LIBRARY 
 
 ANNEX 
 
 REPORT ON A CITY PLAN FOR THE 
 MUNICIPALITIES OF 
 
 OAKLAND & BERKELEY 
 
 BY 
 WERNER HEGEMANN 
 
 
 & 
 
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 3t(jats. Ktm Hoi* 
 
 COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 NAC 6827 .012H46 
 
 Report on a city p an for the municipal j 
 3 1924 024 419 222 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024419222 
 
REPORT ON A CITY PLAN 
 FOR THE MUNICIPALITIES OF 
 
 OAKLAND & BERKELEY 
 
 BY 
 
 WERNER HEGEMANN, Ph. D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "DER STAEDTEBAU NACH DEN 
 
 ERGEBNISSEN DER ALLGEMEINEN STAEDTEBAU-AUSSTELLUNG" 
 
 DIRECTOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL CITY PLANNING 
 
 EXPOSITIONS IN BERLIN AND DUESSELDORF 
 
 PREPARED AND PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF 
 
 THE MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS OF OAKLAND AND BERKELEY 
 
 THE SUPERVISORS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 
 
 THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND COMMERCIAL CLUB OF OAKLAND 
 
 THE CIVIC ART COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF BERKELEY 
 
 THE CITY CLUB OF BERKELEY 
 
 1915 
 
A * 1 \ <\ \ 
 
 CITY PLANNING IS INSURANCE AGAINST WASTE OF PUBLIC 
 AND PRIVATE FUNDS. 
 
 City-planning means co-ordination of the activities that make for the 
 growth of the city, especially the activities of railroad and harbor engi- 
 neers, landscape architects, street-building and civil engineers, builders of 
 factories, of offices, of public buildings and dwelling houses. Without this 
 pre-planning co-ordination, clashes between these different activities, un- 
 satisfactory results and most expensive rearrangements, become unavoid- 
 able. City-planning therefore does not mean additional expenditure of 
 money, but it means an, INSURANCE AGAINST INEFFICIENT EX- 
 PENDITURE of the enormous sums that go — in the regular course of 
 events — into the development of a progressive city. 
 
 Copyright 1915 
 
 by 
 
 Werner Hegemann 
 
PREFACE TO THE REPORT OF WERNER HEGEMANN 
 
 BY FREDERIC C. HOWE 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE CITY: THE HOPE OF DEMOCRACY," "THE BRITISH CITY: THE 
 
 BEGINNING OF DEMOCRACY," "PRIVILEGE AND DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA" 
 
 "EUROPEAN CITIES AT WORK," "SOCIALIZED GERMANY," ETC. 
 
 Dr. Hegemann was invited to this country by 
 the People's Institute of New York in 1913, to 
 co-operate with American cities in the promotion 
 of planning projects, to make town-planning sur- 
 veys and to lecture. His scientific training and 
 wide practical experience as Secretary of the Com- 
 mittee for the Architectural Development of 
 Greater Berlin and General Secretary of the City- 
 Planning Exhibitions of Berlin and Duesseldorf, 
 and as Director of the Division of City-Planning 
 of the Boston Exhibit of 1909 fitted him admir- 
 ably for the task of awakening American com- 
 munities to the necessity of providing in an intelli- 
 gent and far-sighted way for their future growth 
 in population and their industrial development. 
 
 His work in this country took him from coast 
 to coast — to some of the largest cities and many 
 of the smaller ones, especially those with pro- 
 gressive chambers of commerce and city clubs. 
 For these were the organizations through which, 
 in most cases, Dr. Hegemann did his inspirational 
 work. A number of communities, of course, had 
 for years realized that they would have to take 
 measures to insure their future growth upon 
 wholesome lines and where possible to remedy the 
 overcrowding, ugliness and other evil conditions 
 resulting from the haphazard methods of town 
 building, all but universal in the past. These 
 cities, among which were Oakland and Berkeley, 
 California, had therefore already taken the right 
 attitude toward city-planning. Some of them pos- 
 sessed complete plans for the laying out of civic 
 centers, the development of harbors and industrial 
 districts and the obliteration of slum areas. In 
 these cities Dr. Hegemann was called upon for 
 expert opinion and advice, and it was here that 
 his broad experience proved of the greatest ma- 
 terial value. In Philadelphia, for instance, local 
 organizations had under consideration ambitious 
 housing schemes, upon which they consulted Dr. 
 Hegemann. In Baltimore, after a survey of local 
 conditions, he co-operated in an extensive beautifi- 
 cation plan, which it is hoped will be carried out 
 in the near future. In Oakland and Berkeley Dr. 
 Hegemann made a particularly detailed investiga- 
 tion of the the field. 
 
 It is most encouraging and significant that the 
 town-planning movement is making such steady 
 gains in this country; that the day-to-day policy 
 with which American cities have been permitted 
 to develop is being superseded by intelligent pre- 
 vision for the future. Our cities are beginning to 
 understand that, like the cities of Europe, they 
 must think in big terms. Europe, and especially 
 Germany, is of course far ahead of us in the art 
 and science of city-planning, or as they call it, 
 city-building. In Berlin there is a college devoted 
 to the training of town-planning experts. A few 
 years ago a Greater Berlin planning project was 
 begun, for which prizes amounting to $40,000 
 were offered and for which architects and town 
 planners from all over the world competed. 
 Munich and many other cities have engaged in 
 comprehensive projects including the planning for 
 the suburbs for many miles around. The com- 
 petitive plans submitted provided for the growth 
 of half a century at least. Duesseldorf held a sim- 
 ilar competition a few years ago, and the condi- 
 tions were that the successful plan must provide 
 for the future development of steam, water and 
 electric traffic, for health and for beauty, must 
 make suggestions for the extension of existing lines 
 of transportation and designate territory for in- 
 dustrial uses, with provision for workingmen's 
 dwellings as well as traffic arrangements with sur- 
 rounding cities. With Duesseldorf's competition 
 Dr. Hegemann was closely connected, not only in 
 its organization, but as a member of the Jury. 
 
 In Germany no municipal problem receives 
 more attention than the building of streets. Offi- 
 cials and experts plan them with the greatest care. 
 In America, till very recently, no subject was more 
 neglected than this. Washington is almost the 
 only American city that planned its street system 
 with any vision of the future. 
 
 City-planning is the next big step which all our 
 municipalities must take — all, that is, that have 
 hope in their future. We have long considered it 
 a function of the city to protect its health, its 
 water supply, its food, its children, its workers. 
 City-planning extends the community idea still 
 further. It protests against ugliness, against dis- 
 
comfort, against dirt and disease. It treats transit 
 as part of the housing question, transportation as 
 an adjunct to industry and commerce, the water- 
 front as a means of communication and of pleas- 
 ure. City-planning means all these things and 
 more. It means building cities for people to live 
 in as well as to work in. It means building a com- 
 munity as an agency of civilization, culture and 
 art. This does not imply that city-planning in- 
 volves extravagant expenditures on new and elab- 
 orate undertakings. It does mean that whatever 
 money is spent on a far-sighted, practical plan and 
 its execution will bring a manifold return in the 
 long run. It is the thoughtless, improvident meth- 
 ods that have led and will always lead to waste. 
 The aim of city-planning is to protect the com- 
 munity purse against the tenement and the slum, 
 from the denial of light, sunshine and air, from 
 the short-sighted building of terminal facilities, 
 
 etc., that soon prove inadequate and impractical 
 for the needs of industry. 
 
 Dr. Hegemann's report on a city-plan for Oak- 
 land and Berkeley treats in a thorough and author- 
 itative manner all the essential features of the 
 subject. It is full of sound, practical advice and 
 feasible suggestions. Based as it is on a long and 
 intensive study of the conditions and needs of 
 these cities and reflecting the author's wide knowl- 
 edge of town-planning development in Europe and 
 America, the report contains the sanest and most 
 pertinent sort of constructive criticism. Its lan- 
 guage is not technical, so that it carries its message 
 of progress not only to the city official and engi- 
 neer, but also to the business and professional 
 man, who can understand from it just how and 
 why its recommendations will benefit the com- 
 munity. The cities under whose auspices the re- 
 port is published are to be congratulated. 
 
 FREDERIC C. HOWE. 
 

 
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 FIRST St'RVEY AND MAP OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY 
 
 From the original drawing made in 1775 for Don Juan Manuel de Ayala, Commander of the 
 Packet Boat San Carlos: designed by the first officer (pilota) of the ship. The original is attached 
 to the Log of the San Carlos preserved in the India office at Seville, Spain (photographed for E. J. 
 Molera). The location of Oakland and Berkeley is indicated by the large expanse of wooded land 
 just opposite the Golden Gate. The trees shown there are the oaks that gave the name to the city. 
 The explanation given in the key to the map: "a — bosques de palos colorados," must be read with 
 reference to the redwoods of Redwood Peak only. 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE GREAT CITY ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE BAY 
 
 THE OLD ISSUE: WEST, i. e. PENINSULAR 
 
 vs. EAST, i. e. CONTINENTAL 
 
 SIDE OF THE BAY 
 
 As early as 1847, the pioneer settlers and the 
 United States Army and Navy officers, ' first sent 
 to California, recognized that the great city of the 
 future — the city which it was hoped would become 
 
 the "New York of the Pacific" 2 — was to be 
 located, not on the west side, the present site of 
 San Francisco, but on the east, that is, the con- 
 tinental side, of San Francisco Bay. 
 
 The west side, with the townsite that later 
 monopolized the name of San Francisco, was, be- 
 fore the marvelous changes of later times, always 
 considered the "worst place" 3 for a settlement — a 
 
 'Among the officers who favored the land side of the bay were General Smith, Majors Ogden and Leadbetter, 
 Captains Goldsborough, Van Brunt, Blount, also the managers of the pioneer steamship company, the Pacific Mail, and 
 United States Consul Th. O. Larkin. 
 
 -See "Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman," Vol. I, pp. 95, 96, 101. 
 
 'This opinion of the peninsula was expressed by Don Pedro de Alberni in the year 1796 after a careful exam- 
 ination of the country; see Dwinelle's "Colonial History of San Francisco," Addenda p. 18, where the full text of Al- 
 berni's letter is given. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 "hilly and barren waste." 1 Even in 1847, General 
 Sherman "felt actually insulted that one should 
 think him such a fool as to pay money for prop- 
 erty in such a horrid place as Yerba Buena." 2 
 This "horrid Yerba Buena" on the west side of 
 
 the Bay of San Francisco was the little place that 
 since, by the extraordinary efforts of its citizens, 
 has become the great city of San Francisco. Not 
 only have tremendous economic disadvantages 
 been overcome, but civic enterprise has created 
 worthy monuments of civic pride, especially a 
 thousand-acre park, world-famous for its beauty, 
 in the midst of a location that, as late as 1867, 
 made the famous landscape architect, Frederick 
 Law Olmsted, Sr., say: "It must, I believe, be 
 acknowledged, that neither in beauty of green- 
 sward, nor in great umbrageous trees, do the 
 special conditions of the topography, soil, and 
 climate of San Francisco allow us to hope that 
 any pleasure-ground it can acquire will ever com- 
 pare in the most distant degree with those of New 
 York or London. There is not a full grown tree 
 of beautiful proportions near San Francisco." 3 
 
 The initiative and shrewdness of the citizens 
 who so successfully fought for the advancement of 
 the west side of the bay manifested itself for the 
 first time after the United States Government 
 officials ( 1847 ) had declared their decision to de- 
 velop a new city on the east side of the bay and 
 after General Vallejo had granted the necessary 
 land on the east side. 
 
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 OAKLAND IN 1857 
 
 Part of the map: "San Antonio Creek, California. From a Trigometrical .Survey under the direction of A. D. Bache, 
 Superintendent of the SURVEY OF THE COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. Triangulation by A. D. Cutts, Assist. Topography 
 by A. F. Rodgers, Sub-Assist. Hydrography by the Party under the command of Comdr. James Alden, U. S. N. Assist. 1857." 
 This map appears to show how far the streets, which Kellersberger's Survey (tiled September, 1853) put on the map, were 
 actually built by 1857. In addition to Kellersberger's rigid gridiron (checkerboard) streets, the map shows a number of 
 roads naturally 'grown and winding among the oak trees, 
 and Telegraph Avenues, as roads, were already in existence. 
 
 lap 
 The Twelfth Street bridge is the outlet to the East. San Pablo 
 
 'See "An Historical Sketch of San Francisco" by Jame? D. Phelan in Report of U. H. Burham on the improve- 
 ment and adornment of San Francisco, p. 194. 
 
 -"Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman," Vol. I, p. 61. 
 
 ! See "San Francisco Municipal Report 1867-68;" quoted in D. H. Burnham's Report, p. 207. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
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 OAKLAND IN 1860 
 
 From the "Official Map of the City of Oakland compiled from records & Surveys by J. E. Whitcher 1860. Publsd. By 
 Drouaillet Lithogr. Cor. Washington & Kearney Streets, San Francisco." This map shows the original layout |185:S) by Kel- 
 lersberger, plus some new streets. The map also gives the explanation for the extremely long blocks, which still exist, in 
 the area between Telegraph and San Pablo Avenues; namely, because this area lying outside the subdivided territory remained 
 for many years in an agricultural state, and its streets were later developed with reference to the purely accidental lines of 
 the two country roads (San Pablo and Telegraph) leading to town. 
 
 GENERAL SHERMAN'S CITY OF PALACES. 
 
 This land was given — where Benicia now is — 
 (the following are General Sherman's own words) 
 on condition of building up a city thereon to bear 
 the name of Vallejo's wife. Accordingly, the new 
 city was named Francisca. At this time the town 
 near the mouth of the bay, the San Francisco of 
 today, was known universally as Yerba Buena; but 
 that name was not known abroad, although the 
 name Bay of San Francisco was familiar to the 
 whole world. Now, some of the leading men of 
 Yerba Buena, knowing the importance of a name, 
 saw their danger, and, by an action of the town 
 council, changed the name of Yerba Buena to San 
 Francisco. This little circumstance was big with 
 consequences. Had half of the money and half 
 of the labor since bestowed upon San Francisco 
 been expended on the east side of the bay, Gen- 
 eral Sherman claims, we should today have a city 
 of palaces. 
 
 The name of "San Francisco," however, fixed 
 the city where it now is, for every ship which in 
 1848-49 cleared from any part of the world, knew 
 
 the name of San Francisco (the historical name of 
 the whole bay region) and, accordingly, ships 
 bound for California came pouring in with their 
 cargoes and were anchored in front of San Fran- 
 cisco, the first town. Captain and crews deserted 
 for the gold mines, and now, says General Sher- 
 man, "half of the city in front of Montgomery 
 Street is built over the hulks thus abandoned." 
 San Francisco had secured the name. About six 
 hundred ships were anchored there without crews 
 and could not get away, and there the city was 
 and had to be. (Compare Map of Bay, p. 20.) 
 
 This is the wording of General Sherman's re- 
 port. 1 Or in other words, as a prominent citizen 
 of San Francisco 2 lately phrased it, "The name 
 of Yerba Buena was changed to the city of San 
 Francisco in order to checkmate the founders of 
 Francisca," the city planned for on the logical, 
 that is to say, on the continental, side of the bay. 
 The illogical location of present San Francisco as 
 a center of commercial redistribution to and from 
 the vast hinterlands of the Bay was brought to its 
 full significance by the introduction of railroads. 
 
 1 See Memoirs pp. 83, 84 and 96. Very similar facts about the most comfortable habitations at San Francisco being 
 on board the deserted ships are related by Jacob Wright Harlan in "California '46 to '88," p. 153. 
 2 James D. Phelan in D. H. Burnham's report, page 194. 
 
INTRODUCTION: 
 
 
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 BIRDSEYE VIEW OF OAKLAND, 1872 
 
 From an old lithograph: "City of Oakland and Vicinity, Alameda County, California, Published by Snow & Roos, .San 
 Francisco. Drawn by Augustus Koch. Lith. Britton & Hey, S. F." In possession of Mr. Wilbur Walker. A comparison with 
 the map I Page 5) shows the growth of the community. Oakland with a population in 1870 of 11,101 had a city hall; several 
 private schools; six public schools; ten churches and three hotels. Southern Pacific tracks occupied First and Seventh Streets, 
 as now. Twelfth and Broadway was the business center. The region north of Fourteenth Street was devoted chiefly to 
 farms and orchards. Above Lake Merritt, now a principal residence section of Oakland, there was scarcely a habitation. 
 
 THE PRE-RAILROAD CONDITION PERSISTS 
 Very curiously, the situation as described in the 
 middle of the nineteenth century by General 
 Sherman, prevailed. As in the days of the 
 pioneers, all vessels bound for San Francisco Bay, 
 
 ( though their cargoes were destined for interior 
 California, and though there were deep water 
 points on the east, i. e., continental side of the 
 bay), somewhat unintentionally stopped in old 
 Yerba Buena, the successful monopolizer of 
 the name belonging to the whole bay region, so 
 today international commerce directs to the same 
 point the goods destined for the wide areas west 
 of the Rocky Mountains by labelling them "San 
 Francisco," instead of "San Francisco Bay." 
 Though material saving could be made by unload- 
 ing them on the east side of the bay, they are 
 first unloaded in old Yerba Buena, the present 
 
 San Francisco proper, and have to proceed after- 
 wards to be reloaded and transhipped by ferry- 
 to the continent. As an instance, two-thirds of 
 Oakland's commerce comes from San Francisco by 
 ferry. 
 
 This state of affairs, requiring a wasteful and 
 unnecessary transhipment by ferry of two and a 
 half million tons a year from San Francisco to 
 Oakland alone, can be understood only as a 
 curiosity of a prehistoric, that is, a pre-railway, 
 age. If San Francisco had been founded in mod- 
 ern times, namely, after the introduction of rail- 
 roads in California (1867), its location on the 
 wrong side of the bay would have been out of the 
 question. The further development of the bav 
 region inevitably must emphasize the natural ad- 
 vantages of the east side of the bay, as the point 
 where ship and railroad meet. The site, however, 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO AND VICINITY, CALIFORNIA 
 S. Geological Survey. Surveyed in 1892-1913. Culture revision (part of area) 1913-14. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 CORNER BROADWAY AND SAN PABLO, OAKLAND, 1867 
 
 Some of the live oaks that have given the city its name 
 stand on the site of the present First National Rank Building. 
 
 that will profit from this movement towards the 
 continental side of the bay cannot be as near the 
 mouth of the San Joaquin river as the pioneers 
 planned. The new great city must be located 
 nearer the entrance door of the ocean and near 
 the already developed city of San Francisco. 
 
 The logical site for the great commercial and 
 manufacturing metropolis of San Francisco Bay 
 is opposite San Francisco, where Oakland, Berke- 
 ley and Richmond are building on shores that are 
 so favorably situated that so eminent a harbor 
 engineer as Colonel Rees believes only the in- 
 sufficiency of their water terminals has postponed 
 their development. 
 
 "If deep water had existed close to the habitable 
 and level shores on the east side of the bay," 
 Colonel Rees says, 1 "there the great city would 
 have been, and there it may be if deep water is 
 provided." Deep water has been provided and 
 additional meeting points for ships and railroad 
 
 can be provided at moderate cost. If there is no 
 unexpected breakdown of civic enterprise and 
 foresight then the east side, where ship and rail- 
 road meet, will see the development of a great com- 
 mercial and industrial harbor. A great harbor, 
 especially an industrial harbor, will mean a great 
 population, and it is in view of the large popula- 
 tion to come that the plans for the further laying 
 out of the city must be made. 
 
 FUTURE POPULATION OF THE BAY REGION 
 
 There is little doubt that the bay will be the 
 site of one of the great cities of the world. Bion 
 J. Arnold, one of the best students of these mat- 
 ters, makes the following forecast for the develop- 
 ment of the population in the bay cities: 2 
 
 San Francisco anrl 
 San Francisco Commuter District 
 
 1910 416,912 730,000 
 
 1920 558,000 1,019,000 
 
 1930 722,000 1,366,000 
 
 1940 909,000 1,760,000 
 
 1950 1,121,000 2,202,000 
 
 The commuter district of San Francisco that 
 Arnold contemplated includes Alameda, Albany, 
 Belvedere, Benicia, Berkeley, Burlingame, Emery- 
 ville, Hayward, Larkspur, Martinez, Mayfield, Mill 
 Valley, Oakland, Palo Alto, Piedmont, Redwood 
 City, Richmond, Ross Valley, San Anselmo, San 
 Jose, San Leandro, San Mateo, San Rafael, Santa 
 Clara, Sausalito, South San Francisco and Vallejo. 
 
 Another careful forecast of population giving 
 somewhat higher figures, as follows, has been 
 made by Engineers Haviland and Tibbetts:' 1 
 
 CORNER BROADWAY AND SAN PABLO, OAKLAND, 1900 
 
 A wooden structure stood on the site of the present First National Rank Building. Some of Oakland's old oaks still remained 
 in front of the old City Hall, the building with the tower on the left. 
 
 'In his letter of October 28th, 1913, to the President of the Oakland Commercial Club. 
 
 2 Bion J. Arnold, "Report on the Improvement and Development of the Transportation facilities of San Fran- 
 cisco, 1913," pp. 22, 23. 
 
 :, Haviland and Tibbetts "Report on Richmond Harbor Project to the Council of the City of Richmond," Sep- 
 tember, 1912, p. 162. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 
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 CORNER BROADWAY AND SAN PABLO, OAKLAND, 1914 
 
 Immediately in the foreground is the fiatiron building of the First National Bank. At the left is the new City Hall of Oakland 
 and the Heeseman Building. In the distance, at the right, the Federal Building. At the extreme right the Central Bank and Realty 
 Syndicate Buildings. In front of the City Hall is the last of the oaks, dying. The oak if properly cared for can stand city environ- 
 ment as well, if not better, than any other native tree, and there is no reason why the flight of the oaks, as shown on plans, 
 pp. 3, 4, G, and on these pictures, should be an illustration of the colloquial phrase, "Going, going, gone." 
 
 San Oakland, Alameda 
 
 Francisco Berkeley & 
 vicinity 
 
 1910 416,912 195,748 23,383 
 
 1920. 632,000 393,000 30,000 
 
 (1920) 2 610,000 311,000 43,000 
 
 1930 810,000 428,000 61,000 
 
 1940 1,290,000 558,000 105,000 
 
 1950. 1,610,000 711,000 144,000 
 
 Richmond 
 
 Greater 
 
 Bay 
 
 (inclusive re- 
 
 San 
 
 Counties 
 
 cent annex) 
 
 Francisco 
 
 
 6,802 
 
 651,805 
 
 925,708 
 
 37,400 
 
 959,000 
 
 1,300,000 
 
 20,000 
 
 998,000 
 
 1,280,000 
 
 45,000 
 
 1,388,000 
 
 1,720,000 
 
 62,500 
 
 2,074,000 
 
 2,410,000 
 
 103,000 
 
 2,630,000 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 These forecasts are based partly on the normal 
 growth of the bay cities in the past and partly on 
 comparisons with the rates of past growth of 
 other cities of greater population. They are 
 not based, however, on the rates of the some- 
 what sudden and erratic growth recorded for 
 the east bay cities after the San Francisco 
 disaster of 1906. The forecast, therefore, is 
 conservative, — neither optimistic nor pessimistic. 
 It is not impossible, nor even unlikely, that 
 a much larger growth will come in connec- 
 tion with the rapid development predicted by 
 reliable observers, as a consequence of the nat- 
 ural progress of settlement in the western hemi- 
 sphere, and of the opening of the Panama Canal. 
 These conservatively made estimates show that 
 the population of the bay region may be expected 
 to reach one million by 1920, and two millions by 
 1950, and that about one-half of this estimated 
 population will live on the east side of the bay. 
 Every plan for the future development of the east 
 bay region must be made for a city, or rather for 
 a citified district, to house economically and com- 
 fortably at least a million people. 
 
 It may be regretted that the development of the 
 east side of the bay has gained its real impetus 
 
 only in the last ten years. This fact, however, is 
 bound to have the most beneficial results upon the 
 future of the east bay cities. Even a hurried visit 
 to any great city developed in the nineteenth cen- 
 
 SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT OF A CORNER 
 
 This corner, in Paris, is similarly situated between two 
 avenues of at least as great importance as in Oakland are 
 San Pablo and Broadway. The population of Paris is in 
 excess of four millions, while the population forecast for the 
 entire Bay Cities is three millions by 1950. The picture shows 
 that planting is possible and a great enhancement of beauty 
 in large cities. Notice how effectively any fiatiron appear- 
 ance in the corner building has been avoided, and compare 
 the picture of 1867 on page 8, where the orderly white fence 
 avoided the sharp corner in the same fashion. 
 
 2. The second set of figures for 1920 rests on another basis of calculation. 
 
10 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 tury must convince the observer of the enormous 
 mistakes that have been made everywhere under 
 a system of haphazard city-building. In all of 
 them the lack of comprehensive planning has re- 
 sulted in badly laid out streets, congested condi- 
 tions in the business district, and still more con- 
 gested conditions in the housing of the large 
 masses of the population, not to mention lack of 
 open spaces, parks, and pleasant surroundings in 
 general. 
 
 The admiring attitude of the American traveler 
 for the splendor of famous cities like Paris, Berlin 
 and Vienna might often be altered considerably 
 if he clearly realized how many hundreds of thou- 
 sands of the citizens of those much quoted capitals 
 and supposed "model cities" (though conditions 
 on an average may be better than in the most con- 
 gested tenement districts of cities like New York 
 or even San Francisco) are suffering under 
 the most inhuman conditions of overcrowding. 
 Every big city in the world, without any excep- 
 tion, is full and overfull of conditions that seem 
 like the result of madness, and that are recognized 
 as great public calamities to be remedied only by 
 the outlay of millions and billions and by the 
 untiring labor of generations. 
 
 THE TWO LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM 
 
 THE HISTORY OF CITY-BUILDING 
 
 AND CITY PLANNING. 
 
 In considering the future development of any 
 modern city, two fundamental facts can be learned 
 from the experience of city -building in the past: 
 
 First: The lack of planning ahead has nearly 
 always proved to be very detrimental to the 
 growth of cities, and to the well-being, and es- 
 pecially to the pocket-books, of a city's inhab- 
 itants. 
 
 Second: Since the needs and ideals of modern 
 city -building differ fundamentally from the ideals 
 of past centuries, even the best plans made for 
 great cities in the past can be adapted to the 
 growth of modern cities only after very material 
 changes. 
 
 THE FAILURE OF THE OLD CITIES. 
 
 Concerning the first of these two facts little need 
 be said. One has only to remember the enormous 
 sums spent in the old cities for the clearing of 
 congested areas, or for the opening up of streets 
 in built up sections, or for the belated creation of 
 some inadequate playgrounds in overcrowded 
 neighborhoods. One also must keep in mind the 
 terrible penalties in health and happiness paid in 
 
 the old cities by the body of citizens as a whole 
 for having permitted the congestion of the build- 
 ings in which men live and work. One must 
 consider the vicious effects of the high land values 
 created by congestion, those exaggerated land val- 
 ues, that create in turn new congestion of office 
 buildings and denser over-crowding of tenements, 
 prohibiting parks and playgrounds, while common 
 sense asks imperatively for the spreading of the 
 increased population over increased areas for the 
 benefit of the people themselves and of the land- 
 owners in outlying districts. 
 
 All the terrible calamities mentioned may be 
 simply illustrated with some figures. 
 
 Paris, the oldest of large cities, had to spend 
 about a billion dollars for a campaign of street 
 widening and opening in the old sections. 1 The 
 Royal Commission on London Traffic, which has 
 made and published the most elaborate investiga- 
 tion into London's traffic needs that can possibly 
 be conceived of, proposed in its report (published 
 in eight big volumes) the breaking of two new 
 avenues across the built up area of entire London 
 at a cost of $120,000,000 altogether; the already 
 accomplished opening of Aldwich-Kingsway at a 
 gross cost of $25,000,000 is a part of the scheme. 2 
 The London County Council in the ten years from 
 1889 to 1899 spent for clearing away of unsanitary 
 areas, and for their reconstruction, the sum of 
 fifteen million dollars. 3 
 
 New York spent in one single district five mil- 
 lion dollars for the acquisition of ten acres of 
 slums and for their transformation into open 
 spaces, thus paying more for these ten acres than 
 for the original area of the huge Central Park (840 
 acres today). 4 
 
 The Mayor of Boston in 1892 stated that 
 $40,000,000 had been spent by the City of Boston 
 for the widening of too narrow streets. At the 
 beginning of this century, a commission of leading 
 business men appointed by the Mayor of Boston 
 came to the conclusion that a number of important 
 street widenings in the downtown district deemed 
 necessary by the commission could not be carried 
 out because of prohibitive cost. 
 
 In communities that make up Greater Berlin, 
 from 500,000 to 600,000 people are congested into 
 tenements with an average of from five to thirteen 
 persons to every room. 5 To remedy these ap- 
 palling conditions by taking the victims out of 
 the tenements would be equal to destroying hun- 
 dreds of millions of invested capital and acquired 
 rights. By lack of forethought in city planning 
 the economic foundation of a large part of the 
 nation's wealth has been based on over-crowding. 
 
 n This sum of one billion dollars is an estimate of the money spent for the reorganization of Paris since the 
 French Revolution; it includes the sums spent by the revolutionary governments, Napoleon I, the Restoration, Napoleon 
 III, and Haussmann, and by the City Government since 1871. 
 
 Details about these figures may be found in Vol. II, "Der Staedtebau nach den Ergebnissen der Allgemeinen Staedte- 
 bau Ausstellung," etc., by W. Hegemann, Berlin, 1913, pp. 215-231. 
 
 2 These $25,000,000 do not include the large losses of interest charges on the areas remaining unbuilt on for years. 
 
 3 Compare: "The Housing Question in London 1855-1900" prepared at the order of the Housing Working Classes 
 Committee of the London County Council under the direction of C. J. Stewart, Clerk of the Council. 
 
 4 Compare the impressive diagram in B. C. Marsh's "Introduction to City Planning," New York, 1909, p. 17. 
 
 r, Kitchens and bathrooms (where they exist) are not counted as rooms in these statistics and only rooms that 
 can be heated are counted; one-tenth of the one-room flats have siderooms that cannot be heated. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 11 
 
 At the same time over three hundred thousand 
 children in Greater Berlin have no adequate play- 
 grounds. In 1911 the fifty official school phy- 
 sicians of the public schools of Berlin reported 
 34!% of the young school recruits either physically 
 or mentally unable to attend school or in need of 
 medical supervision. And these bad housing and 
 playground conditions of Greater Berlin, far from 
 being unique, are equaled in nearly every great 
 city, especially on the European continent. The 
 great cities of England and America with their so- 
 called "slums," have produced in some limited 
 districts congestion-figures that exceed even the 
 most unfavorable averages of continental Europe 
 
 Most of the figures and facts given so far can be 
 considered as the direct outcome of a lack of com- 
 prehensive city-planning; the cities mentioned 
 either had no plan at all for their growth, or, if 
 they had plans, they were only surveyor's plats or 
 were related only to special, chiefly artistic, 
 features, and had no special provisions to prevent 
 the calamities mentioned. The argument that 
 these calamities could not have been foreseen is 
 not sound, because in very many cases history 
 shows that these calamities have been foreseen. 
 This point is important enough to warrant some 
 examples. The writer of these lines made a 
 special study of the development of city-planning 
 thought 1 and found that in many of the capitals 
 the present amazing conditions in housing and in 
 park and playground development were foreseen 
 very clearly long before they came. A long line 
 of men with national reputations have, since the 
 forties of ths nineteenth century — that is, before 
 the overwhelming growth of modern cities came 
 about — repeatedly and most emphatically pointed 
 out the danger to come, and proposed practical 
 and efficient preventive and curative measures. 
 Many of these writings of the forties, fifties, six- 
 ties, and seventies show the most excellent city- 
 planning thought, hardly surpassed by present- 
 day writers. However, all the clearness and the 
 influence of these writings were not strong enough 
 to overcome the lethargic leniency and the stupid 
 optimism of those men who held the political 
 power and made money out of the prevailing 
 vicious system of city building until today, when 
 the calamities have ceased to be local and have 
 become by their overwhelming size a national 
 danger clearly acknowledged by every faithful 
 observer. 
 
 Studies of conditions in Berlin, Paris and Vienna 
 alike show, beginning with the fifties, a strong 
 fight against congestion through plans to intro- 
 duce better methods of rapid transit, making 
 greater decentralization of housing possible. 
 
 FASHIONABLE COATS, BUT DIRTY 
 UNDERWEAR. 
 
 This tendency toward proper city planning and 
 the prophetic warnings of the dangers of conges- 
 tion were nullified, however, by the shortsighted 
 and onesided desire to center the city planning ac- 
 
 tivities merely around the idea of the city spectac- 
 ular, "the city beautiful," to surprise the provin- 
 cial, and to dazzle the foreign visitor. As Napoleon 
 III and Haussmann expressed it, they wanted to 
 create the "City Queen," and as the Emperor of 
 Austria said: "I want an elegant capital." 
 
 To the production of this metropolitan "ele- 
 gance" the most refined thought was given, but 
 this thought benefited mainly the central sections 
 of these capitals, (the part near the castles) and 
 the exterior facades of the tenement houses. 
 This was indulging in fashionable looking coats, 
 not minding dirty underwear. Behind these good 
 looking facades, miserable crowding, lack of 
 housegardens, and the choking of the next gen- 
 eration were permitted. This kind of city plan- 
 ning did not attempt to make comprehensive pre- 
 conceived plans covering all the different branches 
 of city growth; but touching only one or two 
 aspects (mainly artistic), exaggerated their im- 
 portance and did nearly as much harm as no 
 planning at all. 
 
 THE OLD CITY MIXED BUSINESS, MANU- 
 FACTURING AND DWELLING. 
 
 This failure emphasizes the value of the other 
 fundamental fact to be learned by the experience 
 of the past in city building, that even the best 
 plans made for cities in the past can be adapted 
 to the growth of modern cities only after material 
 changes. Our modern ideals in city planning 
 must differ fundamentally from those of past cen- 
 turies. Many city planners of the old school still 
 consider cities like Nuremberg and Rothenburg, or 
 Paris, Berlin and Vienna, as ideals that for their 
 artistic value can be held up for imitation in 
 modern cities. This, however, seems to be funda- 
 mentally wrong. All those supposed model cities, 
 though they present most valuable material for 
 
 RLE DE R1VOLI, PARIS 
 
 This creation of Napoleon III is one of the most remarkable 
 examples of an entire street treated as an artistic incident to a 
 eastle (burnt by the Communists) and its gardens. This long 
 stretch of uniform cornice and roof lines will always serve as 
 a model for the treatment of the background of public build- 
 ings. 
 
 'Published in Der Staedtebau nach den Ergebnissen, etc. 
 
12 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 ■fete 1 ifl^Kfw^rii™ 1 > I 
 
 BTi 
 
 ~iH^ 
 
 pulifca t y ' - ^jRv}--^-— ^f^ ■■Oik ■• ^' 
 
 ST i^ppK^Hi 
 
 m If 
 
 
 *m 
 
 "OLD HOUSES AND CATHEDRAL SPIRE, ULM," in 1825 
 From a drawing by John Ruskin, showing a little street 
 connecting two minor squares. This view of the old Free 
 Imperial City is a typical example of the architectural effects 
 of high facades and closed-in vistas. Notice the business 
 premises on the ground floor (advertising signs), while the 
 upper stories are used for residential purposes; they hang 
 over the streets, space being scarce in these narrow fortilied 
 cities. Effects like these, captivating as they are for any 
 one who understands architecture, have been improperly held 
 by city planners to be desirable for modern cities. 
 
 study and suggestion, represent an old type; they 
 are cities of buildings for joint dwelling and busi- 
 ness purposes — a type that was developed in the 
 ages before the introduction of the omnibus, street 
 cars and railways. The failure of this type has 
 been aggravated by the influence of the fortifica- 
 tions of these cities. The presence of fortification 
 barriers was as harmful as the absence of trans- 
 portation and of suburban rapid transit; both 
 made for congestion of business and for over- 
 crowding of people in many-storied tenement 
 houses; both prevented the extension of the cities 
 into the open country, that is to say in width and 
 length, and forced them up in height. This con- 
 gestion has developed its own beauty, whose archi- 
 tectural effects of splendid towering and powerful 
 combinations of high facades and closed-in vistas, 
 have unduly set the standard in city building. 
 
 MODERN CITY DIFFERENTIATES RETWEEN 
 BUSINESS AND RESIDENCE DISTRICTS. 
 
 The old type of city building is the city of 
 congested tenement houses, with stores and busi- 
 ness premises on the ground floors and in the 
 
 cellars of these tenements. The most fundamental 
 idea of modern city planning goes back to the 
 years 1665 and 1666, when one after another the 
 great plague and the great fire revolutionized the 
 congested city of London, and, frightening its citi- 
 zens out of the old city walls, taught them to 
 desert the congested district and to live in garden 
 suburbs scattered over wide areas. 1 
 
 Open spaces and parks, especially the large 
 (1000 acres and over) public parks and the indi- 
 vidual house gardens remained in the old city 
 only occasionally, as a rare remainder of agricul- 
 tural conditions or of aristocratic luxury; they 
 form an integral and essential part of the modern 
 city. The modern city differentiates between the 
 business district and the dwelling house district 
 of the garden city type; both are connected by 
 those astonishing systems of rapid transit that are 
 the backbone of every modern big city. 
 
 The prevalence of this modern type of city 
 building has big consequences in every direction; 
 some of these consequences must be enumerated 
 here, because only by knowing them can the 
 American visitor to European cities properly judge 
 the value of the old European city-planning 
 schemes and find out how many of their advan- 
 tages can be adapted to American city-building. 
 
 SPREADING OF LAND VALUES BY 
 DECENTRALIZATION. 
 
 The modern system of decentralization in city 
 building spreads city land values over much wider 
 areas than can be made use of in connection with 
 the congested type, and at the same time prevents 
 the coming into existence of those unwholesomely 
 high values of land for dwellings, which necessi- 
 tate tenements and crowding. 
 
 These extravagant land values, as one views 
 them in the congested cities like Paris, Berlin and 
 Vienna, are the death of private gardens and a 
 danger to public parks and playgrounds, while 
 public and private gardens thrive in the modern 
 decentralized cities. The men who own and op- 
 erate the high-valued land of congested cities, and 
 still more the men who build and finance the big 
 tenement houses, in many cases have proved to 
 be, and justly by public opinion are considered to 
 be, very detrimental to the well-being of the 
 community. In the decentralized city, on the 
 contrary, the work of the real estate operator in 
 the shape of development and opening up of real 
 estate for small residences, becomes a matter of 
 high social importance. It is not only that the 
 living in country-like surroundings, to which the 
 clever real-estate operator so unceasingly invites, 
 affords a much more healthful, in fact the only, 
 chance for the development of the next generation, 
 but the individual lot and house that are offered 
 furnish financial opportunities small enough to 
 attract the individual saver, thus making him an 
 interested part of the community, giving addi- 
 tional force to its physical development. In con- 
 trast, the masses living in unhealthful tenements 
 
 'See the account of this revolution by Macaulay in "History of England," and the contemporary remarks of Defoe, 
 famous author of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 13 
 
 and paying high house- and ground-rent to a small 
 percentage of house owners are only too justified 
 in assuming an antagonistic attitude towards the 
 present state of society. The revolutionary atti- 
 tude of the masses in the big cities in continental 
 Europe has been often, and to some extent prob- 
 ably very aptly, explained by the unsocial system 
 of housing under the old system of city-building. 
 
 The development of real estate in small units 
 for individual homes acts as an important form of 
 savings bank. Congestion in tenements deprives 
 a wide and important part of society of a time- 
 honored form of taking part in the progress of 
 their community. 
 
 THE APPEARANCE OF THE AMERICAN 
 CITY— ITS CRITICS. 
 
 There is another important difference between 
 the continental system of congested city building 
 and the English or American system of decentral- 
 ization and clear differentiation between business 
 and residence districts; and this difference is prob- 
 ably the one that most baffles the American visitor 
 to European cities and inclines him to favor 
 European systems. The system of housing the 
 people in high tenements leaves the land in the 
 out-lying districts unused and gives an exag- 
 gerated value to the land in the built-up district. 
 This high value of the land in the built-up area 
 
 makes it possible, and a matter of course, to de- 
 velop it in a much more expensive fashion than 
 can be done in cheap residence districts of Amer- 
 ican cities. The traveler in European cities, either 
 finds land not used at all or developed with most 
 expensively paved wide streets lined by stone or 
 imitation stone and ginger-bread facades of four 
 to six storied tenements and apartment houses. 
 This, though it generally hides an undesirable 
 state of housing and often terrible over-crowding, 
 makes upon the unprepared mind an impression 
 of wealth and splendor which leads to the thought 
 that his American home city must necessarily be 
 inferior. 
 
 THE WILDERNESS OF THE BUSINESS 
 DISTRICT AND ITS GLORY. 
 What does the American city look like? The 
 American city has a central district with public 
 and office buildings, department stores, theatres, 
 clubs and apartment houses which always in ex- 
 pensiveness, generally in comfort, and often in 
 beauty, very favorably compare with similar build- 
 ings erected during the last generation in European 
 cities of similar size. The superior beauty of 
 older epochs which is found in the historic centers 
 of Europe is another matter, to be referred to 
 later. The fact, however, that the American city 
 as a rule does not restrict the height of buildings 
 as is commonly done in European cities, often 
 
 KEITH AVENUE, OAKLAND 
 
 This is a typical street of homes; roadway 30 feet; sidewalks 5 feet, 6 inches; macadamized pavement; street planting 
 done by property owners. Cost of houses ranges from $1000 to .$8000; value of ground about $50 a front foot; width of lots 
 50 feet Streets like this are capable of considerable improvement by giving more planting (notice what the few old trees do 
 for the appearance), by selecting more suitable street trees (instead of young palms) and by less paving, in accordance with the 
 proposition outlined on pp. 103-5 of this Report, also by grouping the houses and aiming at more harmonious and uni- 
 form architecture and material. But even as they are, streets like these and hundreds of very similar ones with houses more 
 moderate in price can justly be considered the pride of American city building, and they must by proper planning be protected 
 against invasion by tenement and factory and against overcrowding. 
 
14 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 AN EAST BAY ARTERY OF TRAFFIC IX PROCESS OF TRANSFORMATION 
 
 New fireproof department store, at a distance, semi-business property and old residences with private garden in foreground. 
 The main arteries of traffic, which often show the European tenement house city at its best, by reason of uniform roof lines 
 and good planting (compare picture, pp. it and If), are a great problem in the American city. Since they are not desirable 
 for residence purposes, they hesitate in a somewhat intermediate state. Street planting can improve their appearance consid- 
 erably. I Compare proposals on page 88.1 
 
 ison, thinks of the long streets of main traffic 
 that connect the extensive suburbs with the bus- 
 iness district of his home city. These main 
 arteries of traffic present one of the great prob- 
 lems of American city building; not being very 
 desirable for residence purposes, they hesitate in 
 a somewhat intermediate state. Old residences in 
 need of repair and new cheap business blocks give 
 a very undesirable appearance to those streets by 
 which the commuter has to travel every day, and 
 that, together with the unordered appearance of 
 the business districts, largely shapes his unfavor- 
 able opinion of his home city. Compared with 
 this undesirable state of affairs, even the unde- 
 sirable new European tenement streets are im- 
 posing to the American mind, though the bad 
 features of these pretentious streets are now 
 recognized more and more. 
 
 ESTHETIC VALUE OF EUROPEAN 
 CITY-PLANS. 
 
 Where then is the value of European city-plans 
 today mainly to be found? If one leaves aside the 
 efforts of the very last years, the value of Euro- 
 pean city-plans mainly rests on the esthetic in- 
 heritance from an older time; from a time that — 
 without thinking of the modern problems con- 
 nected with the rapid growth of cities — has solved 
 some of the artistic problems of city-building in 
 the most surprising fashion. 
 
 The old Gothic cities like Nuremberg and 
 Rothenburg had their marvelous "feel of the 
 land," the intimate and sympathetic adjustment 
 of the lines and grades of streets, as well as of the 
 
 gives a rather disorderly appearance to the Amer- 
 ican business districts. The alternating sky-line of 
 two story with twenty story buildings, commonly 
 found in American cities, can work out very sur- 
 prising effects in architectural beauty; but since 
 practically no thought is given to these effects, 
 they are only accidental and the visitor usually 
 sees from the street the architecturally undevel- 
 oped side walls and an endless repetition of badly 
 lighted interior courts, ready to be blanketed by 
 buildings erected later. (St. Francis Hotel, p. 101). 
 
 SQUARE MILES OF GARDEN-HOMES. 
 
 Aside from this expensively but inconsistently 
 developed business district, nearly every Amer- 
 ican city has some high class residence districts, 
 the beauty and comfort of which is acknowledged 
 to be equal, or superior, to similar ones in conti- 
 nental Europe. The American city further is de- 
 veloped for miles and miles with modest, but 
 sometimes quite charming, little houses surrounded 
 or half surrounded with little gardens along 
 cheaply paved ( or unpaved ) streets. Often play- 
 grounds and sometimes splendid great parks can 
 be found in the neighborhood. (Views pp. 120-1). 
 
 These square miles of little houses, where the 
 man of modest or small income can give a decent 
 and healthful home to his family, as a rule are 
 forgotten when the American traveler compares 
 his home city with the pretentious exterior of the 
 European tenement-house-city. 
 
 THE PROBLEM OF THE STREETS OF 
 MAIN TRAFFIC. 
 
 Instead, the American, in making his compar- 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 15 
 
 character and the quality of buildings, to the 
 beauties of natural contours and to the inspiring 
 appearance of some centrally located cathedral. 
 
 Most of the newer capitals present in their cen- 
 tral areas, and sometimes in some of their main 
 out-reaching arteries, the realization of some great 
 thoughts in artistic city planning, — thoughts con- 
 ceived by great creative minds and fostered by 
 centuries. The great formal garden schemes as 
 preserved in their original beauty in Versailles, 
 and as adapted to later city requirements in the 
 Champs Elysees of Paris, the Unter den Linderi- 
 Tiergarten of Berlin, the Mall of Washington; or 
 the ingenious transformations of old fortifications 
 into beautiful modern city streets, as the Grand 
 Boulevards in Paris, or the Ring in Vienna, or the 
 Koenig's Allee in Dusseldorf; the shaping and 
 counter balancing of wide volumes of space into 
 plazas more beautiful than closed rooms ever can 
 be; the ingenious handling of perspective art to 
 capture the deceptive sky as an ever-living, beauti- 
 fully framed ceiling for the plazas and vistas of 
 the town; the creation of these inspiring vistas; 
 the preservation of wide out-looks; the effect of 
 contrast between enclosed spaces, and spaces com- 
 manding wide views; effects either achieved by 
 informal treatment, or by formal design, — all these 
 are treasures of past ages. To introduce these 
 great esthetic values in modern city-planning will 
 always be a great aim, worthy of great efforts, but 
 it surely presents only a single phase of the com- 
 prehensive city-planning problem and that hardly 
 the most important one. 
 
 SOCIAL VALUE OF EUROPEAN CITY-PLANS. 
 It must not be understood, however, that the 
 artistic effect has always been the only aim in 
 city-planning schemes of the old regime. There 
 were exceptions, the most remarkable one the case 
 of Berlin in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
 turies, when the Prussian rulers practised city- 
 planning on an entirely social basis, and in a very 
 efficient and far-sighted manner, working with 
 powerful hands for the rapid opening and build- 
 ing up of wide and healthful suburban areas, with- 
 out neglecting the beauty of the central district. 
 It is largely due to this powerful and advanced 
 city-planning that Berlin, from a little medieval 
 town of eight thousand people, became one of the 
 leading capitals of Europe, with one hundred and 
 sixty thousand people at the beginning of the 
 French Revolution. This social kind of city- 
 planning, however, was the exception, and, with 
 the entire change of the political situation caused 
 by the French Revolution, the social tendencies in 
 city-planning suffered the same decline as artistic 
 city-planning all over Europe. The city-planning 
 conscience became submerged in the wild flood 
 of self satisfied but often altogether incompetent 
 individualism with its surprising, often great and 
 more often ridiculous and harmful results. Only 
 the great city-planning revival of the last decade 
 has brought, especially in Germany, Austria, 
 Sweden and England, the realization of new social 
 ideals in city-planning along the lines followed 
 in this report. 
 
 THE FAILURE OF DEMOCRACY IN 
 CITY-PLANNING. 
 
 Before the new city-planning revival set in de- 
 mocracy — it cannot be denied — has depressed the 
 standard of civic art. 
 
 The prevalence of artistic ideas in the city- 
 planning of past ages, and the artistically less 
 successful efforts of the last generation, can 
 be explained by the fact that city-planning 
 work then was done either by architects or 
 landscape architects, both of whom were mainly 
 trained to see esthetic values. But during 
 the nineteenth century these artists have 
 often been supplanted by surveyors or civil 
 engineers. This is one of the reasons which ex- 
 plains the much greater success of artistic city- 
 planning in the past, compared with the newer 
 efforts. But there is another important reason: 
 before the nineteenth century not only the men 
 who executed, but especially the men who di- 
 rected, the work were possessed of much broader 
 and more general culture than today is found in 
 those men who hold most influential positions. 
 The most convincing examples of this are the 
 Princes of the old regime, who, in so many cases, 
 were the directing force that brought about the 
 great artistic achievements in city-planning that 
 we admire today. These men, as a rule, made it 
 their business to keep in constant touch with the 
 leading exponents of the best and newest ideas. 
 All over Italy, Germany and France, courts could 
 be found that were the continual meeting places 
 of the best artists, painters, architects, engineers 
 and thinkers on every interesting subject. Only 
 in this atmosphere of perpetually enlightened dis- 
 cussion, and congenial criticism, could the fine 
 conceptions in artistic city-planning grow, the 
 realizations of which have stood the test century 
 after century. 
 
 After the general change of the political situa- 
 tion that took away the city-planning activities 
 from the Princes, and either annihilated these 
 activities or put them in the hands of the citizens, 
 those citizens in very many cases turned out to be 
 very ordinary short-sighted and uneducated bour- 
 geois. It came to be considered somewhat a mat- 
 ter of course that a citizen elected a member of 
 this or that commission, to manage matters re- 
 lating to city-planning (or to any other subject), 
 could not be expected to know much about it. and 
 the results were in conformity. It almost became 
 a matter of pride to be "just a plain citizen" and 
 to be somewhat ignorant on subjects of general 
 culture. 
 
 A DUTY TO BE PERFORMED BY CIVIC 
 ORGANIZATIONS. 
 
 Even in cities such as the so-called free cities 
 of the German Empire, where for centuries the 
 power had been in the hands of the citizens, the 
 fundamental change in economic conditions in 
 the nineteenth century brought into power quite 
 a new stratum of men, who neither in their edu- 
 cation nor in their family traditions possessed any- 
 thing but good intentions to guarantee desirable 
 results from their civic work. Nearly every 
 
16 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 artistic product of city-planning, turned out 
 by those new city governments in any part 
 of the world, is to the brilliant realizations of 
 former periods somewhat as gravel to diamonds; 
 this is a sad but hardly debatable fact, and it is to 
 be feared that it may remain so for generations. 
 It will be one of the tasks of general education of 
 civic bodies and local organizations gradually to 
 raise again the level of artistic discussion and cul- 
 ture above the vulgarity that largely prevails 
 today. Surely modern democracy will not permit 
 itself to lag behind the commendable achieve- 
 ments of former periods. There are cases, where 
 the patient and determined work of a really cul- 
 tivated secretary or member of a Commercial or 
 City Club has entirely changed the grasp and out- 
 look of communities in regard to city-planning 
 matters. 
 
 THE OBJECTS OF MODERN CITY-PLANNING. 
 
 If these artistic aspirations of modern cities have 
 usually turned out ridiculous results, at what can 
 the modern city successfully aim? There are 
 even more important and more fundamental ob- 
 jects than esthetics in city-planning, objects that 
 are altogether within the reach of modern civic 
 effort; many lines indeed in which the modern 
 city has already surpassed older efforts, and will 
 and must do so still more. If civic art is the sub- 
 lime flower that finally can be hoped for, the 
 necessary roots, stems, and leaves must be found 
 in the economic, social, hygienic and recreational 
 life of the communities. 
 
 Industry and transportation; transit and rapid- 
 transit connections between economically and 
 hygienically developed factories, business districts 
 and healthful enjoyable homes; plenty of play- 
 grounds, open air and indoor schools, and public 
 parks are the logical objects of modern city- 
 
 planning — the necessary foundation on which civic 
 life and civic beauty must rest before anything 
 worthy to find expression in art, radiating towards 
 a physical and beautiful civic center, can be de- 
 veloped. These somewhat utilitarian objects of 
 the new civic art are susceptible of a high grade 
 of development unheard of in the plans for the 
 cities of former times. 
 
 City-planning is the science of investigating and 
 achieving these results. Extraordinary efforts and 
 quite new departures must be made in order to 
 develop a new type of city, free from the old 
 plagues. 
 
 The city of the old type was built to house only 
 a small percentage of the nation and this small 
 percentage was destined to an early death in the 
 second or third generation. The cities did not 
 continue to exist by their own increase of popula- 
 tion, but by the continuous influx of people from 
 wide agricultural areas. The old congested city, 
 therefore, was essentially a place to die in; the 
 modern city must become a place to live in. In 
 the beginning of the nineteenth century, only a 
 small percentage of the population in the United 
 States lived in cities, a condition which has 
 changed materially today. Especially is the state 
 of California a remarkable example of this 
 change. According to the United States census, 
 the population in California cities of over one 
 hundred thousand people has increased in the 
 decade from 1900 to 1910, from 30 to 37.3 per 
 cent. The population in districts outside of cities 
 of ten thousand and over has decreased from 56.9 
 per cent in 1900, to 46.7 per cent in 1910. Most 
 of this decrease of the percentage of population 
 of agricultural districts has gone to the big cities 
 of over one hundred thousand. This clearly 
 shows the prevailing tendency. It also shows the 
 grave necessity for building cities that are fit 
 places for the permanent housing of the larger 
 part of the population. 
 
 GRAIN ELEVATORS, OLD AND NEW 
 
 Concrete elevator built at a cost of $678,000 by the Munic- 
 ipal Government of Seattle; capacity 500,00(1 bushels. The 
 "Staple House" at Ghent, Belgium, a granary of the early 13th 
 century l the third of the three gables l. These pictures con- 
 trast the higher efficiency and powerful yet uncombed appear- 
 ance of modern building and machine methods against the 
 cjuaint facades of the Middle Ages and its hand methods. 
 Gradually the modern methods and building materials, which 
 at present have stifled good traditions and taste, will be mas- 
 tered by man. The city of the future will be not only more 
 economic and hygienic but perhaps as beautiful as the cities 
 of the past. 
 
INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 With the fundamental change in the importance of San Francisco and Oakland 289,000 acres. In 
 of cities to the life of the nation, the meaning of order to understand what these big figures mean, 
 the term "city" also has changed fundamentally, one must remember that the city of Paris at the 
 The term "city" was originally applied to those time of the French Revolution comprised only 
 small built-up commercial places that were mainly 8425 acres, on which 600,000 people were crowded, 
 used for the exchange of goods produced outside. Even today the city of Paris proper crowds its 
 The modern "city" applies to those tremendous 2,840,000 people on an area of only 19,500 acres, 
 citified areas, or urban regions, the industrial and Berlin proper crowds over two million people 
 activities of which become more and more the on 15,008 acres. 1 How can any standard of air- 
 back-bone of the leading nations. space in private or public buildings, and especially 
 
 The United States census calls "metropolitan i« gardens, public playgrounds and parks, that 
 
 districts" the land within the city boundaries of nas Deen developed by these antiquated cities, 
 
 large cities and within a radius of ten miles out- ever he used in looking for the solution of the 
 
 side of city boundaries. The metropolitan dis- problems of the new city? 
 
 trict of New York comprises 617,000 acres, Phila- "New times demand new measures and new men, 
 
 delphia 437,000 acres, Chicago 409,000 acres, Th e time is ripe, and rotten-ripe for change." 
 
 Pittsburg 405,000 acres, Boston 335,000 acres and — James Russell Lowell. 
 
 'In the slums of New York, that is, in some areas of very limited extent, conditions are much worse still. If 
 all New York City were populated in the same way as some of its congested parts, the population of the whole of China 
 and India could live in its boundaries. 
 
 GOETHE'S PREDICTION OF THE PANAMA CANAL AND 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN WEST 
 
 (From Eckermann's "Conversations with Goethe") 
 
 Wed. Feb. 21 [1837]. — Dined with Goethe. He spoke much and with admiration of 
 Alexander von Humboldt, whose work in Cuba and Colombia he had begun to read, and 
 whose views as to the project of making a passage through the Isthmus of Panama ap- 
 peared to have a peculiar interest for him. "Humboldt," said Goethe, "has, with a great 
 knowledge of his subject, given over points where, by making use of some streams which 
 flow into the Gulf of Mexico, the end may be perhaps better attained than at Panama. 
 All this is reserved for the future, and for an enterprising spirit. So much, however, is 
 certain, that, if they succeed in cutting such a canal that the ships of any burden and size 
 can be navigated through it from the Mexican Gulf to the Pacific Ocean, innumerable ben- 
 efits would result to the whole human race, civilized and uncivilized. But I should won- 
 der if the United States would let an opportunity escape of getting such work into their 
 own hands. It may be foreseen that this young state, with its decided predilection to the 
 West, will in thirty or forty years, have occupied and peopled the large tract of land be- 
 yond the Rocky Mountains. It may furthermore be foreseen that along the whole coast 
 of the Pacific Ocean, where nature has already formed the most capacious and secure 
 harbors, important commercial towns will gradually arise, for the furtherance of a great 
 intercourse between China and the United States. In such a case, it would not only be 
 desirable, but almost necessary, that a more rapid communication should be maintained 
 between the eastern and western shores of North America, both by merchant-ships and 
 men-of-war, than has hitherto been possible with the tedious, disagreeable, and expensive 
 voyage round Cape Horn. I therefore repeat that it is absolutely indispensable for the 
 United States to effect a passage from the Mexican Gulf to the Pacific Ocean; and I am 
 certain that they will do it. 
 
 Would that I might live to see it! — but I shall not. I should like to see another 
 thing — a junction of the Danube and the Rhine. But this undertaking is so gigantic 
 that I have doubts of its completion, particularly when I consider our German resources. 
 And thirdly, and lastly, I should wish to see England in possession of a canal through 
 the Isthmus of Suez. Would I could live to see these three great works! it would well be 
 worth the trouble to last some fifty years more for the purpose." 
 
THE STRUCTURAL RANK OF THE DIFFERENT ELEMENTS 
 
 IN A CITY-PLAN 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 City-planning is the co-ordination of the differ- 
 ent activities that make for the physical growth 
 of the city, i. e., the activities of the builders, 
 landscape architects, railroad and harbor engi- 
 neers, civil engineers, etc. 
 
 The different factors that together make up a 
 city and the map of a city and that are essential 
 in organizing and developing the tremendous 
 areas covered by a modern metropolis are all ob- 
 jects of city-planning, i. e., of logical and compre- 
 hensive consideration and forethought. Consid- 
 eration must be given to these different elements 
 of the city-plan according to their structural rank 
 in the city-plan. It would be bad policy to find, 
 first, locations for those parts of the physical city 
 which can find place equally well in different loca- 
 tions, instead of determining, first, everything 
 about those parts, the location of which for over- 
 powering reasons cannot be shifted without detri- 
 ment, but is fixed in certain unchangeable locali- 
 ties. For structural and economic reasons, the 
 water and rail transportation systems for freight, 
 urban, suburban and interurban passengers, in a 
 city-plan are fixed in certain definite localities, and 
 to find these strategic localities must be the first 
 aim of the city-plan. 
 
 There is nothing in a city-plan, with the excep- 
 tion of great historical or natural monuments, that 
 should not give way to the economic and engineer- 
 ing necessities of transportation. The amount of 
 capital that has to be invested in the freight and 
 passenger facilities of a city is so enormous, and 
 the efficiency of these systems so much depends on 
 their being located in the right — the most strategic 
 and most economic — positions, that anything that 
 can be reproduced with less cost at another place 
 of the metropolitan area has to give way to trans- 
 portation and industry. When Hamburg in 1883 
 started her new harbor scheme with an initial 
 expenditure of thirty million dollars, one thousand 
 dwelling houses were razed to make room for a 
 part of the harbor. 
 
 From the same point of view a harbor has a 
 higher rank than any parksite that does not con- 
 tain altogether unusual qualities to be protected 
 at any cost; and again a site suited for a beautiful 
 park must not be used for things that can be ac- 
 commodated elsewhere; a public park must en- 
 joy a higher rank than an area for private resi- 
 dences. Again, if the city selected a certain site 
 for its civic center, or if — still more important — 
 the people of the whole state have decided upon 
 
 one certain site to be developed as a state capitol, 
 i. e., the center of State Government or as a uni- 
 versity, i. e., a center of learning; and if the in- 
 vestment of millions has been begun upon such 
 sites, the aim whose achievement is sought in this 
 special locality is such a high one and can be 
 achieved only with such a great degree of con- 
 sideration and care, that no other purpose of the 
 city-plan, even in the matters of transportation, 
 should be permitted to interfere afterwards. A 
 civic center of any kind, be it for administration, 
 recreation or learning, once agreed upon and es- 
 tablished, enjoys even higher rank than the eco- 
 nomic needs; it is or is to become an historic 
 monument for the community. After the historic 
 monuments rank transportation, the business dis- 
 tricts and the industries; after them the parks, 
 and then residence districts take their rank. If 
 an ideal plan could be made, no collision between 
 the different objects of city-planning ever could 
 arise. On the contrary, all the different elements 
 of the city-plan would form together an ensemble 
 of beauty and efficiency. Where, however, by 
 avoidable or unavoidable lack of foresight, such 
 a collision arises, the different elements of the 
 city-plan have to be considered and have to give 
 way according to their rank. By considering 
 right from the beginning the highest rank and 
 purpose to which every district of the metropolis 
 can be devoted, the costly reorganizations of the 
 city map, and the difficult regroupings of the 
 different facilities and purposes can be avoided. 
 In the following study the different factors that 
 make up the city map and that should be planned 
 for in a comprehensive way will be considered in 
 the following order: The City Economic, the 
 City Recreational and Beautiful. 
 
 1, Harbor (beginning p. 19). 
 
 2, Railroads. (p. 42). 
 
 a, Freight (p. 48). 
 
 b, Passengers 
 
 Long Distance (p. 60) 
 Suburban and urban (p. 64) 
 
 3, Streets 
 
 a, Main traffic streets (p. 79), 
 
 b, Business streets (p. 89), 
 
 c, Residential streets expensive and inexpen- 
 
 sive (p. 103). 
 
 4, Parks' and Playgrounds (p. 125) 
 
 5, Civic Art, Civic Centers (p. 142) 
 
THE FOREST OF MASTS, OAKLAND INNER HARBOR 
 
 Part of the Alaska Packers' salmon fleet which winters in Oakland Harbor from September until April each year. This 
 fleet consists of 32 ships, of a total of 47,000 tons. It is the largest steel and iron fleet, and contains the largest sailing ships, 
 under the American flag. The largest vessel has a tonnage of 3381 tons. 
 
 THE HARBOR 
 
 ff 
 
 THE ASSET OF A HARBOR. 
 
 The development of the wide area of a modern 
 great city necessarily rests on the economic basis 
 of commerce and industry. The most efficient in- 
 strument of commerce and industry is a large har- 
 bor. The harbor binds together railroad and 
 water transportation and produces at the place of 
 exchange between land and water the ideal indus- 
 trial site with the possibility of cheaply transform- 
 ing, combining and distributing the transient 
 goods. All large cities necessarily must have large 
 harbors. London, probably the only city in the 
 world that ever attained a population of one 
 million people before the introduction of rail- 
 roads, achieved this result only on the basis of the 
 famous London harbor. The coat of arms of 
 Paris since the first century of the Christian era 
 has been a sailing vessel, and today Paris, though 
 it is located far from the ocean, 1 on a compara- 
 tively small river only, is the largest harbor of 
 France, with a tonnage of fifteen millions, twice as 
 much as Marseilles, the great French ocean har- 
 bor. Forty-three per cent of all the imports of 
 Berlin come by water, f Much more, of course, 
 than in the case of the cities mentioned, lying far 
 away from the ocean, the future of the cities on 
 the Bay and especially on the east side of San 
 Francisco Bay, will depend on the development of 
 a harbor. In view of the evidence of this fact, it 
 is very surprising to see how little forethought has 
 been given to the development of the greatest har- 
 bor of the Pacific Coast. In truth, there could 
 
 hardly be a phase in city-planning in which the 
 serious consequences of lack of forethought could 
 be better demonstrated than in the history of the 
 Bay as a port. 
 
 COMPARISONS: SHIPPING; HARBOR 
 
 INVESTMENTS. 
 
 The ship tonnage movement of the San Fran- 
 cisco Bay ports in total amounts to 7,575,875 tons; 
 it is therefore still superior to its competitors; the 
 total of the five Puget Sounds ports is only 7,141,- 
 968 tons; the Columbia River ports have less than 
 five millions and the Los Angeles ports 1,283,094 
 tons. But it is known that the trade of these com- 
 petitors of the Bay is growing at a more rapid rate 
 and that the absence of some of the natural ad- 
 vantages found in the Bay is compensated for by 
 better financial support. The mere fact that the 
 trade of the Puget Sound ports already nearly 
 equals the Bay trade shows a state of affairs not 
 found on the East coast of America, where New 
 York always has maintained a notable superiority 
 over other competitors, the entire tonnage of Bos- 
 ton, Philadelphia and Baltimore together, (less 
 than fifteen millions), being much inferior to New 
 York's tonnage. 
 
 The figures given include domestic and foreign 
 tonnage; the foreign tonnage alone of the San 
 Francisco Bay ports amounts to 2,203,551 tons; 
 while New York's foreign tonnage is 20,458,526, = 
 i. e., nearly ten times more than that of San Fran- 
 cisco Bay. The Bay, however, has the necessary 
 
 1. Havre, the harbor on the mouth of the River Seine, on the borders of which Paris is located, is by railroad 140 
 miles away from Paris. 
 
 2 The above figures refer to the year 1907. Compare p. 331 of Report of the Commission of Corporations on 
 Transportation by Water in the United States, Water Borne Traffic, 1909. Compare also, Haviland and Tibbetts Report 
 on Richmond Harbor Project, p. 39, and statistical chart of Haviland and Tibbetts on San Francisco Harbor. 
 
