a whole.

If you have a mind's-eye picture. of the region from the Battery to Yonkers you can easily visualize it as New York State's sea arm, Manhattan, with a socket joint of Bronx connecting it with the shoulder, which is Yonkers. Here at the shoulder you find four and a half

of the industries, at least in the sense of avoiding their being trucked to the hub when they should be sent on their way from the rim. That is the thought I have in mind in remarking that Yonkers is peculiarly fortunate in a situation where it can afford industrial relocation advantages and at the same time enable the manufac

miles of Hudson River frontage as perfectly adapted to deep-draught water activities as is the stretch of the Hudson that flows past Manhattan. Trackage of the New York Central parallels the river the length of Yonkers. The development of this waterfront will open up the one direct route between New York mainland traffic and that of New Jersey's eight rail lines, via lighterage, without passing through Manhattan. For that reason alone Yonkers represents a wonderful opportunity for those industries and warehouses which acquire locations on or near its waterfront. Mindful of the importance of the Greater New York consumer market to many classes of manufacturers, there is the further advantage, in Yonkers, of quick access to Manhattan, the Bronx, Long Island and also to metropolitan New Jersey.

Add living conditions of the best, home life in a roomy community, for employees, and the gain to industry extends into the greatest consideration of all, the personal satisfaction of workers, their individual contentment. I need not enter into details on this score, for I know that the many civic advantages of our city of Yonkers are fully related, in contributions to this publication which I am told are appear

City Hall, Yonkers, New York

ing simultaneously with mine, by the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Realtors, and the Merchants' Association.

Yonkers Can Relieve Manhattan's Congestion Getting back to the subject of relieving Manhattan congestion, one that is occupying the minds of many who now must send their goods through New York from distant points of origin as well as those who have factories on Manhattan, it is worth noting that considerable traffic in the form of freight laden motor trucks, enters Manhattan from New England and New York State starting point within overnight hauling distance. Until terminal facilities come into existence for the handling of this traffic at Yonkers there probably is no practical method which would permit such traffic to make its ship and rail connections without passing through Manhattan. The time is rapidly approaching when the obstacles to quick, economical lightering on the river between Manhattan and the Jersey shore will compel the development of terminal facilities at Yonkers and lightering from here to the belt line railroad that serves the eight big rail terminals opposite Manhattan.

The day is not far off when commercial vehicles will no longer be permitted to use Manhattan streets, except in cases governed by well defined regulation, with any but goods intended for consumption there. I understand that even now plans are being evolved for stablishing a system of by-passing all

shipments capable of traveling by routes that do not involve the use of Manhattan Island. These are some of the reasons which lead me to emphasize the point that the activities of the Port of New York, centering on Manhattan, have reached dimensions too vast for the island to cope with and that it is Manhattan, particularly, which needs Yonkers' aid in stopping at this point the traffic now unavoidably passing over the island but which Yonkers can deflect by developing adequate port facilities.

Layout of Waterfront Yet To Be Determined

What form the development of the Yonkers waterfront should take, to assure its fullest and best use, might reasonably be a matter of opinion. There are advantages to be cited for the proposition for a solid fill out to the pierhead line. There are other advantages apparent in the proposition to build piers. In either case it is important to develop with a view to having ample space for warehousing. I am strongly of the belief that the special value our city possesses as the mainland shoulder of New York's Port arm is its natural suitability for terminal work in connection with rail, water and highway freight traffic now a major cause of Manhattan congestion.

The State of New York has acquired, at the urgent request of Yonkers, its own Barge Canal Terminal at Yonkers. The New York Central Railroad recently bought, in the same section of waterfront as the Barge Canal Terminal, ground for the second of its Yonkers' freight yards. From all angles conditions here point to steadily increasing advantages for industries coming into Yonkers. Essentially, our section of the Port is a haven of relief for industries requiring both Port advantages and metropolitan location. From the earliest times a manufacturing community, Yonkers is today both the home of a noted in(Continued on Page 20)

F

IFTEEN miles north of Times Square, on the east bank of the American Rhine, is Yonkers, the name having evolved from the Holland word "Yonkheer." Oddly enough, its original

settlement was the site of the Indian village of the Manhattans, yet the latter name was given to the island below Yonkers. Adriaen Van Der Donck, coming from Holland, a Yonkheer, was the first settler here, in 1646. With the passing of Dutch rule in New Amsterdam came the rule of the English, and the land passed to the Philipse family who erected famous . Manor Hall in 1696. Today Manor Hall is near the center of the business district of Yonkers and is maintained by the State of New York as a museum because of its historical associations.

The foregoing briefly sketches the origin of the city, facts of no commercial value but carrying a certain in

square miles of Yonkers afford living conditions ranging from private estate sections, villa parks, apartment blocks and two and three family houses, to tenement streets of cold water flats which afford low rents for the unskilled labor element. The 1925 census gives Yonkers 114,000 population and the 1926 figures of the Chamber of Commerce are 116,200 population.

Educational opportunities are exceptionally good. There are twenty-three Public Grade schools, four High Schools, two Junior High Schools, nine Parcchial Schools, one Trade School and one Business School, also one Continuation School. Altogether, the schools number close to thirty thousand pupils. In addition to other recreational and health departments the city maintains five Public Baths. In point of healthfulness Yonkers ranks as the first healthiest city in New York State and third healthiest in country, Both the Y.M.C.A. and the Y.W.C.A. have large and excellently conducted buildings. Hollywood Inn is another recreational and athletic center long established in the interest of the youth of the city. The fraternal and patriotic orders are well represented, while civic and busi

trinsic worth wherever men and opportunity are measuring each other as is happening at present among business leaders who are studying the availability of Yonkers as a place to which to remove sizable blocks of manufactories now on Manhattan Island. Our city has a background of steady, purposeful growth that is good assurance of stability.

The form of city government is aldermanic, with mayor. president of

common

council and eleven aldermen. It has functioned in this form for over fifty years, from the time of the incorporation of the city in 1872. The manufacturer who seeks a place affording "elbow room" for the further growth of his ness is no less interested in the residential and insitutional sides of any community he contemplates entering with his manufacturing activities. The twenty-two

busi

ness clubs possess a high degree of co-operative spirit and constructive energy. Churches гергеsentative of the various religious teachings are well attended. They number seven Baptist, two Christian Science, one Congre gational, ten Episcopal, four Hebrew, eleven Methodist, six Presbyterian, and

sixteen Roman Catholic. There are Yacht Clubs, and several private Country Clubs with golf courses and tennis courts. On the low