20 
 
 THE HARBOR 
 
 physical characteristics to compare favorably 
 some day, with the harbor of New York. It has 
 a total area of 420 square miles, and a shore line 
 of about 350 miles. 1 This will accommodate the 
 largest development that can be dreamed of. Even 
 the largest harbor of the world, New York, today 
 has developed a straight water front of only 120 
 miles. 2 The area of San Francisco Bay that ex- 
 ceeds thirty feet in depth at low water, is about 
 190 square miles; exclusive of fairways and for- 
 bidden anchorage, there is approximately 100 
 square miles (64,000 acres) of available anchorage 
 found in the Bay, enough to anchor almost the 
 fleets of the world at the same time. The largest 
 German shipping center, Hamburg, ranking in its 
 tonnage close to New York, has since 1908, by ex- 
 pensive improvements undertaken to increase the 
 developed area of its harbor from 1387 to 1960 
 acres; the entire area of the dock estate in Liver- 
 
 THE HINTERLAND OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY 
 The two great valleys and a large part of the remaining 
 area of California and even of Nevada and Utah must look to 
 the East Bay Cities as their natural deep water point. Cali- 
 fornia alone is a commercial domain of over 91,000,000 acres, 
 or about 320,000 acres more than the area of ten other rich 
 and populous states shown in the above diagram. The area 
 of California is greater than that of Italy, which has a popula- 
 tion of 34,700,000. The fertile area of the Sacramento Valley is 
 4,000,000 acres; of the San Joaquin Valley, 5,500,000. 
 
 SHALLOW AND DEEP WATER, SAN FRANCISCO BAY 
 
 Shallow shown dark, deep water shown in lighter shade. 
 This map suggests one of the reasons for the first larger set- 
 tlement on the Bay being located on the almost isolated 
 Peninsula. On its northeastern front was that natural an- 
 chorage, where the 600 ships of the gold-fever days dropped 
 anchor immediately upon entering the Golden Gate. Captains 
 and crews deserted for the gold mines, writes General Sher- 
 man, and the new city was built largely over the abandoned 
 hulks. There are other natural deep water points on the con- 
 tinental side of the Bay not handicapped by peninsular loca- 
 tion, e. g., at Point Richmond and further north at Benicia; 
 additional deep water points with the advantage of continental 
 location have been created by human energy in Oakland. 
 
 pool is 1677 acres (583 acres in basins and docks). 
 This compared with the 64,000 acres that can at 
 comparatively small expense be developed in San 
 Francisco Bay, shows unlimited possibilities for 
 the leading harbor of the Pacific. The Bay is 
 sheltered from ocean storms, and therefore no 
 building of expensive break-waters is required, as 
 for instance in Dover where $25,000,000 were 
 spent for this purpose. 3 The Bay is not subject 
 to the effects of flood and no building of locks or 
 entrances, similar to those costing millions in Lon- 
 don and Antwerp, is necessary. 4 The Bay is ab- 
 solutely free from ice, and there is no danger of 
 
 J The following data regarding San Francisco are taken from H. M. Chittenden's paper "Ports of the Pacific" 
 in Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 7, p. 1093, etc. 
 
 Altogether (developed and undeveloped) Greater New York has 555 miles of straight water front, to which 193 
 miles on the New Jersey side should be added. ,.,,„, _ .„ , T , 
 
 'Similar expensive breakwaters had to be built in Cherbourg, Genoa, Marseilles; also at Los Angeles it was 
 necessary to build the San Pedro Breakwater 11,000 feet in length. 
 
 4 Seattle is just building the Lake Washington Canal Lock, exceeded in size, on the American Continent, by the 
 Catun locks of the Panama Canal only. 
 
THE HARBOR 
 
 21 
 
 BBEMERHAVEN DOCKS 
 
 Diagram of docks completed (black) and projected (cross- 
 lined) of Brcmerhaven, the deep-water harbor of Bremen 
 (pop. 246,000). This small republic since 1886 has spent 
 thirty-two million dollars for harbor improvements. 
 
 having the money invested in harbor improve- 
 ments ever lie idle from this account, as it does, 
 for instance, in Montreal where lately $14,000,000 
 were spent for water-front improvements to be 
 used only during seven months in the year. An- 
 other enormous advantage arises for the Bay cities 
 from the fact that the entrance to the Bay through 
 the Golden Gate is deep, wide and straight. Many 
 of the great sea harbors of the world were depend- 
 ant for their development on the expensive dredg- 
 ing and regulation of their approaches. The 
 growth of the harbors of Glasgow and Antwerp 
 intimately depend on the control of the Clyde and 
 the Schelde. In the reorganization scheme of 
 London Harbor, begun in 1911, the control of the 
 Thames River is considered as the most urgent 
 work and will swallow a large part of the seventy- 
 two million dollars required for the harbor 
 scheme. Hamburg between 1859 and 1907 had to 
 devote thirty millions (out of one hundred seven- 
 teen million dollars spent for harbor improve- 
 ments) for the control of the lower Elbe River 
 and by far the largest part of the harbor improve- 
 ments, costing $12,000,000, undertaken since 1908 
 is devoted to improving the river channel between 
 Hamburg and the ocean. Bremen, with a popula- 
 tion of only 246,000 inhabitants today, and with an 
 ocean bound tonnage of only five million tons had, 
 since 1886, to devote $7,500,000 for the control of its 
 river approach, out of $32,000,000 spent up to date 
 for harbor work (including Bremerhaven). Even 
 at a harbor site as famous as the one of New York 
 the approach needed dredging. Since 1884 dredg- 
 ing operations south of the New York Narrows 
 have had to be carried on, and in the year 1899 
 alone six million dollars had to be dedicated by 
 Congress for this dredging. Seventy-two million 
 cubic yards have been removed since 1899. 
 
 Comparisons of this kind show the ideal charac- 
 ter of San Francisco Bay and make it the more 
 surprising that so little intelligent effort has been 
 
 made to carry out the comparatively cheap im- 
 provements required for the proper development 
 of its natural advantages. All that has been done 
 or is being done so far suffers from being insuffi- 
 cient and inefficient; in other words not enough 
 money is spent and the expenditure is made at the 
 wrong place. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO BAY A GREAT FREE GIFT. 
 
 It has been estimated 1 that if the present 
 harbor front and facilities of the city of San Fran- 
 cisco alone (not considering Oakland, Richmond, 
 etc.,) were owned and operated by private inter- 
 ests they would be capitalized at least for the sum 
 of $250,000,000 and handsome returns could easily 
 be made on that figure. 
 
 In helping to create this enormous productive 
 capital, valued at a quarter of a billion, the United 
 States since the establishment of the government 
 had up to 1911 expended only $387,801, and only 
 small amounts since that time. Such a sum is 
 hardly worth mentioning, since it compares with 
 figures like $10,402,687 spent by the United States 
 for Boston Harbor, $8,443,703 for Savanah, $13,- 
 774,762 for Galveston, $9,700,280 for Cleveland's 
 harbor, etc. 2 In contrast to these large expendi- 
 tures San Francisco harbor is maintained entirely 
 on a self-supporting basis and out of current re- 
 ceipts $34,328,000 has been spent in the last fifty 
 years, (1863-1912) for sheds, buildings, wharves, 
 bulk-heads, seawalls, dredging and for salaries. 
 
 HAMBURG DOCKS 
 
 Diagram of docks of Hamburg Harbor showing the efforts 
 necessary to overcome natural difficulties, the docks being 
 largely dug out of solid land adjacent to the River Elbe. 
 Hamburg's new harbor area dates from the year 1883, when 
 thirty million dollars were spent for excavating new docks, 
 in which operation 1000 private houses were razed. Hamburg's 
 expenditure for harbor improvement from 1857 to 1914 was 
 one hundred twenty-nine million dollars, of which a large 
 part went for river control. Hamburg's tonnage about equals 
 that of New York. 
 
 'Biennial Report of the Board of State Harbor Commissioners for the fiscal years commencing July 1, 1910, and 
 ending June 30, 1912, p. 8. 
 
 -'Compare U. S. Treasury Report on Expenses for rivers and harbors, March 6, 1912. Compare also the note below 
 on p. 32, note 2. 
 
22 
 
 THE HARBOR 
 
 NECESSITY OF UNIFORM HARBOR MAN- 
 AGEMENT FOR EFFICIENCY. 
 
 San Francisco, unlike most of the leading sea- 
 ports of the United States, enjoys the advantage of 
 a harbor front owned and operated by the people; 
 the people being represented — not by the city 
 of San Francisco — but by the State of Califor- 
 nia. One should think, therefore, that in develop- 
 ing the Harbor the local interests of the city of 
 San Francisco would have been set aside in order 
 to develop the Bay as a whole from the point of 
 view of getting the highest efficiency for the gen- 
 eral good. Unfortunately, however, there is no 
 uniform management of San Francisco Bay; there 
 is the jurisdiction of the State extending to terri- 
 tory on the peninsula, inside the boundaries of 
 San Francisco; on the continental side of the Bay 
 different local bodies administer their respective 
 harbor facilities. This regime has made compre- 
 hensive development impossible; it invited ineffi- 
 cient rivalry; it is a serious menace for the futvire 
 and is against the fundamental rules of harbor or- 
 ganization. Somehow, and the sooner the better, 
 the recommendable "Hands around the Harbor" 
 movement must for the sake of higher efficiency 
 lead to a uniform management of the Bay as a 
 whole, a management of course, in which the East 
 Bay interests are represented in a manner that cor- 
 responds to the superior strategic value of the East 
 
 A SAN FRANCISCO HILL 
 
 The hills of San Francisco make industrial development of 
 the Peninsula very costly. The picture shows a part of Tele- 
 graph Hill I elevation 290 I'eeti, hemming in the waterfront 
 development and practically worthless for industrial purposes. 
 Anv amount of flat, cheap land can be had on the east side 
 of "the Bay. 
 
 Bay section as a harbor to be. "The time will 
 come," says the latest Report of the Board of 
 State Harbor Commissioners 1 "and it is not far 
 off, when one State Harbor Commission shall have 
 control and management of the entire Bay of San 
 Francisco and perhaps of many of its tributary 
 waters. We regard this as a much more likely 
 and desirable development, imperiously dictated 
 by the march of events and the growth of com- 
 merce and the modern trend of cooperation and 
 coordinated effort in industry, than a further seg- 
 regation into many bodies with local control of 
 separate harbor fronts, each jealously and short- 
 sightedly striving to take away from other ports 
 by foolish cutting of rates, a practice leading 
 surely to economic waste and chaotic conditions." 
 
 Amongst the harbors the writer of this report 
 has studied, there is only one, the Harbor of 
 Sydney, New South Wales, that can by the great 
 gifts of nature bestowed upon it, favorably com- 
 pare with the Bay of San Francisco. In this for- 
 tunate harbor of Sydney since 1901 the control of 
 the entire harbor front, irrespective of the bound- 
 ary lines of many adjoining cities, has been lodged 
 with a State Harbor Commission, which has 
 worked to the greatest satisfaction of the indi- 
 vidual cities; complaints are exceptional and refer 
 to minor points only. 
 
 To quote Calvin Tompkins,- the well known 
 Commissioner of Docks in New York City: "The 
 fundamental idea of port organization may be 
 briefly expressed as the policy of adapting each 
 part of a port to the best uses to which it can be 
 put, and of connecting the several parts into an 
 organic whole. " :: 
 
 This fundamental idea is not carried out in San 
 Francisco Bay. In the introductorv chapter the 
 historical reasons have been pointed out for the 
 location of the great city on the wrong side of the 
 Bay and for the failure to take advantage of those 
 locations on the continental side that have deep 
 water approach, or could easily get it. But this 
 point is of so great importance that it must be 
 more fullv dealt with. 
 
 PENINSULAR vs. CONTINENTAL SIDE; A 
 SERIOUS ISSUE FOR THE DEVELOP- 
 MENT OF CALIFORNIA AND THE 
 ENTIRE PACIFIC COAST. 
 
 The Peninsula practically is a narrow and 
 mountainous island suffering from lack of area 
 and difficulty of approach by railroad. The in- 
 dustries that seek sites in San Francisco find, as 
 in most old cities and especially in hilly cities 
 
 ■Biennial Report of the Board of State Harbor Commissioners for the fiscal years commencing July 1, 1910, and 
 ending June 30, 1912. 
 
 -This quotation is from an address by Calvin Tomkins, Commissioner of Docks, City of New York, before the 
 New Jersey Harbor Commission at the Assembly Chamber, State House, Trenton, New Jersey, February 19, 1912, '"A 
 Comprehensive Plan and Policy for the Organization and Administration of the Inter-State Port of New York and New 
 Jersey." Mr. Tomkins, who by his position has an eminent view on the conditions of the biggest harbor in the world, 
 always is very emphatic about this point of the "Organization of the port as a whole tract for its natural use."' 
 
 3 This general view was also set forth by Professor C. T. Wright of the University of California, in a paper pre- 
 sented in January, 1913, to the members of the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco. Professor Wright advocated 
 the formation of a harbor district, which should include the whole Bay, including also the Straits of Carquinez. 
 
THE HARBOR 
 
 23 
 
 with small level areas, the land values are too high 
 and endanger the successful carrying on of many 
 industries. The Peninsula is not only practically 
 a narrow island, but moreover only a small per- 
 centage of its very hilly land can be used for in- 
 dustrial development. The map showing the 
 different elevations brings out clearly this fact. 
 The flat land available in San Francisco alto- 
 gether, including the whole Market Street shop- 
 ping district, is only about six square miles, while 
 any amount of land can be developed on the 
 east side of the Bay. No wonder that the great 
 scarcity of level land has produced extraordinarily 
 high land values in San Francisco. Industrial sites 
 run from $125 a front foot up. Ninety thousand 
 dollars an acre is a fair average price in San 
 Francisco, while on the east side of the Bay which 
 has all the logical requirements for efficient de- 
 velopment, land for five thousand dollars and less 
 an acre can be had. How necessary it is to pro- 
 vide this latter land with the best terminal facili- 
 ties instead of trying to operate on the expensive 
 land of San Francisco, may be gathered from the 
 fact that in Cleveland, the great progressive manu- 
 facturing town of the middle west ranking in pop- 
 ulation far ahead (25%) of San Francisco, indus- 
 trial sites served by the most efficient new Belt 
 Line Railroad (compare pp. 54 and 56) are ad- 
 vertised for one thousand dollars an acre. The 
 industrial supremacy of the Pacific Coast depends 
 on the efficient development of the East Bay sec- 
 tion as an industrial and commercial harbor. 
 Every citizen of San Francisco therefore, every 
 Californian, not only the people of Oakland and 
 Berkeley, is vitally interested in the efficient de- 
 velopment of the East Bay Cities. 
 
 THE WASTE OF TRANS-SHIPMENT. 
 
 As the present site of the city is determined his- 
 torically great waste is brought about by having 
 a large amount of the tonnage destined for the 
 continent unloaded first in San Francisco, practi- 
 cally an island, and re-loaded and trans-shipped 
 by ferry to Oakland. 
 
 The insular location of San Francisco is empha- 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO A CITY OF HILI.S 
 
 This map, based on the San Francisco section of the U. S. 
 Geological Survey, shows the scarcity of land suited to manu- 
 facturing and transfer of heavy merchandise on the Penin- 
 sula. ' The shaded area has an elevation of 10(1 feet, or more. 
 There are 21 points in San Francisco having an elevation of 
 from 300 to 1000 feet. There are only about six square miles 
 in which heavy trucking is practicable. This accounts in part 
 for the excessive cost of industrial land on the Peninsula. 
 Many industries can not afford to pay this high cost and must 
 therefore find locations on the cheap land of the East Shore 
 and elsewhere. 
 
 sized by the fact that even such mighty trans- 
 continental service approaching from the south, as 
 the Santa Fe System, does not enter San Francisco 
 by its bottle neck connection with the mainland, 
 but deals with San Francisco, exactly as if it were 
 an island, reaching it from the east side by ferry 
 and expensive car-floats. (See map p. 53). 
 
 Two-thirds of the four million tons of Oakland's 
 commerce come by ferry from San Francisco. 1 
 
 'Compare also the following extract from the address by M. J. Laymance, Chairman of the Harbor Committee of 
 the Oakland Commercial Club, on the oecasion of the organization of the Committee: 
 
 "With the landing of all the heavy freighters from Europe, the Orient, South and Central America at the docks 
 to be created in connection with the system of trans-continental railway lines — with a full up-to-date equipment for 
 handling tonnage with a system of government bonded warehouses, and a freight storage capacity, and on a scale which 
 will permit of berthing ships without charge — making our margin in dock and warehouse charges, would of itself be suf- 
 ficient encouragement and the docks contracted by people who are handling the products from the several countries 
 named, should be sufficient guarantee to you of the business that would be done at that location. And when you take 
 into consideration that warehouses on the San Francisco side are not permitted to locate alongside of the piers, and 
 merchandise must be carted one, two and as far as three miles for storage, and at which locations are the bonded ware- 
 houses, entailing a drayage charge each way, while with us would be the bonded warehouses for different lines, and free 
 warehouses for business, all within reach of the improved mechanical appliances for cheap and quick handling, and 
 storage capacity to accommodate all, I hardly need ask you would it command the business? 
 
 Again, the tramp steamers arriving from all parts of the world, without representatives here, would naturally 
 find their way to these docks, and last, but not least, with ninety million people in the United States, thirty million of 
 whom are embraced in States known as the Middle West, their supplies of import goods, and much of the manufactured 
 goods on this Coast would find their way in our warehouses to be shipped out on orders from jobbers as far East as 
 Chicago. 
 
 In the case of San Francisco, I may say that the State laws, or warehouse rules, require all tonnage to be removed 
 within forty-eight hours from the piers, which entails a very considerable expense and means the drayage to govern- 
 ment warehouses and back again for shipment, which runs from 50c to $1.50 per ton one way. All of this would be over- 
 come and you can readily see that the jobbers who are importers that it would be to their advantage to pay warehouse 
 charges and ship direct from the warehouse on all Middle West and Western business." 
 
24 
 
 THE HARBOR 
 
 A similar waste is found in the fact that an im- 
 portant part of the tonnage leaving Oakland has to 
 be first trans-shipped to San Francisco before it 
 can be loaded on the steamer. Oakland and 
 Berkeley have not yet availed themselves of the 
 enormous benefit which can accrue to them from 
 their locations on the finest bay in the world. 
 The city of Berkeley has not yet been 
 provided with deep water approach. In the 
 city of Oakland deep water can be reached 
 by the new municipal wharves, and bv the 
 Long Wharf of the Southern Pacific Railroad 
 Company. The municipal wharves were not used 
 up to 1914. The Southern Pacific Long Wharf 
 can be used only by the shipper of car-load lots 
 and even he does not find regular steamship ser- 
 vice there. Onlv casual steamers dock at Long 
 Wharf; all the regular ocean liners still dock in 
 San Francisco. Regular service to the east side is 
 given only by River and Bay steamers, not by 
 ocean steamers. Even the shipper of car-load lots 
 therefore suffers under the present state of affairs. 
 If, as it often happens, no tramp steamers are 
 
 ready to take his goods he has either to wait or to 
 ship his goods to San Francisco, paying fifty cents 
 per ton instead of twentv-five cents as charged by 
 the railroad company for service to Long Wharf. 
 While the cost of loading the vessel at Long 
 Wharf and also the toll is absorbed by the vessel, 
 he has to pay additional drayage of approximately 
 sixty-five cents per ton if the vessel in San Fran- 
 cisco lies at a dock without a spur track. The 
 transfer of goods to San Francisco therefore in- 
 creases the charges for local handling from 100 to 
 360 per cent. As serious as this financial loss that 
 in many cases must wipe out the Bay merchants' 
 power to compete with better organized ports, is 
 the loss of time that goes with the wasteful trans- 
 fer of goods from private switches in Oakland or 
 Berkeley to the San Francisco dock. This trans- 
 fer takes eighteen hours or more, under normal 
 conditions. The car-ferry, however, holds only 
 sixteen cars and there may be nineteen cars to go 
 across; three cars are left behind and in the ordi- 
 nary course of events that means twenty-four 
 hours delav. In case of congestion in the ferrvage 
 
 SOUTHERN PACIFIC LONG WHARF, OAKLAND 
 
 One of the most important deep-water terminals of the Bay. In 1912, vessels having a total tonnage of 1,22:1,889 tons 
 touched at this wharf, discharging 337,573 tons; taking on 283,877 tons. This large movement of freight at present is handled 
 by tramp steamers, there being no regular service. East Bay shippers can only use this wharf via S. P. freight cars, as 
 there is no wagon road to the wharves, which are served by two tracks. This wharf by agreement between Oakland and 
 the S P. must be removed on or before November 2:1, 1918, when the S. P. will use a far more efficient terminal adjacent to 
 solid ground inshore and possible of approach by trucks. I See map, p. 37.) 
 
THE HARBOR 
 
 25 
 
 of cars across the Bay, the Southern Pacific makes 
 it a practice to send cars from San Francisco to 
 Oakland by way of the Dumbarton cut-off near the 
 southern end of the Bay. This long movement 
 means a still more serious waste of time. A 
 prominent Oakland shipper states that in eighteen 
 months he has suffered about twenty delays of 
 four days or more through the movement of goods 
 from Oakland to San Francisco by the Dumbarton 
 cut-off. This very unsatisfactory state of affairs 
 equals the delay necessitated by the traffic-conges- 
 tion of the old and over-crowded shipping centers 
 in the East. 
 
 As serious as the losses in money, time and com- 
 peting power by the shippers of car-load lots are 
 the sufferings of the shipper of less than car-load 
 lots. The shipping of less than car-load lots is a 
 very important item in the economic make up of 
 an industrial community. The character of the 
 trade of large producers often is such that their 
 shipments have to be split up into small lots to 
 different addresses; and besides the big producer 
 in every growing community there are many small 
 producers that are building up new industries. 
 These growing new industries, just starting from 
 small beginnings, are of great importance for the 
 future of any industrial community, if they can 
 prosper and develop into large industries under 
 favorable conditions. They are strangled, how- 
 ever, if the conditions of local handling and local 
 expense are adverse. Until the east-side terminal 
 "facilities have been perfected, the expenses con- 
 nected with shipping of less than car-load lots are 
 strongly against the building of new industries or 
 the carrying on of industries that have to split 
 their shipments into less than car-load lots. This 
 point is proved by the following figures computed 
 f. o. b. San Francisco docks at ships' side: the 
 examples are selected from Berkeley in order to 
 prove at the same time how important it is for 
 Berkeley quickly to fall in line with Oakland on a 
 comprehensive scheme of harbor development. 
 The Monarch Oil Refining Company has to pay 40 
 cents per ton for drayage from factory to Berkeley 
 wharf (not deep water), 5 cents Berkeley wharf 
 toll, 75 cents for freight from Berkeley wharf to 
 San Francisco, 5 cents wharf toll and $1.00 for San 
 Francisco drayage to ships' side, an average total 
 of $2.25 per ton. Arrangements can be made with 
 a local Transfer Company to deliver the goods at 
 any wharf in San Francisco at the ships' side 
 thereby eliminating the drayage charge in San 
 Francisco. This brings the transportation down 
 to $1.25 per ton, the minimum rate that can be 
 had at the present time. If deep water were avail- 
 able on the Bay shore the only charges would be 
 the Berkeley drayage of forty cents per ton, and 
 the Berkeley toll of five cents, a maximum of 
 forty-five cents. 
 
 Similar figures are given by the Pacific Guano 
 Company. Another interesting illustration is fur- 
 nished by the Pure Carbonic Company that used 
 
 to pay $2.90 per ton for the different charges con- 
 nected with the transfer of its finished goods from 
 the factory to the side of the different vessels in 
 San Francisco. By introducing a motor truck and 
 using the ferry, the cost per ton was cut down to 
 $1.90. But a saving of a further one and a half 
 dollars could be made by having the vessels dock 
 in reach of the motor truck without crossing the 
 Bay. This result, however, can be reached only 
 by co-operation between Oakland and Berkeley in 
 developing the common waterfront. 
 
 In international trade the power of competition 
 often depends on a few cents. Waste of full dol- 
 lars of course must be of vital consequence and 
 mean life or death to the industrial future of a 
 community. 
 
 FIVE MILLIONS ANNUALLY WASTED. 
 HANDICAP FOR COMMERCE AND IN- 
 DUSTRIES OF SAN FRANCISCO 
 BAY, i. e., OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 In a paper on the "Economic necessity for the 
 development of deep water facilities on the east 
 shore of San Francisco Bay" read before the 
 Berkeley City Club, 1 Mr. Henry A. Lafler suc- 
 ceeded in making a reasonable calculation, accord- 
 ing to which "Five millions of dollars now are an- 
 nually wasted, every dollar of which might be 
 saved were deep water facilities provided on the 
 East Shore of San Francisco Bay, and the func- 
 tions of manufacture, warehousing and distribut- 
 ing performed on the mainland adjacent to the 
 terminals of the transcontinental railroads." 
 
 Thus the requirements of efficiency and of space 
 make the development of a harbor on the east 
 side imperative. Only by developing it on the 
 east side can a harbor be secured that in efficiency 
 can compare and economically can compete with 
 modern great harbors or with the re-constructions 
 that are planned at present for every one of the 
 older harbors in the world. 
 
 THE RADIUS OF ACTIVITY FOR CALIFOR- 
 NIAN INDUSTRY. 
 
 The far reaching importance of avoiding all un- 
 necessary waste in local handling is more and 
 more recognized. As the excellent report of the 
 Commission on Metropolitan Improvements for 
 Greater Boston, dated 1909, says: 2 "Under 
 modern conditions excessive cost of transportation 
 is likely to be found in charges for handling and 
 transfer rather than in those for carriage. It is 
 there that we must look for reduction in cost. 
 Every necessary item in the way of local charges 
 for handling or transfering freight reduces the 
 distance to which the manufactures of Massachus- 
 etts can be profitably shipped. On the other 
 hand, every saving in such local charges will cor- 
 respondingly extend the radius within which Mas- 
 sachusetts may successfully compete with other 
 states or countries. It requires only a compara- 
 tively moderate extension of such radius to bring 
 
 JSee Berkeley City Club Bulletin No. XX. 
 2Pages 13, 14. 
 
26 
 
 THE HARBOR 
 
 LUMBER CRANE, OAKLAND HARBOR 
 
 An example of efficient handling by large businesses which have been obliged to seek East Bay sites rather than sites 
 on the Peninsula. One of two cranes identical in character, owned by C. A. Smith Lumber Company," capable of unloading a 
 vessel carrying 1,700,00(1 feet of lumber in 12 hours. At the mills in Marshfield, Oregon, the lumber is made into pack- 
 ages inclosed in a light metal sling, each package weighing about 8700 pounds. When the vessel is in dock at the Oakland 
 plant, hooks are attached to these slings and the package lifted out intact and deposited upon the proper pile in the 
 yard, for which purpose the crane moves back ami forth on metal rails. Devices like this make Oakland Harbor the efficient 
 deep-water terminal for heavy freight. 
 
 within the circle of our industrial and trade rela- 
 tions millions of possible consumers otherwise cut 
 off from our field of competition." The extension 
 of the radius within which the Bay cities may 
 successfully compete with other harbors and man- 
 ufacturing centers, and of the radius within which 
 California may successfully compete with other 
 states or countries, will determine the future, the 
 population, and the wealth of Oakland and Berke- 
 ley. What the extension of this radius means may 
 best be illustrated by the answer of a prominent 
 East Bay manufacturer who now sells only in 
 Pacific ports, to the question: "What influence 
 would the saving in local handling expenses of a 
 dollar and a half per ton mean to your sales?" 
 "I could sell in New Orleans" the manufacturer, 
 after some calculation, replied, and after further 
 thought added, "I could even sell in New York." 
 He thus anticipated the Californian supremacy 
 that would go with the proper development of an 
 industrial harbor on the continental side of San 
 Francisco Bay. 
 
 THE BAY CAPABLE OF HIGHER DEVELOP- 
 MENT THAN OLDER HARBORS. 
 
 The proper development of the east side of San 
 Francisco Bay will make it possible for San Fran- 
 cisco Bav not only to be equally efficient, but even 
 more efficient, than other harbors, be they new or 
 
 under the process of reconstruction. Most of the 
 older harbors of the world, as already mentioned, 
 have labored under very serious difficulties and 
 their maintenance is a "task almost Herculean and 
 very costly."' The largest of the old harbors, 
 London and New York, have at present to face ex- 
 pensive reorganizations necessitated by natural 
 disadvantages resulting from lack of planning. 
 Among the figures given above, the sum of 
 seventy-two milion dollars necessary for the re- 
 organization of the London harbor has been men- 
 tioned. While New York suffers from the water 
 separation which is being gradually overcome bv 
 enormously expensive tunnels and bridges, the 
 lack of comprehensive plans has produced condi- 
 tions, especially on the west Manhattan water 
 front, that are impossible of continuance. The 
 present harbor authorities strongly advocate the 
 reconstruction of the older part of the harbor, 
 and impress on the mind of the public the neces- 
 sity of following a comprehensive plan and a like- 
 wise comprehensive municipal policv of control, 
 organization and administration, with a view of 
 correlating the several parts and planning each 
 district for its best natural use.- Difficulties like 
 those encountered in London and New York find 
 their unavoidable solution either by powerful re- 
 organization or by the comparative decline of the 
 harbor in question, as for instance in the case of 
 
 'Charles W. Stamford, Chief Engineer of the Harbor of New York in his report on "Physical Conditions of 
 European Seaports," Page 5. 
 
 -Commissioner of Docks, Calvin Tomkins, has made many statements to this effect. 
 
THE HARBOR 
 
 27 
 
 London, once by far the largest European harbor, 
 but at present equalled by Liverpool, Hamburg 
 and Antwerp. 
 
 The equipment of efficient harbor sites has 
 proved to be a city-building factor of the greatest 
 importance attracting investments, payrolls and 
 population. The practically unlimited amount of 
 land on the east side of San Francisco Bay, that 
 with a small outlay of money can be developed to 
 adjoin deep water, makes it possible to develop a 
 harbor that gives better facilities, and that largely 
 surplants the older type of the more commercial 
 harbor by the newer type of the more industrial 
 one. The development of manufactures within a 
 port is of far greater importance, locally, than the 
 passage of commodities through it in transit. 
 
 THE POSSIBILITIES OF A MODERN 
 INDUSTRIAL HARBOR. 
 
 / A modern industrial harbor does away with the 
 expensive handling of the products between fac- 
 tory and steamer by truck, and in many cases may 
 eliminate even the freight car as an intermediary. 
 As soon as direct water approach is given to every 
 factory that can make use of it, the ship and dock 
 winches, swinging and traveling cranes, bucket ele- 
 vators, belt conveyors, derricks, lifting towers, 
 grab buckets and hoisters can put their superhu- 
 man powers to work with a marvelous intelligence 
 and reap the hundredfold harvest of true effi- 
 ciency. 
 
 To lift the raw materials directly from the hold 
 of the vessel into the claws of the transforming ma- 
 chinery and to drop the finished goods directly 
 after leaving the last process of transformation in- 
 to another vessel or into the freight car: this 
 means to do away with unnecessary handling and 
 waste of time, one of the important items in the 
 cost of old-time manufacture. This ideal effi- 
 ciency is the logical goal aimed at by the modern 
 development. Wherever the centralization of the 
 modern capitalistic forces has permitted the appli- 
 cation of the best methods and thought, the waste 
 in local handling is eliminated. Even the simplest 
 minded could not but smile if he tried to imagine 
 for instance, the Richmond Standard Oil Refinery, 
 with its 60,000 barrels daily production, ferry- 
 ing its oil across the Bay to peninsular San 
 Francisco, or operating under as inefficient 
 methods as the Oakland or Berkeley mer- 
 chant who loads his finished goods on a 
 truck, teams them down to Oakland or Berke- 
 ley wharf, unloads them and reloads them on a 
 Bay steamer, crosses the Bay and unloads and re- 
 loads once or twice before the ocean steamer is 
 reached. Avoiding every bit of unnecessary hand- 
 ling is one of the most important factors that de- 
 termined the choice of the organization of the 
 sites of Standard" Oil or United States Steel plants; 
 one has to think only of the new Standard Oil 
 Works on the Bay or of Gary, the huge and sud- 
 denly developed steel town on Lake Michigan. 
 
 WATER ON FRONT AND RAIL AT BACK 
 DOOR OF FACTORY. 
 
 There is a strong tendency in modern industry 
 to quit the old congested conditions and to ex- 
 change them against new sites that combine the 
 advantages of the old with plenty and cheapness 
 of land in immediate reach of rail and water. 
 Industrial sites of this type with water on the 
 front and rail at the back door of every factory, 
 have been largely developed in the big industrial 
 river harbors, in Germany, for instance, some of 
 which in tonnage compare with the very largest 
 ocean harbors. 1 Basins are built only about four 
 times the width of the vessels to be docked. The 
 room between the basins is carefully calculated to 
 give sufficient space to the different industries ex- 
 pected; while the minimum depth for the indus- 
 trial sites along the basins is 155 feet, the rule is 
 about 400 feet, and, in some cases, as for instance 
 the sites of the chemical industries in the indus- 
 trial harbor of Mannheim, 800 feet; in Duisburg 
 even 1100 feet are found. To furnish equal ac- 
 commodations on deep water harbors is a newer 
 departure. Great efforts in this direction have 
 been made in Bremen and Hamburg where a 
 strong demand for these industrial sites has justi- 
 fied the expenses connected with their operation. 
 The Clyde river below Glasgow has a large in- 
 dustrial district with deep water approach. The 
 large harbors of the world, more and more, multi- 
 ply similar examples. The creation of industrial 
 sites with deep water approach is justified as soon 
 as the production of the factories is big enough 
 
 LOADING AN OIL VESSEL, POINT ORIENT, RICHMOND 
 
 Am example of efficient handling of merchandise. The 
 Standard Oil's Richmond plant receiving its raw product 
 hy pipe lines from the oil fields delivers its products again 
 by pipe lines to the holds of vessels. It is significant 
 that this great plant, whose volume of business demands econ- 
 omies of handling, was forced to seek the East Shore of the 
 Ray. The location of the plant is close to the northern end of 
 the proposed Rees channel, inside the limits of the rapidly 
 growing City of Richmond, which carries on waterfront im- 
 provements in conformity with the Rees Plan (p. 34) for 
 comprehensive development of the East Hay waterfront loca- 
 tion and contours of the city. 
 
 J In the Duisburg harbor twenty million tons are handled annually. 
 
28 
 
 THE HARBOR 
 
 ACCOMPANYING REPORT 
 <F WERNtR HEGEHANN 
 
 J/y iii 
 
 jFOREST 
 
 EASTERN ADDITION TO FRANKFURT HARROR. A MOST 
 COMPREHENSIVE EXAMPLE OF CITY-PLANNING 
 
 The City of Frankfurt-nn-lhe-Main in the last decade has 
 carried on a fourteen million dollar extension of its industrial 
 river harbor, co-ordinating ingeniously docks, railroad ter- 
 minals and industrial sites served by both with parks and 
 dwellings of the laboring men who work in the factories and 
 docks. The dwellings l light cross-lined I are screened off from 
 the docks by large parks, playgrounds and parkways (black) 
 and by forests (heavy cross-lined). Residential and indus- 
 trial areas are connected by pleasant walks through park- 
 ways. As the prevailing winds are from the west, these in- 
 dustrial areas have been located east of the city. 
 
 to warrant the transfer of steamers. In New 
 Orleans the activity of the American Sugar Refin- 
 ery (capacity $30,000,000 to $40,000,000 a year) is 
 based on immediate deep water approach and the 
 consulting engineers (Ford, Bacon & Davis) of the 
 Harbor Commission, declare: "The basic need at 
 the port is a way whereby the manufacturer who 
 depends on transportation, either by rail or water, 
 of his material or finished product, can be 
 located so that he has the water facility imme- 
 diately on one side of his factory and the rail- 
 road on the other." An important role may 
 be destined to the factory site with deep 
 water approach through the organization of 
 big industrial buildings housing many differ- 
 ent industries in an efficient way under one 
 roof with a production that added together is 
 large enough to warrant the landing of steamers. 
 (Compare plans and pictures pp. 58, 29 and 48). 
 The organization of these mixed industrial build- 
 ings deserves careful attention and has to be con- 
 sidered in connection with the development of 
 manufacturing districts in units of efficiency. In 
 the older sea-harbors, as a rule, factories were 
 scattered around in a hap-hazard fashion and had 
 to be contented with railroad tracks on their own 
 sites with the freight car as an intermediary be- 
 tween factory and ship without expecting to drop 
 the finished goods by belt conveyor directly into 
 the steamer. Deep water approach under the or- 
 dinary conditions of the old crowded harbors is 
 more of an exception — too valuable a thing to be 
 given broadcast to every factory that can make 
 proper use of it. It needs a bay as big as the one 
 of San Francisco where deep water approach for 
 a tremendous stretch of land can be provided for 
 
 cheaply, in order to realize an industrial deep water 
 harbor of the most modern type of efficiency. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF LIGHTERING. 
 
 But even under the most ideal harbor organi- 
 zation there will always be a very large number 
 of factories that will not need nor want deep 
 water approach. Many of them, however, will be 
 able to make very effective use of lightering busi- 
 ness that reaches the factory by comparatively 
 shallow water. An enormous amount of business 
 is handled this wav in the big harbors of the 
 world; especially well known is the case of Ham- 
 burg where a large percentage of the steamers 
 moor in the middle of the harbor along pile dol- 
 phins and unload rapidly on lighters on both sides. 
 The noted engineers of the New Orleans Harbor 
 Commission recommend the investment of $2,400,- 
 000 to $6,800,000 in order to secure at least a barge 
 canal 10 feet deep for the industries of New Or- 
 leans not located on the Mississippi River. 
 
 Behind factories that thus are served either by 
 deep or shallow water is room for factories that 
 are sufficiently served bv freight cars as the con- 
 necting links between deep water and the factory. 
 Here another type of ideally efficient factory unit 
 must be laid out and provided with possibilities of 
 direct rail shipment by water — not directly ap- 
 proaching the factory site — but from docks im- 
 mediately contagious to and a part of the general 
 properties; also with cheap and reliable power 
 available from one or more central stations. 
 There should be one general management, for 
 each unit at least; industrial tracks connecting all 
 factories and warehouses with each other, with the 
 piers and with a general storage and switching 
 yards, and via the clearing yard to the general 
 trunk lines. 1 Some further discussion of this will be 
 given in the chapter on rail transportation (p. 55). 
 
 In order to secure high efficiency, and prevent 
 undesirable interference, these manufacturing dis- 
 
 FIRST MUNICIPAL WHARF OF HOUSTON, TEXAS 
 
 Reinforced concrete warehouse (425 by 100 feet) to the left; 
 railroad tracks on wharf (wood piling' ; first steamer from 
 New York in the channel; Houston (population 150,000) se- 
 cured a two and one-half million U. S. Government appropria- 
 tion for the dredging of a meandering bayou for a distance of 
 fifty miles. Thus a "ship channel" 25 feet deep, minimum 
 bottom width 150 feet, length 50 miles, was created, and the 
 slogan, "Here 17 railroads meet the sea," justified. Houston 
 spent three millions additional for free wharves. 
 
 1 Compare the suggestions of the Mass. Metropolitan Improvement Commission Report, p. 142. 
 
THE HARBOR 
 
 29 
 
 tricts have to be held clearlv separated from the 
 terminal features for strictly transportation pur- 
 poses; the proper locations for the different facili- 
 ties for commerce and the industries with their 
 different needs deserve a good deal of investiga- 
 tion. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF TERMINAL FACILITIES. 
 NECESSITY OF DECENTRALIZATION. 
 
 What shall be the principles to be fol- 
 lowed in the distribution of the terminal facili- 
 ties? It can be accepted as proved that the conti- 
 nental side (that is, the East side of the Bay) is 
 superior to the peninsula for manufacturing and 
 commerce; the reasons have been given. The 
 East side offers possibilities along the west shore 
 of Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley, Albany and 
 Richmond and again south of Oakland and north 
 of Alameda in that large body of water called the 
 Oakland harbor, consisting of the Estuary with its 
 connection eastward to San Leandro Bay by the 
 tidal canal. It is frequently assumed that 
 this so-called Oakland harbor — more even than 
 the west shore — is likely to attract commerce and 
 the important industries that will determine the 
 
 future of the great city on the continental side of 
 the bay. This largely will be true. The main 
 reason, however, given as a rule for this forecast 
 seems erroneous to me. The reason that is mostly 
 given is that the Oakland harbor is nearer to the 
 city than the west shore. The analogy presented 
 is with old cities, such as Chicago, where not the 
 large stretches of open water available but the 
 narrow rivers have attracted the great industries 
 and produced that teeming congestion, which, to 
 the old fashioned mind, still largely seems to be 
 the test of prosperity. Against this reasoning it 
 must be emphasized that the congested conditions 
 as found in the older industrial cities are clearly 
 acknowledged by the best observers to be one of 
 the most serious handicaps to the otherwise splen- 
 did prosperity of those cities. Every modern city, 
 therefore, should be very careful to prevent any 
 repetition of this industrial congestion and not 
 take it as a model. There is no special advantage 
 for a large variety of industries or ware-houses to 
 occupy locations along the Estuary or Inner Har- 
 bor along a channel of about 500 feet in width 
 only, if they could get equally cheap land and 
 deep water somewhere on the west shore on a 
 channel that is at least twice as wide. Only those 
 
 PART OF THE BUSH TERMINAL, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 
 
 The Bush Terminal was established with the aim of reducing costs of transportation by eliminating the truck. The Bush 
 Terminal occupies 200 acres; has seven piers each 1400 feet long; 25 miles of railroad tracks, and 130 warehouses, some of 
 which are 75x700 feet and six stories high. Comparatively efficient as this terminal is, its efficiency can be outstripped in the 
 East Bay Harbors with proper planning. The Bush Terminal has no direct rail connection. Every pound of freight must be 
 expensively car-floated to the various railroad terminal slips around New York Harbor. (The delay due to this operation is as 
 great as 21 hours.) Furthermore, no freight can be dropped directly into the holds of vessels by mechanical conveyors from 
 factory or warehouse. In the East Bay Harbors, thanks to the wide areas of cheap land and unlimited deep water available, 
 with proper planning, car-floating can be completely eliminated, delays avoided, and the factory can drop its product directly 
 into the holds of deep-sea vessels. Regarding the waste of car floating compare Note 3, p. 53. The railroad yard of this indus- 
 trial unit is shown on p. 48. 
 
30 
 
 THE HARBOR 
 
 industries and ware-houses, the main business of 
 which is done for the local market, have a special 
 interest in being near the center of population and 
 near the different centers of business. The center 
 of population of Oakland and vicinity is likely to 
 shift further and further away from the Estuary 
 and at present probably is equally distant from 
 the Estuary and from the west shore. While the 
 
 main business center of Oakland I Broadwav and 
 14th street l, no doubt always to be the main busi- 
 ness center on the east side of the Bay, is located 
 much nearer to the Estuary than to the west shore, 
 the other business centers like the one on 51st 
 Street and Telegraph Avenue, and especially the 
 
 ones of Berkeley and further north, are very much 
 further away from the Inner Harbor than from 
 the west shore. 
 
 PREVAILING WINDS AND SMOKE. 
 
 There is, however, another good reason that can 
 be advanced for the claim that the lands around 
 the Estuary and Inner Harbor ought to become an 
 important factory district. This reason is to be 
 found in the fact that the prevailing winds of the 
 Bay, blowing from west to east, will not carry the 
 smoke of a factory district located south of Oak- 
 land over the whole city area and into the foot- 
 hill residential districts that from every point of 
 view are an ideal asset of the city. On the other 
 hand, if only a few smoke producers like the Pacific 
 Gas and Electric Company 1 1st and Market 
 Streets ) or the Standard Oil Works in Richmond 
 begin to occupy a newly developed industrial har- 
 bor on the west shore, the development of the 
 continental side of the Bay as a residential dis- 
 trict would be seriously handicapped; being en- 
 veloped in a continuous veil of smoke, it would be, 
 in comparison with the now smoke-free residential 
 districts of the Peninsula | St Francis Wood, For- 
 est Hill and further south ) , one of the less desir- 
 able industrial east sides that have such ill-fame 
 in many of the great metropolitan cities of the 
 world. 
 
 Of course every effort towards more economic 
 combustion and towards the abatement of the 
 smoke-nuisance 1 ought to, and will be, made, and 
 
 INNER H 
 
 BRIDGE FOR ESTUARY 
 
 From tentative plan submitted by Schcrzcr Rolling Lift Bridge Company of Chicago to Board of Supervisors. Alameda 
 County. Main features: Length. 3450 feet; maximum grade, I per cent; width, 80 feet, subdivided into two X-foot sidewalks, 
 36-foot roadway carrying two tracks of the street car lines, 28-foot right of way for S. P. trains; clearance, 200 feet; height of 
 lower chord above high water, 25 feet, permitting passage, without opening, of bulk of trafllc. The Webster and First Street 
 railroad crossing at grade would be eliminated by this bridge. Estimated cost exclusive of the land, $750,000. It is claimed 
 that this bridge would obviate 90 per cent of the delay involved in the operation of the present two bridges at Webster and 
 Harrison Streets. 
 
 'Compare the valuable "Transactions of the Commonwealth Club of California, September 1913, Vol. VIII, No. 9, 
 Smoke Problems of California." 
 
THE HARBOR 
 
 31 
 
 
 SCHERZER ROLLING LIFT BRIDGE, TOLEDO, OHIO 
 
 A good example of construction such as is recommended in this report for the Oakland Estuary. The length of the bridge 
 with approaches, 1200 feet; width of span when open, 200 feet; width of roadway, 52 feet; two sidewalks, 9 feet each; road- 
 way carries two standard tracks. The cost of this bridge was $900,000, of which the approaches represented a cost of $800,000 
 and tiie movable span $100,000. The time of complete operation (opening and closing), one and one-half minutes. 
 
 in the long run abuses like the smoke stacks of 
 the two companies mentioned will not be per- 
 mitted. But considering the fact that progress 
 moves only slowly where it has to make headway 
 against private interests, it would be good policy 
 at least to combine the efforts towards the abate- 
 ment of the smoke-nuisance with an effective mu- 
 nicipal policy for the proper location of industries. 
 The Municipal Harbor and Beltline policy recom- 
 mended in this report gives the city large influence 
 with the private manufacturer. (See pp. 38, 54 
 and 55). The west shore ought, therefore, to be 
 reserved strictly for terminal facilities for trans- 
 portation purposes, and for those industries that 
 pledge themselves to the use of either electricity 
 or fuel that permits of complete combustion. 
 The shores of the Estuary, the Inner Harbor (in- 
 cluding the large marshes that have just been re- 
 claimed and invite manufacturing in Alameda) 
 and the Tidal Canal can accommodate industries 
 that are not yet free of smoke with much less det- 
 riment to the entire community than any other 
 place in the vicinity of Oakland and Berkeley. 
 
 LIGHTER SERVICE FOR INNER HARBOR 
 
 AND TIDAL CANAL; WEST SHORE 
 
 FOR LARGER STEAMERS. 
 
 BASCULE BRIDGE. 
 
 A large part of the water transportation to be 
 given to these future industries along the Inner 
 Harbor, can and ought to be rendered by lighters 
 and small craft. This is a condition of serious 
 consecpience in connection with two or three other 
 problems determining the future of Oakland's 
 shipping: namely, first, the problem of the bridges 
 across the Estuary at Webster and Harrison 
 
 Streets, with the agitation for their replacement 
 by from one to five tunnels at an estimated cost 
 of from three to ten million dollars; second, the 
 opening of the Tidal Canal, the water front along 
 which is in general unimproved because inaccessi- 
 ble, due to the fact that the drawbridges over the 
 Tidal Canal have not been regularly operated; 
 and third, the increasing danger arising from the 
 fact that all large steamers that enter the Inner 
 Harbor have to cross the ferry line between San 
 Francisco and Oakland. This danger is much 
 smaller if the west shore accommodates the greater 
 part of the large steamers, while the service to the 
 Inner Harbor is mainly given by smaller craft and 
 lighters. Since the Estuary has upon the com- 
 pletion of the recent project a width of only five 
 hundred feet; the Inner Harbor a channel 300 
 feet wide around its basin, and since the Tidal 
 Canal is still more restricted in width, these waters 
 furnish ideal accommodation for small craft so 
 that the realization of a ten million dollar tunnel 
 project is not absolutely necessary. The tunnels 
 under the Estuary would be altogether indispen- 
 sable only if outside the Inner Harbor there was 
 no other place for the accommodation of large 
 vessels. The plans for the Inner Harbor were 
 made before the great harbor along the East Bay 
 shore was thought of. Furthermore, even the 
 largest craft bound for the Inner Harbor could be 
 accommodated much better than at present and 
 much cheaper than by tunnels, by crossing the 
 Estuary with a better type of bridge than the 
 present cheap bridges on Webster Street ($95,000) 
 and Harrison Street ($104,000). The proper 
 bridge used in similar cases is the quickly opening 
 bascule bridge as shown in Chicago, Cleveland and 
 other cities. Bridges of this kind are opened and 
 
32 
 
 THE HARBOR 
 
 closed again in less than half the time of the 
 Webster Street type. Opening and closing of the 
 latter takes five and a half minutes, while e. g. the 
 bridge over the Calumet River in Chicago (225 
 feet clear waterway) requires only two minutes 
 and 24 seconds. Anybody advocating large ship- 
 ping for the Inner Harbor will also keep in mind 
 that a great many of the openings required of the 
 present bridges over the Estuary are needed only 
 because the bridges used at present are too low 
 giving hardly ten feet between lower chord and 
 high water. The bridges have to be opened for 
 every tug; in fact 6534 of the 13,035 bridge open- 
 ings in the year 1911 were made for mere tugs. A 
 higher bridge could easily be built and produce 
 an altogether different state of affairs. The new 
 bascule bridge on Passyunk Avenue in Philadel- 
 phia gives a 35 foot clearance over high water and 
 permits a large percentage of the craft to pass 
 under the closed bridge. Its entire cost was 
 §600,000. A high bridge of the deck type could 
 be made one of the most beautiful land-marks like 
 the Oakland City Hall, and with even considerable 
 less grade than the proposed tunnels would give 
 a clear height many times greater than the present 
 bridges. From the fact that the top-most part of 
 the tunnel must be forty feet below low water, 
 that furthermore the recommended tunnel has a 
 diameter of twenty-six feet, and that at present 
 the clear height between the lower chord and low 
 water of the Webster Street bridge is about fifteen 
 feet, it results that an elevated bridge without hav- 
 ing any more grade than a tunnel could give about 
 seventy feet of clear height at high tide and more 
 even at low water. So much is not needed to ac- 
 commodate most of the traffic using the bridge 
 without opening. 
 
 The problem of the proper crossing of the 
 Estuary, however, has so many aspects which are 
 not only connected with the harbor problem, but 
 with different phases of general transportation, 
 that a conclusion can be reached only after the 
 discussion of the latter in the following chapter. 
 Here may be mentioned only the fact that the 
 streets from the Estuary up to Seventh Street and 
 further north rise, and therefore directly invite to 
 a crossing of the river by a bridge, while a tunnel 
 is made expensive because it must make a longer 
 approach by reason of this rising grade of the 
 streets. Second Street already is eleven feet above 
 city base. 
 
 All that has been said about bridges in connec- 
 tion with the Inner Harbor is still more true in 
 
 regard to the Tidal Canal. As soon as the main 
 business done in this neighborhood is accommo- 
 dated on small craft, especially lighters, a proper 
 type of bridge can take care of it with few or no 
 openings and the development of this land, re- 
 tarded by the present state of the draw-bridges, 
 can take the necessary new impetus. Of the 
 larger ships that have to pass under the bridges 
 even now the majority is represented by those of 
 the Alaska Packers Association's fishing fleet pass- 
 ing in and out only twice in a year in the spring 
 and autumn. (View p. 19). 
 
 MONEY EXPENDED IN THE WRONG PLACE. 
 
 If it is advantageous to find accommoda- 
 tions for larger ships on the west shore in- 
 stead of the Inner Harbor, the carrying out of the 
 project adopted by the Secretary of War, July 
 25th, 1910, for the Inner Harbor 1 providing for a 
 channel five hundred feet wide and thirty feet 
 deep from the Bay to the Tidal Basin, three hun- 
 dred feet wide and twenty-five feet deep around 
 the Tidal Basin, and eighteen feet deep in the 
 Tidal Canal at an estimated cost of $1,110,000, and 
 $25,000 annually for maintenance, 2 gives more 
 than sufficient accommodations for the future re- 
 quirements. 3 It seems doubtful even whether not 
 all the requirements could have been satisfied with 
 the expenditure of less money (by providing less 
 depth). Since 1874 and up to the starting of the 
 present project about three million four hundred 
 thousand dollars has been expended. But no 
 comprehensive plan for the development of San 
 Francisco Bay, or at least for the whole of Oak- 
 land's water front was in existence; the plans for 
 the Inner Harbor were made without regard for 
 the possibilities of the west shore. The same lack 
 of comprehensive planning which has held back 
 the efficient development of the Bay as a whole 
 can be found here in the development of the 
 shores of the single city of Oakland. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the great future as 
 a shipping center lies along the west shore of Oak- 
 land, Berkeley, Richmond, etc., where at compara- 
 tively small expense one of the largest and most 
 efficient harbors of the globe can be built. Along 
 this shore there have been accomplished already 
 some improvements by private concerns consisting 
 of long piers and moles extending away from Oak- 
 land and Alameda towards San Francisco to ter- 
 minate on deep water far out in the Bay. "These 
 improvements," says the representative U. S. En- 
 
 'Annnal report of the Chief of Engineers, 1912. Report upon the Improvement of Rivers and Harbors in the 
 First San Francisco, Cal., district. 
 
 2 It is important to note this pledge of the U. S. Government for cost of maintenance. What has been called up 
 to a short time ago Oakland Harbor is in official computations not considered as a part of San Francisco Bay; the 
 figure of $1,110,000 mentioned above, therefore, is quite independent of the sum of $387,801 expended for improve- 
 ment of San Francisco Harbor as mentioned p. 21. 
 
 3 In answer to a request dated Nov. 5, 1913, Col. Rees gave the following information: 
 
 "I have to advise that the project for the improvement of Oakland Harbor is now about 45 per cent completed 
 and the depths of water available in the channels referred to by you are as follows: 
 
 Entrance to jetty channel from San Francisco Bay 30 feet and thence to Webster street drawbridge the depth is 
 30 feet. From Webster street drawbridge easterly for a distance of 1,400 feet the depth is 25 feet. The depth in the 
 north channel around Brooklyn Basin is 11 feet. The depth in the south or Alameda channel is 25 feet for a distance 
 of 2,320 feet and 13 feet for the rest of the way to the tidal canal. The depth in the tidal canal is 10 feet." 
 
THE HARBOR 
 
 33 
 
 gineer, Col. Rees, "have been made separately and 
 independently for the advantage of the several 
 owners there, and without any consideration of a 
 general and comprehensive plan of harbor de- 
 velopment." This kind of inconsiderate develop- 
 ment is dangerous, and future prosperity depends 
 on the solution of the question whether future de- 
 velopment on the Bay front shall be continued by 
 what Col. Rees calls, "the hap-hazard, piece meal, 
 
 disconnected methods of the past," or whether all 
 the East Bay cities shall co-operate in a general 
 plan of improvement that will secure the greatest 
 benefits to all at the least cost. 
 
 The situation along the East Bay water front is 
 summed up by the following letter, a valuable con- 
 tribution made by the eminent U. S. Engineer, 
 Col. T. H. Rees to this report: 
 
 LETTER OF U. S. ENGINEER COL. T. H. REES 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT. 
 
 United States Engineer Office, 
 
 401 Custom House, 
 
 San Francisco, California. 
 
 January 26, 1914. 
 Dr. Werner Hegemann, 
 Faculty Club, 
 
 University of California, 
 Berkeley, California. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 Replying to your request for a statement con- 
 cerning the Harbor Plan for the East Bay cities 
 in connection with your City Plan studies and re- 
 port, I take pleasure in submitting the following 
 remarks : 
 
 The cities most directly interested in this sub- 
 ject at the present time are Oakland, Berkeley and 
 Richmond, as they are all actively engaged in 
 seeking a method and plan for the development 
 for harbor purposes, of their bay frontage. 
 
 I will take it for granted that the economic ne- 
 cessity for increased and better harbor facilities 
 on San Francisco Bay is understood and acknowl- 
 edged and I will not enter into that phase of the 
 question further than to state that all of the fairly 
 level and habitable land that lies adjacent to deep 
 water on San Francisco Bay is already fully oc- 
 cupied. 
 
 Additional harbor facilities must be artificially 
 created and the question arises, Where can such 
 facilities be provided to the greatest public advan- 
 tage, and at least expense? A large and growing 
 population, a good city administration, active civic 
 organizations, large business and industrial inter- 
 est, ample through and local railroad connections, 
 level or gently sloping sites rising gradually from 
 the water's edge to the hills beyond, a location di- 
 rectly oposite the Golden Gate, and unequalled 
 climate and a great fertile and productive back 
 country reached by rail and water, are among the 
 many advantages possessed by the East Bay Cities. 
 Unfortunately, however, these cities are blanketed 
 from the deep draft commerce of ocean and bay 
 by wide shoals or tide flats extending several miles 
 from shore and this frontage is therefore useless 
 for commercial purposes. 
 
 Attempts have been made in several instances to 
 overcome this difficulty by building long piers out 
 to deep water in the Bay. This plan is, however, 
 costly of construction and maintenance. It carries 
 commercial activities far out into the Bay away 
 from city streets, business centers, and residence 
 
 districts. It developes no lands and encourages no 
 industrial enterprise except through transporta- 
 tion. 
 
 To establish a great industrial and commercial 
 port the wharves and shipping must be an inti- 
 mate and integral part of the city's life; they must 
 lie along the shore frontage and have the service 
 of the city streets and transportation lines; they 
 must be near the business centers and adjacent to 
 warehouses and industrial sites, and they must 
 have belt line connection with all railroad lines 
 of the vicinity. Therefore, since all of these inter- 
 ests and activities cannot be pushed far out into 
 the bay on trestles to deep water, the deep water 
 must be brought into the city's shores. This is not 
 a difficult or expensive undertaking. On the con- 
 trary, the incidental advantages of reclaimed tide 
 lands and of higher land values will go far toward 
 defraying the expense of creating the deep water 
 harbor, if planned with this object in view. The 
 reverse of this statement is also true, namely, in 
 reclaiming the tide lands along the shore by the 
 use of dredged material a deep harbor frontage 
 will incidentally be created if the work be 
 planned with that object in view. A careful bal- 
 ancing of cost and values, of cut and fill, will be 
 necessary in order to secure the greatest benefits 
 at least cost. The cost of reclamation and of cor- 
 responding deep water will increase very rapidly 
 as the line of the proposed fill is advanced into 
 the bay. The most economical results will be ob- 
 tained by determining the minimum width and 
 depth of harbor that will subserve all probable 
 future needs of commerce and then so locate the 
 harbor area that the material to be dredged there- 
 from will fill up and reclaim all of the area be- 
 tween the harbor and the shore. This principle 
 was applied in the harbor plan which I submitted 
 to the East Bay Cities. Any departure from that 
 principle will be attended by increased and un- 
 necessary expense which would be justified only 
 by the prospective equivalent value of the re- 
 claimed lands. In a depth of 6 feet at low water 
 the cost of reclaiming one acre of land to a height 
 of four feet above high water would be approxi- 
 mately $3,800, exclusive of the cost of retaining 
 bulkheads, and in this or greater depths reclama- 
 tion should not be attempted unless values equal 
 to or greater than the cost can be clearly antici- 
 pated. The effect upon existing land values of 
 adding extensive areas of reclaimed lands would 
 also be carefully considered. 
 
34 
 
 THE HARBOR 
 
 By Courtesy of COL. T. H. REES 
 
 Accompanying Report of Werner Hegemann 
 
 COL. THOS. H. REES'S COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR THE ULTIMATE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENTIRE BAY FRONTAGE 
 
 "The only practicable solution of the problem is to abandon the old idea of separate basins with independent entrance 
 channels and to create one continuous and unobstructed deep water frontage extending along the reclaimed shores from deep 
 water at Oakland Estuary to deep water at Point Richmond." 
 
THE HARBOR 
 
 35 
 
 In planning for a greater harbor in San Fran- 
 cisco Bay the accidental and. fortuitous delimita- 
 tions of the several municipalities concerned, their 
 separate individual interests, and their natural 
 rivalries should be given no consideration what- 
 ever. It is manifest that Alameda, Oakland, 
 Emeryville, Berkeley, Albany and Richmond can- 
 not each have a separate and distinct harbor with 
 independent entrance channels and disconnected 
 lines. If a general and comprehensive plan can- 
 not be agreed upon and adopted it will be useless 
 to attempt any extensive harbor development for 
 the East side of the Bay. 
 
 Existing conditions are very unsatisfactory as 
 regards the economical development on the front- 
 age of Oakland and Berkeley. A deep channel 
 has been dredged into Oakland Estuary. Another 
 approach must be dredged to the basin between 
 the Western Pacific and Southern Pacific moles. 
 A third entrance channel must be dredged and 
 maintained to the Key Route Basin. To reach 
 Berkeley and Emeryville a fourth long canal 
 would have to be dredged, and Richmond requires 
 the fifth. The mere statement of these conditions 
 demonstrates the absurdity of trying to carry out 
 such a plan. The only practicable solution of the 
 problem is to abandon the old idea of separate 
 basins with independent entrance channels, and 
 to create one continuous and unobstructed deep 
 water frontage extending along the reclaimed 
 shores from deep water at Oakland Estuary to 
 deep water at Point Richmond. Oakland and Rich- 
 mond already have outlets on deep water and are 
 engaged in efforts to extend deep water along their 
 bay shores. For Berkeley there is no chance of 
 an outlet except by connecting with the harbors of 
 Oakland and Richmond on either side. 
 
 The requirements of commerce and navigation 
 of the present time and of the near future do not 
 demand the extensive development of harbor 
 facilities that has been proposed along the entire 
 East Bay frontage. The present plans of Oakland 
 and Richmond, if carried out, will furnish ample 
 facilities for the increasing commerce of a num- 
 ber of years, and present consideration of the 
 larger and more comprehensive plan is justified 
 only by the probable requirements of the more 
 distant future and by the existing demand for ad- 
 ditional land adjacent to deep water suitable for 
 industrial, manufacturing and warehouse sites and 
 for railroad yards and terminals. It would be 
 most unwise to proceed with any work of harbor 
 development on this frontage that does not con- 
 form with a comprehensive plan for the ultimate 
 development of the entire bay frontage. The 
 present unfortunate situation on Oakland's west- 
 ern waterfront is due to the fact that there has 
 been no general plan, and that separate interests 
 have each attempted independent improvements 
 without coordination or plan. If the East Bay 
 cities work independently and separately, each for 
 its own advantage, the same difficulties of de- 
 tached and non-related improvements will result 
 and will involve greatly increased costs and di- 
 minished benefits to all. By working together on 
 one general plan the East Bay Cities may have the 
 finest harbor and the best harbor facilities in the 
 world and may become a great industrial and 
 commercial port. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 (Signed) THOS. H. REES, 
 Lieutenant Colonel, Corps of Engineers, 
 
 United States Army. 
 
 THE REES HARBOR PLAN. 
 
 Colonel Rees's admirable harbor project pro- 
 vides for a channel of over 10 miles length and 
 1200 feet width (widening considerably at the two 
 entrances) to be dredged through the East Bay 
 shores beginning in the neighborhood of Point 
 Richmond and swinging around nearly parallel to 
 the present shoreline to a point between Goat 
 Island and the Oakland mole. The dimensions 
 and location of the channel are to be so fixed that 
 the dredged material will fill up and reclaim all 
 of the tide land between the bulkhead and the 
 shore as well as build up an outer dyke that will 
 protect the harbor and confine tidal currents and 
 thus tend to prevent the deposit of silt. This un- 
 interrupted sweep of the tides will go far in main- 
 taining deep water, reducing dredging expenses to 
 a minimum. The government estimate for main- 
 taining cost in the Estuary runs from $12,000 to 
 $25,000 per annum. Every linear foot of the west 
 waterfront harbor channel will lie close along- 
 side of the reclaimed shores and will make every 
 foot of the latter available not only for piers and 
 slips but also for the industrial and commercial 
 
 development of the reclaimed lands with railroad 
 on one side and deep water on the other. 
 
 NECESSITY OF MUNICIPAL CO-OPERATION 
 ALONG WATERFRONT. 
 
 Unfortunately the rivalry between different 
 cities and interests which is so detrimental to the 
 organic development of the Bay is not limited to 
 the shortsighted antagonism between the East side 
 and West side of the Bay, but has also taken root 
 between the different communities on the East 
 side as they happen to exist with their purely acci- 
 dental boundary lines; and even among the citi- 
 zens of some of the different cities for a long time 
 anything but concerted, well considered action 
 could be found. This unfortunate situation found 
 a striking illustration in the original attitude of 
 these communities towards the described compre- 
 hensive plan for the development of the East 
 shore drawn by the engineer representing the gov- 
 ernment. This plan, that aims safely at the high- 
 est possible efficiency to be obtained inside the 
 next fifty years, was opposed by eminent citizens 
 of Berkeley because it did not seem big enough to 
 
36 
 
 THE HARBOR 
 
 them, while at the same time other influential 
 people in Oakland opposed the plan as being too 
 big. The attitude of the Berkeley people was 
 rather to wait twenty-five years and then carry out 
 a much larger project combining the development 
 of the harbor with a large reclamation scheme 
 covering over 10,000 acres. (Col. Rees's plan 
 reclaims 3,000 acres.) The attitude in Oak- 
 land, as it still finds expression in the harbor lines 
 drawn in all Oakland maps drawn before 1914 
 was to limit the plans to improvements inside the 
 present city boundaries of Oakland, regardless of 
 the two facts that, first, the carrying out of plans 
 limited merely to Oakland was equal to the kill- 
 ing of the Emeryville and Berkeley shore develop- 
 ment, 1 and that, second, the interests of Oakland 
 are intimately associated with the development of 
 the other cities all of which form a big community 
 of common harbor interests. The Berkeley atti- 
 tude was wrong because it was visionary; to wait 
 twenty-five years for the development would be 
 equal to permitting the competing harbors of Los 
 Angeles, Columbia River and Puget Sound to get 
 ahead of San Francisco Bay. The Oakland atti- 
 tude was wrong because it neglected the fact that 
 one of the greatest assets of the harbor is to be 
 large and capable of development. Only a harbor 
 that is large and that is growing larger each day 
 can in the long run attract trade and wealth, and 
 be the powerful instrument of civilization that 
 attracts national activities. "The reason why one 
 trunk railroad after another has been deflected to 
 New York, and why coastwise trade centers there, 
 is to take advantage of regular ocean liner service. 
 A ship will, on short notice, be found waiting at 
 New York to take package freight in large or small 
 quantities to any port of the world. Accessibility 
 to these great national and international terminals 
 makes it possible for our manufacturers to receive 
 raw materials, and ship package freight promptly 
 and economically to all parts of the world." 2 
 
 In Europe the political reasons have diffused 
 the ocean trade of the different nations among a 
 large number of ports, while in America forming 
 one undivided economic empire of tremendous 
 size, over two-thirds of the total volume of freight 
 and commerce passes through the single port of 
 New York. 3 A similar success on the Pacific side 
 has to be looked for in the direction of creating 
 not many, but one very big, very powerful, instru- 
 ment of commerce and industry. 
 
 INDEPENDENT ACTION DANGEROUS TO 
 OAKLAND, BERKELEY AND VICINITY. 
 
 Harbor projects that do harm to further de- 
 velopment, as the Key Route plan did, fail in 
 
 the most essential points. Fortunately the harbor- 
 planning agitation of the last months of 1913 has 
 led towards a mutual understanding and agree- 
 ment between the different communities. The city 
 of Oakland is to relinquish the entirely fortuitous 
 and accidental lines of the so-called Key Route 
 Basin plan, in which Col. Rees very rightly states, 4 
 "there was no other line except possibly the bulk- 
 head line that has been drawn with reference to 
 the proposed plan of the harbor." The lines of 
 this Key Route Basin plan which still can be 
 found on most maps of Oakland, were determined 
 by the Oakland Mole and the Key Route Pier 
 which were built not for the purpose of enclosing 
 the harbor but only to carry tracks out to water 
 that would float a ferry boat. The resulting 
 shape of the enclosed basin was extremely awk- 
 ward and inconvenient for harbor purposes, run- 
 ning down to an acute angle at the inner end, 
 where the proposed piers crowded each other and 
 left insufficient manoeuvring space. The piers 
 were oblique to the respective frontages, the re- 
 sulting small triangular spaces were wasted. Ves- 
 sels backing out of slips would have had to turn 
 completely around 180 degrees in order to leave 
 the basin. The course of vessels approaching and 
 leaving the basin would have had to cross on a 
 long slant the course of the Key Route Ferries. 
 The Key Route Basin not having the uninter- 
 rupted sweep necessary for the maintenance of 
 deep water would have become a deep indentation 
 silting up rapidly. The carrying out of this same 
 plan would have intercepted nearly one mile of 
 the shore frontage with about 8000 feet of berth- 
 ing space. The dredged material would not have 
 been sufficient in amount to fill up all the flats 
 behind the bulk-head line, part of which there- 
 fore, would have been left as stagnant pools. If 
 this Key Route Basin plan should have been 
 carried out the further development of the north- 
 ern part of Oakland's frontage and also Emery- 
 ville's and Berkeley's would have been possible 
 only at so greatly an increased expense, that it ap- 
 pears to be economically prohibitive. An entirely 
 new and additional approach channel would have 
 had to be dredged and protected by dykes and that 
 channel would have three right angle bends. 
 
 POSSIBILITY OF MUNICIPAL WATERFRONT 
 
 CONTROL WITHOUT DEVELOPING 
 
 MUNICIPALLY OWNED LAND. 
 
 The serious danger in a faulty Oakland Harbor 
 plan also for the development of Berkeley was 
 finally recognized in Berkeley and the reclamation 
 scheme for 10,000 acres was given up in order to 
 reach an early agreement with the other commu- 
 
 J About this point Colonel Rees wrote in his letter to the President of the Oakland Commercial Club, published 
 in the Oakland Tribune of October 30, 1913: "The Key Route Basin is incapable of further extension and if carried 
 out will forever confine Oakland's harbor development to the limits of the basin on a frontage which stops at Four- 
 teenth street and includes less than one-half of the available frontage between Oakland mole and the city line." The 
 eminent engineer gives in the same letter the convincing reasons for his argument. 
 
 2 From the address of Calvin Tomkins, Commissioner of Docks, City of New York, before the New Jersey Har- 
 bor Commission, State House, Trenton, New Jersey, February 19, 1912. 
 
 3 Compare Haviland and Tibbetts' report on Richmond Project, p. 19. 
 
 ♦Letter to the President of the Commercial Club, printed in the Oakland Tribune of October 30, 1913. 
 
THE HARBOR 
 
 37 
 
 •5 A N 
 
 ' p/ Am 
 
 MAP OF OAKLAND WATERFRONT 
 
 Compiled for the Harbor Department, City of Oakland, F. W. Johnson, delineator. This is the first reliable map based 
 on accurate surveyor's methods. Maps of such completeness and accuracy are a pre-necessity in proper planning. See 
 p. 39. Starting at the bottom the map shows the Alameda Mole and South Training Wall; the freight and passenger slips 
 of the Western Pacific. North of the W. P. holdings are the so-called "white meat" holdings of Oakland, amounting to 175 
 acres. Directly north of these are the newly dredged channel, filled in lands, and mole of the Southern Pacific. Here will 
 be the deep water terminal of this railway upon the removal of Long Wharf, as agreed, on or before November 23, 1918. 
 North of Oakland Mole, labelled "Oakland Harbor," is the so-called Key Route Basin, City Wharves Nos. 1, 2, and 3, the basin 
 holdings of Oakland amounting to 283 acres, and behind these the tidelands of the San Francisco-Oakland Terminal Rail- 
 ways. The most northerly mole is that of this Company. A rearrangement of this passenger terminal is necessary in order to 
 carry out the Rees plans, of which the other lines of the Key Route Basin are a part. The complicated lines of this map illus- 
 trate "that separate interests have each attempted independent improvements without co-ordination or plan." 
 
38 
 
 THE HARBOR 
 
 nities. The possibility, however, of having the 
 bulk-head line in front of Berkeley drawn some- 
 what farther (about 1200 feet) to the west than 
 originally planned by Col. Rees will, as Col. Rees 
 points out in his letter reprinted above, depend 
 upon the cost at which additional reclamation 
 not directly necessitated by a mere harbor project 
 can be done. The U. S. Government will hardly be 
 expected to pay more than about one-half of the 
 work strictly necessitated for the Harbor, the 
 other half plus all additional cost for reclamation 
 work as may be desired by the City of Berkeley, 
 or other cities, will have to be done by the respec- 
 tive cities. If, as Col. Rees estimates, the cost per 
 acre of reclamation will be nearly $4,000 exclusive 
 of the cost of retaining bulkheads, it is doubtful 
 whether this reclamation can be attempted with 
 much profit. There is now much reclaimed 
 marsh land at $4,000 on the market. The effect 
 upon existing land values of extensive areas of re- 
 claimed lands must also be carefully considered; 
 this too is pointed out by Col. Rees. If the city 
 of Berkeley wants to go into this extensive recla- 
 mation scheme she will hardly do so without 
 special expert investigation. One of the reasons 
 given for Berkeley undertaking this tremendous 
 work is found in the fact that the city of Berkeley 
 owns tide lands some distance further west of the 
 bulkhead lines considered by Col. Rees while the 
 land east of this bulkhead line is in private owner- 
 ship. As desirable as it may be, however, for the 
 city to develop its own tide lands, it must not be 
 forgotten that the carrying out of the original 
 plan of Col. Rees by the city of Berkeley would 
 give the city something like a high hand with the 
 private owners of the at present worthless tide 
 lands. An agreement granting some of the private 
 lands to the city in exchange for the large bene- 
 fits bestowed upon the private owners could be 
 reached. The city can perform all municipal 
 duties by operating some model piers without 
 necessarily operating all possible piers. 
 
 LACK OF A CITY-PLAN. THE KEY ROUTE 
 
 PIER: A MONUMENT OF CIVIC 
 
 CARELESSNESS. 
 
 In view of the fact the U. S. Government will 
 give its financial support only to a sensible plan 
 capable of future development nothing at present 
 is of higher importance for the East Bay Cities 
 than the strong and unanimous endorsement and 
 support of such a plan and the bringing about of 
 effective co-operation for its realization. The fact 
 remains that the Key Route plan that would have 
 been so fatal for the future of the East Bay cities 
 was imminent enough to permit the granting of a 
 fifty year franchise for the Key Route pier, a fran- 
 chise that will have to be changed by intelligent 
 co-operation between City and the Company op- 
 erating the Key Route. The lack of a farsighted 
 Harbor plan will revenge itself in the laborious 
 transactions necessitated for the re-arrangement 
 of this franchise. If no agreement of some kind 
 should be reached, the building of a great effect- 
 
 ive harbor would be impossible. Repetitions of 
 unfortunate accidents like the one mentioned must 
 happen again and again if no comprehensive, far- 
 reaching plan is laid out beforehand. The Key 
 Route Company at present, sticking to the letter 
 of its franchise, does not stop with its solid fill on 
 the point where the carrying out of Col. Rees' 
 plan makes the stopping imperative; in spite of 
 the unanimous endorsement of the Rees plan by 
 the Cities of Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond, 
 the Key Route Company thus very literally has 
 thrown stones in the fairway of a development 
 that would be more promising for all concerned. 
 
 THE PROGRESS OF WORK IN HARMONY 
 WITH THE REES PLAN. 
 
 1. KEY ROUTE BASIN. 
 
 Fortunately the transactions which must take 
 place for the abolishment of the present Key 
 Route Pier will not stop the Oakland harbor 
 project. There are two important units of the 
 Oakland harbor that can be worked upon. One 
 is the so-called "white meat" district and the other 
 one the "so-called Key Route Basin. In the latter 
 extensive and successful work has been carried on 
 by the City of Oakland. In November, 1909, a 
 bond issue of $2,503,000 was voted and nearly 
 $800,000 has been expended in the development 
 of the Key Route Basin. As soon as the U. S. 
 Government had drawn the western water front 
 bulk-head line 2000 feet further westerly the sew- 
 ers were extended from the old bulkhead line to 
 the new line. In February, 1914, 6000 feet of 
 rock-wall bulkhead has been constructed with 
 2327 feet of apron wharf connected with the Bay 
 by a ship canal 350 feet wide at the bottom and 
 25 feet deep at low tide. The canal extends from 
 deep water south of the Oakland Mole of the 
 Southern Pacific Railway northward into the basin 
 and along the face of the three apron wharves and 
 the rock wall to west 14th street extended. 1000 
 feet of rock wall is parallel to the Oakland Mole, 
 5000 feet follow the new bulkhead line across the 
 basin; 326,856 tons of rock were used in this work 
 which cost $215,278. At the same time excavators 
 were at work digging the channel in front of the 
 wall and filling in behind it. This work cost 
 $198,231 and in it 1,143,768 cubic yards of earth 
 were moved. Owing to the character of the bed- 
 rock at a certain portion of the bulkhead line, a 
 wooden bulkhead had to be constructed at a cost 
 of $18,073. Three apron wharves 65 feet in width 
 were then built, one paralleling the Southern 
 Pacific mole, 949 feet long and costing $27,965; 
 one adjoining and at an angle to the first, 1077 
 feet long and costing $33,455, and the third at 
 Fourteenth Street extended 301 feet long and cost- 
 ing $9,752. This latter wharf was connected with 
 the mainland, at the urgent request of West Oak- 
 land citizens, by a trestle roadway extending from 
 Fourteenth Street westerly to the bulkhead, which 
 cost the city $11,430, a portion of the cost of con- 
 struction being borne hy the United Properties 
 Company, across whose land it extends. 
 
THE HARBOR 
 
 39 
 
 OAKLAND MUNICIPAL WAREHOUSE AND QUAY WALL 
 
 This is the most important harhor improvement yet achieved by the City of Oakland. The quay wall on Oakland Inner 
 Harbor is a solid piece of concrete masonry 22 feet wide at the base, 40 feet from top to bottom, and 1927 feet in length. 
 Behind it is a strip of land owned by the Municipality 150 by 2000 feet. Cost of land acquired in connection with the quay 
 wall, $1,009,729.29. Cost of quay wall with pile facing, $285,291.77; of the dredging to approximately 30 feet in front of the 
 wall, .$143,392.23. The steel warehouse shown measures 92 by 402 feet and cost $40,000; cost of paving and track, $33,920.21. 
 The track is set back 10 feet from the face of piling; distance between track and warehouse, 6 feet. 
 
 In dredging the ship channel, which leads in 
 from deep water in San Francisco Bay to the city's 
 wharves, the 2,200,000 cubic yards of earth moved 
 were used to reclaim 77 acres of land back of the 
 rock wall and fill the strip that is to be the exten- 
 sion of Seventh Street paralleling the Oakland 
 Mole. This work cost $205,420. 
 
 The present plans for the further development 
 of the Key Route Basin consist of a series of piers 
 extending into the Basin from the bulkhead line 
 parallel with the Oakland Mole of the Southern 
 Pacific and extending to the main ship channel of 
 the Rees plan. The wharves at first contemplated 
 are five in number. They will be the longest piers 
 along the channel planned by Col. Thos. H. Rees; 
 the first being about 1900 feet in length, decreas- 
 ing to a length of 1300 feet for the fifth. It is to 
 be hoped, however, that before the final settlement 
 of these plans the transactions about the re- 
 settlement of the Key Route franchise will have 
 progressed far enough to make a final decision 
 possible whether this area in the southern part of 
 the Key Route Basin will be needed for the ac- 
 commodation of the Key Route ferry slips as pro- 
 posed by Col. Thos. H. Rees. Otherwise the 
 other suggestion of Col. Rees for accommodating 
 them must be taken up. These suggestions are 
 referred to later, (p. 40). It also is worth while 
 considering that a greater amount of space can be 
 secured for less cost by the extension of the pres- 
 ent apron wharf scheme along the entire bulk- 
 head line in the Key Route Basin outside of 
 fairways. The minor disadvantage of this plan, 
 viz., that dredging from the sites of future 
 extended piers would ultimately be the con- 
 
 trary of useful, is not thought to offset the 
 superior cheapness of developing wharf space 
 parallel to the present bulkhead line, and in ac- 
 cordance with the work of construction upon 
 Wharfs 1, 2 and 3 which has already been 
 done. In this connection it may be noted in pass- 
 ing that the recent excellent map of the west 
 water front put forth by the City Engineer's office 
 shows in striking manner the necessity of planning 
 before action. The lack of adequate preliminary 
 study and real scientific and full survey before 
 work resulted in this case in the placing of apron 
 wharf No. 3 within a fairway, which the City had 
 agreed with the Key Route to maintain. Had the 
 excellent map referred to been made before work 
 was done, no such error could have been made. 
 The map is reproduced p. 37). 
 
 2. THE " WHITE MEAT " DISTRICT. 
 
 The other area in the West Oakland water front 
 in which immediate work can be carried on in 
 conformity with the comprehensive plans for the 
 future are the holdings of the city near the South- 
 ern Pacific Mole, in what is popularly known as 
 the "White meat." Here the City of Oakland con- 
 trols a strip 4285.8 feet in length and 785 in width. 
 It is bounded on the south by the franchise line of 
 the Western Pacific railway, and on the north by 
 fairway three hundred feet in width and of the 
 entire length of the city's holding. This city- 
 controlled strip, amounting to 88 acres, is reached 
 by a street eighty feet in width across the Western 
 and Southern Pacific lands. This site is capable 
 of the development of at least 4286 feet of berth- 
 ing space capable of handling three-quarters of a 
 
40 
 
 THE HARBOR 
 
 million tons of merchandise yearly. This is more 
 than one-tenth of the entire tonnage handled on 
 the San Francisco water front. If the Western 
 Pacific plans, which are not yet perfected, should 
 provide — as it is to be hoped — for a slip or fair- 
 way to the south of the city's holdings, the useful- 
 ness of this area would be almost doubled. As 
 will be pointed out in the chapter on railroads, 
 this area presents an almost ideal terminal for a 
 trunk line railway. It would appear that no de- 
 velopment that might be conducted by the city in 
 the construction of wharves or fairway should in- 
 terfere with such ultimate use, which also would 
 increase the desirability of the area. (p. 50 1. 
 
 The dredging operations conducted by the 
 Southern Pacific railway, south of its present broad 
 gauge mole, in accordance with the franchise pro- 
 vision for a channel 300 feet wide and 30 feet in 
 depth along a bulkhead line of 4297 feet are 
 greatly increasing the desirability of the "white 
 meat" district for the uses of the city. The 
 Southern Pacific's operations have created a chan- 
 nel from 36 feet depths near the end of Long 
 Wharf to the vicinity of the city's "white meat" 
 holdings. It is therefore only necessary for the 
 city to dredge a short channel connecting with the 
 Southern Pacific channel in order to bring deep 
 water directlv to the municipal property. 
 
 COL. REES' SUGGESTION FOR A UNION 
 PASSENGER STATION. 
 
 In connection with anv consideration of the 
 
 "white meat" district a suggestion of Col. Thos. 
 H. Rees deserves close attention. In the letter to 
 the chairman of the Committee on Harbor Devel- 
 opment of the Oakland Commercial Club. Col. 
 Rees speaking about the possible accommodation 
 of the ferry slips just north of and adjacent to the 
 Oakland Mole, writes as follows: 
 
 "An alternative arrangement which would prob- 
 ably work out better ultimately, if it could be 
 secured, is as follows: Line up all of the ferry 
 slips on the frontage between Oakland Mole and 
 the Estuary. Build a great Union Passenger Sta- 
 tion across the same frontage just behind the ferry 
 slips. Bring the railroads into this station in the 
 following order from north to south: Southern 
 Pacific, Santa Fe, Key Route and Oakland, Antioch 
 and Eastern, Western Pacific. This arrangement 
 would bring all of these lines in without crossing 
 one another's tracks. Open city streets through 
 to the Lnion Station between the several lines of 
 tracks. Provide berths for ocean steamships ad- 
 jacent to Oakland Mole on the north and in the 
 Estuary on the south with broad elevated com- 
 munications leading through the station and con- 
 necting with all steamships, ferries, railroads and 
 streets. An elevated belt line might also be pro- 
 vided connecting all of this frontage with the 
 street car systems. 
 
 "Bv assigning corresponding slips to the several 
 ferry lines on the San Francisco side the courses 
 of the ferry boats would not cross each other, nor 
 would the ferry lines cross the courses of ocean 
 vessels entering the new harbor. All ferries would 
 
 Aim.;: 
 
 BIRDSEYE VIEW OF ISLAND PARK 
 
 Photographic reproduction of part of a plaster model exhibiting the contemplated waterfront development of the East Bay 
 and showing the island park in front of the Rees Harbor Plan as proposed by this Report and indorsed by Colonel Rees. 
 The Island Park is further discussed on p. 134. The location for the piece of gigantic sculpture on the order of the Statue of 
 Liberty on an artificial island on the axis of the Golden Gate is shown by a small cross close to bottom of picture. 
 
THE HARBOR 
 
 41 
 
 be on equal footing and all would have a 
 straight course well clear of Goat Island. There 
 is room on this frontage to admit additional rail- 
 road lines when necessary." 
 
 The carrying out of this suggestion of Col. Rees, 
 though it seems somewhat remote at present, 
 would be in the highest sense in the interests of 
 the East Bay cities, as well for the reasons given 
 as for the enormous advertising value that such 
 a big union depot would possess; strategically lo- 
 cated not only from the point of view of the Rail- 
 road Engineer and Manager, but also by its loca- 
 tion just opposite San Francisco, it would, in fact, 
 be a great inviting gate-way to the continent. 
 While the Ferry Building in San Francisco had to 
 be seated with greatest difficulties on mud piles, a 
 splendid concrete construction would be possible 
 on the continental side of the Bay outdoing by far 
 anything possible on the San Francisco water 
 front. The suggestion of Col. Rees therefore 
 surely needs further study. If this study should 
 lead to a negative result, two other sites remain; 
 one has been suggested in the original plan of Col. 
 Rees and described by him in the following words: 
 
 "A location just north of and adjacent to the 
 Oakland Mole could, if desired, be made to ac- 
 commodate the passenger terminals and ferry 
 slips of the Key Route System, the Oakland, An- 
 tioch and Eastern Railway and any other lines 
 that might seek ferry connections at this point, 
 such as the Santa Fe Railway or the Western 
 Pacific Railway. 
 
 "Just north of such a ferry terminal several piers 
 and slips might be allotted for the use of ocean 
 steamships landing their passengers close to all the 
 San Francisco ferries, to all the transcontinental 
 railway lines and to the local city and suburban 
 lines. There might also be available (with the 
 consent of the Secretary of War) several bulkhead 
 berths for ocean vessels in the mouth of the Es- 
 tuary alongside of the Western Pacific Railway's 
 present terminal." 
 
 Mention of this location has been made before. 
 The other remaining possible site for the ferry 
 slips would be on Goat Island, as strongly recom- 
 mended by the Report of the Board of State 
 Harbor Commissioners. The discussion of this 
 matter will be taken up in connection with a 
 general problem of railway transportation. ( See 
 
 pp. 66-70)) In connection with the harbor, 
 however, it must be said that a contraction of 
 what is called the Rees Channel would be neces- 
 sary for the sake of economy in accommodating 
 tunnels to Goat Island. Such a contraction would 
 not be visible on the surface of the water, but 
 would restrict the width of the deep channel at 
 the critical point where the tunnels are crossing. 
 This contraction to about 600 feet, though not de- 
 sirable, is not impossible. 
 
 RELATION BETWEEN HARBOR AND PARKS. 
 THE ISLAND PARK PROJECT. 
 
 There are many other questions of railroad 
 transportation, especially the belt line railroad 
 problems, and the problem of creating high class 
 industrial sites that are intimately connected with 
 the harbor problem, but have to be taken up in 
 the following chapter on railroads. Another prob- 
 lem intimately connected with the harbor is the 
 suggestion of creating a large water park, island 
 park or lagoon park. This will have to be dealt 
 with in the chapter on parks. Since, however, a 
 similar suggestion made some years ago for the 
 City of Chicago has been opposed by the 
 same Col. Thos. H. Rees as harmful to the ship- 
 ping interests it is important to mention that Col. 
 Rees has given his endorsement to the suggestion 
 of an island park for the East Bay cities. In his 
 letter to the President of the Oakland Commercial 
 Club, Col. Rees makes the following statement: 
 
 "While not strictly within my province, a sug- 
 gestion of Dr. Werner Hegemann appears to be 
 pertinent and valuable. The outer dyke can be 
 so shaped and treated as to make one of the most 
 beautiful park systems in the world, with drive- 
 ways, walks, trees, shrubbery, flowers, boating 
 lagoons, bathing beaches, yacht harbors, pavilions, 
 refectories, etc., extending from Goat Island to 
 Brooks' Island and reached by ferries or tunnel. 
 
 "There has been planned for the city of Chi- 
 cago by Burnham and Company a system of such 
 islands and lagoons extending for 20 miles along 
 the water front, for park purposes only without 
 any reference to the creation of a harbor. Here, 
 for the East Bay cities, the basis for such a park 
 system is provided for as an incident to harbor 
 development." 
 
 ISLAND PARK, TORONTO, CANADA 
 
 Showing charming effects produced by winding channels among irregularly 
 shaped islands — a suggestion of what might be accomplished in parts of the 
 proposed Island Park west of the Rees Harbor project (compare p. 134). 
 
HIGHLY DEVELOPED TRACKAGE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD 
 
 The Southern Pacific tracks at Sixteenth Street Station, being the line which enters Oakland from the North. At the extreme 
 right may be seen a part of San Francisco Ray. Adjoining it are (1) the westbound freight track, i2i the eastbound freight 
 track, 1 3 1 the westbound steam passenger track, 1 4 1 the eastbound steam passenger track, passenger platform between them. 
 At the left of the picture are the tracks of the elevated electric lines, eastbound and westbound. This is the first example of 
 an elevated railway on San Francisco Ray, foreshadowing the future necessity of grade separations. Ry reason of this eleva- 
 tion connections between the Sixteenth Street Main Line Passenger Station i left background of picture) and the main line trains 
 are not interfered with by the Suburban electric trains. 
 
 RAILROADS 
 
 The means of rail transportation are the struc- 
 tural features of the city-plan that we must next 
 consider. They also — in nearly as great a degree 
 as the harbor — are fixed in certain unchangeable 
 locations; they cover very large areas of the city 
 map, I see plans of railroad properties, pp. 44 and 
 59 ) , and they represent very large investments 
 that will allow a proper return only through 
 proper location. This proper location, moreover, 
 must be secured at a time, when land is still cheap. 
 i. e., before it has been taken up for other pur- 
 poses. The best railroad plan is worthless when 
 its excellent qualities are discovered too late. 
 
 THE TWO MAIN PROBLEMS OF RAIL 
 TRANSPORTATION IN THE PRES- 
 ENT EAST BAY SECTION. 
 
 Rail transportation — though its development is 
 important in every one of its many phases — may 
 solve chiefly two problems of special urgency in 
 
 the East Bay cities. The first one is connected 
 with the freight service which must be developed 
 toward making, la l the East Bay region the most 
 economic location for modern industries; and (b). 
 making the East Bay region an efficient center of 
 commercial redistribution. This includes the de- 
 velopment of the old and the attraction and ac- 
 commodation of new trunk lines; and it includes 
 further the development of the best possible in- 
 dustrial sites by giving to all of them and to the 
 harbor at large the benefit of transportation by all 
 the trunk lines through a proper system of con- 
 necting links, in the shape of what might be called 
 a Belt Line service. 
 
 The second problem of special urgencv is the 
 development of the suburban passenger service so 
 that the East Bay region, at present chiefly trib- 
 utary to San Francisco, may win its own business 
 center. — able to compete with San Francisco. The 
 development of a large center of retail commercial 
 activity on the East Side of the Bav will benefit 
 
RAILROADS 
 
 43 
 
 the whole East Bay region, and especially all the 
 smaller business centers. The different communi- 
 ties will be nearer the center of activity and will 
 therefore develop with vigor and rapidity instead 
 of being satisfied with the comparatively much 
 slower progress that must come to them as distant 
 suburbs of San Francisco. 
 
 MODERN RELATIONS BETWEEN CITIES AND 
 RAILROADS: CO-OPERATION. 
 
 While the building of harbors, even in such a 
 highly individualistic country as the United States, 
 admittedly is more and more considered an object 
 of — not private — but public enterprise, the Amer- 
 ican attitude toward the railroads is still so 
 strongly individualistic that intelligent and com- 
 prehensive planning, so far as it affects the diver- 
 gent interests of the different competing railroad 
 lines, is often considered an utterly hopeless 
 undertaking. 
 
 It is important, therefore, before proceeding to 
 any detailed consideration of the problems of 
 Oakland and Berkeley, to define what is conceived 
 to be the just and logical attitude of the city to- 
 ward the railroads upon the one hand, and of the 
 railroads toward the city upon the other. 
 
 It need scarcely be repeated here that, in the 
 past, the attitude of railroads has been, especially 
 in California, arbitrary and inimical to the inter- 
 ests of the people at large; and the attitude of the 
 cities, in consequence, retaliatory and exacting 
 toward the railroads. Such hostile attitudes ap- 
 pear everywhere to be giving way to a greater 
 spirit of fairness and a marked desire for co- 
 operation on all sides. This modern attitude was 
 brought out at the National City-Planning Confer- 
 ence of 1913, by Milo R. Maltbie, the eminent 
 engineer and chairman of the New York Public 
 Service Commission: "Conditions change," he 
 said, "and what is proper and adequate in one 
 generation is often inadequate and ill-suited to the 
 demands of the succeeding generation. Conse- 
 quently not only must there be public control over 
 the first location or first scheme of development of 
 railroads, but there must be in the hands of the 
 city the means whereby continuaUy the varied in- 
 terests may be kept in harmony and whereby the 
 ever-changing needs may be met by changes in 
 transportation facilities. The city should always 
 be in a position where it can dominate the situa- 
 tion." 
 
 Another of the leading authorities of this coun- 
 try, Bion J. Arnold, in his new Chicago Railroad 
 Terminal Report, says: "The easiest thing for the 
 city to do is to require nothing and to let the rail- 
 roads have what they ask; the most difficult thing 
 for the city to do is to require the railroad com- 
 panies to carry out the plan best suited to the en- 
 tire city, at their own expense; the. just thing to do 
 is to join with the railroads in carrying out, on 
 some equitable basis, the plan which will gradu- 
 
 ally put into effect such recommendations as are | 
 
 considered sound." i 
 
 Mr. Arnold makes very clear in many passages i 
 
 of his report that there is no disposition on his ; 
 part to cause the railways loss or inconvenience, 
 
 but that he sincerely believes such co-operation J 
 between the railroads and the city will ultimately 
 
 benefit both parties concerned. It is such a broad J 
 and liberal spirit that I would invoke to solve the 
 
 present and all future problems of railroad trans- J 
 portation in the East Shore cities. J 
 
 CO-OPERATION BETWEEN RAILROADS. 
 
 Going one step further and regarding the rela- 
 tions between the different railroad companies, the 
 logical attitude of the modern community in plan- 
 ning for its improvement is expressed by the 
 Massachusetts Metropolitan Improvements Com- 
 mission : 
 
 "Any specific recognition of the present identi- 
 ties of the several steam railroad managements and 
 properties as determining factors is believed to be 
 wholly incompatible with logical suggestions for an 
 ultimate and homogeneous development of the 
 transportation lines within the terminal district. 
 
 "That a due recognition of these corporate divis- 
 ions, both physical and operating, must be made 
 at the outset is obvious, but any system which will 
 ultimately represent the highest type of public 
 service, consistent with economy in operation and 
 maintenance, must be developed along the broadest 
 lines throughout the entire horizon. Such a de- 
 velopment is not possible under a system requiring 
 more or less strict adherence to the interests of the 
 several railroad corporations involved. A devel- 
 opment along the broadest lines, acknowledging 
 the unity of the terminal transportation problem, 
 would result in a property representing the most 
 effective consolidation, and, advisedly, the greatest 
 operating economy." 1 
 
 The necessity of co-operation between the rail- 
 roads is further emphasized by the latest opinions 
 rendered by the U. S. Supreme Court and the rep- 
 resentative of the largest American railroads. 
 They are reproduced below (Page 51). 
 
 THE MODERN ATTITUDE OF THE CITY- 
 PLANNER TOWARD THE RAILROADS. 
 
 In connection with the different authorities 
 quoted, there may be added a word about their 
 significance. A decided change has come about 
 in the attitude of the city-planner towards the rail- 
 roads. After the architects — supplanting the sur- 
 veyors and civil engineers — had gained a hold up- 
 on the making of city-plans, they for a while 
 thought they had jealously to guard themselves 
 against the influence of the railroad engineer. 
 This has changed lately. Three events may be 
 cited as significant of the change — events that put 
 city-planning on a new basis. These are the work 
 of the Massachusetts Metropolitan Improvements 
 Commission (finished in 1909) ; the two great 
 city-planning competitions of Greater Berlin and 
 
 'Compare the Boston Metropolitan Improvements Commission's report, page 51. The quotation is from George R. 
 Wadsworth, the Advisory Engineer of the Commission, in a special report on "Railroads and Terminals." 
 
44 
 
 RAILROADS 
 
 L«NM CV**£D B» 
 
 Bj/ courtesy of Chief Engineer R. Sachse, California Railroad Commission 
 
 Accompanying Report of Werner Hegemann 
 
 CHART SHOWING ACREAGE OF LAND CONTROLLED BY PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATIONS IN THE EAST BAY CITIES 
 
 (Figures supplied by the California State Railroad Commission) 
 
 Company Operative 
 
 Western Pacific 194.452 
 
 San Francisco-Oakland Terminal Railways 143.098 
 
 Southern Pacific (steam and electric) East Bay *840.40 
 
 
 
 Leased 
 
 
 Non- 
 
 Total 
 
 Franchises 
 
 
 Operative 
 
 Owned 
 
 Etc. 
 
 Total 
 
 14.280 
 
 208.732 
 
 210.187 
 
 418.919 
 
 680.631 
 
 823.729 
 
 311.00 
 
 1134.729 
 
 noo.oo 
 
 •940.40 
 
 •188.10 
 
 •1128.500 
 
 794.911 
 
 1972.861 
 
 709.287 
 
 2682.148 
 
 1177.950 
 •Approximate. 
 
 The total area controlled by three of the railroads in Oakland, Berkeley, and Alameda is equal to one-seventh of the area 
 of Paris (2.8 million inhabitants). 
 
RAILROADS 
 
 45 
 
 Greater Dusseldorf, judged in 1910 and 1911; 
 and finally the experience of Chicago between 
 1909 and 1913. 
 
 The remarkable fact in these three city-planning 
 events is that they were largely brought about by 
 the intelligent initiative of architects, and that 
 they, have led to a recognition, both surprising and 
 over- whelming, of the importance of the railroad 
 engineer in making a city-plan. The Metropolitan 
 Improvements Commission would scarcely have 
 been appointed except for the commendable initia- 
 tive of the two strong organizations of the archi- 
 tects of Boston. But the Report of the Commis- 
 sion considers as "the paramount question" "the 
 great problem of transportation in its various 
 phases" and as the "subject which it was most 
 essential that this Commission should investigate." 1 
 In a similar way, the Greater Berlin City-Plan 
 Competition was brought about, perhaps even 
 more notably than in Boston, on the initiative of 
 the two Berlin architectural organizations. The 
 architectural trend of thought also found strong 
 expression in the making up of the Jury. This 
 latter was true also in the competition for Greater 
 Dusseldorf that grew directly from the preceding 
 one in Berlin. It was a great surprise to see how 
 in both competitions all of the great prizes, with 
 one single exception, went to the projects that 
 considered the work of the railroad engineer as 
 the necessary basis on which to build up great 
 architectural ideas. 2 Perhaps still more striking 
 was the experience of Chicago where the public 
 spirited members of the Commercial Club spent 
 over $100,000 in financing the late Daniel H. Burn- 
 ham's report on a city-plan, beautifully printed 
 and wonderfully illustrated. This stunning plan 
 may be considered as a typical product of that 
 older school in city-planning which did not give 
 full recognition to the fundamental importance 
 of a preliminary and exhaustive investigation into 
 the railroad problem. It was not at all surprising, 
 therefore, that the great work of the Chicago 
 Commercial Club started a long discussion on the 
 railroad problem as the one point on which the 
 plan of the Club was weakest. This discussion led, 
 largely under the influence of the City Club of 
 Chicago, to the creation of a self-appointed Citi- 
 zens' Terminal Plan Committee, which invested 
 another $100,000 in order to get an exhaustive in- 
 vestigation into the steam railroad terminals, as 
 the necessary basis for the city-plan. The product 
 of this great enterprise is the "Report on the Re- 
 arrangement and Development of the Steam Rail- 
 road Terminals" submitted to the Citizens' Ter- 
 minal Plan Committee of Chicago by Bion J. 
 Arnold, Chicago, November 18, 1913. This report 
 is different from previous railroad investigations 
 of other cities by reason of the mere fact that it 
 is made in the City of Chicago where such an 
 enormous amount of energy has been spent in 
 
 popularizing great city-planning ideas. This re- 
 port, therefore, shows a leading railroad engineer 
 thinking in terms not only of railroad engineering, 
 but of city-planning, one of the most necessary 
 steps in the development of the new science and 
 art of city-planning which is so essentially an art 
 of collaboration, coordination, composition. 3 
 
 The fact of such large sums being spent in these 
 different cities for mere investigation into railroad 
 problems gives an idea of the overpowering per- 
 plexity of the railroad problems of these cities; 
 problems which in some cases have grown into 
 serious calamities. 
 
 LAWS OF GROWTH IN RAILROAD TRAFFIC. 
 
 To some it may seem that there is no pressing 
 necessity for careful guarding against such expen- 
 sive mistakes as those that old cities, or even com- 
 paratively new cities like Chicago, are endeavoring 
 to remedy. But it must be pointed out that it is 
 a well established law that freight and passenger 
 traffic will increase with much greater rapidity 
 than population. The law briefly stated is: train I 
 movement increases as the square, and the num- 
 ber of passengers as the cube, of the population. 
 Therefore, when the population of Oakland has 
 doubled the train movement will have quadrupled. 
 Still more rapid is the increase of freight traffic; 
 it increases as the fourth power of the population. 
 This means that a doubling in freight business 
 will result from an increase of about 20 %■ in 
 population. 4 To care for conditions that will thus 
 be brought about, greatly enlarged railroad facili- 
 ties must be anticipated. 
 
 There has been reproduced in this report a care- 
 ful population forecast made by Engineers Havi- 
 land and Tibbetts. If this forecast is correct, a 
 doubling of the population of Oakland, Berkeley 
 and vicinity is to be anticipated at least by 1930— 
 possibly by 1920. This will mean, at least by 
 1930, perhaps by 1920, a multiplication of the 
 train movement by four, of the number of passen- 
 gers by eight, and of the freight traffic by sixteen. 
 It takes little power of the imagination to foresee 
 how new and now altogether unexpected problems 
 must arise from a normal increase in population 
 of the East Bay Cities, not to speak of the difficul- 
 ties that will quickly spring up, if any sudden and 
 unexpected growth should come, as through the 
 Panama Canal, for instance. The enormous diffi- 
 culties that must be anticipated can be solved 
 economically only by comprehensive planning, in 
 the absence of which much loss necessarily must 
 result to the community. 
 
 ANALOGY BETWEEN THE EAST BAY CITIES 
 AND CLEVELAND. 
 
 A comparison will make the point clearer. Oak- 
 land, Berkeley and their neighboring cities, which 
 at present form one undivided railroad district 
 
 'Compare the report of the Commission. Page 8. 
 
 -The author of this report was closely related to the work connected with the Berlin competition and in the Dussel- 
 dorf competition was a member of the jury and of the committee drawing up the conditions ruling the competition. 
 
 "Regarding this essential feature of co-ordination compare the convincing article by Professor John Galen Howard, 
 the architect: "The Art of City Planning" published in "Brass Tacks," March 4, 1914. 
 
 ■^Regarding these laws, compare Arnold's Chicago Report, pages 47, 70, 72, 74. 
 
46 
 
 RAILROADS 
 
 PLAN 3H0WIN<5 
 
 TRUNK LINES 
 
 LAST BAY REGION 
 
 Lynd- 
 Southern P>or^c Co 
 
 ATCMISOW.T&^O^A el 9>n«Fe 6*«Co 
 
 . ClTI 
 
 J- Cm 5THKT3 
 
 PLAN SHOWING TRACKAGE OF TRUNK LINES IN OAKLAND AND BERKELEY 
 
 East _ 
 
 a belt line in switching connection 
 
 allowed impossible to give on so limited a map an adequate idea of the complication of the tracks, as, for instance, in the 
 
 Emeryville area (see picture, p. 50), where inside a space of one inch the frequent variations of from four to nine tracks 
 could not be shown. The complication of this map would be greater still if an attempt had also been made to show the 
 extensive suburban electric trackage of the Southern Pacific as seen on picture, p. 67. In judging the extent of the problem 
 presented by the many intersecting lines of a railroad map, it is to be kept in mind that even small changes in any single 
 location may seriously affect the entire track situation, not only of the immediate neighborhood, but of localities many miles 
 distant. 
 
RAILROADS 
 
 47 
 
 served from Oakland as the railroad freight center, 
 may properly be compared with Cleveland, which 
 in the year 1890 was a city of even less popula- 
 tion (261,000) and area than the East Bay Cities 
 today. The population of Cleveland increased 
 from 261,000 in 1890, to 622,000 in 1912. The 
 enormous difficulties that arose in railroad-plan- 
 ning in connection with this increase in popula- 
 tion will be considered here only in the one 
 single aspect of separation of grades. As early as 
 1896, Cleveland was compelled to begin the work 
 of eliminating grade crossings. This led gradually 
 to a real clash between the municipal authorities 
 and the railroad managements. In 1910 sixteen 
 crossings were eliminated at an average cost of 
 $78,200 to the city treasury alone, for every single 
 crossing, not to mention approximately equal 
 amounts expended by the railroad companies. 
 This, however, was only the beginning of the great 
 work, and the Cleveland City Engineer, R. Hoff- 
 man, as the conclusion of a careful paper dealing 
 with the problem, states: "It is safe to say the 
 total sum to be expended in connection with grade 
 elimination based upon the present conditions will 
 amount to over $24,000,000." 1 
 
 MILLIONS TO BE SAVED BY PLANNING. 
 
 It is interesting to remark how in the discussion 
 of the paper just referred to the engineer in 
 charge of grade elimination for the New York, 
 Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (the Nickel Plate 
 Railroad) emphasizes the point that this enormous 
 expense could have been avoided if the growth 
 of the city had been foreseen and properly 
 planned for: "We are planning to remedy an evil 
 but not to remove the cause. The cost of this work 
 is fabulous. We must think well and plan wisely 
 that the wealth intrusted to our care be not frit- 
 tered away in costly mistakes or careless manage- 
 ment." 
 
 The fact that Cleveland while spending large 
 amounts for grade elimination has at the same 
 time spent $20,000,000 for the creation of an effi- 
 cient belt line, the location of which through built 
 up areas presented enormous difficulties, will later 
 be dealt with (p. 54). 
 
 The situation of Oakland, Berkeley and vicinity, 
 with reference to the planning for the enormous 
 development of rail business which must be antici- 
 pated, is not less complicated than the situation of 
 Cleveland. On the contrary, the fact that the 
 West Oakland freight yards are not only the 
 freight redistribution center for the east side of 
 the Bay from Richmond to Elmhurst, but have to 
 handle at the same time something like 50%. of 
 the railroad freight destined for San Francisco; 
 and that even a larger percentage of all San 
 Francisco's long-distance passenger travel passes 
 through Oakland, would make it necessary, in 
 order to get a really fair comparison, to take the 
 railroad difficulties of a city even much larger than 
 Cleveland. 
 
 THE ADVANTAGE OF THE EAST BAY CITIES 
 
 On the other hand, Oakland and Berkeley have 
 two valuable assets compared with other and 
 older cities: the one is the fact that the sad ex- 
 perience of older cities affords valuable examples 
 from which to learn; the other is a physical situ- 
 ation which, without being free from difficulties, 
 makes the solution of many railroad problems 
 comparatively easy. 
 
 In fact, the physical characteristics of the East 
 Bay cities represent, in many respects, a decided 
 advantage over many other cities of this country 
 and of Europe, i. e., if proper planning takes ad- 
 vantage of the peculiar and interesting physical 
 situation. The peculiarity of this situation arises 
 from the fact that along the entire eastern and 
 northern boundaries of the East Bay cities there 
 are high ranges of hills and that access to the 
 level lands, which originally constituted the cities 
 proper, was only to be had through a narrow pas- 
 sage at the north and by way of Niles Canyon or 
 the level plain to the south. The railways that 
 have their termini on the East Shore of San Fran- 
 cisco Bay follow closely the shore line of the Bay 
 itself or the line of the Oakland Inner Harbor, 
 leaving the entire district lying towards the hills 
 free from the tracks of freight carrying roads. 
 
 FREIGHT ROADS SHUT OUT FROM THE 
 LARGE RESIDENCE DISTRICTS. 
 
 This district, stretching from Richmond to San 
 Leandro and beyond will without doubt constitute 
 a large well protected residence section at the base 
 of the foothills and on their gentle slopes — a resi- 
 dence section that will be practically free from the 
 yards and terminals of railways and from the diffi- 
 culty of taking care of them (Views pp. 63 and 
 103). In cities like Cleveland or Chicago, 
 seated upon a comparatively level plain, rail- 
 ways enter from nearly every direction and, in 
 the absence of proper legal protection of the 
 residential districts, tend to prevent any con- 
 siderable part of the city from being strictly 
 and purely residential in its character. In- 
 dustrial districts grow up all over the city's area; 
 railroad service must be given to them and ex- 
 tended continuously: soon concentration of rail- 
 road efficiency becomes impossible where it is 
 needed, and its presence in the center of the city 
 creates congestion where it is most undesirable. 
 While the science and practice of creating effi- 
 cient industrial districts and of protecting 
 the residential districts, by private or munici- 
 pal restrictions, against the dangers arising 
 from the steam road terminals and adjacent 
 industries, is developing only gradually, the 
 features of the East Shore's topography gave 
 to the cities of Oakland, Berkeley and their neigh- 
 bors, the great gift of industrial districts mapped 
 out by nature and of natural protections for ideal 
 home districts. The increased efficiency of the in- 
 dustrial districts must benefit all and it is equally 
 
 1 Compare the paper by City Engineer, Robert Hoffman, "Railway Grade Crossing Elimination in Cleveland," in 
 Journal of the Cleveland Engineering Society, Dec, 1910. 
 
48 
 
 FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION 
 
 possible and necessary that the natural protections 
 be enjoyed not only by the wealthy, but by all. 
 Their benefit can and will accrue to the homes 
 even of the poorest if proper planning and trans- 
 portation schemes counteract the possible dangers 
 that mav be connected with the limitations of the 
 
 physical situation. These possible dangers must 
 be overcome by a rapid development of suburban 
 transit I as pointed out p. 71 ff. ) or the East Bay 
 Cities, like San Francisco, will become tenement 
 house districts. 
 
 FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION BY RAIL 
 
 THE RAILROAD IN RELATION TO 
 INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE. 
 
 As stated before, freight transportation in the 
 East Bav Cities has chieflv two problems to solve — 
 the two problems of making the East Bay region 
 a most economic location for modern industries 
 and of making the East Bay region an efficient 
 center of commercial redistribution. 
 
 As has been pointed out in the preceding chap- 
 ter, the wealth, growth and population of the East 
 Bay Cities depend upon the radius within which 
 the merchandise of these cities can be shipped 
 economically. The place where savings can most 
 readily be made is in terminal costs. If rail and 
 water facilities are so economically arranged that 
 the terminal costs reach a minimum, then the 
 
 manufacturer and the merchant may reach out 
 toward the rich cities and countries of the world in 
 competition with manufacturers and merchants in 
 other cities. If the facilities for shipment by rail 
 and water are inefficient and insufficient, then the 
 East Bav region cannot effectively compete with 
 other cities, and its growth will be retarded. 
 
 How can the city-plan serve railroad develop- 
 ment and therefore industrial and commercial in- 
 terests? The first duty of the city-plan in this 
 connection is always to provide a wide and un- 
 obstructed highway, an open door for the entrance 
 of trunk lines. Only by proper control of main 
 lines will main entrances to the city be protected 
 against undue and harmful interference by local 
 traffic. Where those entrances are in a still un- 
 satisfactory state, proper planning must develop 
 
 
 FREIGHT YARD OF RUSH TERMINAL, BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
 
 To give efficient service to this single unit of warehouses and factories with 200 incoming cars a day a trackage of twenty- 
 five miles and yard ;is large as this is required. The reclamation scheme incidental to the carrying out of tin* Recs Harbor 
 Plan lor the East Bay cities will create large areas on which to lay out railroad yards not only sufficient in size but also in phys- 
 ical and convenient connection with the trunk lines. All railroads connect with the Hush Terminals by car floats only. Compare 
 picture, p. 29, and Note .'!, p. 53. 
 
FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION 
 
 49 
 
 them to efficiency. Again, only by proper plan- 
 ning will the door be held open for new trunk 
 lines which sooner or later in their search for the 
 great Bay of San Francisco will find their way to 
 that city which gives them convenient connections 
 with strategically located waterfront property. As 
 deep water and ocean shipping irresistibly attract, 
 the trunk lines, the trunk lines will powerfully 
 attract industries. "Accessibility to the great 
 national and international terminals makes it pos- 
 sible for our manufacturers to receive raw ma- 
 terials and ship package freight promptly and 
 economically to all ports of the world." 1 
 
 The close inter-relation between trunk lines and 
 shipping and industrial interests has made the city 
 of New York. "Unlike most foreign ports, those 
 of America, so far as distribution of imports and 
 exports are concerned, owe their existence to the 
 railways, instead of to rivers and canals." 
 
 UNOBSTRUCTED ENTRANCE FOR THE 
 TRUNK LINES. 
 
 The importance of the unobstructed entrance of 
 the great trunk lines, therefore, is so paramount 
 that no requirements of the harbor, no planning 
 of suburban lines, and especially no requirements 
 of local freight service, should be permitted to in- 
 terfere with the trunk lines existing or to come. 
 
 The great boast of as small but promising a city 
 as Houston, Texas, is that it is the place: "where 
 seventeen railroads meet the sea." 
 
 The East side of the Bay is fortunate in having 
 attracted six trunk lines already (map p. 46) : the 
 three branches of the Southern Pacific to the north, 
 east and south, including Mexico: the Western Pa- 
 cific to its eastern connections at Salt Lake, and the 
 Santa Fe to Chicago and Galveston. To these 
 must be added the new Oakland, Antioch & East- 
 ern Electric Line, which with its central Califor- 
 nia connections, constitutes the longest through 
 passenger electric line in the United States. This 
 line seems destined to provide the outlet to tide- 
 water for the extensive network of electric lines of 
 the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. The 
 hopeful beginning for the organization of the 
 physical entrance of these trunk lines into the 
 East Bay Cities is subject to much improvement 
 The long established position of the Southern 
 Pacific is well known, but only one of the two 
 lines with which this old and powerful road 
 reaches the large yards on the West Oakland 
 waterfront is sufficiently well equipped. This is 
 the north branch connecting Richmond (the 
 northern boundary of the district for which the 
 West Oakland yards serve as a freight redistribu- 
 tion center) with Oakland by five tracks, i. e., two 
 main line passenger tracks, two main line freight 
 tracks, and one service track. The other line of 
 the Southern Pacific approaching the West Oak- 
 land yards from the east has only two main line 
 tracks for passenger and freight and one service 
 track, the latter reaching only a few miles, namely, 
 
 to Fruitvale Avenue. The Western Pacific inef- 
 ficiently and uneconomically duplicates one of the 
 S. P. main tracks by paralleling it with a single 
 track. There is, in the heart of the city, a distance 
 of two city blocks between the Southern Pacific and 
 the Western Pacific. Franchises were asked for by 
 the Western Pacific Company for another line (so- 
 called Western Pacific Blue Line) south of the 
 Southern Pacific, crossing the latter in East Oak- 
 land (26th Avenue) and paralleling it very closely 
 until it reaches the Western Pacific terminal yards 
 at the foot of Chestnut Street. These franchises 
 and rights were never allowed except for a very 
 short distance. Further franchises were asked by 
 the Western Pacific in order to secure direct con- 
 nections with the Key Route on Poplar Street and 
 with the Santa Fe on Wood Street thus creating 
 new duplications of lines by using public streets. 
 Not only the Western Pacific, but even the better 
 developed Southern Pacific has, of course, to serve 
 many local industries off the main tracks and 
 independent connections for each individual road 
 simply means an especially obvious form of du- 
 plication and economic waste. Similar criticism 
 applies to the Santa Fe railroad towards the north. 
 
 UNIFIED, HIGHLY DEVELOPED RAILROAD 
 
 HIGHWAYS AN ESSENTIAL FEATURE 
 
 OF THE CITY PLAN. 
 
 The thing that suggests itself is the linking 
 together of the entrances of the different com- 
 panies thus creating unobstructed tracks for 
 main line travel and sufficient service tracks 
 for all industries. The railroads must forget their 
 private struggles the moment they enter the pre- 
 cincts of a great city. However desirable railroad 
 competition may be, the streets of great cities are 
 not the places to fight out these battles. By using 
 the new fills along the waterfront for linking to- 
 gether the different lines, two wide and efficiently 
 operated railroad highways, one to the North and 
 one to the East can be created. This will have 
 many advantages: a right-of-way sufficiently wide 
 for efficient management comes into existence; a 
 joint use by the different companies on the inter- 
 change or reservoir principle will give higher effi- 
 ciency at less cost of maintenance; the danger aris- 
 ing from street grade crossings by two roads paral- 
 leling each other within a few city blocks will be 
 avoided; the elimination of grade crossings where 
 necessary will be much easier. The crossings of 
 the main line tracks, if they cannot be abolished, 
 can be separated much more easily. At present 
 there are a large number of very dangerous cross- 
 ings of main steam lines by electric standard lines 
 at grade. In one case, at the foot of Chestnut 
 Street, the Western Pacific main line crosses the 
 main line tracks of the Southern Pacific at grade 
 though the agreement between the two roads ex- 
 plicitly calls for an overhead crossing by the West- 
 ern Pacific. The rearrangement that will have to 
 come about very soon should not be made piece- 
 meal, but as a part of a comprehensive scheme on 
 
 1 Compare quotation from Calvin Tomkins given p. 22, Note 2. 
 
50 
 
 FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION 
 
 the basis of which a promising terminal organiza- 
 tion can gradually be built up. 
 
 ENTRANCES FOR NEW TRUNK LINES. 
 
 The plans for the two great railroad highways 
 that enter from the North and from the East must 
 be made with special reference also to the future 
 of new trunk lines, the advent of which is so 
 highly important for the East Bay Cities. At the 
 present time there are at least three distinct routes 
 by which new trunk lines could, without serious 
 economical or legal obstructions and without co- 
 operation with the existing trunk lines or the 
 necessity of a previous rearrangement of the East 
 Bay terminals, reach the strategic location on the 
 Oakland waterfront which gives at the same time 
 access to deep water and immediate proximity to 
 San Francisco. (See maps pp. 46, 44, 37 and 127 I. 
 
 The first is on the new fill along the north shore 
 of the Inner Harbor and the Estuary paralleling 
 the Southern Pacific; thence l after crossing the 
 Western Pacific tracks immediately south of the 
 dangerous point where at present the latter crosses 
 the Southern Pacific main tracks at grade I via the 
 30-foot unnamed street I The course of this street 
 well shown on map p. 44 l across the city's hold- 
 ings between the broad-gauge and the Western 
 Pacific moles, known as the "white meat." 
 
 The second practicable route for a new trunk 
 line is again along the shore of the Inner Harbor, 
 but crossing the Southern Pacific and the Western 
 Pacific at about Fallon Street, and thence by 
 Fourth or Fifth Streets after another crossing 
 of the Southern Pacific to newly opened Seventh 
 Street north of the broad-gauge mole to the 
 
 west waterfront in the Key Route Basin. 
 
 The third route for a new trunk line approaches 
 from the north by way of Pinole Creek and Yaca 
 Canyon and follows the shore west of the South- 
 ern Pacific tracks, using the land which will be 
 filled, in carrying out the Rees Harbor Plans. 
 
 STRATEGIC VALUE OF THE NEW ROUTES. 
 
 While in contrast to the third route, the two 
 former routes suggested would have to cross al- 
 ready existing trunk lines — and this should surely 
 not be done at grade — all three suggested routes 
 have the enormous advantage of closely paralleling 
 the entire harbor districts just being created, in- 
 cluding the Rees Channel, i. e., the harbor area 
 from Richmond to San Leandro. The importance 
 of the latter fact can hardly be overestimated: it 
 would enable the new trunk lines to break the 
 practical monopoly enforced at present by the 
 Southern Pacific through its present location along 
 the waterfront. This much mentioned monopoly 
 of the Southern Pacific so far as it exists, is chiefly 
 created by this strategic location parallel to the 
 waterfront. Most of the freight, that is, most of 
 the paying business, originates here. This monop- 
 oly makes it possible for the Southern Pacific to 
 exact high premium switching charges to com- 
 peting points from the other railroads less fortun- 
 ately situated. If the railroads, and especiallv the 
 Southern Pacific, should be blind enough to work, 
 not for the absolutely neeessarv co-operation in- 
 side the terminal district, but for the continuance 
 of the old fighting methods, then here, i, e.. in the 
 possible location of a most strategic new trunk 
 line on the new land along the waterfront, lies 
 
 SOUTHERN PACIFIC STEAM TRACKS ENTERING OAKLAND FROM THE NORTH i AT EMERYVILLE) 
 
 A highly developed railroad highway. The six tracks shown 
 try siding. i2i eastbound freight. (3) eastbound passenger, 1 4 
 The other two tracks in the immediate foreground at the left 
 state of railroad development adequate to serve many and great 
 trackage will be the separation of the street grade I crossing i 
 sibly the separation of the level on which industrial switching 
 These improvements will become the more necessary with th 
 At the same time this reclamation scheme will furnish not 
 means of easily producing different levels for streets, main lin 
 new levels as a preconceived plan requires them. A special level 
 picture, p. 42. 
 
 are. beginning at the right of the picture, as follows: ill Indus- 
 westbound passenger, i5i westbound freight, (6) industry siding. 
 1 the picture are industry spurs. This is an example of a high 
 
 industries for a long time. The next step of developing this 
 n foregroundi from the grade of the main line tracks and pos- 
 service (belt-line service) is given from the main line service. 
 e development of the lands reclaimed by the Rees Harbor plan. 
 nly plenty of space for right of way extension but also be the 
 es. and belt line trackage. The suction dredge will pour out the 
 
 for rapid transit electric trackage also is required, as shown by 
 
FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION 
 
 51 
 
 the powerful weapon in the hands of the people 
 to doom shortsighted aspirations against the com- 
 mon interest. 
 
 But co-operation, not fighting, is needed. Co- 
 operation will lead to a systematic reorganization 
 of the two great railroad entrances from the North 
 and from the East. This reorganization will make 
 possible the running of more main line trains with 
 less expense on fewer tracks and with fewer cross- 
 ings of main lines. The waterfront, instead of be- 
 ing monopolized by one single fighting road, must 
 be opened up by a belt line which, independent 
 of the mainline service, can give industrial rail- 
 road service without further interference with 
 main line business, and which, securing level 
 grades, easy curves, elimination of grade crossings 
 and uncongested right-of-way, will give ideal con- 
 nections between all the industries and all the 
 trunk lines indiscriminately. 
 
 U. S. SUPREME COURT AND LARGEST 
 
 AMERICAN RAILROADS IN FAVOR OF 
 
 TERMINAL CO-OPERATION. 
 
 Anyone who should consider such a beneficent 
 and efficient co-operation between the different 
 railroad corporations as that proposed in the pre- 
 ceding paragraph to be rather a fantastic plan, 
 hardly possible under American competitive con- 
 ditions, must be reminded that the two highest 
 authorities on this point that could possibly be 
 found in the United States, i. e., the Supreme 
 Court and the legal covinsel of railroads controll- 
 ing one-third of the railroad mileage of the United 
 States, have expressed themselves in the strongest 
 and most explicit terms in favor of such terminal 
 combinations. In 1889 the railroad magnate, Jay 
 Gould, began the creation of such a terminal com- 
 bination for the large railroad center St. Louis, 
 where the physical conditions of the surrounding 
 land, together with the rivers, produced a situation 
 showing some very striking analogies to the situa- 
 tion in Oakland. The Terminal Association of St. 
 Louis, which he created, finally had about forty- 
 five millions of dollars of mortgage and an author- 
 ized capital stock of fifty millions (twenty-eight 
 millions were issued). When, later, an effort was 
 made to force the dissolution of this Terminal As- 
 sociation of St. Louis, as representing a restraint of 
 trade, unlawful under the Sherman Act, the coun- 
 sel of the powerful railroad companies made the 
 following statements (United States vs. Terminal 
 Railroad Association of St. Louis; decided April 
 22, 1912; in U. S. Rep. 224, p. 383). 
 
 "Community use of terminals in a large city is 
 more than a matter of convenience or economy; it 
 is an absolute public necessity. Every considera- 
 tion of a public nature points to a consolidation 
 of the terminals and to a common use of them by 
 all the railroad companies coming into the city- 
 But to avoid the odious phases of a monopoly, this 
 use must be open to all upon equal terms. 
 
 "Any new railroad built into St. Louis now has 
 but to secure a way to a terminal track and it has 
 at once the advantages of the entire terminal sys- 
 tem. Terminal service is a matter of internal 
 
 economy which the companies may adjust to 
 mutual advantage." 
 
 This opinion of the corporation lawyer speak- 
 ing for the most powerful American railroads that 
 could be gotten together is shared by the Supreme 
 Court. The Court says in its opinion: 
 
 "Terminal systems are a modern evolution in 
 the doing of railroad business and are of the great- 
 est public utility. They, under proper conditions, 
 do not restrain, but promote commerce." 
 
 In support of its opinion the high Court quotes 
 the expert opinion of railroad engineer Albert L. 
 Perkins: "The terminals of railway lines in any 
 large city should be unified as far as possible." 
 The Supreme Court also approves of an opinion 
 given by the Missouri Court, quoting it as follows: 
 "Referring to the legitimate use of terminal com- 
 panies, the Missouri Court said that a more effect- 
 ual means of keeping competition up to the high- 
 est point between parallel or competing lines 
 could not be devised. The destruction of the sys- 
 tem would result in compelling the shipper to em- 
 ploy the railroad with which he has switch con- 
 nection. 
 
 "Suppose it were required of every railroad 
 company to effect its entrance to this city as best 
 
 UNDEVELOPED TRACKAGE OF SOUTHERN PACIFIC 
 RAILROAD, FIRST STREET, OAKLAND 
 
 View looking from near Clay Street eastward on First Street 
 towards Broadway. Here the most important trunk line of 
 California has only two tracks to serve both passenger and 
 freight traffic. Spur tracks for the use of adjacent industries 
 are served from the main tracks. Compare the much higher 
 development of the same railroad in its trunk line from the 
 north. Pictures pp. 42 and 50. 
 
FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION 
 
 it could and establish its own terminal facilities, 
 we would have a large number of passenger sta- 
 tions, freight depots and switch yards scattered all 
 over the vast area and innumerable vehicles em- 
 ployed in hauling passengers and freight to and 
 from those stations and depots. Or suppose it be- 
 came necessary in the exigency of commerce that 
 all in-coming trains should reach a common focus, 
 but every railroad company provide its own track: 
 then not only would the expense of obtaining the 
 necessary rights of way be so enormous as to 
 amount to the exclusion of all but a few of the 
 strongest roads, but, if it could be accomplished, 
 the city would be cut to pieces with the many 
 lines of railroad intersecting it in every direction, 
 and thus the greatest agency of commerce would 
 become the greatest burden." 1 
 
 PRINCIPLES FOR REORGANIZATION OF 
 RAILROAD ENTRANCES. 
 
 Among the general principles to be followed in 
 a reorganization of the East Bay terminals the fol- 
 lowing must be emphasized: 
 
 FIRST — Under no circumstances should the 
 different main lines cross each other at grade; 
 
 SECOND — The crossing at grade of main line 
 tracks with Belt Line tracks or with electric stan- 
 dard lines should be avoided: 
 
 THIRD — On a sufficient number of strategic 
 points, there should be separations of grades of 
 the main and belt lines from the street level to 
 assure easy communication for passengers and 
 teams between the city and the harbor. 
 
 In order to reach these results it will be impor- 
 tant to have all surveys and plans ready before 
 the commencement of the work on the Rees Har- 
 bor Plans. If the filling connected with the latter 
 work is combined with the excavating and filling 
 necessary for the grade separations, the money 
 expended will reap two-fold results and subse- 
 quent rearrangements will be avoided. The re- 
 claiming work connected with all East Bay harbor 
 projects practically makes the East Bay Cities the 
 masters not only of the shore lines, but also of the 
 contour lines, and makes it possible to exploit the 
 latter for the avoiding of interference between 
 harbor, street and railroads. The desired harbor 
 lines, including the different grades for street and 
 rail service, can be poured out of the dredging 
 pipe, much as a modern concrete structure is 
 moulded into the desired shape in one piece and 
 at one time. 
 
 BELT LINE. 
 
 One of the most essential features in the reor- 
 ganization scheme of the railroad terminal sys- 
 tem will be a proper survey for an efficient belt 
 line. The term '"belt-line" is often used for rail- 
 road tracks that only represent the rudimentary 
 be<nnnings of a full fledged belt line. In the 
 neighborhood of Oakland and Berkeley the Rich- 
 
 mond Belt Railroad is incorporated representing 
 nothing but a few miles of tracks with the object 
 of "providing trackage facilities to industries 
 located on its road." Even the State owned Belt 
 Line in San Francisco, and the municipally owned 
 Belt Line of New Orleans I both most useful instru- 
 ments l are not belt lines in the full sense of the 
 word. 
 
 The principal functions of an efficient belt line 
 are three: 
 
 FIRST — It must open up all the territory suited 
 for industrial and commercial activities; it will 
 especially have to serve the harbor; 
 
 SECOND — and equally important, the function 
 it serves in providing flexibility of operation in 
 the interchange of traffic between the various 
 trunk lines; the belt line is the basis of the clear- 
 ing system: 
 
 THIRD — the Belt Line will have to take a large 
 proportion of the freight traffic off the main line 
 tracks and will detour this traffic around the 
 centers of freight congestion.- This last function 
 of a Belt Line has in many traffic centers of the 
 
 .(■ — -""""rlfllQ .-; 
 
 •*.Vst«- : ft«rrii;i-. 
 
 PUBLIC BELT RAILROAD 
 
 NEW ORLEANS 
 
 nj.v L\t ar?iDio — ■» ™ 
 rvajN une uuDta constwctcn ■ 
 
 n&iH LM TOU CWCTBuCTED ■ 
 INTTftCTlANCO • 
 TLdM TBACK5 ■ 
 
 OCTOMO Jl I9i2 
 
 SCALE 
 
 A terminal switching railroad (1915, forty miles of track, 
 ten locomotives! owned and operated by the City of New- 
 Orleans; supplying non-discriminalory switching service be- 
 tween trunk lines, industries, and wharves. One hundred and 
 ninety-seven thousand cars were handled in 1914 at a uniform 
 charge of ■'=2 per movement (including return movement). Be- 
 fore the beginning of the belt operation charges went up as high 
 as $15. This belt was built with a small outlay (about half 
 a million dollars i, using the city-owned streets instead of 
 acquiring rights of way. The streets, having been laid out 
 long before without reference to future railroad needs, are far 
 from being ideal railroad highways. 
 
 The East Bay cities by planning now can secure a belt line 
 as cheap, but much more efficient than even progressive New 
 Orleans. 
 
 1 U. S. Report, Vol. 224, p. 383. What a lecture in city-planning to be found in a court document! 
 -Compare Massachusetts Metropolitan Improvement Commission's Report, page 157. 
 
FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION 
 
 world been one of the most potent reasons for go- 
 ing into very expensive belt line construction. 
 The necessity of freeing congested railroad tracks 
 of the inner cities from all traffic that is not 
 absolutely recpiired there, has enforced the 
 detouring of as much traffic as possible. 
 Any traffic that is not destined for the 
 inner city itself, but is only passing through 
 the city for some near or distant outside 
 destination, should go around the congested 
 district by way of a belt line, i. e., a detouring line. 
 In this sense the Dumbarton cut-off by which the 
 Southern Pacific sends a part of its traffic destined 
 for San Francisco around the Bay instead of con- 
 gesting the Oakland yards with it, acts as a belt 
 line for the East Bay Cities. All through traffic, 
 i. e., traffic destined for points outside the limits 
 of the East Bay Cities, must rapidly disappear 
 from the trackage of these cities, as soon as this 
 trackage is needed for the cities' own use. The 
 great belt line system of cities like Chicago 1 and 
 Cleveland further aims more and more at detour- 
 ing also that traffic which, though destined to 
 points inside the city limits, still will reach its 
 special destination with less delay by not trving 
 to make headway straight across the heart of the 
 city — for e cample, coming from the north for 
 some yard in the southern part of the city — but 
 by going around the city and entering it from 
 another direction; for example, from the south 
 instead of from the north. Thus, for the mere 
 matter of illustration, the Southern Pacific San 
 Ramon valley tracks connecting in the east of the 
 East Bay Cities could, if they were not too far 
 away, be developed as a belt line to bring goods 
 from the northern part of the East Bay Cities, i. c. 
 from Richmond or Berkeley, to the southern part, 
 i. e., Fruitvale or San Leandro. This would mean 
 to exchange the inconvenience of a very much 
 longer haul against the advantage of not having 
 to pass over the central Oakland tracks, which 
 
 BELT RAILROAD 
 
 or 
 
 BOARD OF STATE 
 
 HARBOR COMMISSIONERS 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 \ terminal switehing railroad sevnn miles main track. lH.:t 
 miles spurs and sidings, cost $5G0.000. on oublicly owned land. 
 Seven locomotives. Owned and operated by the State of Cali- 
 fornia: giving n^n-di c eriTnina + ory switching service at a uni- 
 form charge of $2.50 1*5 if across Market Street}. One hundred 
 and twelve thousand cars were handled in 1913-1914. This belt 
 lin* 1 claims to be "the most complete harbor belt line railroad 
 switching system in the country": but. like the New Orleans 
 belt line, its tracks have to use public streets, which were laid 
 out i n ^ad angles to the waterfront and without reference to 
 railroad needs. Another handicap is the fact that the peninsular 
 location of San Francisco gives its belt line physical connec- 
 tion with only one single trunfc line. All other trunk lines 
 have to connect by water, i. c. by the expensive system of car 
 floating. 
 
 in the Fnst ftav cities a belt line free from these two handi- 
 caps can be built. 
 
 rapidlv will become congested with the advance 
 of commerce and industry. The same result 
 could be reached in a somewhat better manner by 
 connecting Richmond with the Inner Harbor by 
 car floats as the Santa Fe has to do in connection 
 with its development of Adams Wharf, as long as 
 this company does not succeed in winning its way 
 along Oakland's waterfront by rail.- But the 
 long haul around Oakland by any possible 
 line behind 1 1. e. east of I, the hills, is expensive 
 and time wasting; the use of car floats, on the 
 other hand will have to be recurred to for very 
 many purposes in the operations about San Fran- 
 cisco Bay; car floats will be the most economic 
 thing in many cases, but should be avoided wher- 
 ever possible because they also are expensive and 
 time wasting. 5 An efficient belt line is needed. 
 
 MILES OF FACTORIES ALONG THE EAST BAY WATERFRONT CREATE. A DEMAND FOR BELT LINE SERVICE 
 
 Chicago's Belt Line system is stupendous. Chicago claims thirteen belt or transfer lines used in exchange of 
 freight from one road to another and from and to shippers. Their mileage ranges form 3 to 289 miles and totals 1159 
 miles. Compare the work of G. E. Plumbe, LL.D. Statistician of the Chicago Association of Commerce: "Chicago, the 
 great industrial and commercial center of the Mississippi valley," 1912, p. 7l. 
 
 -A similar connection by car floats along the waterfront was made by the State owned Belt Line in San Francisco 
 before the completion of the connecting link between the northern and southern parts of the little belt line. 
 
 "The great expense connected with car floating is shown by the following calculations made on the basis of New 
 York harbor conditions, quoted from Engineering Record, 1911: "A car float 250 ft. long, 37 ft. wide, holds 12 cars, 
 each car in less than carload lots holding 7 tons gives a sum of 84 tons or in carload lots about twice as much, i. e. 170 
 tons. Without the cars the float would have a loading capacity of 1060 tons i. e. from 6 to 12 times more than with the 
 cars; each float needs a tug with a cost of maintenance of about S100 per day, while the maintenance cost for the car 
 float is about $20 per day; under these conditions it costs in New York harbor about 40 cents to take a ton L. C. L. 
 across the river." 
 
54 
 
 FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION 
 
 IDEAL BELT-LINE CAN BE BUILT CHEAPLY 
 
 IN CONNECTION WITH REES 
 
 HARBOR PLAN. 
 
 The physical situation of the East Bay Cities is 
 especially fortunate because it may with some 
 planning, in a perhaps unique way, do away with 
 the expense and waste of time originating neces- 
 sarily from both long detouring lines or connec- 
 tion by car floats. All the East Bay Cities have 
 to do is to lay out the plans for the new harbor 
 and for the use of the new land in such a way that 
 sufficient areas are set aside right from the be- 
 ginning to accommodate the most ample rights- 
 of-way for all the railroad service that can possi- 
 bly ever be needed. The belt lines of other cities 
 have to run around the cities because there is no 
 possibility of securing sufficient rights-of-way 
 along the waterfront. Their land on the water- 
 front is scarce and therefore extremely valuable; 
 also the trunk lines that must be intercepted by 
 the belt line run into the city from all directions. 
 In the East Bay Cities all the trunk lines to be in- 
 tercepted and served by a belt line come in along 
 the waterfront, and at the same time by one of 
 the happiest accidents in city-building, there 
 comes, right handy, cheap land just when it is 
 needed. Especially on the west shore of Oak- 
 land, Berkeley and Richmond any amount of 
 cheap land can be had to accommodate efficient 
 rights-of-way with all the necessary additions for 
 yards, storage tracks and other needs of operation, 
 without which a belt line would be worthless or 
 expensive to operate. A belt line thus splendidly 
 accommodated will not have to restrict its con- 
 nections to the hours between 1 A. M. and 5 A. M. 
 as is necessary in San Francisco for the State 
 owned belt line in front of the Ferry Building in 
 order not to interfere with the street traffic. 
 
 THE NEW CLEVELAND BELT LINE. 
 
 In this connection some figures about the new 
 Cleveland belt line I Cleveland Shortline Railway l 
 may be given as being of the highest interest and as 
 showing the newest ideas in belt line construction. 1 
 The narrowest right-of-way secured for this line 
 is 150 feet; the average width is 250 feet, while 
 
 CLEVELAND BELT LINE HAS NO GRADE CROSSINGS 
 
 One of the many girder spans treated as arches that were 
 required to avoid grade crossings and ohtain good appearance. 
 
 MAP OF CLEVELAND SHORT LINE (BELT LINE) 
 A highly developed belt line, built for §20,000,000, on a new 
 right of way, twenty miles in length, opened for this purpose. 
 This right of way, 150 to S00 feet wide, was designed to accom- 
 modate not only main belt tracks but double track trunk 
 switches besides. No street or railroad crossings at grade. 
 The cost of this belt line was enormous because it was built 
 after the city had grown large; also this belt line not being 
 publiclv owned, connects only with five out of seven trunk 
 lines. Public belt line for the East Bay cities taking advantage 
 of the waterfront to be reclaimed, may embody all the Cleve- 
 land advantages without the drawbacks. 
 
 the width of the right-of-way in some places goes 
 up to 800 feet. The extremely high cost of S20,- 
 000,000 for twenty miles of railroad is caused 
 largely by the advanced state of the city of Cleve- 
 land's growth when the belt line was built. The 
 railroad had to be located through busy industrial 
 sections and high class residential districts of es- 
 tablished character: in many cases the removal of 
 factories and residences was necessary; in some 
 places it was enormously difficult to carry on the 
 work of construction owing to the traffic on the 
 street and railroad crossings. The grades were 
 separated at all street crossings, in residential 
 parts at nearly every city block. The grades were 
 also separated at all crossings of railroads with the 
 exception of two where it was not feasible because 
 of the advanced state of development. In these 
 two cases, electrical interlocking was provided. In 
 the section where grade separation from crossing 
 streets had to be made at nearly every block, 
 seven miles of road elevation, almost entirely on 
 fills up to about twenty feet high, had to be built. 
 ^ herever it was desirable from the character of 
 the neighborhood, especially in traversing parks, 
 the railroad bridges passing over the streets 
 crossed were treated as ornamental bridges in a 
 spectacular way. The maximum grade of the 
 road is 0.3 °r with one exception where it is 0.74% 
 over a short distance. The maximum curvature 
 is four degrees with one exception where it is six 
 degrees. Thus a practically level grade; easy 
 curves; the elimination of grade crossings; good 
 connections with five trunk lines entering Cleve- 
 land at points most advantageous for interchange 
 and outside of the congested area; right-of-way 
 
 'These figures were given personally by officials of the Cleveland Short Line Railway and especially by the Sec- 
 retary of the Belt and Terminal Realty Co., Engineer Ben F. Hopkins; also the Engineering Record of Sept. 30, 1911, 
 contains articles about this belt line pp. 373, 376 and 417. 
 
FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION 
 
 55 
 
 BERKELEY'S FACTORIES (SHADED DARK) AND SUGGESTED FACTORY DISTRICTS (SHADED LIGHT) 
 (Suggestion by B. J. Bither, director of Manufacturers' Association, Berkeley) 
 
 The necessity of restricting the factories to certain areas specially suited for them is equally acknowledged by the manu- 
 facturer who does not want to he harrassed by complaints and by the home-owner who wants to be protected against smoke, 
 smell, noise, and dust. As this map shows, the factories locate along the trunk lines (Southern Pacific on Third Street and 
 along the waterfront; Santa Fe on Sacramento and West streets). This proposal for factory districts takes account of the 
 present location of factories. The wide areas in the west include 1500 acres of mud flats. University Avenue, as the front door 
 or gateway to the city, is protected against factories. The desirability of eliminating the present right of way of the Santa Fe 
 and to accommodate it further west along the waterfront has been strongly emphasized in this Report. Thereby the Santa Fe 
 would develop into a high-grade trunk line instead of having one track only, as at present. The carrying out of the Rees Har- 
 bor Plan will give all the land required for ample rights of way. The western factory districts are to be screened off from the 
 residential sections in the east by a chain of parks, parkways, and playgrounds, as described in the park chapter under the head- 
 ing "Midway Plaisance." There are wide unbuilt-upon areas waiting for this purpose. (Compare maps of building progress 
 in Berkeley and the Frankfort Harbor Plan, pp. 137 and 28.) San Pablo Park would be part of this Midway Plaisance and 
 no factory district east of it would be necessary. By a clear separation of factory and home districts by this park screen, 
 definite impetus would be given to the development of the city. 
 
 and facilities ample for all the future may require, 
 were secured at an enormous cost. 
 
 FACTORY SITES SERVED BY THE BELT 
 LINE. 
 
 In connection with this belt line development, 
 the opportunity for the creation of ideally efficient 
 factory districts was secured. The belt line 
 authorities and their engineer have the final word 
 about the most suitable points for location of new 
 factories according to the probable future needs 
 of belt line service. The special needs of special 
 factories are taken into account in every individual 
 case, insuring lasting flexibility of streets and rail- 
 road sites along double track trunk switches not 
 interfering with the main line of the belt rail- 
 road. Comprehensive subdivision plans provide 
 for trunk switches to serve every area without pull- 
 ing on to a main line track. There will never be 
 any crowding of the railroad rights-of-way, no 
 sharp curves will have to be rounded in the 
 switching operations, no switch engines will ob- 
 struct the right-of-way, no factory too close to the 
 right-of-way will be prevented from expansion. 
 The mistake is avoided of definitely fixing any 
 trunk switch and the street on either side thereof 
 
 by leaving that to the time when sales are made; 
 then the distance can be fixed in accordance with 
 the requirements of each concern located on each 
 street. The ideal lay-out of buildings and yards 
 for one concern may require a great length by a 
 shallow depth, while for another concern two or 
 three times that depth would be ideal. The possi- 
 bility of starting out with a clean sheet suggested 
 the segregation of industries with reference to the 
 character of buildings to be erected and with 
 reference to odors, noise or smoke. One district 
 is to be developed as an "industrial spotless town" 
 excluding foundaries, boiler shops and other fac- 
 tories producing excessive noise, odor or smoke. 
 Such establishments will be accommodated else- 
 where. A similar segregation has been proposed 
 in this report (See Harbor Chapter p. 31). It is 
 there pointed out that an undesirable kind of fac- 
 tory district on the west shore would endanger the 
 ideal residential character of the East Bay Cities. 
 
 LOCATION OF EAST BAY BELT LINE. 
 
 While there will be plenty of room for the Belt 
 
 Line system along the new filled-in west front, the 
 
 southern part of the city will present somewhat 
 
 greater difficulties. But there the harbor plans 
 
36 
 
 FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION 
 
 of the City of Oakland contain already some 
 embryonic provision for the establishment of a 
 Belt Line. In a series of fifteen leases executed 
 by the City of Oakland to the occupants of the 
 Estuary frontage from the vicinity of Ninth Ave- 
 nue eastward to the tidal canal, there is a specific 
 provision for a strip of one hundred feet in width 
 ( whose location is not completely determined I for 
 the purposes of a belt line or such other purpose 
 as the City may determine. Though this is nar- 
 row, less than the narrowest right-of-way secured, 
 for instance, for the the new Cleveland belt line, 
 there still is at least the possibility for a Belt Line 
 svstem along this frontage, and by perhaps diffi- 
 cult, though possible, negotiations with the various 
 lease-holders and the adjoining railroads, this 
 right-of-way may be extended and carried from 
 where the city's control on Brooklyn Basin termi- 
 nates, across Broadway to the quay wall, and 
 thence to the 294 acres in control of the city in 
 the Key Route Basin, and to the municipal hold- 
 ings of Oakland and Berkeley to the northward, 
 if developed in accordance with the Rees plans. 
 
 THE ELECTRIC BELT LINE OF THE EAST 
 BAY CITIES. 
 With California's enormous resources of hydro- 
 electric power, there being still undeveloped, ac- 
 cording to the best authorities, from four to eight 
 and a half million horse power, it may be assumed 
 that the electrolization of lines, both freight and 
 passenger, within the borders of the city, will 
 come much sooner in California cities than in 
 eastern cities, where, however, such electrolization 
 is confidently anticipated. In fact, the East Bay 
 Cities have already, without even knowing it, 
 an electric belt line whose efficiency seems to be 
 
 ELECTRIC MOTOR OF THE KEY ROUTE SYSTEM PERFORM- 
 ING VALUABLE BELT LINE SERVICE 
 
 destined to grow rapidly to high importance. The 
 electric svstem of the Key Route, at the present 
 time, performs this function of a belt line to a 
 small degree, transferring freight cars over certain 
 of its lines to team tracks all over town and to 
 a growing number of industrial establishments 
 which are not served directly by spur tracks of 
 the Santa Fe, Western Pacific or Southern Pacific. 
 The provisions in the franchises granted to the 
 San Francisco-Oakland Terminal Railways and its 
 predecessors, in many cases contained provisions 
 
 KEY ROUTE ELECTRIC BELT LINE 
 Map showing the location of the team tracks and private 
 spurs to which the Key Route system gives switching service. 
 Before the establishment of this service a Berkeley shipper, 
 for instance, desiring to transfer his freight from one part of 
 the town to another by way of the Southern Pacific and Santa 
 Fe tracks, had to send it to Bakersfield, the nearest juncture of 
 these lines; later it became possible to make the transfer from 
 the Southern Pacific to the Santa Fe at Stockton. Now the Key- 
 Route, within the borders of the East Bay cities, is the inter- 
 mediary between the two lines. Besides this service, electric- 
 switching service will play an important role in realizing a 
 "smokeless industrial" town. 
 
 which do not permit of such circulation of freight 
 traffic. No more desirable end can be imagined 
 than that the considerable trackage of suburban 
 and rapid transit lines in Oakland and other East 
 Shore Cities, might be used in conjunction with 
 a municipal belt line for the circulation of freight 
 traffic through the entire industrial district. This 
 circulation would take place chiefly between the 
 hours of 1 a. m. and 5 a. m., at a time when pas- 
 senger traffic is at a minimum or nil. 
 
 The development of the Key Route System as 
 a freight distribution line will be an important 
 item in securing better shipping facilities, espec- 
 ially for the small shipper and for less than car- 
 load lots. It is highly desirable to establish a sys- 
 tem of collecting and delivering freight by street 
 cars, this to be finally combined with a system of 
 package freight lighterage operated between de- 
 livery points along the waterfront and the uni- 
 versal clearing yard which will be referred to 
 later. Successful steps in this direction are made 
 in several cities and strong recommendations to 
 the same effect have followed in others. It takes 
 little imagination to realize what it would mean 
 
FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION 
 
 57 
 
 ELECTRIC SPUR TRACK OF OAKLAND FACTORY 
 
 Served by electric motor switch engines of the Key Route S 
 kept grass; factory and fence nicely planted. If every indiyidu 
 city look like? 
 
 if the great department stores, for instance, would 
 receive carloads of merchandise directly into their 
 basements from the surface tracks of the Key Sys- 
 tem in the early morning hours. This electric 
 street car freight service would help the decentral- 
 ization of those industries which, by reason of 
 their not being accompanied by objectionable 
 features ( such as smoke, noise, odor ) can be tol- 
 erated in close proximity to the residential dis- 
 tricts; this brings them near to the labor supply, 
 a very important feature for many industries. The 
 question of universal freight houses, where freight 
 can be delivered from all railroads and received 
 for all roads deserves careful attention. It seems 
 that there should be at least one such universal 
 freight house in each section of the city. They 
 would be best managed as a part of the general ter- 
 minal system in order to give indiscriminate ser- 
 vice to all shippers and roads; they would form 
 an important part of a uniform clearing system. 
 
 A CLEARING SYSTEM. 
 
 The belt line with a well regulated system of 
 collecting and delivering freight in C. L. L. and L. 
 C. L., and with the warehouses just mentioned, is 
 the necessary basis for an efficient clearing system. 
 
 At present it is safe to say that over 75% of 
 all the freight on the East side of the bay is 
 handled by the Southern Pacific. The transfer 
 of cars from one of the trunk lines to another 
 does not play any considerable role, and is handled 
 in a most primitive manner by delivery tracks 
 connecting the different roads either directly or 
 through the medium of other trunk lines. In the 
 latter case the switching charges are doubled. As 
 soon as freight business develops, and therefore 
 the development of the trunk lines other than the 
 Southern Pacific progresses, a more elaborate sys- 
 
 ystem (compare picture, p. 56). The steel rails bordered by well 
 al did as much for his house or business place what would a 
 
 tern of clearing the freight will be necessary. The 
 ideal solution of the clearing problem may be 
 considered to be the creation of a clearing yard 
 where the cars from all entering trunk lines are 
 classified, sorted and forwarded to the desired 
 points for local delivery. The ideal location of 
 such a clearing yard is at the focus of all enter- 
 ing trunk lines. Fully developed clearing yards 
 of this kind cover enormous stretches of land, not 
 only hundreds but thousands of acres; their loca- 
 tion, therefore, is a very difficult one especially 
 so because not only wide stretches of level land 
 are required, but also because this land must be 
 very cheap. If room is available, a clearing yard 
 should be combined with a universal freight yard 
 for joint use of the entering trunk lines, for the 
 receipt of inbound trains prior to sorting the cars, 
 for local distribution, for making up outbound 
 trains after cars pass for local delivery stations 
 through the clearing yard, for the general storing 
 of cars, care and housing of road and switch en- 
 gines. The Chicago clearing yard occupies ten 
 square miles with a standing capacity for about 
 8500 cars. Whether such a combination of yards 
 — on a smaller scale of course — is desirable and 
 possible on the western waterfront; where its 
 exact location ought to be, and what its capacity 
 should amount to, cannot be investigated in this 
 report. Different possibilities are mentioned here 
 in order to show the necessity of an early investi- 
 gation of the terminal needs in view of reserving 
 in time the large areas required. Another solution 
 of the problem similar to the proposals of the 
 Metropolitan Improvements Commission for Bos- 
 ton, would be to have only the clearing yard itself, 
 in addition to all that is necessary to give proper 
 service to the harbor, in a somewhat central loca- 
 tion, while the receiving yards would be located at 
 
FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION 
 
 PART OF PACSTEEL STATION, EAST OAKLAND 
 
 The trunk line tracks pass (extreme right of the picture) outside the well kept hedge surrounding the grounds. The switch 
 service to the warehouses and factories penetrates the entire grounds without interfering with their good appearance. Com- 
 pare plan below. 
 
 PLAN OF PACSTEEL STATION 
 
 This station forms an industrial and commercial unit which, 
 though on a smaller scale, is superior to the Bush terminals 
 in New York Harbor in so far as it is in physical connec- 
 tion with the trunk lines. A number of industries and ware- 
 houses are brought together with the freight station of a trunk 
 railroad, which accepts and delivers the shipments without 
 further switching charges. This industrial unit has also its 
 own deep water wharf, though not at the very door of the 
 factories. 
 
 
 
 »-#il§ WMfa 
 
 
 rif'lWJi ^ll^Smim'm^^'^ 
 
 
 iffi 
 
 m§mm 
 
 •tst; :W"i -.*...,,■ *■-■:■ -'if 
 
 
 
 OUTER WALL OF PACSTEEL STATION 
 
 Northeast wall showing tlie attractive treatment of the Cali- 
 fornia Wire Cloth Company's plant. 
 
 the boundaries of the East Bay freight distribution 
 district, that is, in San Leandro and Richmond. 
 The Santa Fe already has its receiving yards in 
 Richmond. The site of these yards will have to 
 be secured at an earlv date. 
 
 PROPER ASSESSMENT OF RAILROAD AREAS 
 
 NECESSARY FROM CITY-PLANNING 
 
 POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 This latter solution would take into consideration 
 the fact that land along the Oakland and Berkeley 
 waterfront, though it can be created comparatively 
 cheaply at present, still will be too valuable in the 
 long run to be used for extensive railroad vards. 
 The holdings of the railroads in Oakland are 
 already enormous (map p. 44 1. The Southern 
 Pacific, for instance holds nearly 1000 acres, an 
 amount of land that for the matter of comparison 
 is equal to one-twentieth of the city of Paris 
 proper. Tbe holdings of the Key Route and the 
 Western Pacific are not much smaller. The facil- 
 ity with which the railroads may hold enormous 
 stretches of land without paying taxes correspond- 
 ing directly to the value of these lands, has created 
 a great danger in many cities, i. e. the railroads 
 withhold land that is badly needed for commercial 
 and industrial purposes without being forced by 
 assessments corresponding to the real value of the 
 land to develop it to its full capacity. Compre- 
 hensive investigations in Chicago have shown that 
 about half of the land held by the railroads prac- 
 tically tax free is only slightly used or practically 
 unused by the railroads. The method of levying 
 taxes in California, namely upon the gross receipts 
 of railroads, encourages in a way very similar to 
 that in Chicago the inefficient use of much of the 
 railroad property. 
 
 A proper system of assessing the land held by 
 railroads inside the city limits is of high import- 
 ance for good city-planning development. Only- 
 proper taxation of their land can force the rail- 
 roads to develop their holdings in a progressive 
 way according to the rising value these lands gain 
 from the fact of their lying close-in to a big city. 
 Only if the railroads progress with their develop- 
 ment from an extensive to an intensive tise of their 
 
FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION 
 
 59 
 
 THE SO-CALLED "CHINESE WALL" AROUND CHICAGO'S 
 BUSINESS DISTRICT 
 
 The area shown in black indicates the great extent of rail- 
 road-owned property hampering the extension of and causing 
 much congestion in Chicago's business district. Because of the 
 present method of taxing railroad property, it is possible for 
 railroads to hold large areas of land practically tax free. Much 
 of this land is either unused or not used intensively, although 
 it is badly needed for city-planning improvements. 
 
 land can a proper city plan be made. If, with the 
 growth of the city and the rise of land values, the 
 railroads are forced to change from a system of 
 extensive to intensive operation, comparatively 
 small areas are sufficient forever. 
 
 Under a system of intensive operation every 
 service of operation that can be performed outside 
 on cheaper land will be gradually taken away 
 from these inner highly valuable railroad areas 
 and finally the high value of the inner railroad 
 land will warrant even its development on a two- 
 story basis. Thus with intensive operation satis- 
 factory service can always be given to the inner 
 city, which after having been built up to its full 
 capacity finally must reach a "point of saturation" 
 regarding its traffic requirements. 
 
 The enforcement of proper assessment and tax- 
 ation of railroad areas corresponding to their real 
 value is of high importance also in connection 
 with the service of railroad valuation secured by 
 the State Railroad Commission. The commis- 
 sion at present differentiates between operative 
 and non-operative property of the railroads. 
 For the latter the railroads, i. e., their sub- 
 companies holding the land, have to pay taxes 
 and the railroad is not permitted to include 
 its price in its list of capital expenditures. 
 
 The Railroad Commission ought to go further, 
 making its decisions from a city-planning point of 
 view: No railroad should be permitted to count 
 any of its city properties as operative that is not 
 developed to its full capacity corresponding to the 
 city land value. It is too easy indeed for a rail- 
 road to make its sub-company acquire land at a 
 cheap price, buy it afterwards at a high price from 
 the sub-company, and put this high price into the 
 property valuation as the basis for fixing of rates 
 without giving any development to the land that 
 corresponds to this assumed high price. 
 
 NEW TERMINAL POLICY. 
 
 The Public Belt Railroad Commission of the 
 City of New Orleans charges $2 per car (initial 
 •movement; return movement gratis) for switching 
 on all carload freight between switches, tracks, 
 industries and warehouses on the Public Belt Line 
 and between all connections. This must be kept 
 in mind reading the following paragraph: 
 
 Adequately to serve the industries developing 
 and to be developed on the east shore of the Bay 
 will require large improvements over the present 
 condition with respect to transportation charges 
 and facilities. At the present time there is, con- 
 trary to conditions in eastern centers, no agent 
 which serves all railroads alike in the transfer of 
 freight at a fixed charge per car. Indeed, the 
 Southern Pacific, being the first in the field, and 
 occupying a strategic position, exacts what is 
 called premium switching charges, in addition to 
 the normal switching charges in case of shipment 
 over other railroads. This is very onerous. The 
 Southern Pacific demands and receives from 7 to 
 25% of the total freight charge on cars originating 
 in mercantile establishments provided only with 
 Southern Pacific spur tracks and destined for 
 shipment over other lines; in the same manner 
 the other roads, when shipping cars from their 
 own spur tracks over the lines of the Southern 
 Pacific, must pay a similar tax to the latter road. 
 By far the largest number of the industrial spur 
 tracks belong to the Southern Pacific, and this 
 situation acts as a serious handicap against the 
 other trunk lines, practically annihilating compe- 
 tition. The minimum charge for switching, plus 
 premium switching charge, exacted by the South- 
 ern Pacific from the competing line, is $7.50. 
 There are cases in which the entire profit of the 
 line that does the hauling goes to the Southern 
 Pacific which enjoys thus a kind of monopoly. 
 This situation acts against the individual shipper 
 only indirectly by making it impossible for the 
 new trunk lines to develop their service and sys- 
 tems. But the individual shipper suffers also di- 
 rectly under the present state of terminal policy: 
 in all cases where he has to ship goods to non- 
 competing points (i. e. to points reached only by 
 one carrier), the switching charge of $2.50 for 
 each road he has to cross is not absorbed by the 
 railroad that gets the haul, but has to be paid by 
 the individual shipper. In the case, for instance, 
 of a car transferred from the Western Pacific by 
 
60 
 
 PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
 means of the Southern Pacific to the Santa Fe this 
 means an additional charge of So. 00 for the ship- 
 per. There is also no absorption of switching 
 charges if the net income to the road that gets the 
 haul is less than S10.00. The solution of these 
 difficulties has been found in San Francisco by 
 the creation of the state owned belt line giving in- 
 discriminate service to all the railroads at a uni- 
 form switching charge of S2.50. This makes it 
 possible for the trunk lines other than Southern 
 Pacific to secure business on an equal basis with- 
 out paying disastrous premium charges to the lat- 
 ter road. New franchises for industrial spur 
 
 tracks provide that every railroad must be allowed 
 to come in on equal terms provided it pays one- 
 half of construction and operation costs. The im- 
 possibility of keeping up the present state of ter- 
 minal affairs in the East Bay Cities is clearly 
 brought out by the quotation given above from 
 the U. S. Supreme Court decision against the Ter- 
 minal Association of St. Louis. What happens 
 under the state of affairs ruling at present in the 
 East Bay Cities is described in the quotation from 
 the Missouri court as a danger and as "resulting in 
 compelling the shipper to employ the railroad 
 with which he has switch connections." 
 
 PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION BY RAIL 
 
 LONG DISTANCE TRAVEL 
 
 FIRST STREET STATION OF SOUTHERN" PACIFIC, OAKLAND 
 
 A regular "through station" (as contrasted with a stub-end terminal) that would satisfy all possible requirements forever, 
 ■c it not lor its running on street level. 
 
 The reasons having to do with physical con- 
 tours were not alone potent in determining the 
 fortunate location of the railways entering the 
 East Bay Cities. Perhaps a still more determin- 
 ing factor was the circumstance that, at the time 
 of the construction of these railroads, except pos- 
 sibly the Western Pacific, the communities on the 
 east shore of the bay were little regarded by the 
 
 railway builder. His objective was almost solely 
 the city of San Francisco. 
 
 This special circumstance, incidental in its 
 character, seems destined to have ultimately most 
 fortunate results. To understand clearly what 
 these results may be, it is necessary- to consider for 
 a moment the typical development in great cities 
 elsewhere. In Chicago, perhaps the most typical 
 
 WESTERN PACIFIC STATION", OAKLAND. ANOTHER EXAMPLE OK A "THROUGH STATION" ON STREET LEVEL 
 
PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
 61 
 
 EISENBAHN- 
 FERN-.ORTS IJND VORORT-VERKEHR \ 
 VON BERLIN. 
 
 SOMMER ITO9. 
 
 Die AomM d<r tljbcb uch betden Rkbtuagca vcr- 
 kcbjoidm Zugt ill durth die Dick' dar Strleht asd 
 di. bfigcachilcbraca Zahlra dugutcllL 
 
 DIAGRAM OF ARRANGEMENT AND DENSITY OK PASSENGER TRAFFIC ON GREATER BERLIN STEAMROAD TERMINALS 
 
 The thickness of the lines shows the density of traffic. The very thick line through the center represents one of the heaviest 
 passenger movements in the world. This enormous traffic is handled on four tracks, but by far the largest part — the urban and 
 suburban trains — use two tracks only which, by reason of their being through tracks and having no stubends, are wonderfully 
 efficient. The yards for these through tracks are away from the center. On the other hand, the dead end (stub end) terminals 
 shown, reaching very close to the center, have a far larger number of tracks and in addition very large yards in a central loca- 
 tion. In spite of the larger space thus taken by these stub end terminals the traffic handled by them, as shown by the thick- 
 ness of lines in the diagram, is much smaller. An overwhelming argument for through lines against stub end terminals. This 
 diagram is taken from Professor J. Petersen's report forming part of one of the premiated designs in the greater Berlin City- 
 Planning competition judged 1910 (see note 2, p. 63). The scale of this map represents eleven kilometers, equaling about seven 
 miles. Compare statistics given, pp. 62-3. 
 
 case, but not different in this respect from many 
 other cities, railways have crowded forward to as 
 near the heart of the community as it was possible 
 to attain, and there -they have established large 
 and constantly enlarging passenger and freight ter- 
 minals, occupying vast areas of high priced land 
 and gradually forming about the business center 
 what has been called a Chinese Wall that hampers 
 very seriously the expansion of the business cen- 
 ter; produces untold economic waste through con- 
 gestion thus created; and is, in short, a serious 
 malady that it will cost many millions to cure. 
 
 The seriousness of the malady is convincingly 
 illustrated by the diagram of Chicago (printed 
 on page 59) showing the land owned by the rail- 
 ways that are permitted to crowd in with their 
 great yards and terminal stations without regard 
 to a plan made for the ultimate welfare of the 
 growing city. 
 
 THROUGH-ROUTING EASY IN CONNECTION 
 WITH REES HARBOR PLAN. 
 
 Through the curious circumstances which have 
 been outlined above, the cities of the east shore of 
 the Bay can, with proper planning, avoid the 
 transportation ills from which Chicago and other 
 cities suffer. The thing which appears to the lead- 
 ing transportation experts of the world to be an 
 ideal solution for many urban transportation 
 problems, namely, through-routing, the East Shore 
 Cities already have, at least in embryo. The fact 
 that the railroads originally did not make Oakland 
 their objective is a reason for gratitude rather than 
 complaint. Through-routing, the ideal railroad 
 arrangement, involves the establishment of the 
 terminals and great yards, not in the middle of 
 the city, but nearer the boundary or beyond the 
 boundary of the city to be reached by direct lines 
 
62 
 
 PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
 BERKELEY STATION OF SANTA FE RAILROAD 
 
 Another "through station" on street level, being at the same time a striking example of an undeveloped trunk line entrance 
 into the East Bay cities. This great trunk line enters Berkeley and Oakland with one single track (for freight and passen- 
 ger service) as shown in the background of picture and this single track at stations branches sporadically into three. Instead 
 of having an efficient railroad entrance to the Bay cities the Santa Fe must send its freight by car float from Richmond to 
 Oakland, treating Oakland as if it were an island, thereby destroying the advantage Oakland ought to have over San Francisco. 
 On the left in the picture is seen a street car whose conductor, looking out for steam line trains, illustrates the danger of grade 
 crossings which, with increase of traffic, will enforce separation of grades. 
 
 across it. Such a plan avoids the congestion of 
 activities about a terminal station within the heart 
 of the city. Instead, the city can be stretched, 
 growing along the entire length of the tracks. 
 Possibility of easy growth is what the city needs, 
 not centralization and congestion. 
 
 The present tendency toward a through-routing 
 transportation system in the East Shore Cities will 
 be given an added impetus from the carrying out 
 of the Rees plan for the development of the har- 
 bor. By this plan the terminus of the Key Route 
 svstem will be removed from its present location 
 to a point just north of the Broadgauge Mole, 
 The Kev Route has a traffic arrangement with the 
 Oakland, Antioch & Eastern Ry., which in turn 
 has a connection with the Northern Electric, so 
 that trains from the west waterfront now run as 
 far north as Chico and Marysville. It seems log- 
 ical that the Santa Fe line with its station at 40th 
 and San Pablo, but maintaining a spur running 
 parallel with the Key Route tracks to a point near 
 the junction of the Kev Route Mole with the main- 
 land, and thence southerly along Wood and 20th 
 Streets to Adeline Street, will ultimately find it 
 desirable to get a deep water approach in the new 
 Oakland harbor, be it only by entering into traffic 
 arrangements with the Key Route system to use 
 that system's terminal facilities. Thus will be 
 reached a situation which somewhat approaches 
 the ideal described by Milo O. Maltbie, of the 
 Public Service Commission of New York City: 
 "Terminals in central locations should be limited 
 so far as possible. They are costly to acquire; 
 expensive to maintain: and increase rather than 
 decrease congestion. So far as possible the lines 
 should be operated tbrough a city and not termi- 
 nate therein." 
 
 The best known and most successful example of 
 such a through operated railroad terminal is the 
 
 Stadtbahn, Berlin's through route for steam lines, 
 seven miles long. It has twelve stations. Two of 
 the four elevated tracks are for long distance, and 
 two for local and suburban trains. Long distance 
 trains stop at five of these stations, local and 
 
 Accompanying Reporf of Werner Hegemann 
 
 RAILROAD TERMINAL ARRANGEMENT IN THE CITY OF 
 TOKIO, JAPAN 
 The terminal plan for the Tokio mainlines includes a copy 
 of the most essential feature of the Berlin terminal plan, i. e., 
 the through-routing idea. It was designed by the German en- 
 gineer, F. Baltzer, employed by the Japanese government for 
 this purpose. So far the plan is carried out only in part. 
 Masonry arches, very similar to the Berlin "Stadtbahn," are 
 built from the south towards the heart of the city as far as 
 Main Station only. The remainder of the connecting links 
 (dotted) is still missing. 
 
PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
 63 
 
 suburban trains stop at all. This seven-mile, four- 
 track, twelve-station, elevated-line has earned its 
 reputation of being in principle and practice the 
 most satisfactory example of urban passenger 
 transit in the world. Its practical value is evi- 
 denced by the fact that it receives at its twelve 
 stations as many passengers as do all the steam 
 railroads of Chicago put together. 1 Calculations 
 made by the highest authorities in connection with 
 the Greater Berlin city-plan competition, estimate 
 that it would be possible to run daily in each di- 
 rection 180 long distance trains over the two long 
 distance tracks during a thirteen hour service." 
 The Imperial Government of Japan after a study 
 of the railroads in the big cities of the world 
 has copied for Tokio the Berlin railroad plan. 
 Since the authorities of America and Germany 
 agree on the perfection of through-routing systems, 
 the location of the trunk line terminals on the 
 West Oakland waterfront can be considered as 
 satisfactory. Their combination into a union 
 passenger station as proposed by Col. Thos. H. 
 
 Rees and jointly operated on the reservoir prin- 
 ciple would be a further step towards perfection. 
 From this union passenger depot trains would run 
 towards the north and towards the east along the 
 two main railroad highways, with stops at 16th 
 Street depot, West Berkeley, Richmond and at the 
 foot of Broadway, Fruitvale and any number of 
 stations that will gradually be found desirable, all 
 stations being for joint use. 
 
 Union terminals in the heart of the city as have 
 been proposed for instance on Lake Merritt, near 
 the Auditorium, are out of the question. "They 
 are costly to acquire, expensive to maintain and 
 increase rather than decrease congestion." (Malt- 
 bie). 
 
 The depots at the foot of Broadway and on 16th 
 Street would be too far awav from the business 
 district if they had to accommodate the daily 
 suburban traveler, but they are close enough for 
 long distance trains provided the street car con- 
 nections are satisfactory. 
 
 East Bait home protected 
 against interference 
 from railroad yards 
 
 HOUSE SKIED UPON A HILL 
 Showing how the difficulties to be overcome in the upper parts of the East Bay hills are solved by the architect and 
 gardener. The planting is low growing shrubs where the ground is too steep for lawn. 
 
 ] Compare Mr. George E. Hooker's address "The Railway Terminal Problem of Chicago." A series of addresses 
 before the City Club, June 3rd to 10th, 1913, dealing with the proposed reorganization of the railway terminals of Chi- 
 cago, including all terminal proposals now before the City Council Committee on Railway Terminals. Published by the 
 City Club of Chicago, September, 1913. 
 
 2 Wettbewerb Gross-Berlin, Die Preisgekroenten Entwuerfe mit Erlaeuterungs-Berichten. Berlin, Verlegt bei Ernst 
 Wasmuth A. G. 1911, p. 9. 
 
64 
 
 PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
 THE PIONEER OF THE GARDEN SUBURBS 
 
 Electric suburban steel car equipment of the Southern Pacific Railroad, one of the typical sights of the East Bay cities, and 
 one of the important factors in East Bay development. The cars are 72 feet 4% inches in length; gauge, 1 feet 8V2 inches; wheel 
 base, 52 feet; direct current, 1200 volt; horsepower, 540; seating capacity, 116. One hundred forty miles of trackage are used 
 by this equipment of the Southern Pacific or by similar equipment of the Key Route. Wide new areas suitable for the building 
 of homes have lately been made accessible by the Oakland, Antioch & Eastern electric line. 
 
 SUBURBAN AND URBAN PASSENGER TRAFFIC 
 
 Through-routing results in even greater advan- 
 tage when applied to suburban service. The capac- 
 ity of through stations is from 257r to 35 r /I larger 
 than that of stub and terminal stations, accord- 
 ing to the newest capacity studies. 1 Therefore 
 what has been considered by many observers as 
 a detriment to the development of the East Bay 
 cities, i. e., the fact that the suburban service of 
 the east side of the Bay was built mainly not for 
 the development of the East Bay, but for making 
 connections with San Francisco, seems likely to 
 have ultimately fortunate results, provided the 
 great electric streets of travel leading to San 
 Francisco pass close enough to the different East 
 Bay centers, which need to be connected with each 
 other themselves. This closeness of rapid transit 
 to the business districts is indeed essential to a 
 suburban scheme. 
 
 RAPID-TRANSIT IS NOT A DANGER TO 
 LOCAL INTERESTS. 
 
 Before discussing this problem, the solution of 
 which is of such vital importance to the East Bay 
 cities, it seems essential in this connection to cor- 
 rect a fallacy that is widely current. This fallacy 
 is that by bettering rapid transit facilities between 
 
 two centers, such, for example, as the centers of 
 Oakland and San Francisco, or of Oakland and 
 Hayward, or between the center of Oakland and 
 the center of Berkeley, the mercantile interests of 
 the smaller centers necessarily lose to the larger 
 center because of the facility with which people 
 can come to the larger center to shop. This is the 
 same erroneous argument which has destroyed the 
 development of good-sized cities of the early nine- 
 teenth century in Germany. Their fear of losing 
 part of their local market by permitting railroad 
 connections to a larger center made them oppose 
 the approach of trunk lines so stronglv that the 
 newly built railroads had to pass these cities at a 
 considerable distance, a condition which practically 
 eliminated the opposing cities from the railroad 
 map. 
 
 INCREASED SPEED— INCREASED 
 POPULATION. 
 
 This fear of improvements in transportation is 
 equally shortsighted when applied to suburban 
 rapid transit. The betterment of rapid transit fa- 
 cilities between congested centers and minor cen- 
 ters upon the outskirts of the community results in 
 a strong and steady outflow of population from the 
 
 'Arnold's Report on Chicago Steam Terminals, p. 120 f. contains a series of new capacity studies, which give the 
 last word in these much debated matters. 
 
PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
 65 
 
 SOUTHERN PACIFIC STATION, SEVENTH AND ADELINE STREETS, 1807 
 
 From a water-color by William Keith. This quiet rural scene on the line of the "Seventh Street local" shows what mighty 
 strides the East Bay cities have taken in less than fifty years. Today the Southern Pacific local lines carry some 17,000,000 
 passengers annually and 1200 electric cars daily enter and depart from the ferry terminal on Oakland Mole." 
 
 congested centers toward the outskirts, and the 
 merchant in the outer center, if he is anything like 
 an efficient and enterprising business man, soon 
 finds that for every dollar he loses from the 
 attraction the larger centers offer to shoppers, he 
 gains two through the proximity of a greatly in- 
 creased population to his own establishment. The 
 progressing standardization of our wants makes 
 it easier from day to day to supply a great many 
 of these wants as well in a small center as in a 
 large one. The fascination which a large shop- 
 ping center has on the buyer of certain com- 
 modities, is out-balanced for the majority of 
 commodities by the convenience of the shorter trip 
 to the shopping place and by the "trade at home" 
 movement. Therefore, if better rapid transit 
 connections between two large centers make it 
 possible for a large number of people to live 
 around the smaller center, it must benefit the 
 smaller shopping center. It is inevitable that 
 should the traveling time between the center of 
 Oakland and the center of Berkeley be cut from 
 thirty-five minutes, as at present, to twelve, four- 
 teen or sixteen minutes, which is entirely possible, 
 the growth of the population of Berkeley would be 
 so immediate and considerable that the Berkeley 
 merchants would benefit largely. 
 
 BETTER TRANS-BAY COMMUTATION. 
 While many Oakland merchants will be easily 
 
 convinced of the fact just mentioned, they are 
 sometimes still in the old fashioned attitude of 
 fear against good connections with San Francisco. 
 Nevertheless, the same principle may as justly be 
 applied to rapid transit between Oakland and San 
 Francisco. What little loss the merchants of 
 Oakland might suffer, with the traveling time be- 
 tween the center of Oakland and the center of San 
 Francisco cut in half, would be more than offset 
 by the increase in the population of Oakland which 
 would follow. Instead of the old fear of improve- 
 ments in rapid transit, everything must be done 
 to secure better connections between the different 
 centers. These improvements surely must lead to 
 the development of a great shopping center on the 
 east side of the Bay — one able to compete success- 
 fully with San Francisco. After the development 
 of such a large center of retail commercial activi- 
 ties on the east side of the Bay, all the different 
 East Bay communities will be nearer to the center 
 and they will therefore develop with more vigor 
 and rapidity rather than make much slower 
 progress as distant suburbs of San Francisco. 
 
 There are, furthermore, specific reasons for im- 
 proving the ferrv traffic across the Bay of San 
 Francisco. This ferry traffic has largely contrib- 
 uted to the building up of the East Bay section 
 and it should still do so in the future, but there is 
 danger that it will not do so if connections are not 
 improved. This danger is clearly stated bv Mr. 
 
66 
 
 PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
 .t_ 
 
 . - ^ rxi 
 
 ...,"7*5 r rr r r r r ccr rrxjJUJI 
 _;_r""'rrri gjf rrp?iw»i»irsuHf/ 
 
 ' . 
 
 KEY ROUTE PIER, FERRY BOAT TERMINAL 
 Handling about 15,000,000 passengers during the year out of a total of 34,000,000 transbay passengers (figures of 19131. 
 
 Bion J. Arnold in his Report on the Improvement 
 and Development of the Transportation Facilities 
 of San Francisco. 1 He uses the following words: 
 "That the rapid trans-bay suburban expansion of 
 the past few years cannot continue in the future is 
 shown bv the fact that the probable limit of quick 
 Iransit has been reached over the present system 
 of electric train service through citv streets: and 
 as the fare could not conservatively be any lower, 
 the filling up of the suburbs now laid out will 
 tend to determine the future limits of the trans- 
 bay settlement. 
 
 PENINSULAR COMPETITION A DANGER. 
 
 "San Francisco, on the other hand, will always 
 continue to be the business and social center and 
 instead of attempting to curtail trans-bay develop- 
 ment it should turn to the development of the 
 immense acreage at its own borders and down the 
 Peninsula." Indeed in San Francisco, where the 
 development of rapid transit down the Peninsula 
 is far behind the needs, a promising effort in that 
 direction is now being made in connection with 
 the Twin Peaks Tunnel. If the East Bay wants 
 to keep up with this great improvement it will 
 have to offset it bv an improvement of the service 
 across the Bav. The daily migration of the 
 population across the Bay presents no parallel in 
 this country with the exception of New York City. 
 This is all the more astonishing, Bion J. Arnold 
 remarks, when it is considered that none of the 
 trans-bay commuters are able to reach land within 
 twenty minutes of the business center of San 
 Francisco, twenty or thirty minutes additional 
 being recjuired for these commuters to reach their 
 homes in Oakland, Berkeley, etc. The passenger 
 traffic across the Bav amounted in 1913 to 
 33,839,092 passengers of which 19,340,227 travelled 
 bv the Southern Pacific. 14,409,503 by the Key 
 Route system, and 89,362 by the Western Pacific. 
 This vast volume of travel can further develop 
 only if the means of transit across the Bay keep 
 up with the logical development — which neces- 
 sarilv must come — of San Francisco rapid transit 
 down the Peninsula. 
 
 GOAT ISLAND TERMINAL PROJECT. 
 
 If the Rees plans are carried into effect, and the 
 
 Key Route with its traffic arrangements with the 
 Oakland, Antioch & Eastern Ry., places its 
 terminals directly north of the Southern Pacific 
 broad-gauge mole in accordance therewith, the 
 Goat Island Terminal plan would furnish the 
 logical method for the shortening of the time of 
 trans-bay travel. It is from the point of view of 
 bettering conditions for the development of the 
 East Bay region that this much discussed Goat 
 Island Terminal plan must be judged. 
 
 The Rees plan provides a channel 1500 feet wide 
 at its entrance. The plan calls for a dyke 600 
 feet wide. Col. Rees has, however, expressed the 
 opinion that this dyke can be made as wide as 
 desired without detriment to the harbor, since the 
 
 I'D'nlri'i-o ,-p. 
 
 
 <•><•_</> ""~">\ 
 
 
 h '4\ 
 
 1 1.5 
 
 31* »« 
 
 '•^ »\e'.. 
 
 6 ' V I ■ = 
 
 t\ .,.v„ 
 
 ,„„,„, g, 
 
 -i ,■>"■ 
 
 5 ft OA 
 
 i 
 
 *V iv..l.,.,l*..^ 
 
 ?-••■_. , i ,'. v ''- 
 
 'v . • ■■\l^X£XL. 
 '<■ , I 
 
 ■ *■ ■ ri 
 
 JMossof\K. 
 
 \a .'1 •' .;/<*-:■ '•' 
 
 12 '": '■*■» 
 
 
 s Rinc<_„, 
 
 if 'o 10 11 
 +Vls«umR. ,„ 
 
 " i • 
 
 U, v,./. 
 
 GOAT ISLAND TERMINAL AS PROPOSED IN THE SIXTIES 
 
 From the "Map of the region adjacent to the Bav of San 
 Francisco, State Geological Survey of California, J. D. Whitney, 
 State Geologist, 1867." 
 
 ] San Francisco, March, 1913, p. 5. The following quotation refers to traffic congestion on San Francisco streets. 
 
PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
 67 
 
 SOUTHERN PACIFIC OAKLAND MOLE 
 
 Some study of this picture will give an idea of the compl 
 the eo-operation required by him from the city-planner. The 
 switch tower, in the center of the picture, is 2260. The highest 
 Beginning at the extreme right of the. picture one sees a wa 
 senger cars (regular storage is in West Oakland), two main li 
 suburban service (in very middle of picture), two main line ste 
 the freight ferry slip, a storage yard for electric car equipmen 
 minal : 635 main line passenger cars, 1200 electric suburban c 
 right half of picture; note the masts), 250 cars to car floats in 
 number 53. 
 
 channel which now exists between the termination 
 of Long Wharf and Goat Island will be replaced 
 by the harbor channel to be dredged between the 
 end of the broad gauge mole and Pt. Richmond. 
 It is, therefore, a simple and inexpensive matter 
 to widen the southern end of the dyke protecting 
 the Rees channel for a distance of nearly two 
 miles to a point near the shore line of Goat Island, 
 and thus to make it possible to carry the Southern 
 Pacific and Key Route lines on land provided the 
 expensive tunnels under the Rees channel can be 
 built. In this suggestion it is not assumed that 
 any part of Goat Island itself would be used, but 
 that a narrow strip of shallow shoal at present 
 existing north of the island would be filled. The 
 great advantage of this plan would be to divide 
 in half the distance by water between the east and 
 west shores of the Bay. Thirteen ferry boats, cost- 
 ing about $400,000 each, are now in use between 
 San Francisco and Oakland. Their total value is 
 not far from $6,200,000. The plan suggested 
 would either double the efficiency of the boats by 
 dividing the time of transport in half, or would 
 make it possible for one-half the number of vessels 
 to give the same service as at present, with a saving 
 to the railroads of some $3,000,000 when the orig- 
 
 exity of the problems to be solved by the railroad engineer and 
 daily number of movements directed from the interlocking 
 
 number of passenger cars handled in one month is 19,232 cars, 
 gon road, an extra storage yard (in the background) for pas- 
 ne steam tracks (via Sixteenth Street), four tracks for electric 
 am tracks (via First and Broadway), one track (extreme left) to 
 t (upper left hand). There are handled daily through this ter- 
 :irs, 60 freight cars to Long Wharf (extending into the water in 
 
 ferry slip. Entrances of ferry boats to terminal slips each way 
 
 inal investment needs replacement. If the boats 
 of the companies followed each other at five min- 
 ute intervals a continuous flow of cars could make 
 connections with the boats and, passing through 
 the tunnels, use them to their highest capacity. 
 Under a well organized system of co-operation, two 
 tunnels would be sufficient for a long time. Ulti- 
 mately, three tunnels might be required. During 
 the rush hours, two of the three tunnels would 
 take care of the loaded trains in the direction of 
 the rush tide, while one tunnel would be sufficient 
 to bring in the half loaded and empty cars which 
 cause less delays. 
 
 This Goat Island terminal, only about five 
 or six minutes from San Francisco, with its 
 congested business district hemmed in by hills, 
 would bring to this side of the Bay a larger com- 
 muting population than at present. It might, 
 indeed, offset the improvement of rapid transit 
 from San Francisco down the Peninsula, and it 
 would surely make more convenient and accessible 
 the industrial lands controlled by the City of 
 Oakland on the west waterfront. It is furthermore 
 possible that an equitable arrangement might be 
 reached whereby the Western Pacific would also 
 use this union terminal for passenger traffic, em- 
 
PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
 By courtesy of the California Railroad Commission Accompanying Report of Werner Hegemann 
 
 This map shows the remarkable system of suburban electric lines for heavy equipment. The Southern Pacific electric 
 system contains 101 miles of main track, the Key Route 43 miles. This map also shows a few miles of track of the Oak- 
 land Antioch, and Eastern Railway. Street car lines are not shown. 
 
PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
 69 
 
 TWO BERKELEY PICTURES TAKEN FROM THE SAME SPOT TWENTY-SIX YEARS APART 
 
 Shattuck Square in 1915. On the left Shattuck Hotel, two Southern Pacific suburhan electric tracks. On the right two tracks 
 for joint use of Key Route suburban system and street car service. These powerful connections with San Francisco and Oak- 
 land, far from having harmed local development, have made possible, first, the building up of Berkeley as a residential city and 
 thereby, second, of the shopping center shown in this picture. 
 
 ploying its present ferry terminal solely for freight 
 purposes. The Board of State Harbor Commis- 
 sioners gives the following recommendations to 
 this transportation union terminal on Yerba Buena 
 Island. 1 
 
 "The Board strongly recommends to the leg- 
 islature that the United States Government be 
 requested to cede to the State of California Yerba 
 Buena Island, commonly called Goat Island, in 
 San Francisco Bay, the same to be improved and 
 used as a great transportation union terminal, open 
 to all on equal terms. It would be connected with 
 the Alameda County shore by proper bridge and 
 causeway construction, and the ferry service would 
 then extend from the westerly side of the island 
 to San Francisco. 
 
 "This great public work has been agitated and 
 discussed, at intervals, for over thirty years, and 
 the time has now come when it should be under- 
 taken and realized. 
 
 "The objections urged to the project, when a 
 certain railroad sought to obtain control of it as 
 its own exclusive terminal, of course do not apply 
 to its acquisition and use by the State as a public 
 union terminal, open to all on equal terms, and 
 conducted under public auspices as a part of the 
 State's transportation system in San Francisco 
 Bay. 
 
 "This is not the place for extended argument 
 on the enormous advantages to the commerce of 
 the port and the increased safety and speed of 
 ferry passenger service that would follow such an 
 improvement. All engineering authorities agree 
 on its entire practicability and that the cost would 
 be amply and immediately justified by the re- 
 sultant benefits." 
 
 Mayor Frank K. Mott, of Oakland, has expressed 
 his approval of the general idea of a terminal at 
 
 Goat Island, saying: "A passenger ferry terminal 
 on the island would mean a much shorter trip 
 between San Francisco and Oakland, less time 
 spent on the ferry boat, and consequent reduction 
 of danger to life, and would be a genuine encour- 
 agement to people whose business is in San 
 Francisco to reside on the Oakland side of the 
 Bay." 
 
 An objection to the Goat Island terminal plan 
 has been stated already (in the Harbor chapter): 
 that tunnels at least as long as the tunnels discussed 
 for the Estuary would be necessary. The very con- 
 siderable expense of these tunnels, however, could 
 be cut down to some extent by contracting 
 
 TWO BERKELEY PICTURES TAKEN FROM THE SAME SPOT 
 TWENTY-SIX YEARS APART 
 
 Shattuck Square as it appeared in 1888. The single steamroad 
 track shows the beginning of that railroad system that has 
 built up Berkeley. The picture is exactly in the same scale as 
 the one shown above; note the pointed tower in the center of 
 the picture and which is still seen standing in the upper picture. 
 
 2 Report for the year ending June, 1912, p. 31. 
 
70 
 
 PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
 PROPER PLANTING STARTED 
 
 Modern traffic street, Brentmoor, St. Louis. Trolley-ear tracks on special reservation between two roadways. In this picture 
 are shown the beginnings of planting to screen the tracks and make the street resemble the one shown in the next picture. 
 
 the width of the Rees Channel to about 600 feet. 
 This has been discussed in the preceding chap- 
 ter (p. 41). Another objection that might be 
 mentioned is that the ferries would have to cross 
 the main line of ocean traffic entering the harbor. 
 Colonel Rees, however, in his letter to the Com- 
 mercial Club, reproduced in The Oakland Tribune, 
 Oct. 30, 1913, mentions the Goat Island tunnels as 
 feasible. He says: "A tunnel communication 
 under the harbor channel might also be extended 
 on the dyke to ferry terminals north of Goat 
 Island. 
 
 "The island itself is too high and rugged to be 
 available for such purposes, but the shoals north 
 of the island could readily be reclaimed and 
 utilized in this manner." 
 
 After the completion of the Rees channel, this 
 danger of the ferries crossing the steamer traffic 
 may diminish because about half of the steamers 
 could use the northern entrance. My personal 
 opinion is that the Goat Island tunnels would be 
 better justified and more useful than the proposed 
 tunnels under the Estuary. 
 
 S. P. 14TH AND FRANKLIN TERMINAL. 
 
 A strong recommendation for the improvement 
 of the Southern Pacific block between Webster, 
 Franklin, 13th and 14th Streets should be made. 
 In its present state this block is used as a little 
 terminal railroad yard showing on a small scale 
 the harm that originates, as pointed out above, 
 from a terminal scheme instead of through rout- 
 ing methods. If the railroad company could not 
 hold this block practically tax free it would be 
 unable to keep it unimproved, a barricade for the 
 extension of the business district. It is a well 
 known fact that even an ordinary vacant lot, 
 causing a break in the continuity of shops, is a 
 serious detriment to land values. This detriment 
 must be greater still when combined with danger- 
 ous raih oad crossings. 
 
 The Oakland Chamber of Commerce has started 
 a commendable movement for the improvement 
 of the block in question. It will be good policy 
 
 at the same time to make the railroad company 
 give up the present system of stub end ter- 
 minals on this block. Instead of terminating 
 in dead ends the different lines passing the station 
 must be hitched together as a through-routing 
 proposition. There is hardly any example of a 
 satisfactory stub end terminal of this kind and 
 where stub terminals exist they are models of how 
 not to do it and will scarcely be copied. There 
 is a single exception in Newark, New Jersey, 
 where the traction interests are planning to spend 
 about $3,000,000 on street railroad improvements, 
 and deliberately enter into the problem of con- 
 structing a center city terminal. Most of the ex- 
 perts who have been discussing the matter are yet 
 to be convinced that the steps that are to be taken 
 by that particular corporation will prove to be 
 wise. 1 The Southern Pacific block under consid- 
 eration would be in the future an important 
 station on the main rapid transit trunk line (ele- 
 vated) discussed in this chapter (p. 75). A cross- 
 ing of transit lines in convenient places with com- 
 fortable transfer facilities is highly desirable, but 
 any centralization of suburban lines on a terminal 
 plan is costly and creates congestion. It has been 
 stated already that in the suburban service, accord- 
 ing to the new capacity studies, the capacity of 
 through stations is from 25% to 35% larger than 
 that of stub end terminals. 
 
 BETTER CONNECTIONS BETWEEN EAST 
 BAY CENTERS. 
 
 If possible, even more important than the better- 
 ment of connections across the Bay, is the improve- 
 ment of rapid transit between the different centers 
 on the east shore of the Bay. The East Shore 
 cities have unquestionably one of the most effi- 
 cient suburban transportation systems that exists 
 anywhere in the world in a community of equal 
 population. The primary necessity for swift 
 transportation between the various east shore 
 centers and San Francisco has in some parts of 
 the East Bay provided transportation which can 
 scarcely be surpassed. Four typical examples of 
 
 'This matter was discussed by different leading traction experts at the 5th National Conference of City Plan- 
 ning, Chicago, 1913. Compare the proceedings, pages 105 and following, especially 121. 
 
PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
 71 
 
 PROPER PLANTING ACHIEVED 
 
 Modern traffic streets in winter; this scene is in Roland Park, a suburban residential development of Baltimore. It shows 
 the result of planting that effectively screens the tracks ol* the street-car lines. Compare preceding picture. 
 
 the kind of service given, each of a different char- 
 acter, may be mentioned here: 
 
 REMARKABLE RAPID TRANSIT FEATURES. 
 
 First, the travelling time between Thousand 
 Oaks north of Berkeley and the 16th Street Station 
 in Oakland, a distance of 6.3 miles, is 20 minutes, 
 or a rate of 18.9 miles an hour. This remarkably 
 high speed is due largely to the fact that here the 
 requirements of real rapid transit are actually 
 satisfied; i. e., not only over a portion of this dis- 
 tance do the cars traverse a private right-of-way 
 through streets created by and for the railroad 
 and with almost no cross traffic, but part way they 
 use even the altogether unobstructed railroad 
 highway owned by the Southern Pacific along the 
 waterfront. This is, however, a distinctly San 
 Francisco service and can benefit the relations 
 between Oakland and Berkeley only very little 
 because the business center of Oakland is over 
 twenty blocks away from 16th Street depot. Most 
 of the service given by the Southern Pacific and 
 Key Route is of this kind. 
 
 As a second example I mention that the time of 
 travel between the extreme limits of the Southern 
 Pacific electric line at Dutton Avenue in San 
 Leandro beyond the limits of Oakland and 7th 
 and Broadway is 30 minutes for 8.9 miles, or 17.8 
 miles per hour, a speed which nearly equals that 
 of the best elevated systems of large cities. This 
 also is distinctly San Francisco service, but it ben- 
 efits the relations between the wide eastern dis- 
 tricts and the center of Oakland very materially 
 because 7th Street is the southern edge of the 
 Oakland business center. 
 
 Third, the Southern Pacific Alameda and Oak- 
 land cars operated on the standard trackage re- 
 quire sixty minutes for the circuit of 10.1 miles 
 from 14th and Franklin Streets around the island 
 of Alameda and back to the point of beginning. 
 This is quite a new service representing a distinct 
 victory of the Oakland business district. The di- 
 rect outcome is that a large proportion of the out- 
 
 of-town shopping done by residents of Alameda 
 will turn to Oakland instead of to San Francisco; 
 at the same time Alameda being 10 minutes closer 
 to a considerable shopping center and business 
 district becomes a more desirable "close in" resi- 
 dential district, must build up faster, and develop 
 therefore its own centers more rapidly than would 
 have been possible without this better connection. 
 Fourth, during the rush hours between 6:09 and 
 7:54 in the morning and between 4:57 and 5:57 
 in the evening the street car company runs ordi- 
 nary street cars as a special express service from 
 the center of Oakland at Washington and 12th 
 Streets to Hayward without intermediary stops by 
 switching the local cars off (at the intersections 
 with cross-town lines) until the express cars have 
 passed. The distance of 14.80 miles is run in 72 
 minutes. This also, of course, is a distinct Oak- 
 land service and a remarkable example of how 
 ordinary street car trackage and equipment can be 
 used for "rapid transit." 
 
 THE EXTRAORDINARY RAPID TRANSIT 
 
 DEVELOPMENT AND ITS NEEDS 
 
 OF FURTHER DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 This all is very remarkable development and the 
 lines mentioned, at least the two first ones, like all 
 the standard connections with San Francisco, 
 though they run on street level, may be called 
 "rapid transit," an honoring term that is reserved 
 ordinarily to service on rights-of-way separated 
 from the street level by elevation, open cuts, or 
 tunnels, thus avoiding all interference by ordinary 
 traffic. The whole East Bay region has developed 
 on the basis of these remarkable high speed lines, 
 be they connections between East Bay centers or 
 rather, as most of them still are, connections with 
 San Francisco. Wide traffic streets with spacious 
 railroad rights-of-way in the middle accommodat- 
 ing not only two, but sometimes four steel tracks; 
 a continual sudden appearance and flying by of 
 those big, vividly colored, sixty-foot steel cars, 
 
72 
 
 PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
 often made up into trains sometimes six or more 
 cars long; passing through the streets like herds 
 of gigantic beasts made useful and requiring no 
 cage nor fence; their powerful, far-reaching voices, 
 siren signals which grow from the mellow distance 
 and soften away in space — these all are very char- 
 acteristic and truly impressive features of East Bay 
 life. These spacious railroad streets are the 
 real streets, i. c, arteries of traffic of the modern 
 city. These streets are the skeleton on which the 
 practically unbroken settlement extending over 
 eighteen miles, or more, along the east side of the 
 Bay, has been built up — a big community which 
 in its whole make-up and texture shows that it has 
 grown after the invention not only of railroads 
 but of electricity. 
 
 Here, the railroad, which through serious mis- 
 apprehension was the bete noir of the classically 
 inspired city-builders, has overcome the limitations 
 and redeemed the shame of crowding of the old 
 cities and has secured airy homes and house- 
 gardens to hundreds of thousands. 
 
 While thus it is true that Oakland, Berkeley and 
 vicinity have a modern rapid transit system, it is 
 also true that these communities, having been built 
 up by these systems, are very specially and pe- 
 culiarly in need of such a system, and can develop 
 only if these systems develop. They are extended 
 along a narrow plain, stretching between the Bay 
 on one side, and high hills on the other; and 
 in proportion to their population, the distance to 
 be travelled in order to reach the common center 
 is far greater than in most other cities. The long- 
 est street car trip for a five-cent fare in the East 
 Shore Cities is sixteen miles between the San 
 Leandro boundary on the southeast and the termi- 
 nus of the Arlington Boulevard line of Berkeley. 
 
 POSSIBLE IMMEDIATE IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 While the Southern Pacific and Key Route sub- 
 urban lines provide rapid transit with equipment 
 scarcely to be excelled anywhere, the original plan- 
 ning of these lines to serve the ferries rather than 
 the purpose of transit to the business center of the 
 east shore communities renders necessary serious 
 thought and planning to bring about the highest 
 efficiency of which these lines are potentially 
 capable. 
 
 It would appear, however, that with proper 
 pressure by the city upon the Southern Pacific, a 
 few small and inexpensive connections can imme- 
 diately be made which would permit of a far 
 more efficient service in the East Bay district than 
 is at present available. It is understood that the 
 Southern Pacific Company owns the northeast 
 corner of 7th and Webster Streets, and it is clear 
 that a connection between the east and west 7th 
 Street line and the north and south Webster Street 
 line at this point would permit of the routing of 
 cars from the San Leandro boundary to the center 
 of the city at 14th and Franklin Streets, without 
 the necessity of the construction of more than a 
 few hundred feet of track. A study of the time 
 table of the Southern Pacific shows that this line 
 from near the San Leandro boundary to 7th and 
 
 Broadway makes a speed of 17.8 miles an hour, 
 which is twelve minutes better than the time of 
 the street cars between the San Leandro boundary 
 and Broadway at Twelfth Street. It is, therefore, 
 apparent that a saving of time between the San 
 Leandro boundary and the center of the city by 
 10 minutes or over 30% would result from such an 
 arrangement, since from 7th to 14th is only a two 
 minute trip. Experience in other cities has 
 shown that lines which make a saving of this de- 
 gree draw traffic from wide areas on every side, 
 not only because of the time saved, but because of 
 the added comfort of the faster train and larger 
 cars over the often crowded street cars. 
 
 The building of a short connection, a few hun- 
 dred feet in length, between the line connecting 
 14th and Franklin with the 16th Street Station on 
 the one hand and the main suburban line from 
 Berkeley to 16th Street Station on the other, would 
 also permit the saving of from 7 to 9 minutes in 
 time between the center of Berkeley and the center 
 of Oakland over the present travelling time on 
 street cars. A still greater saving would be made 
 by residents of the district north of the center of 
 Berkeley along and adjacent to the Southern 
 Pacific line. However, this latter arrangement 
 cannot be regarded as in any wise ideal. The 
 Southern Pacific line from the 16th Street Station 
 to 14th and Franklin Streets is grossly inefficient 
 as a rapid transit line. The distance is 2.2 miles 
 and the time actually consumed is as great as 16 
 minutes, or slower than the average travelling time 
 of the street cars in the East Bay cities. Some 
 more direct and faster means of transportation be- 
 tween the center of Berkeley and the center of 
 Oakland must certainly be found, and this future 
 problem will be taken up in detail at another place 
 in this chapter (pp. 73 and 75). 
 
 THE EAST SHORE-SAN FRANCISCO LINES 
 
 MUST BE MADE TO SERVE TRAFFIC 
 
 BETWEEN EAST SHORE CITIES. 
 
 The Key Route lines of the San Francisco- 
 Oakland Terminal Railways perform a function 
 only second to that of the Southern Pacific. Un- 
 fortunately, however, 'their service at present is 
 almost entirely confined to travel between East 
 Shore cities and San Francisco. They satisfy in 
 only a slight degree the subsidiary function of 
 serving as well the needs of the business center of 
 the East Shore communities. Furthermore, the 
 Key Route, having been established at a later date, 
 lacks the strategic advantage of such extensive 
 private rights-of-way and franchises over down- 
 town streets, as those which the Southern Pacific 
 enjoys. It appears to be a mistake that the Key 
 Route, is prevented from running its standard 
 equipment along 12th Street from Poplar Junction 
 to the east boundaries of the city. The function 
 of streets is to serve travel and the advantages of 
 offering more rapid transit to the entire East 14th 
 Street district would appear to be greater than 
 any disadvantage which might come about from 
 the running of three or four car trains from the 
 
PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
 73 
 
 San Leandro boundary westward to Poplar Street. 
 It is of course assumed that were permission 
 granted for the running of such trains, local pas- 
 sengers would be carried for a five cent fare. 
 With the apparently inevitable growth of the busi- 
 ness center of the city northward toward its best 
 residence district and the development as business 
 property of the district about 22nd Street, it would 
 also seem most desirable that the 22nd Street line 
 which now terminates at Broadway should be per- 
 mitted to extend eastward along Grand and Lake- 
 shore Avenues, and along such street extensions as 
 may be made through what is known as the Fourth 
 Avenue district ; thence southeastward, tapping the 
 Hopkins Street area, furnishing rapid transit to 
 the district not served by the Southern Pacific 
 electric to San Leandro. This plan involves cut- 
 ting Grand Avenue through one block to Broad- 
 way, a short but very important street opening in- 
 deed. In another place has been discussed the 
 advisability of concentrating all main trunk line 
 railways from the north, west of the present 
 Southern Pacific lines, on the filled land adjacent 
 to the Rees Channel, close to the industries to be 
 established on the waterfront (p. 49 f.). If such 
 a plan should prove feasible the future of the pres- 
 ent Santa Fe line might well be to provide a third 
 rapid transit suburban service through Richmond 
 to the business center of Oakland. The point at 
 which the Santa Fe crosses San Pablo Avenue per- 
 mits of various schemes for extension southward 
 by either Union, Magnolia, Chestnut, Linden, or 
 some other of the numerous unused streets to a 
 point within striking distance of the heart of the 
 city. 
 
 TO DEVELOP EAST BAY SHOPS AND RESI- 
 DENCES ULTIMATE GRADE SEPARA- 
 TION FOR SUBURBAN TRANSIT 
 NECESSARY. 
 
 It can hardly be doubted that the East Bay cities 
 owe their rapid development largely to the excel- 
 lent rapid transit connection with San Francisco 
 and this rapid development can be kept up only 
 if their rapid transit is kept up not only to the 
 present standard, but somewhat in advance of the 
 desired progress of building. The high speed at 
 which the standard lines of the Southern Pacific 
 and the Key Route are run at present on the street 
 level is possible only because the East Bay com- 
 munities, especially in their outlying parts, are 
 still far from being built up. All progress in 
 building and every increase in ordinary street 
 traffic is necessarily a danger to the running of 
 high speed trains on street levels. In other words, 
 while improvements in rapid transit will be from 
 day to day more imperiously necessary, every day 
 of building progress will enforce more cautious 
 running, i. e., slower speed of street cars. Rapid 
 connections between the immense residential areas 
 north of Oakland, and San Francisco, can always 
 be kept up by running fast electric trains from the 
 ferries along the waterfront, using the great rail- 
 road highway to the north, which necessarily will 
 
 be always unobstructed. But the connection be- 
 tween Oakland on the one hand and the immense 
 residential areas north of it will be the first to 
 suffer through the impossibility of fast service on 
 street levels. 
 
 RAPID TRANSIT BETWEEN OAKLAND AND 
 BERKELEY IMPERATIVE. 
 
 It seems absolutely necessary for the con- 
 tinued welfare and growth of the East Shore 
 that rapid transit should be secured and kept 
 up between Oakland and Berkeley and the terri- 
 tory north of it. As has been stated, the travelling 
 time by street car between 14th and Broadway and 
 University and Shattuck Avenues in Berkeley is 
 35 minutes. The distance is 4.6 miles. This is an 
 intolerable condition, making the development of 
 a shopping center on the East Side impossible, 
 forcing East Bay shopping to San Francisco, and 
 postponing the development of the entire northern 
 area, which might be from ten to thirty minutes 
 nearer a large shopping center. This condition 
 must be remedied. It appears from statements 
 made by officials of • the San Francisco-Oakland 
 Terminal Railways that the present plan of run- 
 ning express cars from Hayward to the center of 
 Oakland (by switching the local cars off the main 
 tracks while the express trains- pass) cannot be 
 followed on the routes leading from Oakland to 
 Berkeley, because there are at present no, or not 
 enough, switching facilities to cross-town tracks. 
 This deficiency could be remedied with a small 
 outlay of money by creating the necessary side 
 tracks. This should be done immediately and bet- 
 ter service temporarily secured thereby. There is, 
 further, the possibility of using streets at present 
 unused for the building of new rapid transit lines, 
 or the opening of new streets for this purpose. 
 There is at present no through-going street connect- 
 ing the center of Oakland with the center of Berke- 
 ley not already used for local street car service. It 
 would need the building of some connecting street 
 links in order to use streets like West Street, Dover 
 Street, Milvia or Fulton Streets for through rapid 
 transit service with no stops between the center of 
 Oakland and Dwight Way or Bancroft Way. The 
 question of opening entire new streets for the pur- 
 pose of rapid transit will be discussed in the chap- 
 ter dealing with traffic streets (See p. 86 f.). 
 
 The application of the different methods sug- 
 gested so far for the securing of better connections 
 between Berkeley and Oakland would relieve the 
 present unsatisfactory situation efficiently for quite 
 a number of years until the gradual increase of 
 street traffic, especially of cross-town traffic, cuts 
 down the speed of any line endeavoring to develop 
 high speed at street grade. Meanwhile, new 
 methods of relief must be studied and rapidly 
 worked out. The only possible relief in the long 
 run, i. e., five or ten years from now, will be the 
 creation of a rapid transit highway on an elevated 
 structure. Since a construction of this kind must 
 be prepared for many years ahead, the question of 
 elevated roads in the modern city must be dis- 
 cussed here. Even in California there have ap- 
 
74 
 
 PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
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 3fiB^3 
 
 7 
 
 --'^ 
 
 Ml 
 
 
 _ 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 Jf f 
 
 J 
 
 ^^* 
 
 ^a^ 
 
 ■MB 
 
 '■■'- •_ 
 
 : - "-. 
 
 
 
 ''— 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 ELEVATED RAPID TRANSIT LINE OVER PARKWAY AT FOREST HILLS, BOSTON 
 
 This shows how well an elevated railroad may appear if properly handled by engineer, architect, and landscape architect. 
 Immediately behind this elevated line a well treated steam road overhead crossing may be seen. 
 
 peared already in several larger cities advocates of 
 subway fallacy. This is an issue of the first order. 
 
 ELEVATED VS. SUBWAY. 
 
 The physical conditions in the East Shore Cities 
 with reference to main line and suburban tracks 
 would appear to indicate a general policy looking 
 toward the maintenance of main line tracks at the 
 ground level, and the ultimate elevation of the 
 most important lines of suburban tracks. A hint 
 of this is to be found in recent elevation by the 
 Southern Pacific of its suburban tracks from im- 
 mediately north of the 16th Street Station to 
 Chase Street between Division and 9th, a distance 
 of 3824 feet, or about three-fourths of a mile. 
 This, the first elevated suburban line in California, 
 suggests the future elevation of the suburban lines 
 of the East Bav cities from time to time as condi- 
 tions demand it. (Picture p. 42). 
 
 The battle between the advocates of the subway 
 and the advocates of the elevated lines has been 
 and is being waged in nearly every great city of 
 the modern world, and from a vantage point it is 
 not difficult to foretell the outcome. Even the 
 most ardent advocates of the subway, even men 
 who have taken part in their construction, are 
 rapidlv coming into the camp of those who believe 
 that subways are uneconomical except under ex- 
 traordinary circumstances. "Construction of sub- 
 ways in a few cities," says Milo O. Maltbie, of the 
 New York Public Service Commission, "has given 
 rise to the idea that every city should have sub- 
 wavs, and that all will be profitable. This is a 
 mistaken notion. Subways are easily operated, 
 but they are expensive to construct, and the large 
 cost of construction means large fixed charges. In 
 order to offset this there must be dense traffic or 
 more persons riding short distances. Dense traffic, 
 however, means congestion of population. Areas 
 given over to private houses, each with its own 
 grass plot and gardens, cannot furnish sufficient 
 population to support a subway unless the ride is 
 very short and the rate of fare high." Bion J. 
 Arnold says: "A subway will not pay unless 
 traffic is very dense; consequently from an econom- 
 ical standpoint it is advisable to have subways only 
 in the more congested portions of a city." Henry 
 
 C. Wright, of New York City, at the National City 
 Planning Conference said: "No city can afford a 
 subway. New York cannot afford one. A subway 
 built in almost any city is such an expensive prop- 
 osition that you practically are forced to have 
 congestion in order to get enough traffic to pav the 
 carrying charges upon it." 
 
 The attitude of the leading German authorities 
 is very similar. The current idea of an elevated 
 road in America is derived from the type of ex- 
 cessively hideous and noisy elevated roads seen in 
 Chicago and New York. But no city need build 
 elevated roads of this type. In Europe it has been 
 discovered that for a little greater cost it is pos- 
 sible to build elevateds with tracks laid on ballast, 
 that are much less noisy, and permit of architec- 
 tural treatment that makes them not eyesores in 
 the city, but one of its architectural splendors. 
 In America, Boston has shown pieces of artistically 
 satisfactory elevated roads and the West Philadel- 
 phia elevated line is well ballasted, (pp. 74-76.) 
 
 CALIFORNIA CONDITIONS FAVOR THE 
 ELEVATED. 
 
 California has conditions that are powerful 
 reasons for building elevated railways rather than 
 subways. With sunshine nearly all the year, with 
 no snow or ice, the elevated road may be operated 
 for much less than in cities where snow and ice 
 are serious problems in operation and where the 
 subway, for that reason, has some advantages. 
 During a large part of the year, in Chicago and 
 New York, the subway has a certain advantage be- 
 cause of the comfortable temperature maintained 
 in its caves as against the blizzard blasts upon 
 elevated platforms, but no such argument for the 
 subway may be put forward in the East Shore 
 cities. On the contrary, the bad air, dampness 
 and darkness of the subway would only contrast 
 still more sharply with the sunshine, blue skies, 
 wide view, and balmy air that the elevated passen- 
 ger would for the most part enjoy. In California, 
 at least, the age of caves should give way. The 
 issue today is not noisy, hideous elevateds vs. in- 
 visible, noiseless subways, but the congested, ex- 
 pensive, uneconomic subways vs. good-looking, 
 airy, efficient and economic elevated railways. 
 
PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
 75 
 
 EFFECT OF ELEVATED ON LAND VALUES. 
 
 It is largely assumed that rapid transit lines, 
 either on the street level or upon elevated tracks, 
 decrease the value of property along the streets 
 through which they pass. Such is not the case. 
 To take an example in Oakland itself, it is a 
 fact that the 22nd Street line of the Key Route 
 has increased the value of the property along its 
 course so that the frontage on 22nd Street east- 
 ward from Grove is more valuable than frontage 
 on 21st or 23rd Streets. 
 
 Richard M. Hurd, in "Principles of City Land 
 Values," says: "Despite the heavy damage paid 
 by the elevated roads of New York it is doubtful- 
 whether they injured many property owners. It 
 is certainly noteworthy that over 50% of the prop- 
 erty owners affected did not claim damages from 
 the elevated roads, also that the regular scale of 
 damages paid out of court is only $10 per front 
 foot. One beneficial result of the elevated 
 road between stations is in offering shop- 
 keepers along the route an opportunity to display 
 advertising signs and goods on the upper floors. 
 Where the elevated stations are only five blocks 
 apart, as on the Sixth Avenue line in the shopping 
 district from 14th to 23rd Streets, no building be- 
 ing more than 600 feet from an elevated station, 
 the crowds from the different stations intermingle, 
 so that all stores on the short stretch between sta- 
 tions are benefited by the travel." 
 
 If the above statement is true regarding the 
 noisy, ugly and dirty elevated roads of New York, 
 certainly a well designed, quiet and cleanly type 
 of structure, following the models of Berlin, Paris 
 and Vienna, should have no bad effect on prop- 
 erty values, but rather the reverse. (See p. 87 j. 
 
 The value of the property along the Berlin ele- 
 vated line increased by 40% during the years 1902 
 to 1910. Even where the elevated line has been 
 built in an unsightly manner, as for instance the 
 one connecting Philadelphia with West Philadel- 
 phia (the line is, however, properly ballasted), the 
 increase of values connected with the construction 
 of the rapid transit line was enormous. The resi- 
 dential area in West Philadelphia directly bene- 
 fited by the new line increased its assessed values 
 by $138,000,000 from 1900 to 1912. A subway 
 costs from three to four times as much as an 
 equally efficient elevated road. But even so, the 
 price of an elevated road is sufficiently high (being 
 between $300,000 and $500,000 a mile) to prevent 
 its use except where grade separation is absolutely 
 required. According to information from the City 
 Attorney's office of Oakland, there is nothing in 
 the franchises granted to the street car companies 
 to prevent the municipality, or any other corpo- 
 ration, from building an elevated line along the 
 same streets that are at present used by the street 
 car company or the Southern Pacific. 
 
 AN ELEVATED CONNECTING OAKLAND 
 AND BERKELEY. 
 
 As mentioned before, fast connections between 
 the outlying residential districts and San Francisco 
 can always be made by sending fast trains over the 
 
 STATION OF ELEVATED RAILROAD IN FOREST HILL GAR- 
 DENS, A SUBURR OF NEW YORK 
 
 An example of how elevated railroad structures may lie made 
 attractive, and what advantages airy and sightly elevated lines 
 have over the caves of the subways. 
 
 unobstructed railroad highways along the water- 
 front. But the East Bay region is more vitally 
 interested in securing rapid connections between 
 the centers of these residential districts and the 
 center of Oakland. The need for a rapid transit 
 connection between Oakland and Berkeley on a 
 separate grade will be the first to make itself felt. 
 As a possible route, the following line is suggested : 
 Shattuck Avenue to Telegraph; thence along Tele- 
 graph to 22nd; then swinging around the Oakland 
 business district closely paralleling it, by 22nd and 
 Franklin Streets down at least to 7th Street. A 
 single two track structure for joint use by the dif- 
 ferent companies will accommodate an enormous 
 amount of traffic — as much as is likely to develop 
 for many years. 
 
 The advantage of this unobstructed elevated 
 speedway will be such that later, the follow- 
 ing arrangement may become advantageous: 
 When the development of cross-town traffic cuts 
 down the speed of the different Southern Pacific 
 and Key Route standard lines like the Ellsworth, 
 the Shattuck lines, and the lines on California 
 and Sacramento Streets, these lines will be able 
 to make higher speed by swinging around on the 
 elevated tracks. This would have several con- 
 siderable advantages: 
 
 First, the whole traffic arrangements destined 
 
 PROMENADE UNDER A STEEL-CONSTRUCTED ELEVATED 
 RAILROAD IN BERLIN 
 
 Planted on both sides, this railroad through the middle of 
 prominent streets forms an arcaded colonnade agreeable in time 
 of rain or heat. 
 
76 
 
 PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION 
 
 STEEL-CONSTRUCTED ELEVATED RAILROAD IX PARIS CROSSING A BRIDGE 
 Showing that elevated railroads, in order to have good appearance, need not be of the masonry or reinforced-concrete type. 
 
 for San Francisco would serve the East Bay inter- 
 ests at the same time, and without additional ex- 
 pense; as all Southern Pacific trains from East 
 Oakland and San Leandro on their way to San 
 Francisco pass very close to the business district of 
 Oakland, so all travel from the northeast, east of 
 Sacramento Street would have to touch the very 
 heart of Oakland, giving every traveler the oppor- 
 tunity to choose where to do his shopping. If this 
 arrangement should ever be made, the elevated 
 tracks coming from the north would have to swing 
 to the west on 7th Street. 
 
 Second, the feeding of the thus created main 
 artery of traffic, i. e., the elevated structure, would 
 be done by a strong development of cross-town 
 traffic. This would be an especially desirable de- 
 velopment since the needs of cross-town traffic at 
 present are very poorly served. In a more distant 
 future, an elevation of tracks on 7th Street to the 
 east, and still later perhaps on San Pablo Avenue 
 for a tapping of the wide northern area, should be 
 considered. 
 
 CONNECTION BETWEEN OAKLAND AND 
 ALAMEDA. 
 
 The possible ultimate elevation of the Southern 
 Pacific suburban tracks, and the economic impos- 
 sibility of putting them underground, has to be 
 taken into consideration in connection with the 
 problem of a proper crossing of the Estuary. 
 Some attention has already been given in the chap- 
 ter on the harbor to the project for a subway be- 
 tween Oakland and Alameda under the Estuary. 
 (Compare p. 31 f. of this Report I. In this pre- 
 ceding chapter it is viewed chiefly from the stand- 
 point of the efficiency of the entire harbor, and 
 in the present chapter, therefore, it will be con- 
 sidered chiefly from the standpoint of transporta- 
 tion by rail. 
 
 The subwav plan which is recommended by 
 such high authorities provides for five separate 
 tubes, three on what is known as the Madison 
 Street alignment for vehicles, pedestrians and 
 street cars, and two entering the Estuary near the 
 
 foot of Broadway carrying the Southern Pacific 
 trains only. The estimated cost of this project is 
 S10,000,000, an expense to be borne largely by the 
 tax payers of Alameda County, a sum large enough 
 to justify some further investigation of this big 
 project. There have been made two other 
 projects for fewer tunnels, the cheapest of which 
 would cost only S3,000,000, but the latter projects 
 have been discarded as promising no satisfactory 
 solution of the problem. 
 
 From the point of view of passenger traffic, it 
 is necessary to call attention to the fact that the 
 proposed tubes for vehicle, pedestrian, and street 
 car service involve a considerably longer course in 
 crossing the Estuary than bv way of bridges as at 
 present. In order to reach the great depth of 
 approximately eightv feet below street levels, at 
 which the crossing of the Estuary is made, it is 
 necessary for the tubes to run parallel with the 
 north shore of the Estuary from Webster Street 
 to Madison before crossing. This carries passen- 
 gers whose business is in the district immediately 
 south of the present bridges several blocks out of 
 their way, and the time consumed is considerable. 
 While an elevator system is included in the plan, 
 not a little time would be consumed in descending 
 to the eighty foot level, even in an elevator and 
 coming back again to the street level. 
 
 It would appear that the time lost through the 
 circuitous course and in reaching the level eightv 
 feet below the street would be almost if not quite 
 offset by the time that would be saved by avoiding 
 the delays of bridge openings. 
 
 BASCULE BRIDGE. 
 
 There is no question but that the present bridges 
 are wasteful and inefficient. The recommendation 
 of the previous chapter is that consideration be 
 given to a single well designed bascule bridge of 
 the most efficient modern type. Such bridges are 
 coming more and more into use throughout the 
 world as may be gathered from the fact that one 
 American company has alone built more than 200 
 bascule bridges in this and other countries. 
 The grade necessary to reach the requisite height 
 
RAILROADS 
 
 77 
 
 would begin in the vicinity of Second Street cross- 
 ing the Southern Pacific tracks at First Street 
 overhead, a distinct advantage over the present 
 grade crossings which are certain to become rap- 
 idly more troublesome with the growth of the 
 East Shore Cities. (View p. 30). 
 
 The fact has .been mentioned already that the 
 streets from the Estuary up to 7th Street and 
 further north rise perceptibly and therefore di- 
 rectly invite to a crossing of the Estuary by bridge, 
 while a tunnel is made expensive because it must 
 make a long approach by reason of this rising 
 grade of streets. Second street is eleven feet above 
 city base. Whenever a general policy of elevation 
 of suburban tracks is carried out the descent of 
 the suburban cars from the elevated structure into 
 the tunnels would be still more difficult. 
 
 In this connection, furthermore, the following 
 facts must be considered: 
 
 First, it is an open secret that the Alameda Pier 
 as an intermediary for transportation between San 
 Francisco and Oakland is far from beirfg a paying 
 proposition to the Southern Pacific and there is 
 no reason why traffic from San Francisco to Oak- 
 land should pass by Alameda when the Oakland 
 pier can very well take care of it. 
 
 Second, the Santa Fe railroad has acquired the 
 Adams Wharf and will have to develop a strong 
 car float service between Richmond and Adams 
 Wharf passing under the bridges. Not only, how- 
 ever, could this car float service easily pass without 
 opening under a bridge of sufficient height, but 
 furthermore, as pointed out in this chapter, car 
 float service is very expensive and ought to be 
 replaced soon by the development of an efficient 
 Belt Line. 
 
 Third, the main requirement for uninterrupted 
 connection between Oakland and Alameda is ex- 
 pected to come from the development of the Ala- 
 meda marshes. It must be remembered, however, 
 as has been said in the harbor chapter, that any 
 development that needs absolute and uninterrupted 
 connections with Oakland can settle on the West 
 waterfront. The bulk of the connections between 
 Oakland and the factory sites of Alameda ought 
 to be by lighters and it is to be regretted there 
 have not been provided channels for lighters, cut- 
 ting up the marshes. The working men in the 
 new establishments in Alameda will have homes, 
 not in the business district of Oakland, but most 
 likely in East Oakland. They will use, therefore, 
 not the bridge on Webster Street, but the bridge 
 over the Tidal Canal where also the freight rail- 
 road connections can be made. 
 
 Fourth, it seems that all the future development 
 can be satisfied without the tunnels; there remain 
 the 8000 people who at present live west of Chest- 
 nut Street in Alameda, i. e., in that part of Ala- 
 meda which is served by the Webster Street 
 bridge. These 8000 people would not be able to 
 bear a large share in producing the interest 
 charges on the $10,000,000 tunnels. If these 8000 
 persons should not be satisfied with a model reor- 
 ganization of the bridges, it would be necessary to 
 install so-called "closed hours," as in Chicago, 
 where river traffic has to count with the rule that 
 
 during rush hours the bridges will not be opened. 
 Under the present state of very unsatisfactory 
 bridge conditions the land east of the bridges has 
 only two-thirds of the value of land west of them. 
 The improvement of the bridges will directly ben- 
 efit the land east of the bridges and ought there- 
 fore, to be largely assessed, on this land. This 
 would be of course still more obviously necessary 
 if the bridges should be replaced by tunnels. It 
 is claimed that this replacement would triple the 
 value of the land. It is doubtful, however, 
 whether the owners of the land east of the bridges 
 would think themselves benefited to any consider- 
 able part of $10,000,000, i. e., the cost of the tun- 
 nels. A bridge as proposed would cost less than 
 one-tenth this amount. (See pp. 30 f.). 
 
 NECESSITY OF A FIRM TERMINAL POLICY 
 
 BY RAILROAD COMMISSION AND 
 
 MUNICIPALITIES. 
 
 The recommendations of this report necessarily 
 must be of a somewhat general nature since they 
 are based only on a preliminary study. Further 
 and more detailed investigations ought to be 
 started immediately in order to work out a definite 
 plan. A definite plan along the lines suggested 
 must be arrived at very promptly in order to 
 avoid accidents similar to the regrettable granting 
 of the Key Route franchise which bars the harbor 
 development. As soon as a comprehensive plan 
 is agreed upon the cities and the Railroad Com- 
 mission should grant no more franchises which do 
 not strictly conform to the requirements of the 
 general plan. No ordinance or franchise of any 
 kind should be given to steam railroads or other 
 railway companies unless the ordinance contains 
 definite provisions making the following funda- 
 mentals mandatory upon the road or roads bene- 
 fited by the ordinance: An agreement to co- 
 operate with the other railroads and the East Bay 
 cities in securing comprehensive terminal plan 
 whereby the roads may be systematically grouped 
 with an aim towards highest efficiency through co- 
 operation; this plan must contain the necessary 
 provisions for grade separation where required, 
 for an efficient belt line opening up all industrial 
 areas and giving service to the harbor and all ship- 
 pers indiscriminately; unobstructed approach to 
 deep water for every road that wants to come in; 
 concentration of long distance passenger traffic; 
 an agreement to co-operate with the other roads 
 in establishing universal clearing facilities for car- 
 load and less than carload lots; the acceptance of 
 a just uniform policy regarding switching charges. 
 
 NECESSITY OF A TERMINAL BUSINESS 
 ORGANIZATION. 
 
 The question regarding the best means of prac- 
 tically carrying out a comprehensive terminal plan 
 needs much discussion and study of analogous 
 examples in American cities and abroad. The 
 belt line and the harbor in San Francisco have set 
 the example of State owned terminal facilities. 
 The new belt line in New Orleans is owned by the 
 city. Also for Sacramento a municipally owned 
 
78 
 
 TRANSPORTATION 
 
 belt line was agitated last year. On the other 
 hand, every business man knows how highly de- 
 sirable it is to preserve the commercial spirit in a 
 big business management, especially where big 
 real estate deals are connected with the proposition 
 as in the case in the East Bay Cities. It will make 
 all the difference in the world whether the wide 
 areas reclaimed in building the new harbor and 
 to be served by the belt line are marketed by a 
 public corporation or by an intelligent inde- 
 pendent real estate firm. The problem of creating 
 management of big business affairs which shall 
 enjoy at the same time all the advantages of clever 
 private operation with the prestige and cheaper 
 credit of a public corporation has lately been 
 much discussed in Germany. 
 
 In accordance with the practical and theoretical 
 results of this discussion there may here be sug- 
 gested the creation of a semi-public corporation 
 (or mixed corporation) in which the East Bay 
 Cities, the railroads and the private investor are 
 
 equally represented; the management would have 
 to be altogether a progressive business manage- 
 ment exactly as in a private corporation. The 
 interest of the public, however, would be safe- 
 guarded by a veto power given to the representa- 
 tion of the' East Bay Cities and applying only to 
 a limited number of matters of general policy very 
 much along the lines of the supervisory activity of 
 a local railroad and harbor commission; in ex- 
 change for securing this veto power, the cities 
 would have to furnish their cheaper credit to the 
 terminal corporation, i. e., a law would have to 
 give power to the cities to issue city bonds against 
 the assets of the terminal corporation. These 
 bonds being highly productive would take care of 
 themselves and would not fall under the borrowing 
 limit. The object of this semi-public corporation 
 would be the securing and carrying out of the best 
 terminal plan and terminal policy that can be 
 gotten anywhere, the management of the harbor, 
 belt line and other terminal facilities, and the 
 leasing of the lands owned by the cities. 
 
 CHART SHOWING DISTRIBUTION 
 
 OF INDIVIDUAL DWELLINGS BUILT 
 
 IN OAKLAND AND IN PIEDMONT 
 
 IN 1914 
 
 • 10 ONE STORY BUILDINGS 
 © 10 TWO STORY BUILDINGS 
 
 [L,E.£MNIE>I&@' , 
 
 ACCOMPANYING REPORT OF WERNER HEOEMANN 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF INDIVIDUAL DWELLINGS ERECTED IN OAKLAND AND PIEDMONT DURING 1914 
 tj i. „,„.,.. Ut.o/1 ciri-lp renresents ten two-story bouses: each solid black circle represents ten one-story houses. No other 
 structures such "if flats, apartnenT housed business or industrial establishments are shown. The diagram indicates the popu- 
 structures, sucn as iiais, «.p«u • iUal Avenue for bungalow homes. Notice the almost complete absence of two- 
 
 larity of that part of OaMand^ying east mh ^uiwaie onsider B a ble degree industrial and few homes of any kind are 
 
 story 'houses ' ln O^ the otter 'hand, a concentration of two-story residences is observable about the head of Lake Merritt and of 
 £n«?t££rt£v and [ one-story ^ reSdinces in the Lower Claremont district, where the beneficial influence of the Key Route is 
 rfMrlv^wra It Ts interesting to see, also, how building of dwellings is being stimulated by the Southern Pacific Havenscourt 
 extension and the Key Route, which runs as far as Melrose. 
 
VIEW FROM TOWER OF OAKLAND CITY HALL LOOKING NORTH 
 
 Showing the large areas of homes stretching from the Oakland main business center; also the long arteries of main travel 
 sweeping north. In the immediate foreground are to be seen the extremely long blocks which are at present affected unfavorably 
 its regards their residential character by the immediate neighborhood of the extending business district; at the same time they can 
 be turned into business property with advantage only after having been subdivided by a street opening. 
 
 STREETS 
 
 RADIAL STREETS AND DELIVERY LOOP 
 
 THE BEAUTIFUL OLD AVENUE SUPPLANTED 
 BY THE MODERN RAILWAY-STREET. 
 
 In antiquity, in medieval times, and until the 
 invention of the railroads, the streets and public 
 places were, except for the waterways, the only 
 means of communication. During these thou- 
 sands of years of their existence in the cities of the 
 Old World, they have been carried to high per- 
 fection. Their beauty was established when the 
 railroads were new and still in a rough state. 
 Therefore, even long after the railroads had be- 
 come much more important means of urban 
 transportation than ordinary street traffic, they 
 were regarded with great suspicion bv many city- 
 planners as infringing upon the previously estab- 
 lished standards of street development. Through 
 a curious misapprehension, for a long time it was 
 thought the duty of a true advocate of civic beauty 
 not to embellish the city by building railroads 
 that were beautiful, instead of hideous, but to 
 banish railroads altogether, or at least to keep 
 them out of sight as much as possible, thus at- 
 tempting to handle the problem of communication 
 in the city of today very much in the same way 
 as it had been handled in ancient Rome or in the 
 
 Paris of Louis XIV or Napoleon III. This ten- 
 dency was strong not only in Europe, but also in 
 those American cities, the new plans for which 
 were made by men whose training was drawn from 
 Paris. Even today in Paris trolley cars are con- 
 sidered a disgrace unknown to the glorious "city 
 beautiful" of ancient times. A similar attitude 
 may be found all over the continent of Europe. 
 This attitude against the street cars has powerfully 
 influenced the conditions of the cities. While 
 American cities, beginning with the middle of the 
 19th century, were opening up their surrounding 
 territory by street car lines to the highest better- 
 ment of housing and the preservation of larger 
 gardens and parks, in nearly every one of the cap- 
 itals of continental Europe a successful struggle 
 against transit improvements was organized, which 
 seriously furthered the continuously growing con- 
 gestion of population in the inner city. Philadel- 
 phia, for instance, in the year 1865 had already 
 built 129 miles of street car lines, a mileage that 
 was not reached in Berlin, the capital of Germany, 
 until about thirty years later. This has much to 
 do with the fact that the average population per 
 building in Philadelphia today is 5.2 — in Berlin 
 78. Philadelphia and most American cities are 
 
80 
 
 STREETS 
 
 cities of homes, while Berlin and most European 
 continental capitals are cities of huge tenements. 
 
 THE TWO PURPOSES OF THE MAIN 
 ARTERIES OF TRAVEL. 
 
 The best possible way of fighting the dangerous 
 and quite antiquated animosity against the rail- 
 roads is the development of an efficient street sys- 
 tem capable of accommodating the indispensable 
 street car lines, and, if needed in the future, ele- 
 vated railroads also, in such a way that no harm 
 to any legitimate interests results. In inquiring 
 into the legitimacy of the interests opposing the 
 use of streets for street car or elevated lines, it 
 must be kept in mind, however, that the main 
 object of a modern traffic street is, not to corre- 
 spond to classical ideals developed by ages ignor- 
 ant of the advantages of railroads, nor to further 
 misdirected hopes of abutting real estate owners, 
 but to take care of the rapidly growing traffic 
 without which the healthful development of a 
 modern city is strangled. It must also be remem- 
 bered that by far the largest part of this traffic foi 
 many years will be handled not in private automo- 
 biles nor in subways, but by the means of trans- 
 portation which, • in order to be economic, must 
 be used in common and must avail itself of cheap 
 rights-of-way in the open air, light, and sunshine 
 of the streets. The economic means of common 
 transportation for large masses of people is the 
 street car and, in a more advanced state, the ele- 
 vated railroad. The development of the street 
 system has as its chief object the accommodation' 
 of the great means of common travel, and be- 
 comes for this reason a very important and power- 
 ful factor in the shaping of a city's destiny. 
 
 Next in importance to this chief object of ac- 
 commodating street car lines is the purpose of the 
 street system to create ample fairways for the 
 ordinary vehicles of traffic, especially team and 
 automobile traffic. While the horse team traffic, 
 an inheritance of an older organization of things, 
 is more and more being superseded by direct rail 
 transfers or at least by motor trucks, the automo- 
 bile traffic is growing rapidly. The recent ad- 
 vances in the automobile industry, combined with 
 a sudden and continuous increase in the number of 
 private machines, restores the individual vehicle 
 to an important role in modern city life and re- 
 quires' special provisions. This automobile traffic 
 deserves special attention, not only because it is 
 growing so rapidly, but also because the fact of 
 its connection with the wealthiest part of the city's 
 inhabitants makes it of special interest to the re- 
 tail merchant and to the whole character of the 
 retail trade in a business center. The develop- 
 ment of the "jitney" emphasizes still more the 
 necessity of careful studies of traffic street require- 
 ments. 
 
 The danger of approaching the study of the 
 street problem in an attitude that does not do full 
 justice to modern requirements may be shown by 
 a short discussion of an example from the imme- 
 diate neighborhood of Oakland and Berkeley. 
 
 A STREET STUDY ACROSS THE BAY. "THE 
 
 GENERAL THEORY OF THE CITY" 
 
 OF SAN FRANCISO. 
 
 The most remarkable effort towards producing 
 a city plan ever made around San Francisco Bay, 
 "The Report on a Plan for San Francisco," by 
 Daniel H. Burnham, published by the City of San 
 Francisco shortly before the fire, begins with the 
 pre-railroad basis just mentioned; This report, 
 regardless of the invincible economic objection, 
 banished rapid transit underground because "sur- 
 face traction renders boulevards less agreeable." 
 After thus having taken away the main object and 
 justification of an expensive street system, this 
 remarkable report says, "A city plan must ever 
 deal mainly with the direction and width of its 
 streets." The report then developes what it calls 
 "the general theory of the city" with the following 
 words: "A study of the cities of the Old World 
 developes the fact that the finest examples — Paris, 
 Berlin, Vienna, Moscow and London — consist of a 
 number of concentric rings separated by boule- 
 vards. The smallest of these rings, inclosing the 
 Civic Center — that portion of the city which plays 
 the most important part in civic life — is located at 
 or near the geographical center. This circuit has 
 been named the perimeter of distribution. 
 
 "The accompanying diagram shows at a glance 
 this type of city. [Theoretical diagram of Paris 
 referred to later and reproduced here] . 
 
 M. EUGENE HENARD'S "THEORETICAL SCHEME" OF THE 
 MAIN TRAFFIC STREETS OF PARIS 
 
 By this plan the French city-planner attempted to show the 
 deficiencies of the street plan of Paris in that it had no traffic 
 circuit (inner traffic circle) close enough to the center. 
 
 "From this inner circuit boulevard, run diagonal 
 arteries to every section of the city and far into 
 the surrounding country. Intersecting in the first 
 place the periphery or outer wall, they traverse 
 in succession the various circuit boulevards, which 
 represent in themselves the successive stages of the 
 city's growth, and finally reach the center or group 
 of centers which in a measure they traverse to 
 
STREETS 
 
 81 
 
 connect with one another and form continuous 
 arteries from one side of the city to the other. 
 
 "It is on this study that the proposed system of 
 circulation for a larger and greater San Francisco 
 is based." 
 
 The acceptance of this "general theory of the 
 city" in San Francisco, at present the largest city 
 upon the Bay, makes it necessary to investigate 
 the character and value of this theory. 
 
 This theory was originated by the French city- 
 planner, Eugene Henard, who, being startled by 
 the growing congestion of the streets of Paris, tried 
 to find an explanation of this appalling condition. 
 M. Henard — a thorough Frenchman, be it well un- 
 derstood — began with the fact that the condi- 
 tions of communication in Paris are thoroughly 
 unsatisfactory. In order to analyze and make 
 clear their unsatisfactory state he reduced the 
 streets of Paris to a theoretical diagram. This 
 theoretical diagram of unsatisfactory conditions is, 
 very curiously, the same that is represented in the 
 San Francisco city-planning report as the ideal to 
 be imitated. M. Henard then went further; he 
 reasoned that, not having heard so much com- 
 plaint about congestion in Moscow, Berlin or Lon- 
 don, conditions must be better there. This friend- 
 ly assumption is only partly, if at all, justified. 
 Mr. Henard had never seen those foreign cit- 
 ies, but he assumed that their government and 
 layout, especially the government of Berlin, 
 were thoroughly efficient. Paris, he thought, 
 could cure its own street congestion by copy- 
 ing the city-plans of other capitals where they 
 differed from the Paris plan. It happened, 
 however, that the other capitals, especially those 
 on the continent (the example of London, M. 
 Henard says, is much less clear than Berlin and 
 Moscow), had grown exactly in the same way as 
 Paris; they had been fortified cities for centuries, 
 overcoming only slowly the restraint of their circu- 
 lar fortifications. Circular streets following the 
 fortifications around the congested area were a 
 conspicuous feature in most of them. These cir- 
 cular streets however — and this was forgotten by 
 the French theorist — had never been devised as 
 important means of traffic, but were built after 
 the tearing down of old fortifications, following 
 the line of least resistance over the area freed 
 from jnilitary requirements, and were originally 
 designed as pleasure promenades. The only dif- 
 ference between Paris and other capitals was in 
 size. Paris was a big city when the other capitals 
 
 were still small. The first circle of fortifications 
 therefore, and of streets following them, were 
 large in Paris; in Berlin, Moscow and Vienna the 
 circles were small. 1 The small inner circle of 
 about one mile in diameter was missing in Paris 
 and its absence seemed to M. Henard to be the 
 reason for hearing more complaints about con- 
 gestion in Paris than in other cities. He thought 
 this inner circle could detour much of the traffic 
 around the congested center. He therefore advo- 
 cated the creation of an inner circle in Paris and 
 was very confident that this would cure the Paris 
 congestion. 2 
 
 The following objections must be made against 
 the reasoning of M. Henard and his American fol- 
 lowers. The recommendation of Paris or even 
 other continental capitals that one hears made so 
 often in America as an ideal for regulation of 
 street traffic cannot always be followed because the 
 physical make-up of these capitals is under the 
 influence of the fortifications and political con- 
 ditions that do not exist in America. Further- 
 more, as pointed out in the introduction to this 
 report, the continental capitals have no clearly 
 defined business district, as the Anglo-Saxon cities 
 have, and the whole make-up of their transporta- 
 tion is therefore quite different. In fact, the 
 character of street traffic Henard's theory proposes 
 to take care of is clearly defined by him as a com- 
 bination of the professional circulation that the 
 businessman in Paris has to make during his busi- 
 ness hours, in order to reach the different offices 
 spread all over town and of the fashionable circu- 
 lation of pleasure vehicles, while the traffic need, 
 by far the most important in the American city, 
 is the connection between the home and the office, 
 a traffic which — strangely enough — Henard says 
 does hardly need to be considered, since it can 
 take care of itself. 
 
 AMERICAN ORIGIN OF THE "ROTARY" IDEA. 
 
 There are, however, reasons why this attempt to 
 establish a "theory of the city" finds acceptance 
 in America. These reasons lie in the fact that 
 the theory contains two very obviously good ideas, 
 ideas however, which are not derived from the 
 examples of Moscow, Berlin or Paris, but rather 
 from the traffic conditions and regulations of Lon- 
 don and New York. 3 The merit of the general 
 "theory of the city" of the San Francisco report 
 and of M. Henard is the emphasis placed on diag- 
 
 1 In London, not having been fortified since the great fire of 1665, circular streets were missing altogether. 
 
 2 If Henard had visited the other continental capitals, or if at least the literature of those cities had been written 
 in French, he would have found that they suffered quite as much from street congestion as Paris, and that the inner circle 
 which seemed so ideal to him was still too large or otherwise unadapted to play the detouring role in the street traffic 
 which is so desirable. His idea about this role was altogether taken from a theoretical study of maps and not from a 
 knowledge of actual conditions or reliable traffic counts. No regulations exist to enforce the use of the detouring circle 
 instead of the shorter cut across the center. The circle being large and affording no time-saving did not of itself invite 
 traffic to use it. Even in his own city of Paris Henard had no actual traffic count at his disposal, but was confined to 
 a very arbitrary guess furnished to him by the police authorities. All that which is deductive in this "theory of the 
 city" has therefore as little foundation as the premises of the theory and is as erroneous as the recommendation of the 
 Paris street diagram as an ideal for San Francisco, particularly since the diagram was made to show the deficiency of 
 Paris conditions. 
 
 3 This fact is not sufficiently recognized. It is interesting to read in this connection the article by Arno Dosch, 
 "The Science of Street Traffic," in the World's Work, Feb., 1914. 
 
82 
 
 STREETS 
 
 Flrf /i jSchcma thccnquo tfun iSvtffefi/c de (hruiaf/oji 
 
 THEORETICAL DIAGRAM OF A CENTRAL TRAFFIC CIR- 
 CUIT (OR INNER TRAFFIC CIRCLE) AS ORIGINALLY 
 PROPOSED RY MR. E. HENARD 
 
 onal (or radial) arteries and on the necessity of 
 combining the radial system with a delivery sys- 
 tem in the down town or delivery districts. The 
 latter idea is practically an amplification of a well 
 tested New York idea of regulating street traffic. 
 More than twelve years ago Mr. William Phelps 
 Eno of New York had evolved a system of hand- 
 ling traffic at the intersection of streets as a solu- 
 tion of the traffic problem at Columbus Circle in 
 New York. By this so-called rotary system street 
 collisions are prevented by compelling all traffic 
 to go, not through, but around the center where 
 the collision is likely to occur. No matter at what 
 point a vehicle enters or where it is to go finally, 
 it is compelled to enter the rotary stream of traffic 
 and to go sometimes almost completely around the 
 circle in the center of which the danger of collis- 
 ion and congestion would be greatest. This may 
 seem a needless detour, but it has proved to be 
 the only way traffic can be speedily and safely 
 handled. The French police early imitated 
 regulations of this kind. The valuable ampli- 
 fication given to this American idea by the French- 
 man Henard is its theoretical application to not 
 onlv a single intersection of two or more streets, 
 but to the entire congested traffic district of the 
 city; though Henard's proposed circles are too large. 
 
 THE "ROTARY" IDEA TRANSPLANTED FROM 
 
 THE STREET CROSSING TO COVER 
 
 THE ENTIRE CONGESTED 
 
 TRAFFIC DISTRICT. 
 
 Henard's idea is to forbid any vehicle that wishes 
 to cross the congested center of the city in order 
 
 to reach some point on the other side of it, to go 
 through the congested center. Instead of that he 
 proposes that through-traffic should be detoured 
 by a street around this center, thus creating a kind 
 of belt line encircling the center of congestion. 
 This belt line intercepts the traffic streams of di- 
 agonal (or radial) arteries and acts as a perimeter 
 of distribution, i. e., as their delivery loop. This 
 idea of detouring traffic around much frequented 
 centers is old and has been applied even in medie- 
 val city-plans, but the working out and completion 
 of this idea to a clearly defined conception of a 
 delivery system in the shape of a street circle or 
 semi-circle, close around the business district, to 
 distribute the heavy traffic coming in from the 
 radial trunk streets, is new. The idea of prevent- 
 ing congestion in the business district by detouring 
 traffic through a delivery system closely connected 
 with the radial streets represents the valuable part 
 of the French "theory of the city" and deserves 
 careful attention and investigation. The rest of 
 the "general theory" is accidental, and can be un- 
 derstood only in the light of historical reasons 
 ruling the lay-out of old fortified cities and cannot 
 be held up as an ideal for a city growing in abso- 
 lutely different physical and political environment. 
 This is especially true of what this theory calls 
 "the number of concentric rings separated by 
 boulevards" and the "various circuit boulevards 
 which represent in themselves the successive 
 
 THE HEART OF VIENNA WITH THE "RING," A GREAT 
 INNER TRAFFIC CIRCLE OR TRAFFIC CIRCUIT 
 
 The planning and building of the famous "Ringstrasse" in 
 Vienna (since 1857) as the outcome of the first Vienna city 
 planning competition is the starting point of the modern city 
 planning movement. On the Ring magnificent palaces, public 
 buildings and business blocks I some of them treated as great 
 units) are grouped along fine planting schemes that change in 
 the different sections of the Ring. Some popular public parks 
 are inserted. The Ring surrounds the Old City, one of the most 
 remarkable collections of refined old architecture. The area 
 thus covered, about 700 acres, is a little too large to be con- 
 veniently included in a traffic circuit, making the detour too 
 long; plans for new traffic circuits in other cities must take 
 account of this fact. One mile, the diameter of the Ring, is 
 too much. 
 
STREETS 
 
 83 
 
 stages of the city's growth." The placing of much 
 emphasis on these circular boulevards is hardly 
 justified under modern unfortified conditions. 
 Concentric boulevards in the outskirts are desir- 
 able, but their practicability, as their configura- 
 tion and location, will depend on physical condi- 
 tions and they will always carry a traffic that is 
 but very small indeed, compared with the enor- 
 mous tide of daily travel moving in a radial di- 
 rection back and forth from the outskirts to the 
 business center of the city. The proper accommo- 
 dation and distribution of this enormous tide of 
 radial traffic between the residential suburb and 
 the business center is one of the great problems 
 of a modern city-plan. Most cities suffer seriously 
 from an insufficient anticipation of these pressing 
 demands. Either sufficient radial approaches to 
 the business district exist, but, joining in too nar- 
 row an area, they develop only a very limited area 
 as a business center, creating at the same time 
 serious congestion in this limited area of junction 
 and not allowing sufficient spreading of the busi- 
 ness district; or, again, the lack of radial connec- 
 tions forces traffic into long detours and congests 
 the approaches to the business district because 
 they are insufficient in number. In either case, 
 large tolls must be paid for congestion created by 
 a lack of system in collecting and distributing the 
 radial tides of traffic. The absence of the over- 
 
 
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 LJDCZlj 
 
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 "Tnm ir\ \ir1 
 
 I'lmi'OSr.n CENTRAL TRAFFIC CIRCUIT AND APPROACHES 
 
 ■ PJIIIAHKLPHIA — - t . -,-,-rf - 
 
 CITY OF PHILADELPHIA— CENTRAL TRAFFIC CIRCUIT AND 
 APPROACHES 
 
 Proposed by the Bureau of Surveys of the City of Philadel- 
 phia. The Annual Report of this Bureau (1913, page 20) says 
 about this proposal: "Such a circuit would greatly relieve 
 traffic conditions in the center of the city, would break up the 
 present tendency toward centralization and the intensification 
 of the use of land for business purposes, would enhance the 
 value of the property which is now stationary or declining, 
 would aid in the elimination of slum districts and would add 
 a feature of great distinction as well as usefulness to the city.'* 
 The plan shown above gives the first proposal; its execution 
 has since been blocked by progress of building; the plan had 
 to be changed accordingly. The radial approaches to the cir- 
 cuit as shown in the plan include the famous Parkway, one of 
 the costliest street openings that ever has been undertaken 
 and for which hundreds of buildings have been razed. 
 
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 nanaeDD □□□n 
 
 □ CH □«on]g(eIMo30 □ □ □ □ 
 
 □ □ aizzi □□□ □□□□ 
 
 □□□□□□□□□□□ 
 
 □□□□□□□□□□□ 
 
 THEORETICAL DIAGRAM OF A CENTRAL TRAFFIC CIRCUIT 
 (OR INNER TRAFFIC CIRCLE) 
 
 This is based on a street net similar to the street system of 
 the East Bay cities. In view of the rapidly growing importance 
 of automobile traffic, some traffic circuit like this should be 
 developed by a combined policy of street widenings, street 
 openings, street-car routing and trailic regulations. 
 
 In San Francisco the Police authorities already have enforced 
 something that resembles a Traffic Circuit by detouring the 
 jitneys at certain hours around the center of congestion at 
 Third and Market Streets, compelling them to leave Market 
 Street at Post and letting them return to Market Street at 
 Grant Avenue. 
 
 whelmingly important radial connections is the 
 curse of the many American cities that are laid 
 out on a strict checkerboard system. Enormous 
 sums must be expended to cut the massing radial 
 connections through already built up territory. 
 The most striking case is Philadelphia, a typical 
 checkerboard city, where $15,000,000 is being 
 spent at present for a radial connection between 
 the City Hall and Fairmont Park, with a number 
 of similarly expensive projects ahead. By provid- 
 ing radial streets, in many cases distances between 
 two points can nearly be cut in half. Radial 
 streets, therefore, where they exist, are a great as- 
 set to a growing city, and wherever they are miss- 
 ing in any part of the street system they should 
 by all means be secured before the progress of 
 building and the development of land values has 
 made it enormously expensive or prohibitive. 
 
 THE RADIAL SYSTEM OF THE EAST BAY 
 CITIES. 
 
 The map of the East Bay cities, having 
 grown into its present form without any compre- 
 hensive preconceived plan, is neither all good nor 
 all bad, but shows in its different parts remark- 
 able features that, by proper planning or by care- 
 lessness, may develop either as aids or detriments 
 to the cities' growth. 
 
 Radial arteries, which are the essential necessity 
 for the fluid transportation of the street traffic, 
 are conspicuously represented on this East Bay 
 map, and it is not surprising that by far the largest 
 building activities for many years have been 
 carried on close to the common center where these 
 great radial thoroughfares meet. Fourteenth 
 Street in Oakland was the northern boundary line 
 of the district which in the year 1853 was laid out 
 by the surveyor Kellersberger. Kellersberger is 
 
84 
 
 STREETS 
 
 Accompanying Report of Werner Hegemann 
 
 The East Bay cities have the advantage of an extraordinarily well arranged system of traffic streets leading towards the 
 center at Fourteenth Street and Broadway. This system has not yet been sufficiently developed and made use of for rapid 
 transit. The connections between Oakland and Berkeley arc -not as good as the Transbay connections. They must be bettered. 
 
STREETS 
 
 85 
 
 said to have worked in the office of L'Enfant, who 
 designed for President Washington the plan of 
 the National Capital. The plan of the city of 
 Washington is conspicuous for its admirable sys- 
 tem of radial streets. Keller sberger, however, had 
 learned little with his famous master, or at least 
 had no occasion to show what he had learned. His 
 survey served only the most primitive requirement 
 of producing saleable lots in square blocks 200x300 
 feet in size between streets 80 feet in width with 
 the exception of the main street, Broadway, which 
 is 110.2 feet wide. But immediately north of this 
 survey this wide main street was joined by two 
 natural highways, San Pablo Avenue connecting 
 Oakland with San Pablo, and Telegraph Avenue 
 following a telegraph line. The extension of 
 Broadway to the north was laid out at a width of 
 100 feet, (with the exception of the part between 
 Fourteenth and Fifteenth Streets where it is only 
 90 feet), San Pablo Avenue is 100 feet and Tele- 
 graph north of Twenty-second Street is 100 feet 
 in width (between Broadway and Nineteenth 
 street it is but 80 feet, between Nineteenth and 
 Twenty-second, 90 feet). By these radial streets, 
 the entire northwestern section of the huge East 
 Bay area is opened up in a remarkable way. But 
 all these main arteries meet in one single junction, 
 a situation that has developed the land around this 
 junction rapidly, but which, without proper plan- 
 ning, must very soon bring about serious danger of 
 congestion at this single point; in fact, it has al- 
 ready begun to do so. In order to realize fully 
 the danger, the streets joining in practically a 
 single point will be named in their natural order: 
 
 From the west waterfront comes Fourteenth 
 Street, an important street, but needing a re- 
 arrangement of its jog at Market Street. The next 
 great radial artery to the north is San Pablo Ave- 
 nue which extends in an almost absolutely straight 
 line, at its original width, for about eleven miles 
 to and beyond Richmond. This is one of the most 
 remarkable radial streets to be found in any city. 
 Twenty-five degrees further to the north, Tele- 
 graph Avenue stretches its 4% miles of nearly un- 
 broken length almost due north. Only fifteen de- 
 grees east of Telegraph Broadway extends for 3^ 
 miles northeast. 
 
 But with the streets just named, the remarkable 
 and already dangerous junction of radials at 
 one single point is not completely shown. San 
 Pablo Avenue intercepts the northern traffic of 
 many sub-radial streets, the most important of 
 which are Adeline, Market, West and Grove 
 Streets, all 80 or more feet in width. Telegraph 
 Avenue intercepts Shattuck Avenue and a large 
 number of sub-radials from the east, the most im 
 portant of which is Claremont Avenue. Broadway 
 intercepts the traffic of a still larger northeast dis- 
 trict, the main sub-radials being College Avenue 
 from the north and from the east the traffic of all 
 the streets north of Nineteenth Street. It also 
 drains some part of the Grand Avenue traffic and 
 most of the traffic of Harrison Street and Oakland 
 Avenue, Piedmont Avenue, Grand Avenue and 
 their many hill connections like Lakeshore Ave- 
 nue and Mandana Boulevard. The existence of 
 
 Lake Merritt fortunately deviates some of the 
 northeastern radial streets from their course 
 towards the point of junction near Fourteenth and 
 Broadway and shifts their main entrance to the 
 business center south at Twelfth Street. But even 
 so, Lakeshore Boulevard and Park Boulevard, the 
 down town end of which comes by way of Athol 
 Avenue into Lakeshore Boulevard, largely drain 
 into Fourteenth Street. The same is true of all 
 the territory south of Park Boulevard down to 
 the Inner Harbor and Tidal Canal, including the 
 traffic of important radials like East Fourteenth 
 Street and the Foothill Boulevard, which after 
 crossing from East Oakland to West Oakland by 
 Twelfth Street drain at least a part of their traffic 
 to Fourteenth Street and to the dangerous point 
 of junction under consideration. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF RADIAL STREET SYSTEM 
 
 ESSENTIAL TO EAST BAY SHOPPING 
 
 AND RESIDENTIAL AREAS. 
 
 It has been pointed out, in the chapter on Rail 
 Transportation, how highly desirable it is for the 
 development of the whole East Bay region that 
 there should be built up at least one powerful 
 business center, strong enough to compete at every 
 point with the shopping district of San Francisco, 
 bringing thereby all those communities on the 
 East Bay that at present are tributary to San Fran- 
 cisco, closer to a life-spreading center of activities 
 and to the advantages connected therewith. It has 
 further been pointed out how this development 
 could be and ought to be encouraged by determin- 
 ing the policy of the different suburban railroad 
 systems. It must be the object of this chapter on 
 traffic streets to discuss the treatment of the street 
 system necessary to further this development. 
 
 COLLECTING AND DISTRIBUTING THE 
 TRAFFIC. 
 
 This treatment of the street system must have 
 two objects; the first is the collecting of the traffic 
 originating all over the East Bay section and 
 bringing it to what is called the delivery district, 
 i. e., the district of work, shopping and amuse- 
 ment; the second is, after the traffic has thus been 
 collected, its easy handling and distribution inside 
 the delivery district. 
 
 The description of the radial system which has 
 been made shows that the fundamental require- 
 ments of radial streets are satisfied in a quite sur- 
 prising way. The attention in this direction, 
 therefore, will have to center mainly on minor 
 improvements and on the proper care of the great 
 radial system already existing. The minor im- 
 provements call for a number of small street open- 
 ings providing connecting links which are now 
 missing; proper care demands the maintenance or 
 provision of sufficient widths, sub-divisions, paving 
 and planting of the radial streets. 
 
 PROPOSED STREET OPENINGS. 
 WEST STREET. 
 
 Regarding street openings: the southwest sec- 
 
86 
 
 STREETS 
 
 
 l m& 
 
 AKBOETOSTAT FRANKLIN PARK 
 
 JIXiiHETCF THAT TIG PLEASURE ROAD TKOHEIUDE AND BRIDLE" PATH 
 
 tion of Oakland has no radial connection with the 
 center around Fourteenth Street and Broadway. 
 Some inconvenience will result from this lack; the 
 distance between Fourteenth Street and the water- 
 front, however, is so short that the cost of a radial 
 street would not be justified. The connection of 
 Grand Avenue with Broadway has already been 
 mentioned as a short but important, because a 
 strategic, opening. The extension of Jefferson 
 Street and Castro Street will be dealt with in con- 
 nection with the problems of the delivery district, 
 while the opening of West Street across San Pablo 
 Avenue must be dealt with here. This opening 
 of West Street ought to be considered an impor- 
 tant move in building up the street system needed 
 for the development of a shopping center on the 
 east side of the Bay. West Street at present is 
 the only northern avenue without street car 
 tracks; this street, therefore, may become a line of 
 least resistance for creating an express service be- 
 tween the northern district and Oakland's center. 
 By using either trackless Eleventh Street or that 
 part of Thirteenth Street that has no tracks 
 as yet, a long passage through the heart of the busi- 
 ness center can be secured. After having made 
 stops like ordinary street cars the express service 
 would follow West Street to the north without 
 further stops before reaching Berkeley. On reach- 
 ing Forty-Seventh or Fifty-Third Street connec- 
 tions with Genoa, or better, Dover Street, and 
 thence with Fulton or Milvia Street, to the north 
 could easily be secured. If Fulton Street is se- 
 lected either it must be cut through from Allston 
 Way to Home and Walnut Streets, or Fulton 
 Street must be connected with Oxford Street by 
 cutting off a part of the unbuilt-upon (south- 
 east) corner on Fulton Street and Allston Way. 
 This latter course (connection of Fulton with 
 Oxford Streets) seems preferable to me; it 
 is advisable, however, only if Oxford Street 
 will be sufficiently widened as recommended 
 below (p. 97). It is of course assumed that 
 the extension of West Street, providing physi- 
 cal opportunity for a rapid transit line, would 
 prove attractive to either the Southern Pacific or 
 the San Francisco-Oakland Terminal Railways. To 
 assure such a rapid transit line, the cities of Oak- 
 land and Berkeley would necessarily hedge about 
 any franchise that might be granted over the new 
 street with careful provisions as to number and 
 
 locations of stations and rate of speed to be main- 
 tained: otherwise the line might degenerate into 
 an ordinary street railway. This franchise ought 
 to be especially strict in regard to forbidding 
 stops for about three miles and only after a better 
 system of rapid transit (perhaps by the elevated 
 line discussed in the previous chapter) has been 
 secured, would the West Street surface line be 
 turned over to ordinary local street car service. A 
 similar service in accommodating a new rapid 
 transit line might be played by a street opening 
 connecting the present north end of Clay Street 
 with Dover Street. This opening involves other 
 questions and will be considered later on (p. 92 f.). 
 
 EAST TWELFTH STREET. 
 
 Another important opening of a radial street 
 will be the connection of the different limbs of 
 East Twelfth Street and its linking up with Tevis 
 Street, Hawley Street, Blaine Street and further ' 
 continuance to the east. Streets like Beck Street, 
 Blanch Street and Bancroft Avenue in East Oak- 
 land ought to be connected into a continuous rad- 
 ial line. The same is true of any series of streets 
 able to open up the country in a radial sense. In 
 no street opening in the future should this point 
 be lost sight of. In Berkeley a linking together 
 of the radial system may become necessary in the 
 eastern part of the Campus of the University 
 where an artery at an easy grade should connect 
 with the northeast extension of College Avenue 
 or of Piedmont Avenue. The more local prob- 
 lems of Berkeley traffic streets will be touched 
 upon in a special paragraph below (p. 95 f. ). 
 
 WIDTH OF MAIN TRAFFIC STREETS. 
 
 It will be very important to insure a proper 
 width for all radial streets. There is hardly a 
 single street in the whole East Bay region which 
 can be compared in width with the big arterial 
 roads created in some of the European capitals 
 and which have become a standard object of ad- 
 miration for the Anglo-Saxon visitor, not to 
 speak of historical streets like the Champs 
 Elysees in Paris, 230 feet wide, and Unter den Lin- 
 den in Berlin, 193 feet in width. The meas- 
 urements of a new street, Kaiserdamm in Berlin, 
 may be mentioned here as an example; this street 
 is 180 feet wide; each of two sidewalks with their 
 
STREETS 
 
 87 
 
 t »> " as * r 2? ■ * 50^^ * — 29 ' i ? zef * -26- — 
 
 -SOTF 
 
 COMMONWEALTH AVENUE AT BRIGHTON AVENUE 
 
 3IXUNESOF TRAFFIC CAR RESERVATION PLEASURE ROAD AND BRIDLE PATH 
 
 ARBORWAY AND COMMONWEALTH AVENUE, BOSTON 
 
 American examples of wide and highly subdivided main arteries of traffic. They are missing altogether in the Bay cities street 
 system. 
 
 spaces for grass and trees is 18 feet; parallel to each 
 sidewalk are two roadways 18 feet in width for 
 slow traffic; in the center is the main roadway of 
 36 feet and between the main road and the two 
 slow roads three more spaces for trees and grass, 
 a bridle pathway 18 feet in width and a special 
 grass planted reservation of 36 feet for street cars 
 is provided. The question of width for main 
 traffic streets was lately most carefully considered 
 by the Dusseldorf authorities, in connection with 
 the recent town planning competition, and after 
 much deliberation they definitely advocated the 
 following type of road, viz: a central street car 
 reservation (16 feet), promenade with trees on 
 each side (12 feet each), a roadway of 18 or 24 feet 
 on each side and sidewalks with tree reservations of 
 18 feet each. This gives an entire width of 112 
 or 124 feet. The street car tracks in the center 
 are separated by hedges from the promenades (see 
 p. 88). 
 
 MAIN TRAFFIC STREETS AS FUTURE 
 
 CARRIERS OF ELEVATED 
 
 SPEEDWAYS. 
 
 It would be practically a hopeless undertaking to 
 attempt any general widening of the main radial 
 arteries in the East Bay district. There are a few 
 examples of very wide streets, but only for short 
 distances, the most remarkable being Adeline 
 Street in Berkeley with a width of 180 feet, and 
 Shattuck Avenue with varying widths reaching in 
 some parts 133 feet, 157 feet and 166 feet. These 
 exceptional widths are due to the railroad rights- 
 of-way thrown into these streets, as is the width 
 of llO feet on Sacramento Street. Together 
 with the regulation of the rapid transit conditions 
 discussed in the previous chapter, a new treat- 
 ment of these wide streets on the lines of the two 
 German examples would transform these streets 
 into specially attractive arteries of traffic. Shattuck 
 Avenue, because of the extraordinary width it has 
 north of Ward Street, is especially capable of a 
 splendid and detailed subdivision scheme and of 
 carrying rapid transit even in the form of an ele- 
 vated road, not only without detriment, but to the 
 
 highest advantage to the abutting property. Any 
 street 100 feet in width is sufficiently wide to 
 do this. In addition to what has been said in the 
 previous chapter about the advantages accruing 
 to a street from an elevated line, a new authorita- 
 tive statement of the experience in Philadelphia 
 which has just been published by the Transit 
 Commissioner of Philadelphia may- be given here. 1 
 "The construction of the elevated railroad not 
 only caused no decrease of values but actually 
 stimulated the increase beyond that of neighbor- 
 ing streets. The total increase on Market Street 
 (upon which the elevated railroad is located) 
 from 1900 to 1912 was 84%, while on Chestnut 
 Street and Arch Street which are parallel and a 
 block distant it was 68% and 9% respectively." 
 Market Street is 100 feet wide; the width of Shat- 
 tuck Avenue north of Ward Street would guaran- 
 tee an even more stately and successful accommo- 
 dation for rapid transit; south of Ward Street to 
 its junction with Telegraph Avenue, Shattuck Ave- 
 nue is only 66 feet wide, but the property develop- 
 ment abutting it is of a very cheap character and 
 would be materially benefitted by an elevated 
 rapid transit line even without further widening. 
 Widening of course would be desirable and 
 cheap, especially if negotiated for in exchange for 
 the increment values to be anticipated from the 
 rapid transit line construction. With Telegraph 
 Avenue, again, a fairway of 100 feet is reached. 
 Every single one of the radial streets must be 
 subjected to a special study (which will not be at- 
 tempted in this report) in order to determine what 
 the most desirable treatment of the different roads 
 may be, having in consideration the special kind 
 of traffic that is chiefly using them. The following 
 points should be observed in this study: 
 
 THE MAIN STREETS NEED BETTER 
 SUBDIVIDING. 
 
 First, the present treatment of most of the 
 streets is unsatisfactory because lacking in proper 
 subdivision. The following measurements have 
 given good results for 98 foot streets. Street car 
 reservation in the center, 26 feet, paralleled on 
 
 1 Report of Transit Commissioner, City of Philadelphia, July, 1913, Vol. 1, page 103. 
 
88 
 
 STREETS 
 
 eII-6' 
 
 SIDE 
 WALK 
 
 777777*77777777777. 
 
 24 
 
 ROADWAY 
 
 29 
 
 STREET CAR 
 RESERVATION 
 WITH TREES 5 
 WIRE POLES 
 ALTERNATING 
 IOC 
 
 24' 
 
 ROADWAY 
 
 SIDE 
 WALK 
 
 V Jew. 
 
 •'>",'* r "'»tllJl>l"i ii Hum 
 
 24 — »•— 24 — » 
 
 STREET CAR 
 RESERVATION 
 
 IQO'— 
 
 ROADWAY 
 
 tfr, 
 
 -18'- 
 
 SIDE- 
 WALK 
 
 I©*— +l2 , T-l6'-f | 2'l — '8' — 
 (OR 24') 
 
 (OR 24') 
 
 ROADWAY 
 
 18'-. 
 
 GtA^ ROAO tRASil ROADWAY 
 
 STRffT 
 CAR 
 RESERVATION 
 
 SIDE- 
 WALK 
 
 112.' 
 
 (OR I £4') 
 
 SUBDIVIDING AND PLANTING SCHEME PROPOSED FOR 
 
 THE MAIN TRAFFIC STREETS IN OAKLAND AND 
 
 BERKELEY OUTSIDE THE BUSINESS DISTRICT. 
 
 each side by a 24 foot roadway for three vehicles 
 and a sidewalk of 12 feet; this, however, gives no 
 room for trees. The street car reservation on 
 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, with the trolley 
 poles alternating with trees in the middle is 29 
 feet, the sidewalks on Arbor Way in Boston are 
 15 feet wide including 7 feet as tree reservation. 
 This shows that it would be easy to work out some 
 subdivision for 100 foot streets leaving sufficient 
 room for at least one line of trees. The special 
 arrangement would have to depend on present con- 
 ditions regarding front gardens and already exist- 
 ing trees which if at all well developed must be 
 specially looked out for in a new street subdivision 
 scheme. A system of subdividing the streets, at 
 least the ones of 100 feet in width, as suggested 
 above, would insure a constant clear right-of-way 
 to the street cars. This right-of-way should be 
 planted with grass, the care and watering of which 
 would be cheaper than the very expensive up-keep 
 of pavement close to the tracks 1 ; the general ap- 
 pearance of the streets would be much more pleas- 
 ant; the street cars having to look out for inter- 
 ference by cross traffic only at corners could travel 
 much faster. Owing to the grass, even an in- 
 creased speed would make less dust. The whole 
 street would be divided in two, therefore prevent- 
 ing erratic diagonal movements of vehicles. On 
 both sides of the grassed street car reservation 
 would be enough room for three lines of vehicles. 
 The wear and tear on these two paved roadways 
 would not necessarily be greater than on the pres- 
 ent undivided roadway of greater width. On the 
 contrary, the investigations conducted by Com- 
 missioner of Streets William I. Baccus have shown 
 that in Oakland there is an actual decrease of 
 horse traffic and a steady increase of motor traffic. 
 
 ORDINARY WAY OF SUBDIVIDING TRAFFIC STREETS IX 
 GERMAN CITIES 
 
 Mr. Baccus has shown that on San Pablo Avenue, 
 already 41.5 per cent of all traffic is motor traffic; 
 that its proportion on Telegraph Avenue is 51.1 
 per cent; and on Broadway 72.3 per cent. This 
 motor traffic has the excellent influence on good 
 pavements of rolling them down, and keeping 
 them in better shape if the roadway is narrow 
 than if it is wide. 
 
 OCCASIONAL INEXPENSIVE WIDENINGS OF 
 
 MAIN STREETS AND STREET-CROSSINGS 
 
 SHOULD BE SECURED. 
 
 Second, in a number of cases, inexpensive widen- 
 ing like that of CoUege Avenue, for instance, 
 should be contemplated by immediately fixing 
 building lines behind the property lines. Many 
 buildings at present are 5, 10 or more feet behind 
 the property line and it would be bad policy to 
 let them rush to the property line at a time when 
 the increase in traffic will make widenings desir- 
 able and beneficial for the street as a whole. It is 
 not necessary that these widenings follow uniform- 
 ly the whole building line the full length of the 
 street. The improvement will go far enough if all 
 the land which at present is still available without 
 great expense is secured. Even occasional widen- 
 ings are very desirable from a traffic point of view 
 and combined with some artistic treatment give 
 special character and attractiveness to the street. 
 The leading English city-planner, Mr. Raymond 
 Unwin, 2 emphasizes the point that, where junctions 
 of important roads occur, space for the circula- 
 tion and spreading out of vehicles should be pro- 
 vided to facilitate passing and crossing, and also 
 that at all road junctions the buildings should be 
 set back at the corners to enable approaching vehi- 
 
 n In this connection an interesting statement was made lately by Prof. Chas. Gilman Hyde of the University of 
 California, an authority on street paving matters. According to this statement, the daily watering of the grass, even 
 with the high prices paid at present for water (35 cents for 1000 gallons), would be cheaper than interest, depreciation 
 and maintenance of the pavement. The great savings possible in the original investment are referred to in the chapter 
 on residential streets. Eventually Oakland and Berkeley will secure water at 20 cents for 1000 gallons as San Jose al- 
 ready does. This is very important. New Orleans offers fine examples of many grassed street car reservations. 
 
 2 Compare, for instance, his paper before the London Society reproduced in the Journal of the London Society, 
 January, 1914. 
 
STREETS 
 
 89 
 
 cles to be seen at a sufficient- distance from the 
 meeting point. There are a great number of im- 
 portant street junctions in the East Bay region 
 where an understanding between the private own- 
 ers around the junction before the new buildings 
 go up, would lead to inexpensive but very charac- 
 teristic and highly profitable treatment in the 
 shape of little circular places or squares. Obser- 
 vation of a certain uniformity in the buildings, at 
 least in general outline and in material, would add 
 greatly to the appearance of these points. It is 
 another point strongly emphasized by Raymond 
 Unwin that the beauty of streets of all kinds de- 
 pends largely on the form of the road junctions 
 and the treatment of the buildings there. 
 
 TREE-PLANTING REQUIRED. 
 
 Third, special attention will have to be given to 
 the planting of the main traffic streets. This 
 point will have to be taken up more fully in the 
 chapter on parks and pleasure drives. Here it 
 may be stated only that the absence of parks and 
 especially of fine drives, under which the East 
 Bay suffers, is a serious handicap, and could be off- 
 set to some extent by providing space for and 
 planting shade trees on the streets. The character 
 of the streets one has to travel through every day 
 is a powerful factor in either attracting to or re- 
 pelling from a center of business, shopping and 
 
 amusement. (For pictures of well planted traffic 
 streets see pp. 9, 71). 
 
 GRADUAL STREET WIDENING. 
 
 Fourth, regarding the widening that is necessary 
 in streets like College Avenue or any other street,' 
 the example of Philadelphia, where a scheme has 
 been successfully adopted under which there is 
 very little interference with property or business 
 interests should be mentioned here. Through the 
 establishment by a city ordinance of a new build- 
 ing line and the gradual condemnation of the 
 property as new buildings or new fronts to old 
 buildings were erected, the expense of acquiring 
 the additional strip of land was spread over so 
 long a period as to make the burden on the public 
 treasury almost negligible. Thus the paramount 
 rights of the public are recognized and the city 
 is empowered to set aside private property for 
 public use on giving bond to cover such damages 
 as shall be awarded after the land has been actu- 
 ally appropriated; i. e., the city has the power to 
 place proposed streets and new building lines on 
 the city-plan, the effect of which is to put all af- 
 fected owners on notice that if they erect build- 
 ings on the lands embraced in such proposed street 
 widenings or openings, they do so at the risk of 
 losing the money so invested when condemnation 
 proceedings are instituted to construct the new or 
 wider street which has been plotted on the city map. 
 
 THE DOWNTOWN OR DELIVERY DISTRICT 
 
 THE DELIVERY DISTRICT OF THE 
 RADIAL STREETS. 
 
 A stronger effort than for the development of 
 the radial streets will be needed for the improve- 
 ment of the streets in what may be called the de- 
 livery district, i. e., the district of shopping, busi- 
 ness and amusement into which the loads of pas- 
 senger traffic gathered all over the East Bay region 
 must be delivered speedily and conveniently. The 
 description of the radial streets converging at 
 Fourteenth Street and Broadway made it obvious 
 that the East Bay section is creating a serious 
 traffic problem around this junction. According 
 to the traffic expert, Mr. fm. P. Eno, it is the 
 ideal that not more than two ordinary streets 
 should meet in a single point. The situation at 
 the crossing of Fourteenth Street and Broadway 
 where practically the whole East Bay region is be- 
 ginning to deliver its traffic to a single point, is 
 far from this ideal. In regard to such a problem 
 two courses can be taken, the one is to let matters 
 drift along as a more and more serious handicap 
 to the development of the East Bay and its pros- 
 perity, a plan that will finally make necessary a 
 cure that will cost many millions. The other is 
 to foresee the difficulties and their possible solu- 
 tion, applying the cure at a time when it is still 
 cheap, and does not demand the destruction of 
 costly investments. The first course is easy but 
 
 expensive; the second course requires a great out- 
 lay of energy, but is cheap from a financial point 
 of view. The name of the first course is careless- 
 ness, the second is called efficiency. 
 
 In considering the possible means for establish- 
 ing an efficient street system in the delivery dis- 
 trict in order to facilitate the easy distribution of 
 the rapidly growing traffic and prevent its con- 
 gestion, especially around the junction of the great 
 radials near Broadway and Fourteenth Street, a 
 number of local street problems in that same 
 neighborhood must be considered. These prob- 
 lems are: 
 
 LACK OF CROSS STREETS. 
 First, the lack of cross streets in the blocks be- 
 tween Fourteenth Street and Nineteenth Street 
 and Franklin and Oak Streets; here the blocks are 
 about 1300 feet long, compared with a length of 
 300 feet in the ordinary Oakland business block. 
 The extraordinary length of the blocks mentioned, 
 and still more so of the blocks between San Pablo 
 and Telegraph Avenues referred to below, is due 
 altogether to the fact that they practically never 
 were laid out as urban property; lying north of 
 the original Kellersberger survey, and not as yet 
 having been needed for business purposes, these 
 blocks have always remained in die agricultural 
 and then semi-urban state in which they still are 
 today. A look at old pictures and maps of Oak- 
 
90 
 
 STREETS 
 
 OAKLAND'S BUSINESS DISTRICT FROM AN AEROPLANE 
 
 View taken in 1913 before the building of a number of the new skyscrapers. This picture, like the one on page 79, shows the 
 extraordinarily long unrelieved cross streets immediately north of the business district between San Pablo and Telegraph avenues. 
 
 land shows clearly this pre-urban state of affairs. 
 (Compare maps pp. 4, 5, 6, views pp. 79 and 90 j. 
 This extraordinary length of blocks is a serious 
 matter not only because it makes it much harder 
 for these blocks, having so few corners, to get a 
 start as business property, but also because it 
 forces a large amount of travel to points east of 
 Broadway, such as Lake Merritt, the new munici- 
 pal auditorium and points in East Oakland, as 
 far south as Fourteenth Street, contributing 
 thereby to the growing congestion around 
 Fourteenth Street and Broadway. A similar 
 problem is presented by the unusual length of 
 the blocks between San Pablo and Telegraph Ave- 
 nues and by the narrowness of the streets separat- 
 ing these blocks. The shortest block north of 
 Seventeenth Street is more than twice as long as 
 an ordinary business block in Oakland and the 
 
 blocks further north are three or four times as 
 long. 
 
 DIFFICULTY OF TOO LONG BLOCKS. 
 
 The mere length of a block does not neces- 
 sarilv make it unusable for business purposes. It 
 is true as has been stated by Mr. Richard M. 
 Hurd in his standard treatise "Principles of City 
 Land Values" that "blocks having a depth of over 
 200 to 250 feet involve a waste of land at the in- 
 terior of the blocks owing to inaccessibility. Salt 
 Lake City with blocks 660 feet square furnishes an 
 aggravated case of loss in value of land by bad 
 platting. The short-sightedness is due to a suppo- 
 sition that the value of retail business land is 
 based on area instead of on frontage." This truth, 
 however, does not apply to the two series of Oak- 
 land blocks considered, because, in spite of their 
 
STREETS 
 
 91 
 
 extraordinary length, the blocks between San 
 Pablo and Telegraph Avenues are only 200 feet 
 deep and even the much longer blocks between 
 Franklin and Oak Streets, have a depth of less 
 than 250 feet. These blocks might be useful 
 enough for business purposes, provided there was 
 enough traffic passing these extraordinarily long 
 frontages. In fact, as soon as the character of a 
 business street is thoroughly established and a con- 
 tinuous stream of shoppers through it is secured, 
 its long uninterrupted frontages are rather an asset 
 because they present a continuity of shops with- 
 out breaks in the cohesion of the chain of attrac- 
 tive show windows and inviting doors. They also 
 protect against dangers and interference by cross 
 traffic and create a security equally welcome to the 
 walking and carriage trade. The continuous 
 stream of traffic necessary for a business street 
 comes, however, as a rule, only to a street that lies 
 in the direction of the traffic movement. If the 
 direction of the street is opposed to accommodat- 
 ing the radial flow of daily traffic — and this is the 
 case with the streets between Telegraph and San 
 Pablo Avenues — a shortening of the blocks is 
 needed. And even though the streets like Frank- 
 lin and Webster are parallel to the direction of 
 traffic it is hard for blocks as long as the ones un- 
 der consideration to get their first start as business 
 property without more frequent cross streets, 
 which create valuable corner lots and facilitate 
 circulation. It is not surprising, therefore, that 
 several movements have ' been organized among 
 the property owners in the two districts men- 
 tioned, (i. e., between Fourteenth and Nine- 
 teenth Streets, Franklin Street and Lake Merritt 
 and in the angle between San Pablo Avenue and 
 Telegraph Avenue) to open up new streets. These 
 local demands no doubt have just foundation in 
 the unusual conditions prevailing in those neigh- 
 borhoods. 
 
 LOCAL DEMAND FOR STREET OPENINGS 
 
 MUST FIT IN A GENERAL PLAN FOR 
 
 TRAFFIC ACCOMMODATIONS. 
 
 The object of a comprehensive city-plan, how- 
 ever, is less to satisfy such local demands than to 
 bring them to a compromise with the more general 
 necessity of the business district as a whole, and its 
 transportation needs. From a general point of 
 view, it can be said that no street in or near the 
 business district should be opened which does not 
 promise to satisfy the rapidly increasing demands 
 for easier circulation in the business district as a 
 whole. This is especially true with new street 
 projects in the neighborhood of the point in dan- 
 ger of congestion at the junction of Fourteenth 
 Street and Broadway. It has been sufficiently 
 pointed out how, by a curious configuration of the 
 East Bay street map, practically the whole East 
 Bay section is more and more delivering its traffic 
 through the junction under consideration. All 
 contemplated street openings should take note of 
 this danger and should be planned in such a way 
 as to alleviate it. It has further been pointed out 
 
 in the first part of this chapter, how the applica- 
 tion of the practical traffic ideas of Mr. Wm. P. 
 Eno in their development by M. Eugene Henard 
 present the possible means for the alleviation of 
 the danger of traffic congestion (pp. 82 and 83). 
 
 TO GET AROUND THE CONGESTION POINT. 
 
 The solution referred to calls for the crea- 
 tion of streets capable of detouring as much 
 traffic as possible around the junction point 
 in danger of congestion. There must be at 
 present a certain amount of traffic which 
 passes through the point in danger not be- 
 cause it wants to get there, but because it wants 
 to reach some place beyond, which cannot more 
 easily be reached by another route. As an ex- 
 ample to make clear this proposition, the recent 
 opening of Washington Street in front of the City 
 Hall may be taken. Before this opening was per- 
 ' fected, a certain amount of traffic from the north 
 that at present leaves San Pablo Avenue by Wash- 
 ington Street could not leave it before reaching 
 Broadway and thus congested the dangerous point 
 under consideration. A street opening of similar 
 importance has already been advocated in this re- 
 port: it is the through routing of West Street 
 across San Pablo Avenue, and the same may be 
 said about Castro Street, and Jefferson Street. 
 All these openings would deflect growing masses 
 of traffic from the Broadway and Fourteenth 
 Street junction. These street openings would be 
 especially important and inviting to traffic ap- 
 proaching the business district because this ap- 
 proaching traffic would find these street openings 
 at the right hand, i. e., the traffic could enter them 
 without crossing and interrupting the main traffic 
 
 JEFFERSON STREET "OPEN" SINCE 1868 
 
 Cut made from part of the old Boardman map of Novem- 
 ber, 1868, showing the plan of streets as adopted and approved 
 by the City Council, November 16, 1868, and showing that 
 already in 1868 it was intended to open up Jefferson Street. 
 The map shows the connection with old Frederick Street, i. e., 
 Nineteenth Street. The map now is cracked and faded, but 
 Jefferson Street is still blocked. 
 
92 
 
 STREETS 
 
 3QC 
 
 tatrar 
 
 ACCOMPANYING REPORT OF WERNER HEGEMANN 
 
 O 400 
 
 PROPOSED STREET OPENINGS IN THE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT 
 
 BOO 
 
 1200 
 
 1600 
 
 Proposed street openings and widenings shown by heavier lines. Dotted lines represent streets to be closed or street lines to 
 be changed. The various proposals are discussed on this and the following pages (see also p. 91). The openings recommended 
 here cover to' some extent the lines of the purely theoretical diagram of a central traffic circuit shown on p. 83. The entrance 
 (from Telegraph Avenue) to the crescent-shaped connection between Nineteenth and Clay streets is illustrated by the drawing of 
 Architect L. C. Mullgardt, p. 93. 
 
 stream on San Pablo Avenue. As many such 
 deflections of traffic as are possible from San 
 Pablo Avenue to the southwest should be created 
 from Telegraph Avenue and Broadway. In this 
 connection, a widening of Sixteenth Street between 
 Broadway and San Pablo Avenue and of Seven- 
 teenth Street between Franklin and San Pablo 
 Avenue would be desirable. While it is already 
 too late for the widening of Sixteenth Street be- 
 tween Telegraph and San Pablo Avenue and of 
 Seventeenth Street between Franklin and Broad- 
 way because modern expensive improvements have 
 already been made on these streets, the widening 
 of Seventeenth Street between Broadway and San 
 Pablo Avenue can still be accomplished. 
 
 SEVENTEENTH STREET MUST BE WIDENED. 
 
 The widening of Seventeenth Street between 
 Broadway and Telegraph Avenue would be es- 
 pecially short and cheap and would have a very 
 beneficial result in deflecting traffic from the con- 
 gestion point at Broadway and Fourteenth Street. 
 The little oblique inclination, though it is not 
 quite strong enough a deflection to the south, which 
 is. found in the cross streets between Telegraph 
 Avenue and San Pablo Avenue, especiaUy the 
 course of Sixteenth Street and Eighteenth Street 
 and even more in Seventeenth Street between 
 Franklin and San Pablo Avenue, looks very much 
 like the start of half circular detouring streets 
 
 around the dangerous point of junction, in the 
 sense of the French theory referred to above. Any 
 emphasis that could be given to this intimation of 
 delivery loops (perimeters of distribution) by fur- 
 ther developing these potential detouring streets 
 would have far reaching results for the easier dis- 
 tribution of traffic and building up of the business 
 district. 
 
 THE "CARRIAGE TRADE." 
 
 It is in this light that both the private demands 
 for a rearrangement of streets between Telegraph 
 Avenue and San Pablo Avenue on the one side 
 and the demand for facilitating communication 
 between the northeastern district of residences 
 and the southwest district of business should be 
 considered. In the northeastern residential dis- 
 tricts, including all the expensive residences in 
 the hills between Lake Merritt and the University 
 Campus in Berkeley, originates quite a consider- 
 able amount of that trade which is of some special 
 interest to the retail merchants. The interest in 
 this growing amount of so-called carriage trade is 
 due, perhaps not so much to the fact that it repre- 
 sents a large purchasing power, as to the curious 
 suggestive influence it has on the character of a 
 business district in setting its standard and pace. 
 To divert this kind of trade from San Francisco's 
 retail district to the East Bay would have high 
 commercial results benefitting all the large ma- 
 
STREETS 
 
 93 
 
 DESIGN SHOWING TELEGRAPH AVENUE ENTRANCE TO PROPOSED CRESCENT CONNECTING NINETEENTH STREET 
 
 WITH CLAY STREET 
 
 In this design Mr. Louis Christian Mullgardt, the architect, has given a suggestion of how the entrance to the important 
 street connection proposed in this Report may appear if artistically treated in combination with the entire new street. The 
 desirable connection between the East Hay shopping center and the residential areas north of Lake Merritt can be efficient 
 only if it is attractive and psychologically forceful. The large triangular block created by the proposed street would give 
 occasion for the building of an ideal high olliec building which set back from its base would possess adequate light and air 
 and be secured forever against blanketing. The base of this office building would be treated as a uniformly arched colonnade, 
 one side of which would follow the outline of the new crescent street. 
 
94 
 
 STREETS 
 
 joritv of buyers who so eagerly in modern coun- 
 tries combine their democratic ideals with in- 
 vincible admiration for fashionable and expensive 
 social standards. Whatever the economic and 
 moral aspects of these facts may be, they are 
 sociological, and it would be a vain attempt to 
 prevent enterprising business men making the best 
 of them. From the point of view of the East Bay 
 business man, and therefore of the whole East Bay 
 section, it is highly desirable to create intimate 
 connections between the residential hill districts 
 and a prosperous business district. There ought 
 to be some splendid drives leading directly into the 
 best shopping district and some of the streets 
 blessed by the neighborhood of Lake Merritt may 
 by careful treatment finally develop into some- 
 thing that suggests the splendid approaches that 
 one finds in the old carefully planned cities. These 
 avenues, like Grand Avenue and Harrison Street, 
 must have easy and direct outlets into the business 
 district. My proposal therefore, is to connect the 
 northern end of Clay Street by an 80 or 90 foot 
 street in a northeasterly direction with any street 
 that may act as an inviting outlet for the streets 
 carrying the radial traffic from the northeast resi- 
 dential district. Since this connection is intended 
 to deflect vehicle traffic from the junction of 
 Fourteenth Street and Broadway and to act as an 
 inviting course for fashionable motoring, the pro- 
 posed street ought, if possible, to connect streets 
 which carry no street cars. This kind of most 
 desirable connection between the residence and 
 shopping district could be secured by widening 
 (taking the front gardens only) and connecting 
 Nineteenth Street with the present north end of 
 Clay Street which has already, especially in its 
 upper end, made such a rapid start towards be- 
 coming an ideal shopping street somewhat like 
 Grant Avenue in San Francisco. Clay Street is 
 close to the center of town, and, without having 
 a street car track of its own, it is served by every 
 means of transit close by. 
 
 VIEW OF A HIGH GRADE SHOPPING STREET (CLAY STREET, 
 OAKLAND) KEPT FREE FROM STREET CAR TRACKS 
 
 This picture shows at the end of the street the point where 
 would begin the proposed crescent-shaped connection of Clay 
 Street with Nineteenth Street and the residential districts north 
 of Lake Merritt. A high building built in connection with this 
 crescent-shaped street (as shown on p. 93, design by L. C. 
 Mullgardt) would just appear in view looking north on Clay 
 Street, i. e., at the end of the vista shown here. 
 
 The proposed street opening would be identical 
 with the change in the direction of Eighteenth 
 
 Street between Telegraph and San Pablo Avenues, 
 that is to say, the old course of Eighteenth Street 
 could disappear or be narrowed to an alley with- 
 out detriment to anyone. If the difficulties pre- 
 sented by this change in the course of Eighteenth 
 Street should be too great, a more northerly con- 
 nection must be taken, i. e., connection between 
 Clay Street and Twentieth Street, thereby con- 
 serving the present Eighteenth Street. Carrying 
 the idea of connecting Clay Street with Nineteenth 
 Street a little further, it would be desirable in the 
 course of reconstruction to widen Nineteenth 
 
 ARCHED COLONNADE AROUND AN OFFICE BUILDING, 
 HOUSTON, TEXAS 
 
 Colonnades like this or rather placed under the second story 
 (instead of being placed outside the ground floor as shown 
 in this picture) were very common not only in cities of 
 Southern Europe but even in Northern France and Germany. 
 The East Bay cities have an ideal climate for this attractive 
 arrangement by which not only protection against sun and 
 rain is secured for the sidewalks — a great attraction for the 
 shopping public — but by which in critical cases essential 
 street widenings can be effected. Present sidewalks can be 
 thrown into the roadway, new sidewalks being built under 
 the second floor of abutting buildings. 
 
 Street (between Telegraph and San Pablo Ave- 
 nues) to the south; thereby Nineteenth Street 
 would become the direct continuation of Nine- 
 teenth Street east of Telegraph Avenue and, in 
 connection with the already discussed opening of 
 Jefferson Street, act as another much-to-be-desired 
 outlet for the movement from the northeast resi- 
 dence district. If anything like intelligent co-op- 
 eration between the property owners south of Wil- 
 liams Street could be secured, this widening and 
 street opening ought to be combined with the cre- 
 ation of an effective half circular place, the axis 
 of which would be Telegraph Avenue. Here is 
 one of the few chances to adorn the East Bay 
 down town district with a somewhat spectacular 
 improvement, the effect of which would be the 
 greater and the more beneficial the further could 
 be carried the architectural co-operation of the 
 property owners in the streets to be constructed. 
 This suggestion of an extension of Clay Street in 
 a northeastern direction seems preferable to me to 
 the extension of Clay Street in a northerly direc- 
 tion parallel to Telegraph Avenue, as has been 
 proposed by others. This does not mean, how- 
 ever, that I am blind to the advantages which even 
 the latter opening would have compared with no 
 opening at all. 
 
STREETS 
 
 95 
 
 APPROACH TO AUDITORIUM. 
 
 An idea similar to the northeastern extension of 
 Clay Street could be successfully applied to the 
 area east of Broadway and north of Fourteenth 
 Street. In this area it would be desirable to make 
 the approach of Nineteenth Street easy and wide. 
 This would require, beside the acquisition of the 
 front gardens, chiefly the cutting of one corner, 
 i. e., the northwest corner of Nineteenth Street 
 and Harrison Street in order to make an easy turn 
 around this corner. The main problem in this 
 district, however, as mentioned before, will be the 
 creation of a street connecting the northwest sec- 
 tion with the new municipal auditorium and East 
 Oakland without passing through the junction of 
 Broadway and Fourteenth Street. At present, 
 Webster Street, leaving Broadway south of 
 Twenty-Sixth Street, to a certain extent serves 
 this purpose. This course of travel could be im- 
 proved by connecting Webster Street with Oak 
 Street by extending Eighteenth Street for two 
 blocks with a connection to Lake Street. This, 
 however, would not sufficiently solve the problem 
 of the too long blocks refered to. Another course 
 therefore may be proposed here: starting from 
 Sixteenth Street and Telegraph Avenue, cutting 
 through the blocks east of Broadway, and reach- 
 ing Fifteenth Street between Jackson and Madison 
 Streets. By changing slightly the course of this 
 short piece of Fifteenth Street by widening it half 
 to the north and half to the south, and swinging 
 around to Fourteenth Street, the whole would be 
 one continuous sweep without sharp corners or 
 breaks. 
 
 South of Fourteenth Street the circulation for 
 a long time will be comparatively easy because of 
 the shortness of blocks and width of the streets. 
 In order to secure a satisfactory co-operation be- 
 tween the many lot owners in the different dis- 
 tricts affected by the proposed street openings it 
 is recommended that local building associations or 
 syndicates be created for the special purpose of 
 carrying out the street opening along lines equally 
 satisfactory from an economic and aesthetic point 
 of view. As an interesting example of a similar 
 procedure, the case of the German city of Elberfeld 
 may be quoted, where the official city-planning 
 office of the city succeeded in combining all own- 
 ers affected by an economically difficult street 
 opening into a co-partnership. In the specific case 
 under consideration, the municipal savings bank, 
 upon recommendation of the city authorities, lent 
 the amount of two million three hundred thou- 
 sand marks to the lot owners' co-partnership, the 
 city guaranteeing the interest. The tearing down 
 of the old houses and the building of the new ones 
 was thus carried out speedily and with great eco- 
 nomic success in accordance with the plans worked 
 out by the city. 1 
 
 The problem of the congestion of streets by 
 automobiles standing at the curbs will not be dis- 
 
 cussed here but the final necessity of municipal 
 garages can hardly be doubted. 
 
 APPROACHES TO SHATTUCK AND 
 UNIVERSITY AVENUE CENTER. 
 
 Special consideration, independent of the gen- 
 eral problem of the radial connections with the 
 main business center around Fourteenth and 
 Broadway, must be given to the question of good 
 connections with the growing business center 
 around University and Shattuck Avenues in Berk- 
 eley, which is developing into an important sub- 
 center of high value to East Bay progress. Much 
 can be done for the development of this center by 
 a proper policy of street car routing to be enforced 
 from the street car companies, but additional 
 impetus should be given by providing those radial 
 street connections to the center which are lacking, 
 and which can be created without much cost. Es- 
 pecially should connections be created which will 
 make some of the particularly fine streets of the 
 northeastern and northwestern part serviceable to 
 Berkeley interests. A better connection can and 
 should be made between Sonoma Avenue and 
 Marin Avenue which without doubt one day will 
 become in their entire length part of the street 
 system of Berkeley proper. If Sonoma Avenue in 
 turn is better connected either with Grove Street, 
 or, preferably, with Shattuck Avenue, these streets 
 will together form powerful drains for the traffic 
 of the greater portion of the northwest sections to- 
 ward the business center of the city. If that cannot 
 be done, Marin Avenue connecting with The Ala- 
 meda and a widened Grove Street might serve the 
 purpose. Grove Street deserves special attention 
 because it is the one through level street from Oak- 
 land into North Berkeley. From Adeline Street 
 to Hearst Avenue Grove Street is eighty feet in 
 width; from Hearst to Yolo Avenue it is only 
 sixty; beginning with Yolo Avenue it appears as 
 The Alameda, a spacious one-hundred-foot avenue 
 making several important connections. The im- 
 portance of the entire group of streets makes the 
 widening of Grove Street from Hearst to Yolo Ave- 
 nue imperative and a better intersection of Grove 
 Street, The Alameda, Sonoma and Yolo should be 
 arranged for. 
 
 The difficulty of securing proper main avenues 
 from northeastern Berkeley, particularly from the 
 Cragmont district, is increased by the hilly char- 
 acter of the land in that direction. Euclid Ave- 
 nue north of the Berkeley city line and Spruce 
 Street, forming the city line for some distance, may 
 be counted on to drain this section, but it would be 
 well to bring them to the business center by easier 
 grades. This could best be accomplished by feed- 
 ing them into Shattuck Avenue at some convenient 
 point; the best point for the purpose probably 
 would be at Rose or Vine Streets between which 
 Shattuck Avenue widening to 133 feet forms 
 a Place. Shattuck Avenue, the most impor- 
 tant artery of Berkeley, ought to be widened 
 
 1 For further information look up the official publication of the Prussian Department of Public Works i. e. Cen- 
 tralblatt der Bauverwaltung, March 7th and 16th, 1907. 
 
96 
 
 STREETS 
 
 from Vine Street to University Avenue to a width 
 sufficient to provide for a double track rapid tran- 
 sit line with wide vehicular traffic roadways and 
 tree lined sidewalk areas on either side. Prob- 
 ably a width of from 110 to 120 will be nec- 
 essary. West Berkeley, so far as connection with 
 the business center is concerned, is well taken care 
 of by University Avenue. West Berkeley has 
 in Sacramento Street an Avenue of extraordi- 
 nary width by reason of land given for the 
 Key Route franchise. Sacramento Street was 
 made 110 feet wide to Rose Street; from 
 Rose to Hopkins Street it is but 60 feet 
 wide, and should there be widened in order 
 to secure the use of this street in its entirety as a 
 traffic street or parkway. Hopkins Street is 
 66 feet wide from San Pablo Avenue to its inter- 
 section with Sonoma Avenue where it becomes 100 
 feet wide. Since it carries the tracks of the Key 
 Route, it should be made at least 100 feet wide 
 above Sacramento Street, and possibly for its whole 
 length. The Claremont district in Southeastern 
 Berkeley is not yet properly connected with the 
 business center around Shattuck and University 
 Avenues. As connecting lines, I suggest a compre- 
 hensive development of Durant Avenue, a widened 
 College Avenue and Ashby Avenue opened into the 
 Tunnel Road. If that is not feasible, Durant and 
 Piedmont Avenues, Warring and Derby Streets, 
 Claremont Boulevard and (with the widening of 
 Russell Street east of Claremont Avenue) a connec- 
 tion with The Tunnel Road thereby. College Ave- 
 nue, as stated before, should be widened. Also for 
 Telegraph Avenue north of Dwight Way, the Phil- 
 adelphia scheme recommended above, of establish- 
 ing a new building line, is advocated. Al- 
 though the structures now built on Telegraph 
 Avenue north of Dwight Way are expensive, they 
 will some day have to be torn down and at that 
 time the new building line should be enforced. 
 In favor of this opening it is to be said that the 
 main entrance to the University from the south re- 
 quires a greater width than the present 60 feet 
 available in that part of Telegraph Avenue, which 
 lies between Dwight Way and the Sather Gate, in 
 contrast to the rest of Telegraph Avenue which is 
 100 feet wide. On the other hand, the importance 
 of this Telegraph Avenue widening is not to be 
 overestimated because it must be kept in mind that 
 Telegraph Avenue, in its northern end, is not in- 
 tended to carry through traffic. 
 
 "SHATTUCK SQUARE." 
 
 On Shattuck Avenue between Bancroft Way 
 and University Avenue Berkeley has what 
 may be styled its local down-town problem, 
 though its aspects of course are different 
 from and less complicated than the down- 
 town problem of the entire East Bay sec- 
 tion around Fourteenth and Broadway. The 
 present congestion on the east side of Shattuck 
 Avenue between Bancroft Way and University Ave- 
 nue becomes increasingly greater and more dan- 
 gerous. The Key Route trains should run from 
 Bancroft Way, or even as far south as Alcatraz 
 
 Avenue over the Southern Pacific tracks and 
 stop in the present yards of the Southern Pacific 
 Company, a scheme more feasible as soon as 
 the Key Route line is extended and through rout- 
 ing to further outlying points takes the place of 
 the present stub-end terminal arrangement of the 
 Key Route. This will come in connection with or 
 independent of a scheme of co-operation for an 
 elevated structure. The present duplications of 
 terminal facilities is unnecessary and undesirable — 
 a handicap brought about by ill-applied competi- 
 tion at a point where co-operation ought to be 
 enforced by the authority of the City or Railroad 
 Commission. Shattuck Avenue, 157 feet wide 
 as far as Allston Way, near this junction point 
 with University Avenue widens out to a real Place 
 (Stanford Place, view p. 69) which, with proper 
 architectural treatment, will have a splendid future 
 as an attractive basin for gathering a large part 
 of the commercial activities of local Berkeley. A 
 serious effort should be made to enhance the at- 
 tractiveness of this Berkeley business center. The 
 recommended subdivision scheme of the wide area 
 of Shattuck Avenue should terminate in this 
 widened place with a parking scheme studied as 
 a terminal feature. From this point of view, as 
 from the architectural one, and still more so from 
 the commercial one, it does not seem desirable to 
 me to open up Walnut Street as a full-fledged 
 street. These are the points to be considered in 
 this connection. The necessary radial connections 
 to the north and northeast can be made as pointed 
 out without opening Walnut Street, provided 
 Shattuck Avenue is widened from University 
 to Vine Street. Opening Walnut Street would 
 not correspond to a necessity of traffic, but 
 would break up one wall of the basin rep- 
 resented by what might be called Shattuck 
 Square in which the commercial activities of 
 Berkeley should be collected in a powerful unit. 
 If too many streets open up from this Square the 
 shops are in danger of frittering away in the dif- 
 ferent directions without giving the decisive im- 
 petus to one locality without which no real attrac- 
 tion can develop. From an aesthetic point of 
 view, also — and this must be considered in build- 
 ing up the psychology of a business center — the 
 conciseness necessary for creating an attractive 
 Place or Square effect is destroyed if too many 
 streets tear holes in the walls of the Square or 
 Place. I therefore recommend the connection of 
 Walnut Street with Shattuck Square by an arcade 
 for foot passengers only. Thereby Walnut Street 
 will become a most desirable place for high class 
 apartment houses, in immediate walking connec- 
 tion with the largest center of traffic and shopping, 
 but cut off from the noise, danger, and dust of 
 teaming and through traffic, and insured against 
 the encroachments of business developments which 
 put property in a kind of intermediary state of 
 hesitation and doubt. Walnut Street should be- 
 come a through-traffic street only if its connection 
 with Fulton Street should prove necessary. That 
 is to say only in case Oxford Street should not be 
 widened sufficiently to take care of the growing 
 traffic that feeds into it. 
 
STREETS 
 
 97 
 
 The role of Oxford Street is important because 
 it is the first street south of the Campus; the en- 
 tire traffic between the districts east and west of 
 the Campus must take this course and the mere 
 fact that the street not only faces the most im- 
 portant architectural scheme of the city but is 
 destined to accommodate the most important 
 entrance gates to this University, ought to be 
 sufficient reason for increasing its present width of 
 60 feet or less (with a roadway of only 36 feet). 
 In order to give Oxford Street a roadway of at 
 least 50 feet I two street car tracks at present 
 crowd the street and must be taken better care of) 
 the 10-foot sidewalk along the Campus side of the 
 street should be thrown into the roadway and a 
 part of the front gardens of the houses on the west 
 side should be taken. The planting of the street 
 must be carried on inside the Campus line as de- 
 scribed in the chapter on drives (pp. 135, 
 155). It also will be necessary to eliminate 
 the hump which at present defaces Oxford 
 Street between Center Street and University 
 Avenues. This change of grade need not have 
 any undesirable consequences for the Uni- 
 versity grounds and its architectural jewelry 
 provided the main axis of the architectural 
 scheme (which axis in its course from west 
 northwest meets Addison Street just in the middle 
 of this objectionable hump) is treated — as in- 
 tended — only as a great ideal feature, not as a 
 main traffic street. The entrance to the Univer- 
 sity grounds from Addison Street can be developed 
 as a beautiful scheme of marble steps (i. e., a foot, 
 not vehicle entrance) rising from what might be 
 called "University Circle" (a plaza at corners of 
 Addison and Oxford), while the vehicle traffic 
 would use the easier grades of Center and Uni- 
 versity Avenues, as at present, rising to the Uni- 
 versity level by ramps imbedded behind the 
 marble stairs. By this arrangement of stairs the 
 steep grade of Addison Street between Oxford and 
 Shattuck can be lowered and it becomes less neces- 
 sary to carry Addison Street across the tracks of 
 the Key Route and Southern Pacific towards the 
 west of Shattuck Avenue. If in some future time 
 the traffic of the East Bay section becomes heavy 
 enough to bring elevation of the main rapid tran- 
 sit lines it will be an easy matter to carry Addison 
 Street across Shattuck under the forthcoming ele- 
 vated structure. For vehicles the main entrances 
 should always remain University Avenue and 
 chiefly Center Street. The latter is perfectly 
 adapted to the role of a main entrance not only 
 by its width and easy grade but even more so by 
 the grandiose silhouette of the Campanile which 
 perhaps nowhere more beautifully sends its stir- 
 ring call over the foliage to a southern sky. This 
 — in the true sense of the word — enormous feature 
 of the Campanile rules Center Street and makes 
 it the ideal connection between the Campus and 
 Shattuck Square and especially with the Civic 
 Center, which latter will remain altogether under 
 its power if only the Civic Center Buildings — every 
 single one of them — are placed with due regard 
 for the Campanile, this svelt East Bay giant, cap- 
 italizing his strength for the glory of West Berke- 
 
 THE CAMPANILE, RULING CENTER STREET, SEEN FROM 
 SHATTUCK AVENUE 
 This is the vista, the preservation of which, as far down as 
 Grove Street, is urged in the proposals for a Berkeley Civic 
 Center (compare last chapter of Report I . 
 
 ley also. A single building stupidly placed west 
 of the Campus can blanket the tallest building of 
 the Campus and can take its beauty away from the 
 citizens of West Berkeley. The grouping of the 
 buildings around and on the proposed civic center 
 therefore must take its inspiration from the mighty 
 neighbor and have him present in all the vistas, in 
 all the windows facing east and on the doorsteps 
 of the city hall and of important new buildings. 
 This is discussed p. 148 f. In connection with the 
 University plans it is highly desirable to change 
 slightly the course of Addison Street, at least be- 
 tween Oxford and Shattuck, (as shown on map p. 
 152) in order to emphasize the great University 
 axis and help link it to the Golden Gate. 
 
 I suggest the submission of the entire proposi- 
 tion of what I call Shattuck Square, including the 
 present and future improvements of the rapid 
 transit arrangement, the station, parking, the 
 architecture of the surrounding buildings, and 
 their desirable limitations, to a comprehensive 
 planning study. This will be in some sense a 
 more important "Center" than the center of ad- 
 ministration and education in front of the Berke- 
 ley City Hall. The connection with this contem- 
 plated "Civic Center" and the connection with the 
 University campus according to the newest plans 
 for the axis and approaches to the University must 
 both form important items in the working out 
 of the future of Shattuck Square. Business Cen- 
 ter, Civic Center and Campus, if well connected 
 and built in harmony, can develop into one of the 
 most inspiring trinities of artistic city-planning. 
 At present they merely drift along without con- 
 sideration for each other. The working out of 
 detailed plans for specific improvements such as 
 those under consideration cannot be a part of this 
 general report, the main object of which is to 
 point out tbe possible lines of further study. 
 
 BUILDING REGULATIONS 
 
 A problem of vast importance connected with 
 the development of the business district is the 
 
98 
 
 STREETS 
 
 in p 
 
 
 an 1 
 
 IIUl 
 
 1 M Juts e 
 
 I Ml* 
 
 1H3 1 
 aai a 
 aaa a 
 
 SOME OF THE BROADWAY GIANTS 
 Sho"\ving an almost ideal spacing between skyscrapers. If nothing is done to make this state of things permanent the building 
 
 proper limitation of the heights of buildings. 
 The heights of buildings must be in close rela- 
 tion to the width of streets for two reasons: First, 
 because as buildings grow larger and house more 
 tenants they necessarily produce more traffic until 
 finally the street is not capable of handling it; 
 congestion must result and finally expensive street 
 widenings will be forced upon the city. Sec- 
 ond, only if height of buildings and width of 
 streets are in proper relation can sufficient light 
 and air be secured in the buildings. All European 
 cities are verv strict on this point. None of the 
 famous European capitals with their millions of 
 population have buildings as high as some of the 
 office buildings in Oakland or Berkeley. Berlin 
 has no office or apartment buildings higher than 
 six stories; no new buildings of this character can 
 be built higher than five stories. In America, also, 
 the necessity of regulations is becoming more and 
 more recognized and careful investigations into 
 this matter have multiplied in the last few years, 
 the most notable one being the report of the 
 Heights of Buildings Commission to the Commit- 
 tee on the Heights, Size and Elevation of Buildings 
 of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of 
 the City of New York, delivered December 23d, 
 1913. This report which represents the best ex- 
 amination into this matter that has been made up 
 to the present time, had its impulse in the fact 
 that there are considerable sections in the borough 
 of Manhattan in which large numbers of buildings, 
 because of lack of light and air, are no longer 
 reasonably profitable. Many lofty buildings which, 
 when first erected, were highly profitable, are un- 
 profitable today. These small returns on the in- 
 vestment are largely due to the fact that two-thirds 
 of the offices require artificial light at all times. 
 In order to avoid the repetition of similar calami- 
 
 ties, the Heights of Buildings Commission recom- 
 mends that the city should be divided into districts 
 and the restrictions for each district worked out 
 for the particular needs and requirements of that 
 district. A set of restrictions is to be worked out 
 with a view to securing as much light, air and re- 
 lief from congestion and safety from fire as is con- 
 sistent with a proper regard for the business re- 
 quirements and existing land values. Similar steps 
 are absolutely necessary in every modern city and 
 must be taken before thev work hardship on values 
 that have developed irrespective of common sense 
 and human needs. The American skyscraper 
 more and more is recognized as being able to 
 produce architectural effects of the highest value 
 and a most fascinating skyline; if treated properly 
 it can be developed into a great asset. 
 
 AIR AND LIGHT TO BE SOLD ON THE REAL 
 ESTATE MARKET. 
 
 Many efficient schemes of building regulation 
 have been proposed that force the builder of high 
 buildings to provide every window with a suffi- 
 cient amount of air and light falling into it at a 
 satisfactory angle. It would be especially de- 
 sirable, and would bring the most satisfactory re- 
 sults, if real estate owners could more and more 
 be induced to have their plans for new office build- 
 ings (or apartments and tenement houses) made 
 with reference not alone to their single lot but to 
 the whole block, even if owned by different owners. 
 Tt will more and more prove profitable to secure 
 such comprehensive plans. Made on a co-operative 
 basis, these plans should combine the different 
 narrow court-yards in the interior of a block into 
 one big one capable of some planting in the 
 center. Towers should be permitted only on those 
 
STREETS 
 
 99 
 
 !H¥iU : 3 1 3 
 
 5333333 
 
 m 
 
 3333111 
 
 333 
 
 3133111 
 
 III 
 
 naaaai 
 
 !133 
 
 ^*~^^^ 
 
 an 
 
 OVERLOOKING THE OAKLAND ROOFS 
 
 of new skyscrapers will produce unsatisfactory conditions in regard to light and air, as bad as in San Francisco if not New York. 
 
 lots which are really adapted to the purpose. By 
 this co-operation, the possible maximum of light, 
 air and truly rentable floor space will be secured 
 on an equitable basis. The man who is permitted 
 to build higher than his neighbor should pay him 
 for the guarantee of unobstructed air and light; 
 air and light will be on the real estate market like 
 land; air and light in shape of easements will be 
 bought, sold and leased. It is a mere business 
 proposition to exchange desirable conditions for 
 the most unsatisfactory dark results produced by 
 individuals blanketing each other. 
 
 ENTIRE BUSINESS BLOCKS AND STREETS 
 BUILT UP ON COMPREHENSIVE PLAN. 
 
 Tbe districting of the city of course will have 
 not oidy to apply to the business district, but as 
 well to the industrial and residential districts (map 
 p. 55], the latter being divided into districts for 
 private residences, apartment and tenement houses. 
 The use of private restrictions is so common 
 around the Bay, and the necessity of supple- 
 menting and superintending the too short pri- 
 vate restrictions (which in many cases are 
 about to expire, thus endangering the values 
 of the neighborhood) by community restrictions 
 has been acknowledged so often by prominent 
 real estate men that no new effort will be 
 made in this report to elucidate this point. Co- 
 operation between different property owners 
 will be necessary also for securing satisfactory 
 building exteriors. Famous business streets, like 
 Regent Street in London, Place Vendome and Rue 
 de Rivoli in Paris, owe their beauty to uniformity 
 in their building lines. Other examples are found 
 in Vienna. The newest example, however, is a 
 very remarkable instance in Berlin where a great 
 
 department store is gradually acquiring building 
 after building, tearing these buildings down, even 
 if quite new, and replacing them by a splendid- 
 looking seemingly endless row of beautiful uniform 
 pilasters. Oakland contains a very successful ex- 
 ample of the harmonious treatment of a whole 
 block in the Hotel Oakland (p. 101). Sim- 
 ilar good results securing the highest amount 
 of light, air and rentable floor space, combined 
 with pleasing architectural appearance, can very 
 well be secured by co-operation of lot own- 
 
 Oil 
 
 OAKLAND CITY HALL ON CHRISTMAS EVE 
 
 The picture shows clearly how the upper part of the building 
 is set back from the street lines — an ideal arrangement not only 
 for public, but for private skyscrapers. The carrying into 
 effect of this principle would altogether assure tall buildings 
 against being blanketed by tall neighbors. 
 
100 
 
 STREETS 
 
 THE CLAUS SPRECKELS BUILDING, SAX FRANCISCO 
 On Market Street (120 feet wide) and Third Street (100 feet). 
 
 This is in several respects an ideal skyscraper; it is situated 
 on a corner lot, thus securing permanent air and light on at 
 least two sides. It is architecturally developed on all four 
 sides showing thereby the intention of the owners that it should 
 not be blanketed by neighboring buildings, one of which is 
 under the same control as the skyscraper. This building at 
 present impressively dominates Market Street and the vista 
 from O'Farrell, Kearny and Third streets. Buildings as high 
 as the Claus Spreekels Building on either side would destroy 
 its distinction and seriously diminish its renting value. Here 
 is indicated the necessity of proper spacing of skyscrapers by 
 a sensible plan for restricting the height of buildings. 
 
 ers even in eases where different purposes have 
 to be served on the same block. Co-operation 
 between the lot owners would also prevent the 
 most unpleasing exteriors that come about 
 through high buildings exposing their inter- 
 minable and blank party walls for decades, 
 sometimes forever, seriouslv defacing thereby the 
 appearance of the city. Typical cases of this can 
 be found in Oakland and Berkelev. The Univer- 
 
 sity Campus for decades is defaced by the aspect 
 of such blank party walls of adjoining buildings, 
 higher than the highest buildings of Berlin or 
 Paris. The beauty of Lake Merritt will be injured 
 forever, if apartment houses are indiscriminately 
 permitted to go on exposing their heedless party 
 walls. I refer particularly to apartments on the 
 south side of Grand Avenue with their rear walls 
 facing the lake. Land lying in a city, especially 
 land lying in the business district, should not be 
 handled in the same way as agricultural land 
 where everybody may grow what he wants without 
 regard to his neighbor. The present state of 
 Broadway in Oakland is very remarkable in that it 
 contains a series of high office buildings standing 
 out very much like towers, and all surrounded by 
 light and air. This state, if it could be made per- 
 manent, would be near the ideal, but of course 
 there is nothing to guarantee its permanency, and 
 
 JAPANESE SHOPPING STREET 
 
 Prom a color print by the famous Hiroshige, showing that 
 the harmonious effect achieved so commonly in Europe by 
 uniform cornice lines is known also to the Japanese city- 
 builders. Uniform shopping streets as shown here can be 
 seen in Japan wherever cheap Westernisin has not yet lowered 
 the older standards of good taste. 
 
STREETS 
 
 101 
 
 A FASHIONABLE HOTEL 
 
 This is NOT from the jungle of downtown Manhattan, but 
 the rear of a highly fashionable hotel in San Francisco, show- 
 ing by the naked exposure of its hare party walls, expectation 
 of having its narrow light shafts blanketed and light shut out 
 altogether. Here is a demonstration of the dangers of unregu- 
 lated skyscraper building. This example is especially disheart- 
 ening because the hotel was built for, and is used by, people 
 who should know better, and who ought to enforce higher 
 standards. What will be the conditions with respect to light 
 and air in the fair city of San Francisco when the many 
 unbuilt-on lots in the central districts are covered with build- 
 ings? Note : The unbuilt-on lots in this picture are its only 
 relief. 
 
 other high buildings will be erected and will crowd 
 the older ones and each other. (Views pp. 98 and 
 99). 
 
 THE MAJORITY OF REAL ESTATE OWNERS 
 
 ARE INTERESTED IN RESTRICTION 
 
 OF BUILDING HEIGHTS. 
 
 A few lot owners may be largely benefited 
 by this system, at least temporarily, but for the 
 large majority of land owners this indiscriminate 
 elevation of buildings means a serious menace. 
 The high building where it stands acts as a 
 dangerous suction pump of values. This danger 
 may be best illustrated by New York conditions 
 where the land on Broadway rises as high as 
 
 SHATTUCK HOTEL, BERKELEY 
 
 Showing the harmonious effect resulting from the treatment 
 of an entire block front according to. a uniform architectural 
 plan. The ground floor is used by different shops, showing 
 that uniform architecture does not exclude varied uses. The 
 comprehensive treatment of one or two fronts of a block is, 
 however, no guarantee against such rear views as that shown 
 in the preceding picture. Comprehensive planning of the entire 
 block (as shown in the next picture,) is the end to be aimed at. 
 
 HOTEL OAKLAND 
 
 An example of an entire block treated according to one com- 
 prehensive architectural plan — a guarantee against unpleasant 
 reverses of an economic, hygienic and aesthetic kind. By 
 placing the open space toward the street a kind of court of 
 honor is created agreeably augmenting the volume of street 
 space and varying the street aspect. There is no reason why 
 entire blocks should not be treated thus comprehensively even 
 when owned by various interests. By pooling their holdings 
 the various owners in a vacant block suitable, for example, 
 for apartment houses, could substitute one splendid well- 
 designed structure for a dozen ill-lighted small ones, not only 
 obtaining a vastly more rentable and valuable building, but 
 eliminating a host of items of cost — -party walls, fire escapes, 
 elevators, offices and lobbies, heating plants, etc. Only by 
 co-operation can highly economic and aesthetic results be 
 achieved. This applies equally well to office and varied busi- 
 ness blocks. 
 
 HOTEL OAKLAND HAS NO REARS 
 
 View of Hotel Oakland looking west; corner Alice and Four- 
 teenth streets. 
 
 rr 
 
 1 
 
 V 
 
 14™ STREET 
 
 13™ STREET 
 
 3 
 
 MOTEL OAKLAND 
 
 OAK1AHP. CAL. 
 
 r 
 
 The court in front of the hotel is considerably larger than 
 appears on this plan of the ground floor. The second story 
 sets hack, overlooking a wide balcony formed by the roof 
 of the projecting ground floor. 
 
102 
 
 STREETS 
 
 $22,000 per front foot for a lot 100 feet deep; for 
 some corner lots to the tremendous height of 
 $1,250,000 for a lot 25 feet wide by 100 feet deep. 
 These values drop inside of one thousand feet to 
 the east down to $25,000 a lot, i. e., to one-fiftieth. 
 As Mr. Lawson Purdy, the President of the De- 
 partment of Taxes and Assessments in New York 
 City, has pointed out, "If we could have made 
 suitable regulations thirty years ago, there prob- 
 ably would be no lot worth a million and a quar- 
 ter, but there would be no lot in that territory 
 worth as little as $25,000. The values would have 
 spread. . . . We would not have had such dense 
 crowds on the few streets and those streets too 
 narrow to carry the people." 
 
 The detailed working out of the different dis- 
 tricts, and the formulation of restrictions governing 
 them, will be an important part of the work of the 
 City Planning Commissions to be appointed in 
 
 Oakland and Berkeley. The local interests should 
 be heard in every case. 
 
 Regarding the artistic as well as the technical 
 and hygienic side of the problem (appearance, 
 combining of individual court yards, uniformity 
 of cornice and rooflines, angles of sunlight, even 
 the laying down of rear building lines) much is 
 accomplished in German cities not only by stricter 
 building laws, but by the institution of Municipal 
 Bureaus of Building Advice which, by convincing 
 suggestion, persuasion and intelligent manipula- 
 tion of the building police, succeed in protecting 
 the individual builder and contractor against hun- 
 dreds of senseless aesthetic and economic blun- 
 ders, thereby transforming advantageously the 
 character of entire neighborhoods. Remarkable 
 examples are to be found in Essen, Cologne, 
 Bremen, Germany; but also in Gothenburg and 
 Stockholm, Sweden, through the Municipal City 
 Planning Bureaus. 
 
 Courtesy of W. H. Weilbije 
 
 OAKLAND'S BUSINESS DISTRICT LOOKING ACROSS THE LAKE FROM LAKESIDE PARK 
 
 This fine "many-towered Camelot" appearance will be destroyed if wild building of high struc- 
 tures is permitted without logical protections and regulations regarding height of buildings and 
 proper spacing of sky-scrapers. Alread> two types of improvements appear; the first architec- 
 turally well developed towers, the second party walls, water tanks, and a jungle of steel and 
 stone. 
 
RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 103 
 
 THE RESIDENTIAL DISTRICTS IN THE EAST BAY HILLS— IN THE FOREGROUND LAKE MERRITT 
 
 Where the roses flower two weeks earlier than on the level land and where Nature provided protection against interference 
 from freight railroads and terminals. 
 
 RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 SAVINGS TO BE EFFECTED BY PROPER 
 PAVING OF RESIDENTIAL STREETS. 
 
 The streets that have heretofore been considered 
 were the traffic streets, the roadways of which 
 can seldom be too wide and too well paved to 
 serve their purpose. A very different treatment 
 must be given to streets that serve only residential 
 purposes. Large sums of money can be saved by 
 giving up the mistaken idea which still prevails 
 that residential streets ought to look and be paved 
 like traffic streets. These large savings can be 
 effected in the residential streets by paving road- 
 ways from 18 to 20 or a maximum of 24 feet only 
 and by parking the rest of the street with the ex- 
 ception of turning points for vehicular traffic which 
 should be provided where necessary. Even 
 if under the California climate the cost of watering 
 and upkeep of the parked spaces should be nearly 
 as high as the repair of the pavement, there still 
 would be great advantage in favor of parking be- 
 cause the original outlay would be much smaller, 
 not to speak of the undebatable fact that the 
 attractiveness of a well-parked residence street is 
 much greater than that of a street with wide 
 glaring, hot and dusty pavements. The upkeep 
 of the grass, however, according to a statement of 
 Prof. Chas. Gilman Hyde (page 88, note No. 1) 
 would rather be cheaper. The water mains, gas 
 mains, and wire conduits may then be placed under 
 the grass instead of under the pavement, the latter 
 being thereby protected against expensive cut- 
 ting. The cities of Winnipeg and Kansas City 
 have made extensive and satisfactory experiments 
 with much narrower roadways than are common 
 in American cities. 1 
 
 WASTE OF WIDE, EXPENSIVE, GLARING 
 PAVEMENTS IN RESIDENCE STREETS. 
 
 The enormous savings that can be made by more 
 sensible paving methods may be illustrated by the 
 following calculations made by Mr. C. L. Huggins, 
 the former city engineer of the city of Berkeley: 
 
 October 23d, 1913. 
 Dear Dr. Hegemann: 
 
 At your suggestion I have made a rough calculation of 
 the effect of the adoption by Berkeley of a scheme of con- 
 fining wide roadways to those streets that are required for 
 through traffic, and narrowing all residence roadways to a 
 width of twenty-four feet, a width sufficient to carry all 
 necessary traffic and one that would add to the quiet and 
 beauty so much desired in residence sections. 
 
 It was impossible for me to cover the whole city. I, 
 therefore, took what seemed to me a typical section, namely, 
 that bounded by Dwight Way on the north, Telegraph 
 Avenue on the west, the south boundary line of Berkeley 
 on the south, and Claremont Avenue, with an extension 
 north to Dwight Way, on the east. The area of this section 
 is about 1/15 of that of the whole city. 
 
 I also made a calculation of the cost of the permanent 
 paving of these streets on the theory that the heavy traffic- 
 roadways require a heavier paving than those used for res- 
 idence traffic only. The result of my calculations is as 
 follows: 
 
 Total area of existing roadways, 2,688,400 sq. ft. 
 
 Cost of paving same at 20c per sq. ft., $537,680. 
 
 Area of proposed roadways: 
 
 1st class 807,000 sq. ft. at 20c $161,400.00 
 
 2nd class 579,600 sq. ft. at 15c 86,940.00 
 
 3rd class 910,800 sq. ft. at 10c 91,080.00 
 
 2,297,400 $339,420.00 
 
 Reduction in square feet of roadways, 391,000 square feet; 
 saving in cost of paving, $198,260.00. 
 
 Multiplying these figures by 15 in order to apply them 
 to the whole of Berkeley, including the territory about to 
 be annexed on the north, we have the following result: 
 
 Reduction in amount of roadway to be paved, 5,865,000 
 sq. ft. Saving in cost of improvement, $2,973,900.00. 
 Yours very truly, 
 (Signed) C. L. HUGGINS. 
 
 This enormous possible saving is based on road- 
 ways as wide as twenty-four feet. I believe in even 
 much narrower roadways with occasional widen- 
 ings for the turning of vehicles. These enormous 
 savings in the original cost of paving must be con- 
 sidered in connection with the savings in the cost 
 of upkeep which would be smaller if parking in- 
 stead of paving is applied as pointed out in the 
 chapter on Traffic Streets. The hygienic and 
 aesthetic advantages are obvious. 
 
 'Mr. Fred Gabelman, Engineer of the Kansas City Park Board, gives figures on the Kansas City experiment in 
 an article in the October number of the "American City," 1912. 
 
104 
 
 RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 QARDEN 
 
 C*RA55 
 
 
 ROAD 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 (' 
 20'.0 - 
 
 C5ARDEN 
 
 >;- : -: 
 
 TYPICAL RESIDENTIAL STREETS IN A MODERN GARDEN CITY, ESPECIALLY CHARACTERISTIC OF MR. RAYMOND 
 UNWIN'S WORK IN HAMPSTEAD, LETCHWORTH, AND EARSWICK 
 
 The traffic in these short streets of simple residences is so light that sidewalks are not required and the large amount of 
 space saved is thrown into the front gardens. Narrow roadways do not mean that building lines should be close together. 
 
 TREE PLANTING CONVERTS CITIES INTO 
 PARKS. 
 
 The increased parking space produced by a re- 
 duction in the roadway permits of street beauti- 
 fication through planting of trees and shrubs 
 which was impossible when but two or three feet 
 separated the sidewalk from the curb. Proper 
 planting of these parkways will delight the eye of 
 residents and visitors, give additional privacy to 
 the homes on either side and provide a restful 
 antidote for the rush and noise of the business 
 districts. Indeed, by lining their residence streets 
 with shapely and uniform avenue trees and plant- 
 ing the parkways between to shrubs or grass and 
 flowers Berkeley and Oakland may make great 
 parks of themselves. The value of such planting 
 was long ago recognized by real estate operators 
 who have made their residence parks more attract- 
 ive to buyers by the planting of street trees, the 
 creation of small parks at street intersections and 
 the use of shrubs or great masses of brilliant 
 geraniums. Oakland and Berkeley should take a 
 page from the real estate men's books and make 
 their residence sections as a whole more attractive 
 to prospective residents. There is just as much 
 competition for residents between cities as be- 
 tween real estate operators and it is the city that 
 makes itself most attractive that wins. Cities as a 
 whole, or districts within cities, have recently been 
 given the machinery with which to carry on this 
 work of beautification. The Tree Planting Act of 
 1913, (amended in 1915) and the new Tree 
 Planting act of 1915 provide a simple proced- 
 ure for the formation of districts either for 
 planting trees and parkways or for their main- 
 
 tenance or both. This should be supplemented 
 by giving to the Park Commission the duty 
 of caring for trees and parkways on all streets. 
 This is sometimes undertaken by the Street 
 Department, but its interest is rather in prob- 
 lems of engineering than in beautification. If 
 the Park Department, as in Pasadena, maintains a 
 nursery, trees and shrubs can be propagated at a 
 fraction of their cost from commercial nurseries 
 and the cost of beautification can then be reduced 
 to a very small amount for each individual lot 
 owner. 
 
 NARROW ROADWAYS VS. NARROW STREETS 
 
 Ample space between building lines, however, 
 in spite of narrow roadways, is highly desir- 
 able. But this space between houses should not 
 be wasted on expensive wide roadways in places 
 where traffic does not demand them; but should, 
 on the contrary, be devoted to parking the street 
 
 SUBDIVISION SCHEME FOR MINOR STREETS 
 
 As recommended by Doctor John Nolen in his latest city- 
 planning report (Bridgeport, Conn., 1915). 
 
RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 105 
 
 anrl enlarging the front gardens of the houses. 
 Only in special circumstances are narrow streets 
 (in contrast to narrow roadways) desirable. Such 
 is the case with a street on a steep hillside, where 
 a wide street would too badly cut into the contour 
 line. A still more important instance is where 
 cheap homes have to be provided for the smallest 
 incomes and where the price of land has already 
 reached too high a figure. There the building of 
 wide streets, where they are not needed, simply 
 means higher rents and leads to crowding and still 
 higher rents as a consequence. There the wide 
 street, especially when wastefully paved, makes 
 the ground unfit for the building of individual 
 homes and becomes the forerunner of the tene- 
 ment or apartment house. Houses of a little more 
 expensive character on lots not cut down to the 
 dire minimum, but of some size, may advan- 
 tageously break away from any reference to build- 
 ing lines. They should be located in view only 
 of the character of the lot, its trees or rocks, its 
 exposure to the sun. Any tribute paid to the ap- 
 pearance of the street should be rather in the char- 
 acter of good planting than in an effort towards 
 architectural showiness except perhaps for cer- 
 tain exposed corner lots. For merely residential 
 streets instead of harsh street lines nothing more 
 need be left than light lanes among bungalows 
 rambling over the ground and following intimately 
 and deliciously its nature and its moods. Even 
 in Japan, where this system has produced such de- 
 lightful results, such lanes in spite of being lined 
 with high wooden enclosures, are most interesting 
 for the many occasional glimpses one gains into 
 charming gardens and courts under overhanging 
 trees. Such informal lanes can scarcely be too 
 narrow. 
 
 HIGH GRADE RESIDENTIAL AREAS. 
 
 The new residential subdivisions, especially in 
 the hill sections all over the East Bay region, very 
 happily have broken away from the unfortunate 
 old rectangular street system by which San Fran- 
 cisco and the lower parts of the East Bay have 
 been chopped up. The problem of securing 
 worthy homes is important in every community; 
 it is specially important in the neighborhood of a 
 great State University. Frederic Law Olmsted, 
 the elder, the American genius in matters of 
 landscape architecture and home planning, has 
 
 expressed himself about this point not only in gen- 
 eral terms, but with special reference to the pos- 
 sibility of the hill neighborhood of the University 
 of California, and every word he has said applies 
 to the entire hill section on the East side of the 
 Bay of San Francisco, i. e., on the happy slopes of 
 Oakland, Berkeley and Piedmont where the roses 
 bloom two weeks earlier than on the level land 
 just below. The opinions expressed by this truly 
 great man have the character of a confession of 
 principles. Because of the quality of the writer 
 they are of national significance, but they are still 
 far from being sufficiently appreciated. Copies of 
 Olmsted's report which contains them are scarce 
 and it will be the privilege of the present report to 
 revive them and bring at least some of their most 
 salient features before a wider public. 
 
 THE GENIUS OF AMERICAN LANDSCAPE 
 
 ARCHITECTURE ON POSSIBILITIES OF 
 
 THE BERKELEY AND OAKLAND HILLS. 
 
 In the year 1865, Frederic Law Olmsted, shortly 
 after having laid out the famous Central Park for 
 New York, was called upon to report upon a pos- 
 sible improvement of the new estate of the College 
 which had just been founded. In that neighbor- 
 hood of Oakland, which has later been given the 
 name of Berkeley, the College authorities secured 
 a site which in 1862 comprised 124 acres valued at 
 $18,600 and they hoped that "a dollar invested 
 there today, will bring better usury when the 
 Lord's Kingdom has fully come, than one hundred 
 cents laid out in any other place." The idea was 
 to sell a large part of this land for residential pur- 
 poses in order to raise the necessary funds for the 
 college. Before the advent of Frederic Law Olm- 
 sted, the trustees had already laid out in the old 
 unfortunate fashion a number of rectangular 
 blocks and streets and sold them in lots. Frederic 
 Law Olmsted's report contains a marvelously writ- 
 ten argument for the necessity of better planning 
 in order to make ideal homes possible; every word 
 of this argument is still of the greatest actuality 
 and deserves closest attention in planning the ex- 
 isting subdivisions of Oakland and Berkeley and 
 in laying out new ones. The following are 
 Olmsted's own words in which he described 
 what he considered essential for a Univer- 
 sity neighborhood and for any section devoted to 
 the higher class of refined homes: 
 
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 HOW MORE PARKING AND LESS PAVEMENT BENEFITED A ST. LOUIS STREET 
 
106 
 
 RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 
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 PLAN OF FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, THE ELDER, FOR THE UNIVERSITY NEIGHBORHOOD 
 "Study for laying out the Berkeley neighborhood, including the grounds of the College of California. 
 Olmsted, Vaux & Co., Landscape Architects." Report dated June 29th, 1866 
 The top of the page is pointing east. The rectangular blocks, "F. F, F Village Lots," are GOO feet square. This furnishes a 
 scale for the map. For key to map see adjoining page. 
 
RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 107 
 
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 BUSHNELL PLACE, BERKELEY 
 
 Immediately adjoining the University Campus. Bushnell Place is one of the oldest and best planted (Black Acacia, ever- 
 green) residential streets. Here the last President of the University lived. The roadway is thirty feet wide with sidewalk res- 
 ervations of fifteen feet on either side. Dish gutters are used (instead of the ordinary curb gutter of the city street), preserving the 
 rural appearance. The houses, furthermore, are set back forty feet, securing privacy and quiet. 
 
 No stronger contrast to the architectural ideals of the old centralized city and its stone beauty could be imagined than 
 this kind of a residential neighborhood, where the walls and roofs of human shelter have returned to Nature under the influ- 
 ence of modern rapid transit and modern ideas about hygienic life. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM F. L. OLMSTED'S REPORT 
 
 THE ATMOSPHERE OF STUDY-REFINED 
 DOMESTIC LIFE. 
 
 "It is desirable that scholars at least during the 
 period of life in which character is most easily 
 moulded, should be surrounded by manifestations 
 of refined domestic life, these being unquestion- 
 
 ably the ripest and best fruits of civilization. The 
 first requirement of a plan for the improvement 
 of the locality is that it should present sufficient 
 inducements to the formation of a neighborhood 
 of refined and elegant homes in the immediate 
 vicinity o e the principal College Buildings. 
 
 "The second requirement of a plan is that, while 
 
 KEY AND EXPLANATIONS TO OLMSTED SR.'S PLAN ON ADJOINING PAGE 
 
 The map is taken from the report: Berkeley neighborhood — Report upon a projected improvement of the estate of the Col- 
 lege of California at Berkeley, near Oakland. By Olmsted, Vaux & Co., Landscape Architects, New York, 1866. Key: A Site 
 
 for College Buildings; B — Ground for Residences; C — Public Grounds; D — Ground reserved for College purposes; E — Public 
 Garden; F — Berkeley Village Lots; G — Avenue to the Landing. From the report the following explanations regarding the let- 
 ters given on the map may be taken : 
 
 Regarding A, Site for College Buildings, it appears that Olmsted figured on two buildings, later to be increased to three, 
 to be placed upon an artificial plateau at the head of a well turfed dell connected by a strip with the central College 
 building. The axis of this strip was planned "in the line of the Golden Gate." The proposed site, Olmsted says, "while 
 moderately elevated, yet appears slightly embayed among the slopes of the hills on all sides except that toward the park 
 over which the outlook to the westward is unconfined and reaches to the horizon of the ocean." 
 
 Regarding B — Ground for Besidences — Olmsted says that the divisions shown on the map are "each of such a form that 
 it could be easily subdivided by simple lines into lots, each of one to five acres in extent, of suitable shape and favorably 
 situated in all respects for a family home. The relative position of the houses erected and trees grown upon the different 
 lots may be such that the best view from each site will remain not only uninterrupted but rather improved by that below 
 it. The divisions are separated one from the other by lanes bordered on each side by continuous thick groves, and access to 
 each private lot from these lanes is arranged by short approaches branching from them. The area of ground contained in 
 these divisions is 195 acres (including nearly 90 acres belonging to private owners between the college property and the 
 adjoining public roads) and might with advantage he occupied by from 50 to 100 private families. 
 
 "The lanes are arranged for with reference to continuations to the northward and southward should additional accom- 
 modation of the same character be hereafter found desirable. 
 
 "Connection is also made by shaded roads with the village already laid out in the vicinity and (E) a public garden, 
 containing a children's playground, with a series of shaded walks and arbors about it, is provided for, adjoining this village." 
 
 Regarding (J — Public Grounds — Olmsted says: "A tract of low, flat ground, 27 acres in extent, pleasantly surrounded on 
 three sides by moderate elevations is proposed to be formed into a small park or general pleasure ground." Olmsted is very 
 emphatic about the necessity of taking special precautions for getting good lawn, also for the grounds described under D. 
 
 For D — Ground Reserved for College Purposes — Olmsted prefers good turf as more beautiful and directly useful to the 
 students rather than a scientific or ornamental flower garden. 
 
 E — Public Garden (in the lower right corner) — is described at the end of what is said under B. It is interesting to note 
 that Olmsted, as far back as 1865, should have thought of children's playgrounds, an idea that has dawned on the rest of 
 the world so much later. 
 
 F — Berkeley Village Lots are the blocks of land laid out and partly settled upon before the coining of Olmsted. 
 
 G — Avenue to the Landing, "to be approached by a projected street railroad and also by a direct avenue from the pro- 
 posed steamboat landing at that point of the bay which is nearest to the property." 
 
 The slightly winding avenue leading south at the right side of the map is the connection with Oakland planned by Olm- 
 sted. (Today Piedmont Avenue and part of Highland Drive, compare pictures, p. 113.) 
 
108 
 
 RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 PART OF HOUSE GARDEN ON A HILLSIDE OVERLOOKING 
 LAKE MERRITT, OAKLAND 
 
 presenting advantages for scholarly and domestic 
 life, it shall not be calculated to draw noisy and 
 disturbing commerce to the neighborhood, or any- 
 thing else which would destroy its general tran- 
 quillity. . . . Perfect shelter at all times and 
 as free a supply of fresh air and sunlight as is 
 desirable to be used by every human being at 
 intervals, is impossible. Yet, as their use seems 
 to be always free to the poorest and least intelli- 
 gent of men, it seldom occurs to such as are intent 
 on making good provision in other respects for the 
 comfort of their families, to take great care to 
 make the use of sunlight and air easy and agree- 
 able. The consequence is that their houses are 
 reallv no better in this respect than those of care- 
 less and indolent men; often not as good, the ad- 
 vantages of the latter in this one particular being 
 sacrificed by the more prudent to more complete 
 arrangements for accomplishing the primary pur- 
 pose of shelter. (View of St. Francis Hotel, p. 
 105). 
 
 "More unhappiness probably arises from this 
 cause, in houses which are in most respects lux- 
 uriously appointed, than from any other which can 
 be clearly defined and guarded against. 
 
 OPEN AIR APARTMENTS. 
 
 "Attractive open-air apartments, so formed that 
 they can be often occupied for hours at a time, 
 with convenience and ease in every respect, with- 
 out the interruption of ordinary occupations or dif- 
 ficulty of conversation, are indeed indispensable in 
 the present state of society to the preservation of 
 
 health and cheerfulness in families otherwise living 
 in luxury. The inmates of houses which are well 
 built and furnished in other respects, but in which 
 such apartments are lacking, are almost certain, 
 before many years, to be much troubled with 
 languor, dullness of perception, nervous debility 
 or distinct nervous diseases. ... In America 
 the 'garden' and 'grounds' are regarded merely 
 as ornamental appendages of a house, marks of 
 the social ambitions of the owner, like the plate 
 and carpets within, rather than as essentials of 
 health and comfort, like the beds and baths. Yet 
 the frequent action of free, sun-lighted air upon 
 the lungs for a considerable space of time is un- 
 questionably more important than the frequent 
 washing of the skin with water or the perfection 
 of nightly repose. . . . 
 
 MAKE THE EAST BAY MORE ATTRACTIVE 
 
 THAN ANY SUBURB OF SAN 
 
 FRANCISCO. 
 
 "If you can make your neighborhood positively 
 attractive in other respects, especially if you can 
 make it in important particulars more attractive 
 than any other suburb of San Francisco, you can 
 offer your land for sale, for villa residences, in 
 lots of moderate size, with entire confidence that 
 you will thus cause to grow up about it such a 
 neighborhood as is most desirable, with reference 
 to your first purpose, (i. e., the University). 
 
 PLEASANT APPROACHES. 
 
 "What, then, are the requisites (exterior to pri- 
 vate ground ) of an attractive neighborhood, be- 
 
 T111S IS NOT THE, ENTRANCE TO THE CASTLE OF 
 SLEEPING BEAUTY, BUT JUST THE GATEWAY 
 OF AN EAST BAY GARDEN 
 
 THE 
 
RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 109 
 
 sides good neighbors, and such institutions as are 
 tolerably sure to be established among good neigh- 
 bors? The most important, I believe, will be 
 found in all cases to be that of good out-goings 
 from the private grounds, whether with reference 
 to social visiting, or merely to the pleasure and 
 healthfulness of occasional changes of scene, and 
 more extended free movement than it is convenient 
 to maintain the means of exercising within private 
 grounds. 
 
 "For this purpose the common roads and walks 
 of immediate neighborhood, at all times of the 
 year, must be neither muddy nor dusty, nor rough, 
 nor steep, nor excessively exposed to the heat of 
 the sun or the fierceness of the wind. 
 
 POINTS OF SOCIAL RENDEZVOUS IN EASY 
 REACH. 
 
 "The desideratum of a residence next in impor- 
 tance will be points in the neighborhood at which 
 there are scenes, either local or distant, either nat- 
 ural or artificial, calculated to draw women out 
 of their houses and private grounds, or which will 
 at least form apparent objects before them when 
 they go out. It will be all the better if many are 
 likely to resort to these points and they thus be- 
 come social rendezvous of the neighborhood. 
 
 WELL BALANCED LANDSCAPES AS VISTAS. 
 
 "Next to points at some distance from a house 
 commanding beautiful views, it is desirable to be 
 able to look out from the house itself upon some 
 interesting distant scene. . . . It is not de- 
 sirable to have such a scene constantly before one. 
 If within control, it should be held only where it 
 can be enjoyed under circumstances favorable to 
 sympathetic contemplation. 
 
 "The class of views most desirable thus to be 
 had within easy reach is probably that which will 
 include all well-balanced and complete landscapes. 
 The general quality of the distant scene should be 
 natural and tranquil; in the details, however, 
 there had better be something of human interest. 
 But whatever the character of the distant outlook, 
 it is always desirable that the line or space of di- 
 vision between that which is interior and essential 
 to the home itself and that without which is looked 
 upon from it, should be distinct and unmistakable. 1 
 That is to say, whenever there is an open or dis- 
 tant view from a residence, the grounds, construc- 
 tions, and plantations about the house should form 
 a fitting foreground to that view, well defined, 
 suitably proportioned, salient, elegant and fin- 
 ished. . . . 
 
 "Of these three desiderata, the first only can be 
 supplied by private effort. A site for a residence, 
 therefore, should be selected, if possible, where the 
 other two are found ready to hand. . . . 
 
 >V 2 -•'-''.V-'.^'T 
 
 : '■*■■•■ •- ..... 
 
 
 
 
 
 LEROY AVENUE NEAR RIDGE ROAD, BERKELEY 
 EXAMPLE OF "GOOD OUTGOINGS" 
 
 Live oak preserved 
 character to the street 
 
 in center of street, giving interest and 
 and its refined architecture. 
 
 CLIMATIC ADVANTAGES OF THE EAST BAY 
 FOOTHILLS OVER SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 "In respect of soil, exposure, natural foliage and 
 water supply, your ground is, to say the least, un- 
 surpassed in the vicinity of San Francisco. 
 
 "There are few, if any suburbs which command 
 as fine a distant prospect. The undulations of the 
 ground and the difference of elevation between the 
 upper and the lower parts give the advantage of 
 this prospect in its main features to a large number 
 of points of view, so situated that the erection of 
 buildings and the growth of trees at other points 
 will be no interruption to it. 
 
 "With respect to climate and adaptation to out- 
 of-door occupation, persons who had resided upon 
 the ground or who had had frequent occasion to 
 
 AMERICAN - ELMS, UPPER PORTION OF DWIGHT WAY, 
 BERKELEY— EXAMPLE OE "GOOD OUTGOINGS" 
 
 Beautiful, well cared for planting like this can redeem al- 
 most any architecture. Combined with good types of the new 
 California home architecture such as one may see about the 
 Bay, most delightful effects can be achieved. 
 
 'Here Olmsted puts himself willingly in a splendid opposition to the older school of landscape architects, which, 
 with its master Humphrey Repton declared: "One of the fundamental principles of landscape gardening is to disguise 
 the real boundary of the premises." Compare page 7 of the new American edition published by John Nolen. 
 
 It must be remembered, however, that Olmsted ( like Repton ) speaks of somewhat large estates. Much can be 
 said in favor of the American way of having the front gardens of small lots without fences and practically forming 
 part of the street. This is rather a fine expression of community spirit. 
 
110 
 
 RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 
 
 
 <r£l 
 
 
 if- 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 fri „»,>•>' * '• «' 
 
 
 
 LITERALLY MILLIONS OF ROSES BLOSSOM THE YEAR 
 AROUND IN THE GARDENS OF EAST BAY HOMES 
 
 cross it, having stated that the sea-winds which 
 nearly everywhere else near San Francisco are in 
 summer extremely harsh, chilling, and disagree- 
 able to all, and often very trying to delicate per- 
 sons, were felt at this point very little. I gave this 
 alleged advantage particular consideration. 
 
 "During the month of August I spent ten days 
 on the ground, usually coming from San Francisco 
 in the morning and returning at night. The cli- 
 mate of San Francisco was at this time extremely 
 disagreeable, while that of the College property 
 was as fine as possible. One morning when I left 
 San Francisco at 9 o'clock, though the air was 
 clear, a light but chilling northwest wind was blow- 
 ing. At Berkeley the air was perfectly calm. 
 Ascending the mountain-side a few hundred feet, 
 I again encountered the wind. Descending, it was 
 lost, and the air remained calm until I left at 5 
 
 in the afternoon, the temperature being at the 
 same time agreeably mild. During all the day I 
 observed that San Francisco was enveloped in fog 
 and that fog and smoke drifted rapidly from it 
 over the bay. At 5 o'clock, on returning to San 
 Francisco, after driving two miles toward Oakland, 
 I had need to put on my overcoat. At San Fran- 
 cisco I found a blustering, damp wind and my 
 friends sitting about a fire. The following day 
 there was in the morning a pleasant, soft breeze at 
 Berkeley, but late in the afternoon it fell to a 
 complete calm. I determined to remain on the 
 ground for the purpose of ascertaining whether 
 this would continue or whether it preceded a 
 change of temperature and a visit of the sea-wind 
 after night-fall. At sunset the fog clouds were 
 rolling over the mountain tops back of San Fran- 
 cisco gorgeous in rosy and golden light; the city 
 itself was obscured by a drifting scud. At Berke- 
 ley the air remained perfectly serene, and except 
 for the fog banks in the southwest, which soon 
 became silvery and very beautiful in the moon- 
 light, I never saw a clearer or brighter sky. It 
 remained the same, the air being still of a delight- 
 ful temperature, till morning, when the sun, rising 
 over the mountains in the rear, gave a new glory 
 to the constant clouds overhanging the heights on 
 each side of the Golden Gate. Going back in the 
 afternoon to San Francisco, I again found the tem- 
 perature in contrast to that of Berkeley disagree- 
 ably chilling, though the day was considered there 
 an uncommonly fine one and the wind was less 
 severe than usual. 
 
 "SERENITY, CHEERFULNESS AND 
 HEALTHFULNESS." 
 
 "I have visited the other suburbs of San Fran- 
 cisco and studied them with some care, and I 
 think that I am warranted in indorsing the opinion 
 that the climate of Berkeley is distinguished for 
 a peculiar serenity, cheerfulness, and healthful- 
 ness. 
 
 "I know of no entirely satisfactory explanation 
 of the fact. But it may be observed that it lies 
 
 ROSES, BECAUSE OF THEIR RAPID AND STURDY GROWTH, ARE AMONG THE MOST ECONOMICAL AND SATISFACTORY 
 
 MEANS OF BEAUTIFYING THE EAST BAY GARDENS 
 
RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 111 
 
 to the northward of the course of the northwest 
 wind which draws through the Golden Gate and 
 which sweeps the peninsula to the southward of 
 the city and the contra costa country, and that 
 there are to the northward and northwestward of 
 it several spurs of the Mount Diablo range, the 
 form of which is calculated to deflect currents of 
 air setting down the bay from the northward. 
 The form of the trees on the top of the nearest of 
 these hills indicated an upward deflection of the 
 northerly wind. 
 
 "It will be seen that the natural advantages 
 which led to the choice of the locality for the Col- 
 lege, adapt it still for a neighborhood of luxurious 
 family residences. ... If what is proposed to 
 be accomplished is modestly conceived, and the 
 requisite effort is made and sustained for a suffi- 
 cient period, it is unquestionable that the more 
 uninviting elements of the existing scenery may 
 be reduced in importance, and its more attractive 
 features presented to much greater advantage than 
 they are under merely natural circumstances, or 
 under any artificial conditions yet in existence. 
 It may also be confidently anticipated that the re- 
 sult will be peculiarly home-like and grateful in 
 contrast to the ordinarv aspect of the open coun- 
 try of California. 
 
 "FOREGROUNDS OF RICH AND CAREFULLY 
 NURTURED FOLIAGE." 
 
 "For instance, if we imagine the greater part of 
 your property to have passed in tracts of from 
 two to five acres into the possesion of men each 
 of whom shall have formed, as a part of his pri- 
 vate residence, a proper foreground of foliage, to 
 his own outlook, it follows, from what I have be- 
 fore argued, that one of the chief defects of the 
 scenery would be in a great degree remedied; for 
 these bodies of rich and carefullv nurtured foliage 
 would form part of an artistic middle distance to all 
 other points in the vicinity which would overlook 
 them, and would so frame under the more distant 
 prospect from these exterior points of view that 
 a strong gradation of aerial perspective would 
 occur. And the fact will be observed that if the 
 range of the eye is thus carried but to a certain 
 distance, especially to the westward or southward, 
 the view is everywhere exceedingly beautiful, both 
 in respect to the form of the hills and their beauty 
 of color and tone, under all atmospheric condi- 
 tions. 
 
 "VIEWS OF GREAT DEPTH." 
 
 Even in stormy weather there is a great 
 grandeur in the movements of the clouds rolling 
 over their somber slopes and declivities; and I 
 remembered a single scene of this kind as one of 
 the most impressive that I have ever witnessed. 
 But on ordinary occasions the view to the west- 
 ward, if the eye does not regard the dullness of 
 the nearer part of the landscape, while it is one 
 of great depth and breadth, is also one of pe- 
 culiarly cheerful interest. 
 
 VIEW FROM AN EAST BAY GARDEN-THE OAKLAND CITY 
 HALL ON THE HORIZON 
 
 This realizes (lie "command of distant views" set down as 
 desirable by the elder Olmsted. Note how much the view- 
 would gain If "a proper foreground or foliage would frame 
 under the more distant prospect," as suggested by Olmsted, 
 instead of the less interesting houses of the immediate neigh- 
 borhood. 
 
 "The main requirements of a plan, then, for 
 the improvement of this region, with reference to 
 residences, must be, first, so to arrange the roads 
 upon which private property will front as to secure 
 the best practicable landscape effects from the 
 largest number of points of view; second, so as to 
 arrange the roads and public ground as to give the 
 owners of the private property satisfactory outgo- 
 ings in respect, first, to convenience of use; second, 
 
Ill 
 
 RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 CLAREMONT DISTRICT HOMES 
 
 "Roadside closely lined and draped over with living foliage." 
 "There should he no raw hanks." This picture shows a modern 
 East Ray realization of suggestions made for the same neigh- 
 horhood by the famous landscape architect, Frederick Law 
 Olmsted, Sr., as far hack as 1865. 
 
 to attractiveness in their borders; and third, to 
 command of occasional distant views and com- 
 plete landscapes. 
 
 "THERE SHOULD BE NO RAW BANKS" BUT 
 "LIVING FOLIAGE." 
 
 "To meet the second of these requirements, the 
 borders of the road should be absolutely neat, or 
 even nice. There should be no raw banks or bare, 
 neglected-looking places, nor drifts of rubbish by 
 their side. 
 
 "This, in the climate of the locality, implies one 
 of two things, either that the whole roadside is 
 watered daily during several months of the year, 
 or that it is closely lined and draped over with 
 living foliage. 
 
 "The latter might be undesirable if there were 
 pleasant open scenery along the road; but where, 
 as it must be supposed will be the case here, there 
 will generally be within a distance of a hundred 
 feet or more of the road only a choice between 
 a harsh, brown surface as at present, or a private 
 garden (it may be a vegetable garden) or a con- 
 tinuous grove, it will be the more agreeable as 
 well as much the cheaper arrangement. 
 
 "I can think of nothing to which the imagina- 
 tion turns with more eagerness in the bleak and 
 open scenery, and the exceeding and all pervading 
 lightness of the daylight of California, than to 
 memories of shady old lanes running through a 
 close and overarching bowery of foliage, and such 
 an ideal should be fixed before whoever is placed 
 in charge of your improvements. . . The rel- 
 ative position of the houses erected, and trees 
 grown upon the different lots, may be such that 
 the best view from each site will remain not only 
 uninterrupted, but rather improved by that below 
 it. The divisions are separated one from the other 
 by lanes bordered, as already explained, on each 
 side by continuous thick groves, and access to each 
 private lot from these lanes is arranged by short 
 approaches branching from them." 
 
 THE HIGHLAND DRIVE RECOMMENDED BY 
 THE ELDER OLMSTED. 
 
 The remaining part of Olmsted's report is dedi- 
 cated to the recommendations regarding the set- 
 ting of the College buildings, grounds and walks 
 and drives into the canyon and its preservation, 
 and especially also to the creation of a pleasure 
 drive between Berkeley and Oakland somewhat 
 on the line of the Highland Drive recently defined 
 and marked by columns. The northern part of 
 this first conception of the Highland Drive by 
 Frederic Law Olmsted the elder, has been actually 
 built; it is Berkeley's Piedmont Avenue forming 
 one of the most pleasing parts of the present High- 
 land Drive. The first plan made for it forms part 
 of Olmsted's Berkeley project as reproduced p. 
 106. It is the slightly winding and thickly 
 planted road close to the top of the page. Two 
 views of this drive, as it looks today, are repro- 
 duced on the following page, 113. 
 
 RELATION BETWEEN REFINED HOMES AND 
 
 THE REALIZATION OF GREAT 
 
 CITY PLANNING IDEAS. 
 
 Olmsted's ideal was the formation of a neigh- 
 borhood of refined and elegant homes in which he 
 saw the ripest and best fruits of civilization. He 
 had before his eyes the high standards of refined 
 life in the splendid country estates of England 
 which covered many hundred of acres each. An 
 
 TWO OTHER EXAMPLES OF BEAUTIFUL TREATMENT OF 
 ROADSIDE BANKS 
 
 In the foreground a small retaining wall with flowers and 
 living foilage; in the background a sloping lawn. (The picture 
 is to show a good treatment of the roadside hank. It may 
 be mentioned that the space for street trees between sidewalk 
 ami curb is not half wide enough.) 
 
 SE 
 
 
 
 ItMHfl ji^Br^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ,,j<jflraijjR 
 
 EXAMPLE OF ROADSIDE BANK TREATED WITH LAWN 
 AND FLOWERS 
 
 The picture is to show a good treatment of a roadside bank. 
 It may be mentioned that a better street efl'ect would be 
 attained by substituting stately arching trees for the palms, 
 which arc not suitable for sidewalk planting. 
 
RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 113 
 
 imitation of these grand estates he judged impos- 
 sible in America, but semi-urban homes with from 
 two to five acres of garden seemed a possible ideal 
 to him. He spent the rest of his life in Boston 
 and found similar conditions around Harvard, the 
 oldest National University, and the refined spirit 
 the old New England families represented 
 found a remarkable exponent in Olmsted's great 
 disciple, Charles Eliot, the son of the famous Uni- 
 versity President, Charles W. Eliot. This young 
 Charles Eliot and the splendid response he found 
 in many of the most influential old families are 
 directly responsible for the creation of the Metro- 
 politan Park System of Greater Boston, one of the 
 greatest city planning achievements of all times, 
 and the most splendid and everlasting realization 
 of the best in the teachings of Olmsted the elder. 
 It is important to note this relation between care- 
 fully planned homes of refinement and general 
 city and park planning. 
 
 RAPID TRANSIT MUST HELP TO REALIZE 
 OLMSTED HOME IDEALS. 
 
 As mentioned above, the value of the land at 
 the time when Olmsted started his work for the 
 
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 WzML j'i 
 
 
 jMtfer**' 
 
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 WK.Ti 
 
 
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 m&'M 
 
 
 
 VIEWS OF THE TERRACES AND NEIGHBORHOOD OF 
 THE SAME HOUSE 
 
 VIEWS OF PIEDMONT AVENUE 
 
 This Berkeley street adjoins the University and owes its 
 beauty to the plan made as far back as 1865 by the elder 
 Olmsted (compare the plan, p. 106). It is a fine example of 
 what Olmsted calls "good outgoings." Note how the roadways 
 to the right and left of the central planting follow different 
 levels, thus taking account of the hillside. The white column 
 is one of the columns marking the Highland Drive. That 
 intelligent effort toward beautification brings rich returns 
 in cold cash is indicated by the fact that Piedmont Avenue, 
 remote as it is from any business center, shows the highest 
 front-foot values for purely residential property in the entire 
 extent of the East Bay cities. 
 
 EAST BAY HILL ARCHITECTURALLY MASTERED 
 
 This much-photographed house in Berkeley is one of the 
 finest examples of how an architect can make his work a part 
 of the landscape. The house and its terraces are no longer an 
 element foreign to the soil, but are the natural crowning feature 
 of the hill and its oaks, the precious stone of human art in its 
 natural setting. 
 
 College of California, was about $150 an acre, and 
 the upkeep of a three acre estate was chiefly a 
 question of securing sufficient help. Today the 
 land for which Olmsted had planned could hardly 
 be bought for a hundred times its value in 1862. 
 Only very few estates of two acres or more are left 
 and they are in immediate danger of being subdi- 
 vided. There are five or more lots to the acre 
 (including streets) on most of the land around the 
 university. The maintenance of a two acre estate 
 requires an income of at least ten thousand 
 dollars, while the great majority of the house 
 owners around the university have an income 
 averaging little over three thousand dollars a year. 
 The small number of people who have large in- 
 comes and keep larger estates live in more distant 
 suburbs, but even there the land today costs 
 
114 
 
 RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 g— vvo-^ \.&i *m 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 W I 
 
 w 
 
 l 
 
 - v..„„ _____ 
 
 " ' , «K 
 
 
 1 
 
 PLEASANT APPROACHES AND "GOOD OUTGOINGS," 
 NORTHBRAE STATION, BERKELEY 
 
 Built by the owners of a subdivision at junction of Key 
 Route and Southern Pacific suburban lines. Compare picture 
 of Monterey Station. Both these pictures are good illustrations 
 of what "good outgoings" required by Olmsted, Sr., should 
 include under modern conditions. In other cases waiting 
 rooms in the East Bay cities have been treated artistically 
 and placed in a central plot with entrance roads to the 
 subdivision on either side or waiting rooms matching each 
 other have been placed on either side of the street. 
 
 over twelve thousand dollars an acre. If the 
 lofty home ideals of Olmsted are to be carried out 
 for any perceptible part of the people, land must 
 be taken that still has its agricultural value only. 
 With the modern means of electric transportation 
 fortunately such land always can be reached. The 
 building of the new Oakland & Antioch Railway, 
 for instance, again brought land into the reach of 
 city dwellers at prices not much higher than the 
 ones paid in 1862 by the College of California. 
 Cheap land of this kind will be necessary for 
 realizing Olmsted's ideals of semi-rural homes. 
 Similarly cheap land will also be necessary for the 
 purpose of housing the increasing number of 
 laboring men; this point will be taken up later. 
 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF LARGE PRIVATE 
 
 GARDENS AND THEIR TAXATION. 
 In this connection must be emphasized the great 
 importance which large estates with private gar- 
 dens have for the community as a whole. Even 
 if these large gardens are not open to the public 
 they are a great factor in making a city healthy 
 and beautiful. It seems shortsighted to me to tax 
 these gardens out of existence. The following 
 method of taxation would be equitable and still 
 take due account of the high hygienic and aesthetic 
 value of private gardens. Any land that is kept 
 as a private garden should be assessed at its full 
 value like ordinary city land, but the payment of 
 
 the accruing taxes should be suspended as long as 
 the land is kept for garden purposes, i. e., the 
 owner would pay taxes only on a semi-agricultural 
 value of the garden land until he should decide to 
 subdivide his land; then he should have to pay 
 the full amount of taxes and interest thereon ac- 
 cumulated during all the preceding time. This 
 would have the three-fold advantage of first afford- 
 ing a strong incentive for keeping city land as gar- 
 dens because of the saving of taxes; second, of 
 affording a strong deterrent against subdividing 
 gardens because that would mean a sudden large 
 outlay for taxes; third, the city in securing a pub- 
 
 IN NORTHBRAE, BERKELEY 
 
 MONTEREY STATION, BERKELEY 
 
 This picture and the one of Northbrae Station are good 
 examples of co-operation between railroad and real estate en- 
 terprise. 
 
 NEAR INDIAN TRAIL, THOUSAND OAKS 
 
 Two East Bay residences showing the possibilities of roman- 
 tic setting among eucalyptus and oaks. This picture suggests 
 ideas about adapting architecture to the surroundings. Value 
 of residences between $7500 and $9000 on land nearly $70 per 
 front foot; size of lots about 100 x 125 feet. Much of the roman- 
 tic beauty of settings like these will disappear with the 
 building up of the neighborhood, especially if inharmonious 
 types of houses should be permitted. 
 
 lie park always would have a great advantage over 
 any private purchasers of garden land, because the 
 city always would secure private gardens, which are 
 ready to be sold, at the market prices minus the 
 amount of accumulated taxes. Any new city, es- 
 pecially cities in so happy a climate as California, 
 must be real garden cities instead of repeating the 
 congestion of houses of the old cities. 
 
RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 115 
 
 TYPICAL EXAMPLE OF EAST BAY ARCHITECTURE 
 A building of wood construction overlooking a hill luxuriously planted 
 
 MEDIUM PRICED AND CHEAPER HOMES. 
 
 The importance of large estates for their gardens 
 as well as for the example they should give 
 of good taste and refined development can 
 be hardly overestimated, though of course only 
 a very small percentage of the people can 
 themselves live in these pretentious estates. Leav- 
 ing aside the most expensive residential sections, 
 the largest part of the people living in the residen- 
 tial districts of the East Bay will not pay more than 
 three thousand dollars for a lot; many will pay 
 less. For the maximum price of $3000 under 
 the present state of values, they can secure lots 
 only fifty feet wide and one hundred and twenty 
 feet deep. The exterior and general character of 
 the newer subdivisions is determined by the qual- 
 ity of the improvements put on these lots, the 
 
 houses costing between five and six thousand dol- 
 lars. The figures just mentioned again are very 
 much above the prices that can be paid by that 
 part of the population which, with the industrial- 
 ization of the East Bay, will more and more be- 
 come the most important, and therefore the most 
 interesting for the city planner. 
 
 THE HOUSE OF THE WORKINGMAN. 
 
 The labor conditions around the Bay have been 
 rather favorable to the workingmen, a large pro- 
 portion of whom have been able to enforce the 
 comparatively high union wages. This fact finds 
 its expression in the wide stretches of pleasant 
 bungalows covering the lower foothills, the prices 
 running from $350 to $750 for the lot and $1500 
 to $2500 for the house. With better planning, bet- 
 
 EAST BAY SHINGLE HOUSES WITH RICH GROWTH 
 
 The shingle house introduced to the East Bay by Architect B. R. Maybeck and his followers has proved most successful 
 in shaping the artistic appearance of the East Bay garden cities. The brown of the shingles goes well with the luxurious 
 green of the near-by planting and the brown and smoothly moulded hills in the distance. Some real architectural style is 
 growing out of the soil (compare views, p. 144); it is a real calamity that cheap plaster imitations of stone kill it. The 
 two houses shown here, when they they were built in the '90s, cost $1500 and S2000 each. 
 
116 
 
 RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 COST OF 
 DWELLINGS 
 
 ter planting, more uniformity in material and 
 architectural aims, and with the enforcement of 
 satisfactory restrictions and protections, these sec- 
 tions will gradually be able to satisfy the highest 
 ambitions of the great world movement towards 
 "garden city" ideals. 
 
 The comparatively high wages which make these 
 promising developments possible have been men- 
 tioned many times as a serious handicap to the 
 industrial development of the Ray section and if 
 the hopes which large interests set upon the 
 Panama Canal are realized, then large industrial 
 communities will spring up on the East side of the 
 Ray in which thousands and perhaps hundreds of 
 thousands of working men wiU need homes for 
 which they cannot pay more than ten dollars a 
 month. Ten dollars a month corresponds to a 
 
 'NUMBER Of 
 DWELLINGS 
 
 $1000 investment at a 12% rate; 12% is not too 
 high a return if taxes and the large depreciation 
 which goes with the renting of cheap homes is 
 considered. Since the cheapest lot which at pres- 
 ent can be had is hardly under $300, there would 
 remain only $700 for the house, i. e., hardly suffi- 
 cient to build satisfactory quarters for a working- 
 man's family with children. Surely npbody 
 should conclude from these figures that the pres- 
 ent real estate conditions of the East Ray section 
 make it impossible to house the huge masses of 
 comparatively cheap labor, which, under present 
 competitive conditions are necessary for the up- 
 building of a large industrial community. Rut 
 earnest thought must be given to the problem of 
 housing them. 
 
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 tr-lANN 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CHART SHOWING THE NUMBER OF DWELLINGS OF VARIOUS COSTS BUILT IN OAKLAND IN 1913 
 
 The points of the ascending and descending line indicate in each case the number of dwellings built in 1913. For example, 
 the highest point of the line is in the $2000 column above the number 240, indicating that 240 $2000 dwellings were erected in 
 Oakland in 1913. The chart clearly shows that an overwhelming proportion of dwellings cost $2500 and less. Dwellings cost- 
 ing $2500 and less in 1913 represented 82.4 per cent of the total number of dwellings. In 1913 permits were asked for more 
 individual dwellings costing $500 and less than $5000 and over. The chart emphasizes what has already been pointed out, a 
 contention of the report, namely, that the housing of the great bulk of the population who must live in inexpensive dwellings 
 is of the highest interest to the city-planner; far more so than the housing of the comparatively small number of the well- 
 to-do who, by the conspicuousness of their dwellings, attract a disproportionate share of the attention of the real estate opera- 
 tor and subdivider. 
 
RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 117 
 
 COST OF 
 
 DWELLINGS 
 
 THE DANGERS OF CITY GROWTH MAKE 
 CITY PLANNING IMPERATIVE. 
 
 In the housing of the workingmen it is 
 very common to find somewhat better condi- 
 tions from many points of view in the smaller 
 cities than in the big cities. It may almost be 
 called a rule that certain conditions (lack of space, 
 lack of parks and playgrounds, crowding on the 
 acre and in the rooms, crowding of offices, lack of 
 ventilation, etc.,) grow worse the larger the city 
 grows; i. e., the badness of conditions is often rel- 
 ative to the size of the city. If the future of the 
 East side of the Bay is to be anything but a shame- 
 less repetition of the intolerable conditions of the 
 old cities, a system of city-planning must be de- 
 veloped that insures the maintenance of these bet- 
 ter conditions, as far as they exist. Looking at 
 the present conditions in California cities there is 
 little promise that their present advantages over 
 old towns will continue if there is no determined 
 effort made to secure this result. The housing 
 
 of the workingman has yet been given very little 
 attention. The dangers which have to be looked 
 for may be illustrated by the example of the city 
 of Sacramento which compared with Oakland or 
 Berkeley has done more and very commendable 
 work in the investigation of this field. Already, 
 though Sacramento has to house a population of 
 less than 100,000, the investigations made by Mrs. 
 Von Wagner, 1912, and by Miss C. Schlief in 1913, 
 show that any amount of bad housing can be 
 found in Sacramento and of course there is every 
 reason to assume that conditions are even worse 
 in the larger California cities. 
 
 At the Oakland City-Planning Exhibition, 1914, 
 Dr. Carlton H. Parker, Professor of Political Econ- 
 omy at the University of California, and State 
 Immigration Commissioner, pointed out: 
 
 "In San Francisco where more than 35,000 peo- 
 ple live in tenements and filthy lodgings, there is 
 not a single inspector to see that the law is en- 
 forced. 
 
 "Oakland is full of unlovely tenement houses, of 
 
 *500 
 
 750 
 
 1000 
 
 250 
 
 1500 
 
 1750 
 
 200OJ2250 25 
 
 002750(3000 
 
 3250 
 
 3500 
 
 3750 
 
 4000 
 
 4250 
 
 4500 
 
 4750 
 
 5000 
 
 5250 
 
 5500 
 
 5750 
 
 6000 
 
 6250 
 
 6500 
 
 6750 
 
 7000 
 
 7250 
 
 7500 
 
 7750 
 
 8000 
 
 0250 
 
 8500 
 
 HOOO 
 
 20000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CM 
 
 AR 
 
 T 
 
 SH 
 
 OW 
 
 IN 
 
 G 
 
 Trl 
 
 E 
 
 AG 
 
 GR 
 
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 E 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 VA 
 
 LU 
 
 E 
 
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 D 
 
 WE 
 
 LL 
 
 IN 
 
 GS 
 
 
 
 F 
 
 VA 
 
 Rl 
 
 OU 
 
 S 
 
 540000 
 520000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 ST 
 
 S 
 
 BU 
 
 IL 
 
 r 
 
 IN 
 
 
 
 AK 
 
 LA 
 
 ND 
 
 1 
 
 N 
 
 191 
 
 I. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 it 
 
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 380000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ■ — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 AGGREGATE- 
 VALUE OF 
 DWELLINGS 
 
 CHART SHOWING THE AGGREGATE VALUE OF DWELLINGS OF VARIOUS COSTS BUILT IN OAKLAND IN 1913 
 
 This chart represents, in a slightly different manner, the same facts set forth in the chart on the preceding page. The points 
 of the ascending and descending line indicate, not the number of houses of each cost, but the aggregate value. Thus the aggre- 
 gate value of houses costing $2500 built in Oakland in 1913 was slightly in excess of $580,000, while all the houses costing 
 $6000 each only totaled $24,000. The same conclusions can be derived from this chart as from the preceding one. 
 
118 
 
 RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 Eight Italian families live in this old house inot to mention 
 lodgers l with an average of" two rooms to a family. Rent, $8 
 a month. 
 
 vermin infested lodging houses which produce 
 crime, prevent the development of a healthy pop- 
 ulation, and create perverts." 
 
 It will be necessary to investigate by careful sta- 
 tistical work what the extent of the undesirable 
 conditions in the housing situation of the East Bay 
 cities is and how far the bad conditions are rather 
 the exception than the rule. However large the 
 percentage may be, the fact remains that bad con- 
 ditions already exist and that they continuously 
 grow worse, and also that the life of the whole 
 community not only is endangered bv these bad 
 conditions, but actually is based upon them. 
 
 THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE HAVE 
 COMPARATIVELY SMALL INCOMES. 
 
 Even now while the evil is still in its infancy, it 
 
 •*y 
 
 Sunlight, fresh air and garden spaee, though not in good 
 repair. $4 a month for two rooms. 
 
 is very difficult to figure out what would happen 
 to any part of the community, if this whole stratum 
 of population should suddenly disappear, a pop- 
 ulation that at present is shamefully housed, but 
 that performs necessary services in the community 
 and pays the rents on large investments of money 
 — investments that are closely correlated with 
 many other investments. 
 
 The home of a thrifty Italian family being bought on in- 
 stallments. The garden supplies the family with vegetables. 
 
 A rear court used by six families. Conditions speak for 
 themselves. Rent, two rooms, $6 a month. 
 
 EXAMPLES OF HAD HOUSING CONDITIONS 
 
 From a large series exhibited by the Oakland Associated Charities at the last State Conference of Charities and Correc- 
 tion in San Francisco, with the captions as exhibited by the Associated Charities. The conditions have not improved since. 
 The planting in two of the pictures seems to prove that the inhabitants of these houses have an appreciation of better sur- 
 roundings and would live up to better conditions if they were put into reach financially. 
 
RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 119 
 
 VIEW FROM THOUSAND OAKS (HILLS TO THE LEFT) 
 TOWARDS CERRITO HILL 
 
 Showing the enterprising activity of the subdividing real 
 estate operator opening up with his new streets wide plains 
 and adjoining hills as new residence districts. 
 
 Since the wiping out of this stratum of the popu- 
 lation even cannot be thought of, everything must 
 be done in order to raise its standard of life and 
 its housing conditions. No doubt the social con- 
 ditions, the habits and methods of life of the peo- 
 ple living in poor houses need uplifting and edu- 
 cation, but much of the situation dangerous to 
 health and morals can directly be traced back to 
 defects in the planning of the cities. 
 
 The width and paving of the streets, the size of 
 the lots, the type of the buildings and the laws 
 regulating them and their continuous inspection, 
 the transit connections with the places of work — 
 all these were not designed with special reference 
 to the needs and pocketbooks of the working- 
 man. Considerable elimination of waste and 
 other improvements over old haphazard meth- 
 ods have been realized wherever the matter of 
 cheap but efficient housing has been taken up seri- 
 ously by private or public enterprise. A special 
 discussion of the many points to be considered in 
 this connection cannot be attempted here; persons 
 interested in the matter must be referred to the 
 large housing literature and proceedings of the 
 Housing Conferences all over the world. 
 
 "WHAT HOUSE CAN ONE GET FOR $10 A 
 
 MONTH?" THIS IS THE MOST 
 
 IMPORTANT QUESTION IN 
 
 CITY PLANNING. 
 
 There are now thousands of families, and there 
 will be very many more, whose work the commu- 
 nity needs, but pays for in a manner which does 
 not permit these families to pay more than ten 
 dollars a month for their shelter. The question 
 immediately arises, What can these families get 
 for ten dollars a month? It is a widely current 
 but mistaken notion that families of this type can 
 select the type of dwelling they want. On the 
 contrary, these families, often coming in as sud- 
 denly as the growth of industries demands, simply 
 have to take what they get and what thev get is 
 largely, if not wholly, determined by the prevail- 
 ing methods of building and developing the city. 
 There are two alternatives; the one leads to over- 
 crowding in unhealthy tenements; the ideal in the 
 other direction is healthy homes, ample room, 
 
 privacy, light, air, home-gardens and public parks 
 and playgrounds within walking distance. 
 
 FROM THE AGRICULTURAL TO THE 
 BUILDING STAGE. 
 No attempt will be made in this report to unfold 
 the entire housing situation and its possibilities on 
 the east side of the Bay, but a short survey must 
 be made of the present svstem of handling land 
 from the moment it ceases to be agricultural until 
 it reaches its ultimate use as of furnishing 
 the basis for a workingman's home. The agricul- 
 tural value of the hill land in the neighborhood of 
 Oakland and Berkeley is normally less than one 
 hundred dollars an acre; level land, southward 
 toward Niles, especially such areas as are in or- 
 chard, reach values of one thousand and over per 
 acre. In order to secure cheap homes for the 
 workingman, it would be not only desirable, but 
 for the industrial supremacy of the East Bay abso- 
 lutely necessary, to transform agricultural land as 
 
 CHARMING GARDENING BETWEEN $2500 BUNGALOWS IN 
 NORTH OAKLAND 
 
 To permit this kind of gardening there should he at least a 
 ten-foot space between houses. If space is less than eight feet 
 only unpleasant gaps appear and grouping of houses in solid 
 rows (terraces) is preferable (compare next picture). 
 
 SMALLEST TYPE OF HOMES WITH GARDENS GROUPED IN* 
 ROWS (TERRACES), HELLERAU-DRESDEN 
 This arrangement in many ways is considered as the last 
 word in Germany wherever cheap quarters on comparatively 
 dear land have to he provided. This grouping in continuous 
 rows is more satisfactory than the leaving of gaps measuring 
 only a few feet between party walls. The individual frontages 
 of the unit in these rows should not be less than sixteen feet. 
 This is also a typical example of very cheap houses by an 
 architect of national reputation (Professor Hermann Mu- 
 thesius), compare p. 121. 
 
120 
 
 RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 TYPICAL ROW OF MODERATE-PRICED HOMES (COSTING ABOUT $2500) ON 40-FOOT LOTS AS FOUND IN NEW 
 
 EAST BAY SECTIONS 
 
 Neighborhoods of this kind would gain immensely by grouping the houses instead of lining them up and by proper plant- 
 of the street, leaving narrower roadways. 
 
 rapidly into building lots as can be done with 
 a fair return to the enterprising subdivider willing 
 to assume all the risk accompanying such an en- 
 terprise. 
 
 PLAN or 
 EAST BAY 
 BUNGALOW 
 
 CHARACTERISTIC EAST BAY BUNGALOW 
 
 This typical bungalow stands on a 10-foot lot in a district 
 protected by restrictions for ten years. It fronts on a 00-foot 
 .street, of which the roadway constitutes 20 feet; the gutters, 
 a total of G feet; planting spaces, each 3 feet; the sidewalks, 
 each feet ; while a width of 5 feet intervenes between the 
 sidewalk and the properly line. The roadway is paved with 
 macadam about -I inches thick. This typical bungalow sells 
 at about $2750, on terms of $275 cash, balance $27.50 a month, 
 including interest at per cent. The planning, building, and 
 protection of homes selling at about this price ought to be of 
 fundamental importance in, determining the city plan and the 
 character of the city, as the following figures will prove: 
 Nearly four times as many one-story houses as two-story 
 houses have been erected in the last nine years in Oakland. 
 For the period 1900-1914, inclusive, the figures are: One-story 
 houses, 8930; one and a half-story houses, 1137; two-story 
 houses, 2004. Assuming that the average one-story house occu- 
 pies a 10-foot frontage, over 07 miles of such houses have been 
 built in Oakland in the last 9 years. 
 
 WASTE IN SUBDIVIDING IS A TAX ON 
 INDUSTRIES. 
 
 If more than the fair return for this important 
 work of subdivision has to be paid, it simply means 
 a tax on the workingman which he, under the con- 
 ditions of the American labor market, can largely 
 shift on the manufacturer. It therefore means 
 less efficiency in home industries, a very serious 
 matter, a very real and direct handicap in the de- 
 velopment and the prosperity of the East Bay. 
 Going with this fact in mind over the records, one 
 finds that large bodies of land which were finally 
 subdivided into the smallest of lots 25x100 feet, 
 for the workingmen's use, were not secured by 
 the subdivider at prices somewhat above the agri- 
 cultural value, but at from $1000 to $1250 an 
 acre, i. e., with an increase over the agricultural 
 value of 400'/ to 600%. After a subdivider has 
 thus been handicapped by a high purchase price 
 his work for the cheapest kind of lots expresses 
 itself in the following figures: 
 
 First cost of land for small homes... $1000 per acre 
 
 Cost to grade, sewer and macadam- 
 ize streets, (no sidewalks) 1000 " " 
 
 Interest and taxes for 5 year period, 
 (calculated on l/ 2 of the invest- 
 ment since sales go on during the 
 whole period) i. e., 8% 400 " " 
 
 Incidental expenses 100 " " 
 
 Cost to subdivider $2500 per acre 
 
 One acre produces twelve lots 25x100 feet. After 
 the lots are sold on the monthly payment 
 plan (without making a charge for interest 
 and even taxes) as it is done, a price of 
 from $300 to $335 per lot net corresponds 
 to an advertised selling price of about $400. This 
 produces $4220 and leaves a gross profit of $1720. 
 The cost of collecting the money and still more so 
 of selling the lot have become greater and greater 
 since about 1905, when the competitive subdividing 
 of the East Bay section began. While the stand- 
 ard commission is 5% on general property it has 
 increased in some instances to 20% and 
 more on lots in subdivisions. The com- 
 bined cost of selling and collecting is at 
 least 25% and in most cases today nearer 30 and 
 35%, but counting even 25% only there remains 
 in the above example only a net gain of $665 per 
 
RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 121 
 
 acre or 33%, which under present competitive con- 
 ditions is barely sufficient to cover the risk and 
 professional labor connected with the work of sub- 
 division, especially if compared with the profits 
 which can be realized in more expensive subdivis- 
 ion schemes. 
 
 RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE REAL ESTATE 
 SUBDIVIDER. 
 
 The duties and responsibilities which fall 
 upon the modern subdivider can hardly be 
 overestimated. They are especially comprehen- 
 sive in the American city, which, unlike the Ger- 
 man city, does not closely supervise the subdivid- 
 ing activities (city-planning), but leaves all respon- 
 sibility with the private individual. To lay out a 
 subdivision of any grade in a satisfactory way from 
 the many points of view that have to be consid- 
 ered, including all the questions of transportation, 
 proper type of streets, width, planting, paving, 
 sewers, wires, etc., the proper size of lots, artistic 
 and pleasing lines for the streets and their grades, 
 the proper grouping of the lots in order to make 
 architectural effects possible, the question of 
 proper restrictions and their enforcement, the 
 supervision of the architecture, not to speak of the 
 complicated, economic and legal side of the whole 
 process, and the ingenuity and push needed in 
 order to successfully market the property — this all 
 demands a very high degree of skill, experience, 
 imagination and enterprise. First class service 
 and the best expert advice in this field will always 
 call for high remuneration. Unfortunately, the 
 profit that can be made on more expensive devel- 
 opments compared with the cheap lots considered 
 in the above example is disproportionately much 
 larger. This is very unfortunate for the small lot 
 because it means that the best professional intelli- 
 gence available necessarily must be inclined to 
 turn to more expensive development and neglect 
 
 hp 
 
 j 
 
 
 
 
 
 r^p 
 
 mn 
 
 pfe-T 
 
 
 
 «««»«» 
 
 
 • 
 
 TWO WELL CONCEIVED ROAD JUNCTIONS SHOWING 
 
 PROPER PLANNING OF THE BUILDINGS ON 
 
 THE CORNER LOTS 
 
 This diagram shows what is understood by "grouping of 
 houses" instead of "lining them up." A number of the build- 
 ings are grouped to form an architectural unit. Furthermore 
 they are brought into relation with neighboring units and a 
 balance and harmony attained between the buildings that lace 
 each other across the narrow roadways. Little squares and 
 interesting road junctions are formed, giving character to 
 entire streets. These examples are taken from Mr. Raymond 
 Unwin's book, "Town-Planning in Practice," and illustrate 
 what this master-builder has many times carried out in Hamp- 
 stead, Letchworth, and other garden cities. This and much 
 similar work was inspired by examples from city building of 
 older times, especially as practiced in Germany. 
 
 INEXPENSIVE EAST BAY BUNGALOWS. COST ABOUT 
 
 $2500 EACH. MATERIAL (UPPER PICTURE), 
 
 PLASTER; (LOWER PICTURE), WOOD 
 
 Charming little houses like these, if well grouped and pro- 
 tected against inharmonious types in the neighborhood, produce 
 in well planted streets very beautiful effects. 
 
 the socially so important cheap subdivisions. 
 Every effort therefore must be made to cut down 
 avoidable expenses in the development of the 
 home site for the workineman. 
 
 WHERE SAVINGS MUST BE MADE. 
 
 There are at least three items in which consid- 
 erable savings can be made. One of them is the 
 extremely high commission which goes to| the 
 salesman. This 20 to 35%, which is the cost of 
 advertising and selling, is largely necessitated by 
 the attitude of the public. It is true of the buy- 
 ers of all classes of home sites that their lack of 
 confidence in their own judgment, their timid 
 distrust, make them prefer not the best lots on 
 the market, but the lots that are best advertised. 
 Not the quality of the land, but the personality of 
 a shrewd salesman makes a sale. This unde- 
 batable fact has made it possible that, strangely 
 enough, the increased competition between real 
 estate firms, instead of highly benefiting the pub- 
 lic, has benefited the shrewd salesman, who has 
 raised his commission by several hundred per cent. 
 The gradual establishment of higher and higher 
 standards on the part of the subdividing firms so 
 as finally to command absolute confidence even 
 with the most suspicious buyer, and on the other 
 side the education of the buyers to desire a good 
 home, to know what they desire and to be able to 
 find it for themselves, must change the situation 
 
122 
 
 RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 
 
 
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 EXAMPLE OF GROUPING IN SAN FRANCISCO 
 (Photo and plant 
 
 The necessity of grouping houses in order to achieve archi- 
 tectural harmony has led to the creation of this little "court 
 of honor." Note how the depth of the ilanking residences (see 
 plan), instead of being disagreeable, is made an advantage by 
 the grouping around the garden-court. The size of the lot in 
 the middle is 60x100, of the two lots on either side, 50x100. 
 The street is 55 feet wide. 
 
 and dispense with the at present so necessary, but 
 expensive, rulership of the educating salesman. In 
 the case of the workingman's homes, the situation 
 will be somewhat different. The demand for 
 workingmen's homes will be sudden and will very 
 soon be standardized. The salesman may thereby 
 lose in importance. 
 
 WILL THE AMERICAN WEST ESTABLISH 
 NEW STANDARDS? 
 
 The time when these standards for cheap 
 ivorkingmens homes in the American west are 
 set ivill be a period of the very greatest im- 
 portance in world's history. If the sudden whole- 
 sale demand for workingmen's homes is not 
 met by wise planning, but leads to crowding and 
 low standards, the social and political make-up of 
 the western cities, and the health of their future 
 
 generations, will be corrupted forever. If, on the 
 other hand, desirable homes with home gardens 
 within walking distance of playgrounds and parks 
 can be secured as fast as a demand arises, the slums 
 of Europe and eastern America will be doomed in 
 a happier west, where a new and better standard 
 ought to be set. 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF THE BUYER. 
 
 Since the commissions of the salesman is an 
 item on which considerable savings can be made, 
 ihe role of the salesman as an educator of the 
 hesitating buyer to home ideals, must be taken 
 over by public opinion and semi-public agen- 
 cies. Like the cities of Europe, the Amer- 
 ican cities, or semi-public bodies for them, 
 must contribute to the establishment of healthy 
 home standards. One of the ways in which this 
 can be done is by the establishment of a public or 
 semi-public agency for reliable information about 
 homes available for rent or purchase. The char- 
 acter of this agency must be so high that its 
 passing upon and offering of a certain unit type 
 of home will be sufficient to destroy suspicion in 
 the mind of the home seeker. 
 
 300 TO 400% LOST IN INTERMEDIARY 
 STAGES. 
 
 Another item where savings can be made is in 
 the original purchase price paid by the sub- 
 divider for the land. Subdivision enterprises 
 
 5CALE t 
 
 97 
 10500 
 
 O 98 
 $10500 
 
 ^ 105O0 
 
 WICKFORD^ ROAD 
 
 62 
 
 > 1 928 
 
 S-li 
 
 *|| .3258 
 
 M3C0 <*,< 
 
 SOLD \ 
 
 6-5 
 II3C0 
 
 <3233 
 
 £9 
 I3IS9 
 
 EXAMPLE OF GROUPING 
 
 Showing private residences in Roland Park, Baltimore 
 grouped after a fine English model (Hampsteadl around the 
 blind end of a residential street. An effective way of eliminat- 
 ing noise, dust and the expensive paving connected with 
 through traffic, and relieving, with interesting variety, the 
 monotony of houses lined up in rows. 
 
RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 123 
 
 HOW TO DO IT 
 
 willing to apply modern methods in order to cre- 
 ate marketable workingmen's homes, really cheap 
 and in the reach of the masses, ought to find the 
 highest encouragement from all sides, i. e., from 
 the city's authorities, manufacturers, transporta- 
 tion companies, banking institutions, labor unions 
 and especially from the civic organizations. 
 
 4% LOANS ON WORKINGMEN'S HOMES. 
 
 Another important item where large savings in 
 securing the small home can be made, is the inter- 
 est on the money. The minimum the workingman 
 has to pay is 6%. The policy of the Savings 
 Banks and of the institutions for life and old age 
 insurance have led already, in many examples in 
 
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 HOW NOT TO DO IT 
 
 PLACING BUILDING OX CORNER LOTS—EXAMPLES TAKEN 
 FROM EAST BAY CITIES 
 
 Buildings on corner lots are seen from many angles and 
 therefore determine largely the character of the streets. Great 
 care must be taken to select proper types of buildings and 
 to place them properly. The building on the corner lot some- 
 how acts as the speaker for the whole street and must be able 
 to live up to this duty. A building that might be fine if set 
 somewhere in the street is not always fit for a corner. The 
 nearly blank side of the one building gives you, as it were, 
 the cold shoulder, while the attractive front of the other, in a 
 friendly way, meets you face to face. 
 
 must be encouraged which take the land for work- 
 ingmen's homes directly from its previous agri- 
 cultural state instead of permitting it first to go 
 through all the intermediary stages of prospective 
 city land with the increase in value from three to 
 four hundred per cent connected therewith. While 
 land finally destined for business property or even 
 high class residences can stand this increase with- 
 out too much harm to the final home builder, the 
 land for workingmen's homes cannot stand it 
 without danger to the efficiency of the industrial 
 community. Land in a still agricultural state as 
 to use and value can always be reached with mod- 
 ern methods of transportation. It needs, how- 
 ever, an enterprise managed on a very large scale, 
 and with an extraordinary amount of skill, in 
 order to make land of this kind marketable. If it 
 is done on a small scale, not only the effect on the 
 general housing situation will be small, but also 
 the suspicions of the small buyer, against moving 
 into a still agricultural area which does not suf- 
 ficiently flatter his speculative instincts, are unsur- 
 mountable. Any private or semi-public enterprise 
 
 RONADA AVE. 
 
 COTTAGE-APARTMENTS 
 
 View and plan of Ronada Court, an interesting East Bay 
 experiment in combining the advantages of the apartment 
 house (central management, central plant for hot water and 
 heater, caretaking, and gardening by one employee) with the 
 ideal features of the individual home cottage {separate en- 
 trance, closeness to ground and garden, natural surroundings). 
 The apartment house makes housekeeping easier, but if built 
 with many stories in city-like surroundings it is the enemy of 
 the children, who especially when quite young live a kind 
 of secluded prison life in the upper stories of city apart- 
 ment houses. Individual cottages under central manage- 
 ment may be grouped around gardens, playgrounds, little 
 plazas, and with proper planting produce beautiful effects. 
 This picture shows a successful East Bay experiment situated 
 on two streets separated by very steep ground. 
 
124 
 
 RESIDENTIAL STREETS 
 
 Europe to lending money for home purposes at 
 4' ,', or less. The American Postal Savings Banks 
 which collect the savings of the small investor 
 ought to do similar work. The city might also 
 lend its guarantee to bonds issued bv co-operative 
 building societies, thus securing to them a low 
 rate of interest. Several Australian states started 
 most successfully on these lines: I had occasion to 
 inspect the gratifying results of the South Aus- 
 tralian law modeled upon the New Zealand act. 
 
 THE HOUSING INDUSTRY RETAINS SMALL 
 
 METHODS OF 500 YEARS AGO. MODERN 
 
 WHOLESALE METHODS ARE NEEDED. 
 
 There are other items not connected with the 
 marketing of the land alone, in which savings in 
 the cost of workingmen's housing can be made. 
 Such an item is the cost of the building. If 
 building is undertaken on a wholesale basis by the 
 builders of small houses, making use of best pro- 
 fessional advice and applving wholesale methods 
 of producing all the different parts of the houses 
 in a satisfactory way, great savings can be made 
 thereby. Powerful movements in the applied arts 
 in Germany have made, it a very common thing 
 for the large wholesale producers to employ 
 artists of national reputation for designing the or- 
 iginal pattern for the thousand different objects 
 which are turned out by the wholesale methods 
 of modern machinery. If this idea is applied to 
 the output of some of the leading Western lumber 
 dealers and factories, and to the entire process of 
 building cheap houses, then it will be possible to 
 produce highly satisfactory units which can be 
 assembled into houses suiting individual taste, 
 and the clever grouping of which on well 
 platted lots facing decently planted streets 
 and squares, will surpass everything that can 
 be seen in the (-often- fancy-stricken lanes 
 o&* wealthier suburbs . with their hodge-podge 
 mixture of styles. The most inexpensive 
 workingmen's streets of famous garden suburbs 
 like Hellerau near Dresden, or Hampstead near 
 London, often set the highest architectural stand- 
 ard, which the wealthier parts of the same 
 suburbs have to live up to. The skillful combina- 
 tion of large building enterprises of the kind de- 
 scribed with a progressive policy of real estate 
 development is necessary to get satisfactory results 
 from every point of view, especially from the sell- 
 ing point of view. The profits on the buildings 
 will be only from 14 to 1 :{ of the profits to be real- 
 ized from the real estate operation. But the com- 
 bination of the properly superintended building 
 and loan with the real estate operation, will guar- 
 antee marketability. 
 
 Furthermore, tbe fact that a man lives in his 
 own house instead of a rented one permits a de- 
 crease of the depreciation allowance bv about 2 r ,< : 
 i, c, a monthly outlay of $10 for housing will 
 correspond to at least a S1200 investment, instead 
 of S1000: leaving S900 for the house instead of 
 S700 as calculated above for a rented house. With 
 
 a reduction in the interest charges by the interven- 
 tion of cheaper loans by the Postal Savings Bank, 
 the sum available for the house can be increased 
 to the neighborhood of $1200. 
 
 In order to secure permanently a satisfactory 
 aspect to the housing of the workingman in the 
 East Bay cities much more attention must be 
 given to the problem of the cheap lodging house. 
 The City of Oakland has made a small attempt 
 towards a municipal lodging house, but though 
 this seems to be conducted with admirable skill 
 and true devotion by the people in charge who try 
 to make the best of the small resources at their 
 disposition, it must be said that the whole enter- 
 prise in its present state is not yet worthy of a 
 large city like Oakland and that more serious and 
 more dignified efforts are necessary in view of the 
 large problem than the use of a mere 
 shanty. The authorities in sociological questions 
 have strongly expressed themselves that satisfac- 
 tory quarters for the workingmen living single 
 must be provided in order to protect the homes 
 from the calamities connected with the sub-letting 
 of rooms or beds to lodgers who intrude into fam- 
 ily life, lowering its standards, create the basis for 
 overcrowding, and the rents drawn from this evil. 
 
 Good housing in the amplest sense of the word 
 is the ultimate aim of city-planning. 
 
 The whole matter of housing can only be 
 slightly touched upon in this very general report. 
 Housing is nevertheless of the very greatest im- 
 portance, the very basis in every serious pursuit of 
 city-planning. The settlement of the problems of 
 housing for the masses of the population in the 
 long run determines the fate of a city, its health, 
 beauty, civic spirit, political texture and its future; 
 especially the commercial supremacy of a com- 
 munity in the long run depends upon the quality 
 of the human material which can be raised under 
 the more or less favorable conditions of housing 
 which, again, so largely depend on the policy of 
 city-planning in its connection with transportation, 
 designing of streets, lots and methods of subdi- 
 
 EAST BAY SUGGESTION FOR ATTRACTIVE GROUPING OF 
 SIMPLE HOMES ON A CURVING ROAD 
 
 The two gables that are brought so well into view by the 
 turning of the street are parts of the same body of houses. 
 
VIEW OF THE NATURAL STAGE IN INDIAN GULCH (SOMETIMES CALLED SATHER PARK), AT THE TIME OF THE 
 
 MAY DAY FESTIVAL 
 
 PARKS, PARKWAYS AND PLAYGROUNDS 
 
 San Francisco has 1648 acres of parks; Tacoma, 1020; Seattle, 
 land, 653; Oakland, 190; Berkeley less than 30 acres. 
 
 1688; San Diego, 1465; Los Angeles, 4100; Port 
 
 A SAD STORY. 
 
 Regarding the solution of its park problems the 
 East Bay section is in the same situation as many 
 young cities of rapid growth: there are enormous 
 possibilities, but practically nothing has been 
 accomplished yet. Oakland owns only about one- 
 tenth of the park area it should have according 
 to good American standards, and Berkeley has 
 only about one-sixth of the Oakland park acreage. 
 This backwardness is especially hard to under- 
 stand because these cities in their early youth 
 have had the great fortune to feel the influence of 
 Frederic Law Olmsted, the elder, the great Amer- 
 ican genius of park-culture. The entire absence 
 of parks in Berkeley, this lagging behind any con- 
 ceivable minimum standard, is the more surprising 
 because Berkeley is benefited by the influence of 
 a State University. Universities in other cities 
 have had a very decided influence in fostering 
 park movements and sharpening the community 
 conscience in this very important matter, the most 
 famous case being the University of Harvard and 
 the cities of metropolitan Boston. The University 
 of California has not yet influenced the different 
 East Bay cities in this regard. On the contrary, 
 the existence of the large University Campus and 
 the fact that the College authorities originally 
 contemplated the laying out of a large part of 
 their grounds as a public park (the elder Olmsted 
 
 dissuaded them) have been taken again and again 
 as a poor excuse for acquiring no municipal 
 parks. Since the University Campus is the oldest, 
 and even in its present already advanced state of 
 building progress is still the largest, piece of 
 garden-like grounds on the east side of the Bay, 
 a few words regarding its park features properly 
 belong at the beginning of this chapter. The citi- 
 zens of Berkeley in the meetings of their civic 
 bodies often dwell on the commercial value of 
 the University to them. In matters of park 
 policy, however, this hanging on the coat-tails of 
 the State University surely proves to be bad busi- 
 ness, having retarded the necessary park purchases 
 and made them needlessly expensive. The build- 
 ing up of the University Campus progresses rap- 
 idly, and the growth of the cities makes park 
 reservations at the same time both more urgent 
 and more expensive. The fact that the people 
 of Berkeley and of the whole East Bay used the 
 University Campus somewhat as a public pleasure 
 ground curiously did not make them think of fur- 
 nishing out of the municipal treasuries the money 
 for at least properly developing the park features 
 of the grounds which they enjoyed without having 
 paid for. Instead of that, decades have gone 
 by since the original appearance of the great 
 Olmsted, during which decade the leading 
 names of American landscape architecture were 
 
126 
 
 PARKS 
 
 never more heard of on the college grounds. 
 Until only a very short time ago even the 
 venerable live oaks which are the glory to 
 the campus lacked the most elementary care; 
 the creek was used as a dump and backyard; and 
 even today there are parts of this creek where its 
 great natural beauty is degraded and preparations 
 apparently made to transform it into a storm 
 sewer. The lawn projects which the elder Olm- 
 sted so heartily recommended have not been car- 
 ried out. While the realization of one of the 
 most ambitious architectural plans ever conceived 
 is carried on in erecting the educational buildings, 
 the landscape treatment, which is of the very great- 
 est difficulty in connection with such a big and 
 novel plan, is handled as an incident; after the 
 leading firm of the country had once been con- 
 sulted its further co-operation was not secured, 
 the reason adduced being lack of funds. This, of 
 
 .MAP OF LANDS TO BE ACQUIRED FOR A PUBLIC PARK 
 (WEST OAKLAND) 
 
 As per Ordinance- No. 1810. 
 Approved October 30, 1890. 
 This map shows one of the many park projects for Oakland 
 fiat were "almost" carried out. 
 
 OLD LIVE OAKS IN "THOUSAND OAKS," BERKELEY 
 
 Thousand Oaks is the old Indian burying ground, one of the 
 finest imaginable groves of live oaks, once offered to the city as 
 a park, but through civic indolence not acquired. The picture 
 shows how the subdividers have done what was in their power 
 to preserve the natural features of the ground. It is as if the 
 outlines of the oaks had suggested the curve of the street and the 
 forms of the large vases shaped in concrete after a pattern 
 designed by Maxfleld 1'arrish. the painter. A good example of 
 landscape work that has the "feel of the land." 
 
 course, is not only a very undignified state of 
 affairs in the case of an institution of national 
 significance, but also means a serious loss to the 
 final beauty of the whole architectural plan. The 
 passive attitude of the East Bay in this matter, 
 especially of Berkeley, is altogether untenable. 
 There has been a long series of attempts to secure 
 on the east side of the Bay something that in some 
 way might compare with the parks of other cities, 
 as Golden Gate Park in San Francisco or Balboa 
 Park in San Diego. Because of the sluggishness of 
 the voters and lack of energy of the supporters 
 the story of these attempts is disheartening; since 
 it is of little value to review these futile attempts 
 only a few remarks regarding them will be made. 
 One of the official maps of Oakland prepared in 
 the year 1889 1 is interesting because it contains 
 a "Proposed Park of 188 Acres." This park was 
 located on the western waterfront between 16th 
 and 36th Street, stretching east as far as Adeline 
 Street. It would have been an enormous factor 
 in building up the western part of the city. 
 Among the various parksites agitated in fojlowing 
 years the so-called Sinison Tract deserves mention 
 because of the fact that it comprised one thousand 
 acres, which were offered at 8160 an acre, Colonel 
 Simson being willing to take bonds of the city for 
 the purchase price.- A park of one thousand 
 acres would have been a park worth while and 
 given the city an asset like Balboa Park in San 
 Diego. Later unredeemable mistakes were made 
 in not acquiring the Indian Gulch in Oakland and 
 the Indian burying ground (Thousand Oaks) in 
 Berkeley, both of which parksites of unique quali- 
 ties were offered cheaply to unintelligent or even 
 
 a Map of the City of Oakland to accompany the Report of T. W. Morgan, city engineer, and G. P. Allardt, con- 
 sulting engineer, to the Board of Public Works, dated July 18, 1889. 
 
 2 Compare the little pamphlet, "A Park for Oakland," being No. 1 in "Pamphlets on Oakland" of the Bancroft 
 Library, University of California. 
 
PARKS 
 
 127 
 
 venal administrations. The Indian burying 
 ground has been subdivided and sells from 10 to 
 16 times the price at which it was offered to the 
 City of Berkeley, Indian Gulch, the parksite es- 
 pecially recommended by Charles Mulford Rob- 
 inson, is not subdivided yet, but has considerably 
 increased in value. (Pictures pp. 125 and 129). 
 
 THE VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS OF THE 
 
 ELDER OLMSTED, CHAS. MULFORD 
 
 ROBINSON AND OSCAR PRAGER. 
 
 In considering the park problem of the East Bay 
 
 Cities I had the good fortune of finding a good 
 deal of the work already done. The great Olm- 
 sted in his report to the College authorities of 
 1866 has made some suggestions regarding the park 
 possibilities, which are of the greatest and most 
 general value for the whole East Bay region. In 
 the year 1906 Mr. Charles Mulford Robinson, 
 the eminent American exponent of the city beau- 
 tiful idea, made a fine survey of the park possi- 
 bilities in Oakland, slightly touching also the 
 neighboring cities, and after him the landscape 
 architect of the Oakland park directors, Mr. Oscar 
 Prager, has given much expert thought to the mat- 
 
 LAND OWNED OR CONTROLLED 
 
 BY THE 
 
 CITY OF OAKLAND 
 
 1914. 
 
 KEY A PARKS 
 
 B SCHOOL GROUNDS 
 
 C PLAYGROUNDS 
 
 D FIRE DEPARTMENT 
 
 E WATERFRONT LANDS (LEASED & UNLEA5CD) 
 
 F MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS 
 SCALE 
 
 I MILE 
 
 ACCOMPANYING REPORT OF WCHNCa HEGEMANN 
 
 LAND OWNED OR CONTROLLED BY THE CITY OF OAKLAND 
 
 This map shows how the municipality, as an owner of real estate, is concerned with every part of its area. The need for 
 additional land for various purposes is Increasing rapidly. Only by timely purchases can the city secure sites best suited for 
 its purposes at reasonable prices. In making these purchases the needs must be estimated with a city-planning eye. Certain 
 sites are suitable for public buildings only if later extensions of such buildings can well be grouped in the immediate neighbor- 
 hood. Sites for schools must be in close relation to playgrounds; playgrounds are benefited by the neighborhood of a park. In 
 order to buy intelligently, from a city-planning point of view, municipal governments in Europe, especially in Germany, have 
 special land departments with ample discretionary powers and funds to operate on the real estate market. Something similar 
 ought to be established in every American city that contemplates city-planning work and that has an honest government. The 
 imitation of this European practice, however, is recommended in this report only for the acquisition of those lands that will be 
 needed for public purposes, as shown in this map (especially parks) and possibly for the development of a model experiment 
 fpr workingmen's homes. Operations on the real estate market for merely speculative purposes as practiced by German munic- 
 ipalities and as has been recommended by American admirers of Municipal Socialism in Germany is not recommended by this 
 report for the reason that American conditions are essentially different. German cities, operating on the real estate market, do 
 so in order to secure the so-called unearned increment of land values' fpr the city treasury, thereby lessening the taxes on income 
 and industries, which taxes are the main reliance of the city treasury in Germany. There are no taxes on land and houses 
 worth mentioning. Land taxes have lately been increased, but even then and including the much mentioned unearned increment 
 tax they amount only to from 5 per cent to 25 per cent of the property taxes customary in American cities. The American 
 city is much more fortunate than the German city in the real estate field. While the German city, in order to get anything from 
 the increasing value of land must speculate and take chances, the American city by its system of taxation without assuming 
 any risk, is the quiet partner in every ownership of land inside the municipal boundaries. The American city raises taxes from 
 every piece of land according to the selling value of the land. If the value increases, taxes increase. The city practically is the 
 owner of a mortgage on all land, a mortgage representing about one-fourth to one-third of the actual value of this land, and as 
 a rule increasing with every new assessment. Jn an American city to buy land wholesale, as German cities do, would mean kill- 
 ing the goose that lays the golden eggs. All the American city has to do is to make timely land purchases for parks, play- 
 grounds, street openings, public buildings, and for the rest to enforce equitable tax assessment. 
 
128 
 
 PARKS 
 
 ter and has in papers and addresses put before 
 the people the necessity of comprehensive park 
 development. The work of Olmsted, the elder, 
 will be referred to later. A few of the splendid 
 suggestions of Charles Mulford Robinson have 
 been carried out; for some others, which have 
 unfortunately been disregarded, it is now too late 
 forever. By far the largest part of Robinson's 
 park program, however, still stands today as it did 
 eight years ago, as the very best advice that could 
 be given under the circumstances with the only 
 
 difference that today it will be more expensive to 
 carry out. Every year it will be more urgent and 
 much more expensive. 
 
 The following short abstracts from Robinson's 
 report, "A Plan of Civic Improvement for the City 
 of Oakland, California," 1906, are still apropos 
 today, and deserve much better publicity than they 
 had when I came to Oakland and found a large 
 number of public spirited citizens who were un- 
 aquainted with Robinson's report: 
 
 EXTRACT FROM MR. CHARLES MULFORD ROBINSON'S REPORT 
 
 ADVANTAGES OF LOCATION AND CLIMATE. 
 
 "In approach to Oakland from the bay, one sees 
 a city stretching far along the waterfront and back 
 over the flat plain, until the houses begin to climb 
 the foothills. These, lying in rolling terraces be- 
 yond, promise views of rare majesty and beauty. 
 The air at every season is soft and mild, the skies 
 are blue, even often when fog hides the bay's 
 other shore, and the homes are separate houses, 
 embowered in roses and wistaria and rising from 
 gardens of lilies. What a place this appears, nat- 
 urally and sociologically, for parks! 
 
 LACK OF PARKS ON WATERFRONT AND IN 
 THE HILLS. 
 
 "And yet to their glorious waterfront on one of 
 the most beautiful bays of the world the people 
 of Oakland have no access. There is not a spot 
 on all the long bay and estuary frontage where 
 they are free to watch the ceaseless panorama of 
 the shipping. And on those hills, with their noble 
 views and romantic glens, there are no free pleas- 
 ure grounds to which they have inalienable right; 
 no walks and drives save the lines of direct travel ; 
 no seats ; no lovely site, except the highways, which 
 private ownership may not, if it pleases, fence off 
 from public trespass, or use for the erection of 
 signs that with hideous commonplaceness would 
 unescapably dominate the town." 
 
 CONSIDERABLE PARK ACREAGE REQUIRED. 
 
 "In a city such as Oakland an obvious require- 
 ment is a considerable park acreage that shall 
 satisfy the community's desire for pleasure out of 
 doors. To do this the parks, or at least one of 
 them, must be not only of large size, but readily 
 accessible and the park possessions must present, 
 in their entirety, a variety of attractions to suit 
 the varied tastes of the community's members. 
 There should be opportunity for driving, for walk- 
 ing, and if possible for boating; there should be 
 places for picnics, for meditation and for games; 
 the landscape work should include, if feasible, 
 both the natural and the artificial, or formal, 
 styles; and it would be desirable to have the 
 scenery comprise at once the picturesque and the 
 rugged, the pastoral and the romantic, the closed- 
 
 in picture and the extended view, so that all the 
 various prejudices of good taste may be gratified, 
 and the community as a whole take pleasure in 
 the scenery publicly possessed. If these varied 
 attractions cannot be included in one park, it will 
 be well to have a series of public reservations of 
 which each unit shall represent a distinct type and 
 serve a distinct function. But if they can be 
 brought together in a single holding that shall be 
 sufficiently central there will obviously be a gain 
 in economy of administration and in largeness of 
 effect." 
 
 INDIAN GULCH AS A PARKSITE SECOND 
 
 TO NONE. 
 
 "Lake Merritt Park . . . will be a most at- 
 tractive and serviceable little park; but .it is by 
 no means sufficient to satisfy the requirements of 
 the city. 
 
 "Reaching the Lake Merritt tract near its north- 
 eastern corner is romantic Indian Gulch, with a 
 parklike road overhung by great trees, following 
 the stream far on its further side. I understand 
 that some years ago there was a project before the 
 people for the purchase of this gulch and road, 
 with the land between and enough on either side 
 to frame properly the picture, the whole strip, 
 known as the Sather tract, amounting in its con- 
 siderable length to some 300 acres. (Views pp. 
 125, 129). 
 
 "I know nothing about the reasonableness or 
 otherwise of the proposed price, but I am sure 
 that in not securing this land in some way or 
 other there was made a mistake. It is so nearly 
 a park now, thanks to the taste with which the 
 road was laid out and to the preservation of the 
 scenery's natural charm, that there will be need 
 of very little expenditure beyond that required for 
 the purchase of the land. And it will offer one 
 of the most picturesque and romantic walks and 
 drives that can be found near any large city of 
 my acquaintance in this or other countries. Con- 
 sidering its availability — in convenience of access, 
 in ease of grade, in opportunities for pleasant re- 
 turn by another-route, in suitability of extent — / 
 think, in fact, of no park drive of similar nature 
 to which it is clearly secondhand as an adequate 
 municipal park system necessarily includes pro- 
 vision for driving and for those who like beautiful 
 
PARKS 
 
 129 
 
 VIEW OF THE NATURAL AMPHITHEATER IN SO-CALLED INDIAN GULCH AT TIME OF MAY DAY FESTIVAL 
 Live oaks and eucalyptus. A part of the tract, the acquisition of which was urged by Mr. Chas. Mulford Robinson 
 
 walks, I niust urge the people of Oakland to ob- 
 tain this property. That it will fit in so well with 
 the proposed Lake Merritt Park, offering a de- 
 lightful objective to the suggested bridlepath on 
 the east shore boulevard and to the boulevard it- 
 self, is an added reason for obtaining it — as is the 
 possibility of its service as a connecting link in 
 making convenient and beautiful circular drives, 
 or parkways. 
 
 INDIAN GULCH ROAD AND DIMOND 
 CANYON 
 
 "The Indian Gulch road already connects at its 
 upper end with Dimond canyon, and the road 
 through the latter, with its contiguous land — 
 beautiful in scenery and a popular picnic and 
 walking tract even now — should be acquired by 
 the city, that the return route may be worthy of 
 the going, and that the east, or Brooklyn, section, 
 of Oakland may have as convenient and lovely a 
 park approach and drive as will the central. In 
 fact, as in the case of the Lake Merritt tract, this 
 will be something more than an approach or ave- 
 nue of exit. It will be in itself and in its use a 
 park. . . . 
 
 "If the loop drive thus offered by Indian Gulch 
 and Dimond canyon has any esthetic fault it is 
 that for nearly the whole distance it is too shut 
 in to offer long views. Although the grade of 
 both roads rises steadily, until at about their point 
 of meeting a considerable elevation has been 
 reached, there is very little chance to enjoy the 
 
 superb prospect of cities, bay, hills and islands 
 that is spread out below the vantage points at 
 Oakland's back. The little glimpses that are of- 
 fered from the road are tantalizing in their re- 
 minder of what one misses even while it is realized 
 that the picturesqueness of gulch and canyon is 
 in itself complete." 
 
 SCENE IN ONE OF THE EAST BAY CANYONS 
 
130 
 
 PARKS 
 
 PARK SYSTEM OF SEATTLE 
 
 Seattle, like Los Angeles, builds a park system worthy of a 
 Western city. Even so, it "will take time before Pacific Coast 
 . cities will equal or surpass the achievements in the creation of 
 parks of cities like Boston, Chicago, Kansas City, Philadelphia, 
 Minneapolis, and many others. 
 
 PARK DRIVES COMBINING HIGH AND LOW 
 LEVELS. 
 
 In order to overcome this disadvantage Mr. Rob- 
 inson proposed here and in other localities a sys- 
 tem of drives offering circuits that will combine 
 roads at high and low levels, views shut in and ex- 
 tended, picturesqueness and inspiration. For some 
 of his proposals it is unfortunately too late now, 
 the propitious moment having gone by unobserved 
 by the citizens of Oakland. A little suggestion of 
 Charles Mulford Robinson's plans may be found in 
 the charming piece of a drive following for a 
 short distance Glen Echo Creek under the name 
 of Richmond Boulevard; though this has been 
 carelessly handled by crossing the creek in some 
 places by crude solid fills instead of light bridges, 
 the elegance of a drive along a creek bordered by 
 live oaks in contrast to the baseness of the use of 
 
 the stream as a storm sewer is very convincing. 
 (View p. 133). 
 
 Speaking about this "remarkably favorable" op- 
 portunity of a drive developed strictly as a park- 
 way on the model of Boston's Fenway — an oppor- 
 tunity largely destroyed today .at least in this 
 specific location — Robinson says: "The new 
 drive should not only be a park approach, 
 but a park link. The Thorn [Moraga] road, lead- 
 ing up to Piedmont Heights, is in itself a beau- 
 tiful drive. To be sure, the cemetery is at 
 one side; but at an increasing distance from the 
 road and shut off from it by the tall and stately 
 eucalyptus and finally by a depression that be- 
 comes almost a ravine, and the planting can, if de- 
 sired, be made yet thicker. Meanwhile attention 
 is distracted from the cemetery by the view on the 
 other side, the road clinging to the side of the hill 
 as it climbs at easy grade. This road, by desig- 
 nation as a park road and ultimately by some 
 further planting, ought to be made an extension, 
 or perhaps more strictly the goal at this end, of 
 Glen Echo drive; reaching Piedmont Heights by 
 its means, connection can then be made by an 
 existing street, well paved and attractively built 
 up, with Piedmont Park, or back and around the 
 contour of the hill with Indian Gulch and Dimond 
 canyon roads. The latter connection should be 
 made, as it easily can be, via the town side of the 
 hill, instead of behind it as at present, so that the 
 noble view may be enjoyed. Thus Indian Gulch 
 will have its loop to the west side as well as to 
 the east, or a grand outside circuit, via Dimond 
 canyon and Thorn road, may be made; and east 
 and west sides will have parkway connection with- 
 out the necessity of going through the city. 
 
 "There is opened thus an astonishing oppor- 
 tunity for the creation of a country park in un- 
 usual proximity to the city, and with approaches 
 from all sections; the opportunity is too good to 
 ignore. 
 
 PIEDMONT PARK. 
 "Beginning with the acquisition of Piedmont 
 Park — since it is ready made — the city should if 
 possible screw up its park enthusiasm and its con- 
 fidence in the future to the point of acquiring also 
 the open tract between Piedmont Park and the 
 Indian gulch tract boundary. Those takings 
 would give point to the extended Pleasant Valley 
 boulevard, and would create a magnificent country 
 park — of which the Indian gulch road would be 
 only a side drive, and in which Thorn and Di- 
 mond canyon roads would be approaches — that 
 would thrust its way, in a beautiful great gore, al- 
 most to the center of the city, the lake and the 
 playground being its southern terminus. Then 
 Oakland, with a park to be proud of, would 
 thereby take high place among cities and its at- 
 tractiveness to home-builders would be enormously 
 increased. 
 
 OAKLAND'S DUTY. 
 "Nor would the city be doing more than it ought 
 to do, with such an oportunity, with its large and 
 destined to be larger population of householders, 
 
PARKS 
 
 131 
 
 and with the constancy of its out-of-doors weather. 
 The acquisition of all except the lands between the 
 proposed line of the Sather tract and Piedmont 
 Park is the minimum that the city can consider 
 doing. 
 
 "It is widely held that Boston, with its very fine 
 park system, sets the standard for the country. 
 Boston's situation, too, is not dissimilar to that of 
 Oakland — with the bay in front and hills at the 
 back. Such, however, is the park acreage there 
 that the population averages only 42.2 persons to 
 the acre of park. A like proportion here would give 
 to Oakland about 2,400 acres for parks — and the 
 Boston parks are out of use in a popular sense five 
 months out of the year, while here there is no 
 month when the parks would not attract. . . . The 
 big park suggested would add, I suppose, a possi- 
 ble 640 acres, leaving an enormous margin for 
 other park reservations. Thus Oakland need not 
 be afraid of overdoing the matter in creating this 
 park. And to refer to the West coast instead of 
 to the East, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle have 
 already had the courage to do and plan much 
 more." 
 
 WISE CO-OPERATION BETWEEN OAKLAND, 
 
 BERKELEY AND VICINITY. 
 
 COUNTY SCHEME. 
 
 "No one can go over these and neighboring 
 tracts without realizing the wisdom of co-opera- 
 tion, in the matter of park development at least, 
 among the several communities that make up the 
 greater Oakland 
 
 "Were such co-operation secured there would be 
 no need to change in any respect the great park as 
 I have sketched it. Topographical and social con- 
 ditions would make it naturally the central feature 
 of a county scheme, the latter mainly concerning 
 itself hereafter with the opening of scenic drives 
 into and along the hills, with the acquisition for 
 the public's enjoyment of striking vantage points 
 here and there, and with the broadening out into 
 local parks for Berkeley and Alameda of the chain 
 of public reservations. 
 
 
 
 ;\ ■ ■■ ,( 2 
 
 >-..■■■,,• ■ --- -: 
 
 
 f ■ 
 
 ' a**" < . ,' 
 
 ''"^••-' w 
 
 1 
 
 Map of 
 
 Kansas CitY 
 
 Snowme PaskSystem Am extensions,™ 
 
 TYPICAL EAST BAY LANDSCAPE 
 
 Live oaks couching themselves in the little valleys formed 
 by small intermittent streams. This type of landscape has a 
 very special charm; its development to the highest possible 
 perfection is the sacred duty of the Californian municipal 
 landscape architect. Copies, e. </.. of continental or English 
 parks, seldom have zest; here is a chance for original work 
 nourished from the breast of Mother Earth. 
 
 PARK SYSTEM OF KANSAS CITY 
 
 One of the inspiring examples of American enterprise as re- 
 gards parks. Over 2000 acres of park land and fifty miles of 
 boulevards and parkways were acquired by power of emi- 
 nent domain under the special assessment plan. 
 
 "For example, Moraga or Thorn road, after pass- 
 ing Piedmont Heights, winds on into the hills. 
 Following a picturesque gulch, of which the high 
 slopes are covered with a most beautiful wild 
 growth that it will be a shame for the community 
 to lose, Bellevue Avenue is reached at last. From 
 this there is lovely town connection, via the Clare- 
 mont Country Club roads, while the drive itself 
 may be continued and made scenically splendid 
 by extension on a viaduct over the reservoir valley 
 to connect with the Tunnel road. So passing the 
 site of the new hotel, it would have direct connec- 
 tion with Oakland's Broadway and with Berkeley. 
 
 "Although this is only one of the many possi- 
 bilities of the suggested county park system, Oak- 
 land, with its other more pressing park require- 
 ments, can hardly undertake it now by itself. Un- 
 less a co-operative system can be arranged, we 
 must close our eyes to all this and similar oppor- 
 tunities." 
 
132 
 
 PARKS 
 
 SCENE IN LAKESIDE PARK, OAKLAND 
 
 A successful effort to preserve a typical Californian landscape in the heart of a great city, 
 bed in front are later to be replaced by California perennials. 
 
 The flowers in the temporary 
 
 Hereupon Robinson speaks about the advantages 
 realized by co-operation as exemplified by the suc- 
 cessful county park systems of the Middle West 
 and especially of Essex County near New York; 
 also bv the great co-operative park systems of the 
 cities around Boston and Providence. The neces- 
 sity of a similar co-operation between the cities of 
 the East side of San Francisco Bay can not be 
 emphasized strongly enough. 
 
 THE ELDER OLMSTED ON AN EAST BAY 
 CANYON. 
 
 There are mainly two points in the work of 
 Charles Mulford Robinson, which he considers of 
 special importance to the East Bay section: i. e., 
 the creation of a large park and the creation of 
 good approaches to this park in the form of park- 
 ways following as much as possible the lines of 
 natural beauty offered by nature in the canyon 
 and along the creeks. The fundamental necessity 
 of these two points today remains unchanged, as 
 it was not only eight years ago but as long as 
 American park history reaches back. The 
 great Olmsted — this is very interesting to con- 
 sider — when he visited the East Bay section in 
 1865 emphasized the importance of the canyons. 
 Olmsted wanted one of the neighborhood lanes of 
 his plan "extended eastwardly to the mouth of the 
 valley or gorge in the mountains, which is a part 
 of the property of the College. This lane is ex- 
 tended up the gorge, first, however, crossing to the 
 other side. Thence it is intended to follow up the 
 course of the brook, as close upon its banks as is 
 practicable, until the point is reached at which 
 the branch enters from the left. There the lane 
 should fork, being carried up the branch to the 
 left with such curves as will be necessary to reach 
 
 the small table land. From this it would return 
 on the left bank of the southerly branch of the 
 stream to the main stem, crossing near the fork 
 by a bridge. There should be a convenient stop- 
 ping-place for carriages upon the table-land from 
 which a walk should be formed to the highest 
 point of the knoll around which the lane passes. 
 At this point there is a very interesting view 
 through the gorge and out upon the Bay, and it 
 would be a suitable place for a small summer- 
 house or pavilion. The lane within the gorge 
 would have to be formed by excavation on the hill- 
 side and a thick plantation should be carefully es- 
 tablished on the upper slope so as to confine at- 
 tention to the damp ravine below and the opposite 
 bank, which to a considerable height is abundantly 
 covered with native foliage of a very beautiful 
 character. 
 
 "As this road follows a stream of water from 
 the open landscape of the Bay region into the 
 midst of the mountains, it offers a great change of 
 scenery within a short distance, and will constitute 
 a unique and most valuable appendage to the gen- 
 eral local attractions of the neighborhood." Those 
 are Olmsted's own words. What he said prop- 
 erly applies to nearly everyone of the beauti- 
 ful East Bay canyons and represents a typical 
 model for the method in which everyone of them 
 without exception should be treated to become an 
 invaluable asset for the communities. 
 
 This idea of properly developing the canyons 
 and their creeks has been taken up afresh by the 
 landscape architect of the Oakland park directors, 
 Mr. Oscar Prager, and some new and valuable 
 studies of the possibilities of these canyons have 
 been worked out. The following is the practicable 
 way in which Mr. Prager presented the matter in 
 one of his addresses: 
 
PARKS 
 
 133 
 
 GLEN ECHO CREEK. 
 
 "Let us take Cemetery Creek, or better, Glen 
 Echo Creek, as a concrete example. For the 
 greater part of its course the creek in its present 
 state is a nuisance. It is a collector of dirt, refuse, 
 tin cans, and all kinds of waste from the whole 
 neighborhood and a constant menace to health. 
 For sanitary purposes only, Oakland should own a 
 hundred-foot strip on each side of the Creek and 
 construct a boulevard along one side of it. 
 
 "This would give us a parkway with Lakeside 
 Park at one end and Mountain View Cemetery at 
 the other. The creek ends in the reservoir of 
 Mountain View Cemetery. Mountain View Ceme- 
 tery must eventually become a City Park. Even 
 now it is surrounded by subdivisions and as it can- 
 not be enlarged it is only a matter of filling it up. 
 We may all have to do our individual share toward 
 this end, but, just as Daniel Burnham while de- 
 signing the plan of San Francisco, included Laurel 
 Hill and Odd Fellows Cemeteries, both in the west- 
 ern addition, as parks, and just as old cemeteries 
 have become delightful parks in many European 
 cities, so Mountain View Cemetery must ultimately 
 become a park. The very fact that many burial 
 plots are sold now with the provision of perpetual 
 care will make it impossible for the stock-holders 
 of the association to cut the property up into sub- 
 divisions. 
 
 "With Mountain View Park at one end and 
 Lakeside Park at the other, this boulevard would 
 also be an important continuation of Moraga Val- 
 ley road, which would join the Boulevard near the 
 Cemetery. Moraga Valley road, if widened and 
 improved, would compare favorably with the Foot- 
 hill Boulevard; even now it is a favorite route for 
 pleasure travel. 
 
 THE IDEAL PARKWAY RUNS ALONG A 
 CREEK. SAVING OF STORM 
 SEWER EXPENSE. 
 
 "The city would in this case control the begin- 
 ning and ending of the creek and between two 
 strips of parking the creek would be a sanitary, 
 wholesome flow of water. Now the property along 
 the Creek is very cheap, the assessment values are 
 on the average from one-fourth to one-fifth those 
 of property on both sides 100 feet away. Sewer- 
 age is entering the creek surreptitiously and con- 
 taminating both creek and lake. Some uncon- 
 nected culverts have been built by private parties, 
 but are inadequate and flooded every winter. In 
 the near future the district will be confronted with 
 the necessity of bonding itself for the purpose of 
 building a storm-sewer, which would cost from 
 $15 to $18 to the running foot, an expense which 
 could just as well and more advantageously be 
 borne by the district for the purpose of purchas- 
 ing the strip for the boulevard along the creek, 
 which would of course make a storm-sewer un- 
 necessary." 
 
 In other words, by preserving the creek in its 
 natural state it will take care of water and the 
 boulevard will be secured in addition. 
 
 "Another district which has the same opportun- 
 ity to profit by a creek instead of as now suffering 
 in consequence of its existence, is North Oakland 
 with Temescal Creek. Where the creek begins in 
 the reservoir of the Peoples Water Company at the 
 foot of Tunnel Road, the Boulevard could easily 
 connect with Tunnel Road and another beautiful 
 driveway would be added to our park system. 
 With the reservoir as source the water of the creek 
 would be absolutely pure. 
 
 Mr. Prager continues: 
 
 "A boulevard along Sausal Creek, connecting 
 East 14th Street and Dimond Canyon, would be 
 the parkway for East Oakland. Here conditions 
 are exceptionally favorable for a quick realization 
 of the project. The expense of an otherwise 
 necessary storm-sewer could be saved and — as the 
 property along the creek is still held in large par- 
 cels by a few owners, who are ready to subdivide — 
 a little forethought and intelligent co-operation 
 is all that is needed to secure a strip of 100 feet 
 on each side of the creek for a parkway from 
 East 14th Street to Dimond Canyon." 
 
 
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 GLIMPSE OF GLEN ECHO CREEK 
 This is the southern part of Glen Echo Creek, where it bears 
 the name Richmond Roulevard and where it represents one 
 of the very few bits of care given to East Ray creeks. The 
 creek there for a short stretch is preserved, roads built on 
 either side, the little bridge was erected by the Oakland Park 
 Directors (Oscar Prager, architect). The creek during the dry 
 season looks a bit rugged, seeming to require the planting of 
 more living foliage. Rut even as it is, this bit of California 
 landscape with its oaks gives an indication that most charm- 
 ing results could be achieved if due recognition was given to 
 the really great assets represented by these creeks — honoring 
 them with loving care instead of degrading them to ordinary 
 sewers. 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF EAST BAY PARK SYS- 
 TEM; THE BIG PARK; THE CANYONS; 
 THE WILD WOOD PARKS; ISLAND 
 PARK; MIDWAY PLAISANCE; 
 SKYLINE BOULEVARD AND 
 HIGHLAND DRIVE. 
 
 But a park system consisting of this big some- 
 what centrally located park as proposed by Charles 
 Mulford Robinson, and made accessible and sup- 
 plemented by the parkways along the creeks up in- 
 to the canyons as recommended by Olmsted, Robi- 
 son and Prager would still be far from exhausting 
 
134 
 
 PARKS 
 
 ki 
 
 
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 <ai 
 
 11111 ■■ 
 
 VIEW OF FRESH POND PARK, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 
 
 Cambridge, a University city like Berkeley, has transformed 
 a lake owned by the water board of the city into a beautiful 
 park and a fine part of the unique park system of Greater 
 Boston. 
 
 the marvellous possibilities of the East Bay region. 
 The park map of the East Bay Cities, besides the 
 big park, besides canyons, creeks and glens with 
 their parkways should contain a large Island Park 
 along the waterfront, a Midway plaisance halfway 
 between waterfront and foothills, the Skyline 
 Boulevard with a chain of Wildwood Parks on the 
 top of the hills and a considerable improvement of 
 the present Highland Drive. All these ideas are 
 far from being new; a few words only need to be 
 said in explanation of those that have not yet 
 been discussed in the preceding paragraphs: 
 
 THE ISLAND PARK. 
 
 From the point of view of the recreational city 
 every observing visitor regrets — so did Mr. Rob- 
 inson very emphatically — Oakland's lack of access 
 to its waterfront. Mr. Robinson proposed some 
 small reservations on the waterfront; but since 
 then a new extraordinary possibility has presented 
 itself with the plan for the new harbor on the East 
 bay shore mapped out by U. S. Engineer Colonel 
 Rees. This island park plan and its indorsement 
 by Colonel Rees has been referred to in the chap- 
 ter dealing with the Harbor fp. 40 f.). A 
 plan for the park — very tentative, just in order to 
 suggest the possibilities of endless romantic water- 
 ways for canoeing, a long straight and absolutely 
 quiet regatta course for the University, any amount 
 of play ground desired, a beautiful yacht harbor, 
 just in front of the Golden Gate and opening its 
 arms towards it, as a great symbolic gateway to 
 the continent with a splendid location for an or- 
 namental piece of gigantic sculpture — all these 
 mere suggestions have been exhibited in the large 
 harbor model at the Oakland City-Planning Ex- 
 hibition. The park would have the advantage of 
 being able to be created slowly as demand arises 
 
 and money is available. The cost would be only 
 from one-tenth to one-fifth the price of ordinary 
 reclamation work, because from 9-10 to 4-5 of the 
 park area should be kept as water. The connec- 
 tion with the land would be secured by small 
 pleasure steamers, so popular in Continental har- 
 bors. If the Goat Island project is realized, con- 
 nection will be still easier. A visit to Shellmound 
 Park or the parks on the Alameda waterfront will 
 convince one how fine big trees may grow on the 
 waterfront. Good fertile ground would be brought 
 as to the World's Fair in San Francisco by barges 
 down the Sacramento River at comparatively small 
 expense. One of the most important things about 
 this Island Park would be its stamping forever a 
 pleasant character on the East side of the Bay as 
 seen from San Francisco. This is very important 
 at a time when large projects for rapid industrial- 
 ization and reclamation for industrial purposes en- 
 danger the attractiveness of the East side as a city 
 of homes. It will have a strong psychological in- 
 fluence on the commuter if he has to travel 
 through the noise, smoke and smell of extended 
 factory areas, instead of over the long stretches of 
 quiet waters crossed by the Key Route pier today. 
 The character of the city will be determined if a 
 fine park with high eucalyptus stretches along the 
 waterfront screening off the intestines of the huge 
 industrial organism. A garden as gateway to gar- 
 den cities. 
 
 MIDWAY PLAISANCE. 
 
 By the name Midway Plaisance is meant a 
 chain of parkways, playgrounds and parks to 
 stretch without interruption from the Key Route's 
 wide and unused right of way (proposed Key 
 Route Boulevard) north of Berkeley and east of 
 Masonic Avenue through the western part of 
 Berkeley, where there are still large areas of 
 unbuilt property, making connection with the park 
 of Berkeley, i. e., the 13 acres of San Pablo park, 
 and further south with a connection to Shell- 
 mound park and as far as possible into the heart 
 of West Oakland at any rate at least to 16th 
 Street. An inspection of the map, p. 138, and the 
 map showing the progress of building in Berkeley 
 (p. 137, also 55) shows that the area contemplated 
 for this chain of parkways and strips of parks is 
 still very little used for building purposes; the 
 same is true to a large extent in West Oakland. 
 It would be entirely possible to carry through this 
 territory a chain of pleasure grounds varying in 
 width from one hundred to five hundred feet. The 
 undetermined state of the whole area would be 
 broken and a definite advance towards industries 
 west of the park strip and towards more residen- 
 tial development east of it would be made. This 
 part of the city in Oakland and even more in 
 Berkeley must receive some definite and consider- 
 able improvement; this is an admitted fact. The 
 park would effectively screen towards the east as 
 the Island Park would towards the west whatever 
 undesirable feature, may come with the advance of 
 industries on the waterfront. 
 
CHICAGO. VIEW LOOKING SOUTH OVER THE LAGOONS OF THE PROPOSED PARK FOR THE SOUTH SHORE. 
 Copyrighted by the Commercial Club of Chicago. Original Painting by Jules Guerin. 
 From the Collection of the Chicago Plan Commission. 
 Six major fundamentals in the Plan of Chicago are well on the way to early realization. They are: (i) the creation of a traffic 
 quadrangle encircling the heart of the city, (2) the creation of the proposed lake front park and waterway development, (3) the 
 creation of a splendid new terminal system on the West Side of the city, (4) the establishment of a "civic center" on the western 
 boundary of the quadrangle, (5) the creation of large forest park areas outside the city limits, (6) the establishment of the 
 foundation of the street circulatory plan through the widening and improvement of a number of thoroughfares. 
 The lake front plan provides for the creation of 1550 acres of park land through the utilization of Chicago's waste material, 
 of which there is an annual amount sufficient to build 100 acres of park per year. In connection with this park development 
 there will be created motor-boat and rowing regatta courses, yacht and motor-boat harbors and numerous bathing beaches, 
 baseball fields, tennis courts, promenades and a shore drive extending for five miles along the water's edge and directly connecting 
 Jackson Park on the south side with Grant Park in the center of the city. 
 
PARKS 
 
 135 
 
 VIEW OF LAKE CHABOT 
 
 ^ This lake, with the lands surrounding it, is a part of the 40,000 acres of East Bay land controlled at present by the Peo- 
 ple's Water Company, part of which is shown on plan, page 44. A co-operation between water and park authorities similar to 
 that illustrated in the preceding picture ought to lead to the inclusion of important parts of these water-land reserves in the 
 East Bay Park system and its control by the landscape architect. Among the canyons that thus should be preserved Wildcat 
 Canyon deserves special attention. These reserves should be linked together with the Park system. 
 
 THE WILDWOOD PARKS AND SKYLINE 
 BOULEVARD. 
 
 The Wildwood Parks with the Skyline Boule- 
 vard connecting them will represent for the East 
 Bay cities a scheme similar to the famous green 
 belt "Street of the Heights" of Vienna, the Austrian 
 capital. Mr. Walter Manuel and the other park 
 directors of Oakland have already made an 
 energetic start in putting a chain of wild- 
 wood parks before the people; the logical com- 
 pletion of these plans is a chain of park-reserva- 
 tions to be kept in a wild state and securing to 
 the people forever as much as possible the splen- 
 did rim of the amphitheatre around the East Bay, 
 the connection to be made by a long drive with 
 alternating views down in the valleys of both sides 
 of mountain slopes. This will be perfectly splen- 
 did, and if it were not for the historic background 
 that gives a peculiar greatness to similar enter- 
 prises of the old world this East Bay Skyline 
 might become more glorious than any rival. The 
 plans for this chain of wildwood parks and con- 
 necting boulevard must be considered an inti- 
 mate part of the entire settlement of the water 
 supply problem. The vast properties owned in 
 the hills by the Peoples' Water Company or allied 
 interests, including beautiful sites like Wildcat 
 Canyon, must be held in part forever in a 
 natural state and should, as in Metropolitan 
 Boston, serve the people in two ways, i. e., for se- 
 curing water and park reservations; in any transac- 
 tion with the Water Company this must be kept 
 in mind. (Compare chart showing land controlled 
 by Public Service Corporations, page 44). 
 
 HIGHLAND DRIVE RECOMMENDED BY THE 
 
 ELDER OLMSTED. 
 
 The Foothill Boulevard and the Highland Drive 
 
 must be mentioned in this connection. Both have 
 
 a great future as attractions for the East Bay. The 
 
 Highland Drive or something very similar to it 
 was already recommended by the older Olmsted 
 in 1865. He wanted as one of the entrances to the 
 College "a new road which I recommend should 
 be laid out as a pleasure drive from Oakland." He 
 made a description of its course; present Piedmont 
 Avenue in Berkeley is a part of it realized accord- 
 ing to Olmsted's proposal and a part of Highland 
 Drive today. Olmsted concludes: "Such a road 
 would form a drive much more attractive than any 
 now in use out of Oakland, and would lay open a 
 most desirable region for residences all along the 
 foot of the mountains." Since only a very small 
 part of Olmsted's excellent plan has been carried 
 out the present Highland Drive had to be created 
 by the joining together of a great number of indi- 
 vidual streets. This drive needs a great number 
 of improvements. At present its only physical 
 connection is the chain of columns placed along 
 the entire course. The physical continuity of the 
 drive needs further emphasis by a more uniform 
 treatment of the entire drive; occasional widen- 
 ings and even relocations of the course are neces- 
 sary. I shall not attempt to examine the whole 
 drive in this sense, but the discussion of a short 
 piece of it will give a sufficient idea what I have 
 in mind. 
 
 Taking as an example that piece of Highland 
 drive that lies in Berkeley, the following changes 
 are recommended: A better connection between 
 the Tunnel Road and Claremont Boulevard is nec- 
 essary and can easily be accomplished; the drive 
 where it encircles the Institute of the Deaf and 
 Blind can easily be widened and given a much 
 more stately appearance by eliminating the side- 
 walk near the Institute's grounds, planting avenue 
 trees within the Institute's boundary line, and 
 throwing the space formerly occupied by the side- 
 walk into a widened roadway and a much widened 
 side-walk area on the other side of the drive on 
 which avenue trees should also be planted. The 
 
136 
 
 PARKS 
 
 streets around the University grounds should be 
 treated in a similar way. After reaching Pied- 
 mont Avenue, the Highland Drive should continue 
 by this beautiful street and cross the University 
 grounds by its prolongation proposed in the chap- 
 ter on streets. This prolongation to be opened up 
 would have to cross Strawberry Creek by a light 
 and elegant bridge and pass close to the Greek 
 Theatre (see p. 152). On Saturdays and Sun- 
 days, when the college grounds are open for ve- 
 hicular traffic, the Drive should go across the 
 grounds showing their beauty to the visitor and 
 proceed to the north by Bushnell Place (p. 107), 
 a charmingly planted old street, continuing by 
 Cedar and Spring Street, passing close to the Peo- 
 ple's Water Company's reservoir. Liberal treat- 
 ment in cutting corners (for instance the north- 
 west corner at Cedar and Spring should be cut) 
 and occasional widenings are required. 
 
 Without going over the entire course of High- 
 land Drive, which thus needs comprehensive and 
 uniform treatment, it may be emphasized that the 
 splendid steep heights north of Richmond, falling 
 directly into the ocean from a great altitude and 
 giving such a glorious view over the Bay, should 
 be made a part of a drive scheme of the East Bay, 
 a fact not to be lost sight of in a plan of co-opera- 
 tion between Oakland and Berkeley with the com- 
 munities to the north. 
 
 THE DANGERS OF POLITICAL MINORITY 
 RULE IN PARK MATTERS. 
 
 The different features of a comprehensive park- 
 scheme for the East Bay cities, i. e., the Big Park; 
 the canyons, creeks and glens; the Island Park; 
 Midway Plaisance; Skyline Boulevard and the 
 Wildwood reservations, and the improved and ex- 
 tended Highland Drive plan to be supplemented 
 by a good playground system as referred to later, 
 form together a park program that may startle 
 the minds of those East Bay citizens whose only 
 interest in park matters to date has consisted in 
 faithfully voting against any park proposition 
 coming up. The opposition of people of this kind 
 is a serious matter because the present constitution 
 of the East Bay cities gives a kind of veto power 
 to a one-third minority very similar to the much 
 condemned Prussian three-class vote which puts 
 the political power in the hands of a minority of a 
 sometimes reactionary character. This short- 
 sighted opposition against every form of improve- 
 ment, which is found so largely with a certain 
 class of half-educated people, must not be consid- 
 ered however as a matter which will forever bar 
 any improvement not directly related to sewers 
 and water supply. Even the youngest city gradu- 
 ally developes a larger and larger nucleus of 
 people who have traveled, have seen what other 
 cities do, and who gain a vision for the possibili- 
 ties of their own town. The curious methods of 
 reasoning ruling the mind of uninspired people 
 break down sooner or later and their untenable 
 ridicule becomes obvious. The argument used 
 over and over again by the penny wise and pound 
 foolish one-third minority of voters that either the 
 proposed improvement must be bad and must be 
 
 voted down accordingly, or that the proposed im- 
 provement is good but that the administration in 
 office cannot be trusted with its execution — this 
 argument must be met by a good city plan, which 
 has the indorsement of the leading citizens of the 
 community and of the best experts of the country; 
 a plan to the gradual execution of which every ad- 
 ministration in office must pledge itself. 
 
 COMPETITION BETWEEN DIFFERENT 
 
 POTENTIAL PARK AREAS TO 
 
 BRING DOWN PRICES. 
 
 In the matter of parks, some comprehensive pro- 
 gram is of special value because its adoption en- , 
 ables the administrations and park boards to use a 
 much freer hand in buying property for park pur- 
 poses. If a sufficiently large park program is 
 mapped out, i. e., a system with prospective park 
 property all over town, and if then it is left with 
 the discretion of a confidence inspiring Park Board , 
 or City-Planning Committee to acquire out of an- 
 nual appropriations that part of the large and 
 widespread properties under contemplation which 
 offers itself at a price nearest to the assessment 
 value, then a healthy competition among sellers of 
 park property would stimulate the development of 
 the park system. 
 
 PARK ASSESSMENTS ARE INVESTMENTS, 
 NOT TAXES. 
 
 There have been other American cities in thT 
 West where the problem of acquiring the neces- 
 sary park system seemed to have become absolute- 
 ly hopeless in view of public apathy and private 
 avarice and with a debt making-power having 
 reached the legal limit, but where the introduction 
 of new methods adapted to the local situation has 
 worked a sudden and marvelous change. A fa- 
 mous and inspiring example is the case of Kansas 
 City, where, in view of difficulties that seemed un- 
 surmountable, the system of creating local park 
 districts all over town with a proper application 
 of the special assessment idea, made it possible to 
 acquire by the power of eminent domain over two 
 thousand acres of park lands and fifty miles of 
 boulevards and parkways, to the greatest satisfac- 
 tion of the formerly opposing citizens, who found 
 that the payments they had to make under the as- 
 sessment plan were not taxes but investments and 
 highly profitable ones (map p. 131). The Califor- 
 nia "tree planting act of 1913" makes a very sim- 
 ilar procedure in the East Bay cities possible. 
 
 An interesting description of the Kansas City 
 procedure, together with the views of a number of 
 leading citizens of that city, may be found in the 
 1913 proceedings of the Fifth National Conference 
 on City-Planning, pages 140-162. 
 
 GLEN ECHO CREEK AS A PRACTICAL 
 EXAMPLE. 
 
 Taking a practical example of Oakland condi- 
 tions, Mr. Oscar Prager said in one of his addres- 
 ses: "As illustration of the practicability of this, 
 I offer the following figures on the boulevard 
 
PARKS 
 
 137 
 
 BERKELEY 
 
 s 
 
 CAL IFORNIA 
 
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 Bf/ courtesy of Mason-McDuflie Company 
 
 MAP OF BERKELEY SHOWING PROGRESS OF BUILDING TO 1914 
 
 The lots shown black are built upon, the remainder are free from construction. A glance at the strip of unbuilt-upon land 
 running from north to south and dividing the city clearly in two sections convinces one that Berkeley still has a chance to 
 screen off by a parking scheme its rapidly growing industrial districts in the western part of the town from the residential 
 districts in the east. Compare the industrial map of Berkeley, page 55. The parking scheme proposed here is described in this 
 report under the name "Midway Plaisance." Compare Map of Parks, Parkways, and Playgrounds, p. 138. 
 
 scheme along Glen Echo Creek. My calculations, 
 based on the assumption that you can purchase 
 the necessary property for three times its assessed 
 valuation, would give the following assessments for 
 the first five blocks on each side of the Creek, the 
 assessment being based on a 10 year bond issue at 
 5%. For the first block $2 for every $100 assessed 
 valuation; that would be the block directly oppo- 
 site the new park. The second block $1.75, the 
 third, $1.25, the fourth $1, and the fifth 50 cents. 
 If one should add other blocks the assessments 
 
 would be reduced accordingly; if I have erred at 
 all in my estimates I have erred in making the 
 assessments too high." 1 
 
 MAP OF POTENTIAL PARK AREAS. 
 
 In order really to make the payments for parks 
 investments instead of taxes they must be ex- 
 pended for a well-connected, well-balanced and 
 comprehensive park system, not for fanciful pur- 
 chases in various localities. As a possible basis for 
 such a comprehensive park plan, which will re- 
 
 : An amendment to the so-called Vroomau Act, permitting the bonding of districts for park purchases would have to 
 be passed by the state legislature. 
 
138 
 
 PARKS 
 
 PROPOSED PARKS 
 
 FOR 
 OAKLAND ft BERKELEY 
 
 PRt/ENT PARK/. 
 
 An(W Dt/iQA&LE. roc Pi.au/ *nn Pmiiwav 
 
 /IBtE-V "TO bt PARKED 
 
 AtcoHnmim mtobt w wtmta imtwtiH 
 
 Map showing present Public Parks in Oakland and Berkeley as well as the lands described in this report which either 
 should be acquired or from which selection should be made by an active municipal park policy. In some cases immediate 
 action is imperative. The park policy of the East Bay cities is behind that of many other progressive American municipalities. 
 
PARKS 
 
 139 
 
 DE FREMERY PARK, TYPICAL OAKLAND PLAYGROUND 
 
 Old live oaks and lawn. Looking toward Poplar Street from 
 the cast side of the playground proper. The poplars in the 
 background have been cut down since this picture was taken. 
 
 quire much additional study, I have in co-opera- 
 tion with the landscape architect of the Oakland 
 Park Directors, Mr. Oscar Prager put on one map 
 all the many different park possibilities of the 
 East Bay section as mapped out in this report. I 
 beg that it be understood that the map is not in- 
 tended to mean that all the land is to be acquired; 
 but all the land that should enter into competition 
 for park purchases is shown. As soon as the work 
 has been started, the sellers of park land on the 
 one hand and the members of special assessment 
 districts on the other, will recognize the enormous 
 benefit accruing to their properties, and the work 
 will progress rapidly and enthusiastically. The 
 time will have gone by when timid men without 
 vision managed to bar the East Bay cities from 
 the rank among American park cities they deserve 
 by their unheard of possibilities of using their 
 parks all the year around and of blossoming not 
 during one or two months but every month of the 
 year. The East Bay cities must not be built in the 
 old fashion of the congested city without sufficient 
 breathing space — the old type of the city to die 
 
 in — but they must be a place — a foremost ex- 
 ample of the modern city — an enchanted place to 
 live in. 
 
 THE PLAYGROUNDS. 
 
 The playgrounds, so far as possible, should be 
 worked into the park system in order to give them 
 the pleasant neighborhood, better air, and calm of 
 the parks. More important, however, is it to have 
 the playgrounds really within walking distance of 
 every home. Little needs to be said by me in this 
 connection. 
 
 THE LACK OF PLAYGROUNDS IN 
 BERKELEY. 
 
 For Berkeley a playground program was 
 worked out in detail several years ago and 
 was voted down like all park propositions in that 
 University town. The program must be carried 
 out and enlarged upon. All schools ought to be 
 surrounded by sufficient play spaces. In most 
 cases, this is still possible, sufficient unbuilt on 
 land being available near most schools. What is 
 required is that the stinginess with which Berke- 
 ley children are treated publicly should be over- 
 come. Where the empty lots available are sepa- 
 rated from the schools by streets it will be neces- 
 sary in several cases to change the street course 
 of the side street in such a way as to have it go 
 around the school plus the lot to be added. There 
 is no reason why streets of a residential character 
 must be straight. As an example, take the Emer- 
 son school, which at present is so close to the street 
 that its windows have to be guarded by iron bars 
 like a prison. Piedmont Avenue (which termi- 
 nates within a short distance) could very well, be- 
 tween Forest avenue and Garber street, curve to 
 the west and throw the there available lots and 
 the present street area into the school site. Also 
 the parking of the streets, especially of Forest ave- 
 nue, would add greatly to the character of the 
 school. 
 
 SCALE 
 
 FLAH FCR ThE CRCLTCG OF F£quaiA ECKEL 
 Cll i OF OA^LBro. cblFCF^*a 
 
 
 
 -SEQUOIA SCHOOL AND 
 
 TWO EXAMPLES SHOWING SCHOOLS AS IMPORTANT FACTORS IN THE PLAYGROUND SYSTEM- 
 LAUREL SCHOOL, OAKLAND 
 
 Every foot of space is made efficient use of and the various wants of the children supplied. A — School Building; B — Boys' 
 Playground (Baseball Diamond, Basketball Court, Apparatus); C — Small Children's Playground (Sand Boxes, Ball Playground, 
 See-Saws); D — Girls' Playground (Tennis Court, Volleyball Court, Ball Playground, Apparatus); E — Basketball Court; F — School 
 Garden with Wall Fountain. School grounds like these combined with proper use of school buildings out of school hours make 
 schools real neighborhood centers. 
 
140 
 
 PARKS 
 
 #1 ©■ 
 
 LEGEND 
 
 I MUNICIPALS SCHOOL PLAYGROUNDS. 
 
 Va MILE CIRCLE - DISTANCE SMALL 
 CHILDREN WILL WALK TO PLAYGROUND. 
 
 Yz MILE CIRCLE -DISTANCE LARGER 
 CHILDREN AND ADULTS WILL 
 WALK TO PLAYGROUND. 
 
 note: playgrounds surrounded by large circle 
 
 ARE EQUIPPED FOR BOTH- CHILDREN AND ADULT5. 
 
 OAKLAND 
 
 PLAYGROUND 
 
 MAP 
 
 1913 
 
 ACCOMPANYING RfPORT OF WtRNER HEGEflANN 
 
 Courtesy of Oakland Board of Playground Directors 
 
 Though Oakland's playground situation is far superior to Berkeley's, there are still large areas, the children of which 
 are outside the efficient range of playgrounds. The boy without a playground is the father of the man without a job. The 
 playground situation in Oakland at present is worse than might appear from this map. The playgrounds appropriation was 
 cut down in 1015 and playgrounds arc closed for lack of funds. 
 
 OAKLAND'S PLAYGROUNDS 
 
 Regarding the schools of Oakland, great admira- 
 tion must be expressed for the one story schools 
 originated in that city. Oakland has a school sys- 
 tem really worthy of a modern well decentralized 
 city. Also, in the matter of playgrounds, thanks 
 to the untiring work of some prominent citizens, 
 Oakland is far ahead of Berkeley. But further 
 advances are needed. The following recommen- 
 dations, as worked out in co-operation with the 
 superintendent of Oakland playgrounds, Mr. G. E. 
 Dickey, seem conservative: 
 
 "The accompanying map of the City of Oakland 
 shows the location of 9 Oakland Municipal Play- 
 
 grounds and 31 School-yard Playgrounds, in which 
 supervision is maintained by the Board of Play- 
 ground Directors. Around each Playground is 
 drawn a circle with a radius of one-quarter mile, 
 which is the average distance the small children 
 will travel to the playground. Around the larger 
 playgrounds, those equipped with athletic fields, 
 are drawn circles with radii of y 2 mile, which is 
 the average distance older boys and girls will 
 travel to a playground equipped to meet their 
 needs. 
 
 "All those portions of the map (shaded area), 
 which are not included in the circles represent the 
 sections of the City not served by any playgrounds. 
 
 "The Southern half of Peralta Park in rear of 
 
PARKS 
 
 141 
 
 the Municipal Auditorium site is marked on the 
 map as a recreation center. This is not now in 
 operation, but it has been planned to set aside this 
 land for a large municipal recreation center, which 
 when completed will include a stadium, trotting 
 track, running track,' and athletic field, in addition 
 to other recreational features. 
 
 RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 First, That the southern portion of Peralta Park 
 (12th and Fallon streets, in rear of the municipal 
 auditorium) be set aside as a play and recreation 
 center. 
 
 Second, That play and recreation grounds be 
 selected in the center of residence districts not al- 
 ready served by these facilities. The minimum 
 size of such grounds should be ten acres, where 
 possible. 
 
 The most urgent needs are in the following lo- 
 cations: 
 
 A. District south of Twelfth Street and west of 
 Market Street. This district includes the former 
 4th ward and a portion of the former 6th ward. 
 The population of these two wards is 28,858 and 
 there is no adequate playground in all the district. 
 
 B. District between Southern Pacific Railroad 
 tracks and Estuary extending east and west from 
 Twenty-third Avenue. This is the vicinity of the 
 cotton mills, and a large population of working 
 people without a park or playgrounds. 
 
 C. District north of Lake Merritt from Vernon 
 Street to Lake Shore Avenue and north to the 
 Oakland City line. This is a rapidly growing dis- 
 trict and now is the time to make provision for a 
 playground. 
 
 D. District surrounding the Bay School (62nd 
 Street and San Pablo Avenue). An appropriation 
 has been made for part payment on the purchase 
 of the playground in this locality. It is urgent 
 that the land be secured as soon as possible. 
 
 E. District between Harrison Street, San Pablo 
 
 Avenue, Twenty-ninth Street, and Twenty-second 
 Street. 
 
 F. District between Fourteenth Avenue, Twenty- 
 fifth Avenue, East Twenty-eighth Street, and East 
 Twelfth Street. 
 
 G. District bounded by Hopkins Street, Trestle 
 Glen, Piedmont City line, and Sausal Creek. (Di- 
 mond Canyon). 
 
 H. District bounded by Shafter Avenue, Forty- 
 second Street, Fifty-ninth Street, and Rockridge 
 Park. 
 
 I. District bounded by Fruitvale Avenue, High 
 Street, East Twelfth Street, and Congress Street. 
 
 Third, That the seventeen acres of City property 
 adjacent to the Lockwood School (East Fourteenth 
 Street and Sixty-eighth Avenue) be equipped as a 
 public playground and recreational center. 
 
 Fourth, In the annexed district and elsewhere 
 there are large areas which are not yet built up 
 with residences. These districts will be populated 
 in the future. Now is the time to set aside space 
 for parks and playgrounds in the vacant areas." 
 
 Berkeley is almost wholly lacking playgrounds. 
 In addition none of its schools has sufficient play 
 space. Curiously enough the greatest lack of play 
 space is in the higher class residence districts. In 
 that city a complete playground system should be 
 secured at once before all the available land is 
 built upon. 
 
 PLAYGROUNDS AND INDUSTRIAL 
 EFFICIENCY. 
 
 The playgrounds have also to be considered as 
 a part of the East Bay cities scheme for industrial 
 efficiency. It is a mistake to think of playgrounds 
 as a matter of philanthropy. They are an essen- 
 tial piece in the equipment of the East Bay sec- 
 tions industrial and commercial supremacy: "The 
 boy without a playground is the father of the man 
 without a job." 
 
 OLD LIVE OAKS ON THE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS, BERKELEY 
 
 These are landscape effects possible on East Bay soil. Oakland derives its name from the oak trees and 
 should conserve some fine groves that will to our children assume the venerable air of these trees. The 
 entire Park and Playground system should be under the "sign of the oaks." 
 
THE CAMPANILE IN THE VISTA OF TELEGRAPH AVENUE 
 
 A rare example of a building powerful enough to master the expanding vista of a modern traffic street. Telegraph Avenue 
 near the Campus slightly changes its direction. It is interesting to see how thereby the Campanile, which would be too gigantic 
 for the street at so close a range, disappears, and the University Library surprisingly replaces it at the end of the new vista. 
 
 CIVIC ART AND CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 "They shall be simple in their homes but splendid in their public ways." 
 
 There was a time not long gone by when people 
 thought city-planning could beautify a city by 
 the mere adding of artistic ideas without consider- 
 ing the basic necessities expressed in the systems 
 of transportation, parks and playgrounds, and in 
 the housing of the people. Today everybody 
 knows that a really beautiful city can be created 
 only by considering right from the beginning the 
 proper co-ordination of all the needs and ideals 
 of civic life and its physical expression. 
 
 MINOR IMPROVEMENTS, REMOVAL OF 
 
 WIRES, ELECTROLIERS, 
 
 STREET SIGNS. 
 
 There are of course many minor improvements 
 which, without being part of an organic scheme 
 of city-planning, can always be made with great 
 advantage to the appearance of the city. For in- 
 stance, it will be always safe to urge the desirabil- 
 ity of the removal of overhead wires in the busi- 
 ness portions of a town and in those residential 
 districts which aspire towards some beauty out of 
 the ordinary. Oakland has made some progress 
 in this direction; Berkeley lags behind. The wires 
 should be carried in conduits at least in the busi- 
 ness district while in the residence portions of the 
 city, if the companies cannot afford to put them 
 into conduits, they should at least be removed to 
 an easement to be furnished by the property own- 
 ers at the rear of the lots, connections across 
 streets being made underground. Sewer, water 
 and gas connections should be made with every 
 lot from the street mains where permanent paving 
 is done. Similar matters of common agreement 
 are recommendations regarding satisfactory, char- 
 acteristic and possibly artistic systems of marking 
 the streets of a city and of lighting it with well 
 placed electroliers in combination with or indepen- 
 
 dent from the street signs, the trolley and telegraph 
 wire poles. Some cities have developed very elab- 
 orate and attractive schemes. In Vienna, the elec- 
 troliers carry great baskets of living flowers, in 
 Berlin and other cities, the street signs being 
 placed not only on one but on all four corners of 
 a street crossing, indicate, besides the name of the 
 street, the specific numbers of the houses to be 
 found in the next block. Other cities have made 
 their streets a living lecture on world history by 
 giving in small print with the name of a street the 
 derivation of the name with the merits and the 
 year of birth and death of the man whose name 
 honors the street. It is a question of individual 
 taste how far one wants to go, but the present state 
 of very poorly marking the streets, or of not mark- 
 ing them at all; of having streets lighted with 
 many different kinds of electroliers erected with- 
 out any consideration of beauty, as one often finds 
 in the East Bay section, should not last. A 
 more efficient and aesthetically satisfying scheme 
 under the supervision of a Civic Art Commission 
 is necessary. 
 
 THE GAY POSSIBILITIES OF STREET 
 ADVERTISING. 
 
 A similar, but even more serious problem, pre- 
 sents itself in the billboard nuisance — a specific 
 American disease — which has caused so much dis- 
 cussion that it does not need to be entered into 
 here. The cities of Europe by taxing, municipal- 
 izing and standardizing all street advertising draw 
 a handsome revenue from it. The advertising 
 columns placed by these cities on the street cor- 
 ners are indispensible sources of information to 
 everybody, and under the powerful movement in 
 the applied arts, especially in Germany, have given 
 rise to a real art of designing and printing artistic 
 
CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 143 
 
 posters which, with the help of the leading 
 painters of the nation, has made the advertising 
 column of the street corner one of the gayest and 
 most charming features of city life. The Ameri- 
 can billboard in its exaggerated size is a calamity, 
 financed expensively by the consumer. 
 
 The planning of parkways or residential streets 
 with trees, shrubs, flowers and grass is perhaps the 
 
 least expensive and most effective method of beau- 
 tification within reach of the East Bay cities. This 
 has been gone into fully in previous chapters, 
 (pp. 103 f., 71, 86 f., 133 f.). 
 
 MAJOR MATTERS. THE SUBLIME EFFORT 
 TOWARDS CIVIC BEAUTY. 
 
 The different factors of beautifying a city named 
 
 
 Cr*. ,J 
 
 1 ■-., ir 
 
 r. «<• 
 
 WELL DESIGNED ELECTRO- 
 LIER AS USED IN STREETS 
 OF WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 so far, though they tell a story about the spirit 
 prevailing in a town, are minor matters compared 
 with greater aesthetic features as represented in 
 properly treated streets, in the schemes of park- 
 ing and of private and public landscape architect- 
 ure, in the architecture of the private and public 
 buildings, and finally, and most gloriously, in the 
 great combinations of public buildings with public 
 landscape architecture grouped in a great spirit 
 and surrounded by decent private grounds and 
 homes. All the thousand necessities of city-plan- 
 ning if properly satisfied, all the civic problems if 
 properly solved, find the highest expression of this 
 satisfaction and of their solution in a really great 
 effort towards a civic center, the community effort 
 towards civic beauty. 
 
 THE CALIFORNIAN STYLE IN HOME 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 In the introduction to this report a word has 
 been said about the change which has come about 
 in the ideas regarding civic beauty since it has be- 
 come more and more a democratic affair instead 
 of being the satisfaction of the personal ambitions 
 of a ruling dynasty. The modern democracy, in 
 building up a newer and more promising type of 
 civic beauty, begins its work bv properly laying 
 all the necessary foundations dealt with in the pre- 
 vious chapters — foundations without which even 
 the most ambitious dream of civic beauty breaks 
 down. A great asset to the American city in its 
 march towards a new civic beauty is the high 
 standards of home building found in America. 
 Here types of homes have been developed which 
 promise to be fine units in building up the 
 modern "City Beautiful." The East Bay section 
 deserves high praise in advancing this great work. 
 A number of inspired artists have co-operated to 
 create entirely new and pleasing solutions of the 
 home problem. The work of men like Bernard 
 P. Maybeck and Louis Christian Mullgardt — to 
 mention only two names which are universally 
 recognized — indicates the existence of real home- 
 building spirit which must lead in the end to the 
 building of what will deserve to be called a city 
 beautiful. It will be the privilege of all the civic 
 elements, which are interested in true city-plan- 
 ning, to further the happy co-ordination of the 
 many promising individual efforts and also to 
 spread the good results achieved by individuals in 
 order to let an increasing number of individual 
 home builders benefit thereby. The creation of a 
 high class criticism and understanding of good 
 home architecture can and ought to be encouraged 
 by local exhibitions, by local literature, by com- 
 petitions, and by the distribution of yearly prizes 
 
 .W* 
 
 WELL DESIGNED GAS LAMP 
 
 WITH STREET NAMES 
 
 ON GLOBE USED 
 
 IN BALTIMORE 
 
144 
 
 CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 to the most successful effort of the year, and by 
 achieving more and more a common basis and 
 reasoning along these architectural lines. This is 
 especially necessary just now because the success 
 of the charming wooden, shingled bungalow which 
 has given the character to many of the residential 
 streets of the East Bay section, seems to be 
 doomed by the attempt to imitate masonry in a 
 very cheap and perishable form of stucco con- 
 struction. 
 
 NEED OF ARTISTIC CO-OPERATION AMONG 
 HOME BUILDERS. 
 
 This state of transition to a new, not yet fully 
 digested material, is a danger menacing the cosy 
 
 FACULTY CLUB, BERKELEY 
 
 Plaster and wood construction among oaks. Another fine 
 example of architecture grown out of local conditions, i. e., 
 real art. 
 
 FACULTY CLUB, BERKELEY— ANOTHER VIEW 
 
 PHOTOGRAPH AND BIRDSEYE VIEW (DRAWING) OF A PRI- 
 VATE SCHOOL, BERKELEY 
 
 This building is an excellent example of the adaptability of 
 wooden (shingle) construction to East Bay surroundings and 
 uses. Compare view of shingle homes, p. 115. 
 
 charm of entire neighborhoods. It needs the lead- 
 ership by the best and the understanding follow- 
 ing of a sympathetic and educated public to reach 
 a new climax. _ -, 
 
 The happy results achieved in East Bay home / 
 architecture nearly all suffer from their being re- 
 stricted to individual efforts, while the idea of 
 correlating individual houses in order to secure 
 heightened effects by intelligent teamwork is still 
 comparatively new and little tried. Progress in 
 this direction is absolutely necessary. The finest 
 layout of a subdivision, giving splendid views be- 
 fore houses went up, becomes a mess as soon as 
 private owners indulge in ill advised orgies of in- 
 dividualism, killing each others' architecture by 
 heterogeneous materials and mistaken choices of 
 forms and colors. As soon as the victorious pride 
 of the selfmade money maker, who feels like urg- 
 ing his independence upon his neighbor, gradually 
 is subdued by manners and good fellowship, civi- 
 lized people reach an understanding about how 
 they will meet not only on social but also on archi- 
 tectural and landscape architectural grounds. 
 Then the splendid effects of friendly co-operation 
 in private planting and building can be reached, 
 effects which form the necessary introduction and 
 approach to the still higher efforts in the grouping j 
 of public buildings, j Special attention, as pointea 
 out in the chapter on "Streets," must be given to 
 the street junctions and the treatment of build- 
 
CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 145 
 
 THE CLAREMONT HOTEL CLOSING THE VISTA OF RUSSELL 
 STREET, RERKELEY 
 
 The contours of the tower are amusingly reproduced in a row 
 of trees following a property line across the hill. 
 
 ings there because they are the strong factors de- 
 termining the appearance of the streets. (Plan 
 p. 121, views p. 123. Examples of grouping p. 
 
 122). 
 
 TWO EXTRAORDINARY POINTS OF VISTA 
 ON THE EAST BAY. 
 
 Also the placing of high public buildings in 
 such a way that they fall into the main axis of 
 streets and form vistas, plays a large role. The 
 East Bay enjoys some splendid examples of this 
 fact. The powerful tower of the Oakland City 
 Hall for miles rules the axis and the physiognomy 
 of East Fourteenth Street; and the new Campanile 
 of the University in the same way masters Tele- 
 graph and a number of other avenues. Also 
 the tower of the Institute for the Deaf, Dumb 
 and Blind at the head of Parker Street, and 
 the tower of the Hotel Claremont at the head of 
 Russell Street, are remarkable examples. The two 
 latter ones are not very unusual; though the 
 fact that the towers stand on a hillside gives added 
 power to their appearance; but the two first- 
 named examples promise to be very extraordinary 
 in the world for many years. As a rule, the vistas 
 intended to master the picture of a modern street 
 either fade away — as soon as the street stretches 
 over any considerable length — take as a nearby 
 
 example the tower of the Ferry Building looking 
 like a toy from any distance along Market 
 Street so overpowering is that thoroughfare. 
 Sometimes fine vistas can be enjoyed only for a 
 short distance; often very surprisingly at a sudden 
 turn of the street. But in the Oakland City 
 Hall (337 feet) and the Berkeley Campanile (302 
 feet) two buildings have been created which are 
 of such enormous size that they successfully rule 
 the full length of a big straight modern traffic 
 street in eternal omnipresence. (View p. 142). 
 
 Both buildings referred to are important parts 
 of Civic Centers of the two communities. A few 
 words regarding the Berkeley Civic Center prob- 
 lem have been said in the chapter on Traffic 
 Streets (page 97). I shall not attempt to exhaust 
 this large subject in this report and only a few 
 additional remarks will be made in this chapter. 
 The City Hall of Oakland, in spite of much justi- 
 fied criticism of its architectural details, is one of 
 the most remarkable public buildings in the world 
 for the twofold reason that it frankly breaks 
 away from the idea of making every public 
 building somehow recall the Parthenon or the 
 Pantheon, or if possible, the Pantheon piled on 
 top of the Parthenon. On the contrary, the Oak- 
 land City Hall really tries to appear as what it is — a 
 modern business building, efficient and powerful. 
 And at the same time this huge official skyscraper 
 gives just that new type of sensible skyscraper 
 which surely must win out in the building of office 
 structures, i. e., the skyscraper which by retracting 
 the base of its tower behind the box of the 
 ground floor is forever assured of having all the 
 light and air needed in its hundreds of office 
 rooms. While the Oakland City Hall deserves to 
 be quoted as a model in the two respects named, 
 it has not been placed in a neighborhood which 
 makes the development of a civic center in the ac- 
 cepted sense of a grouping of the different public 
 
 EARLY ATTEMPT IN OAKLAND AT GROUPING PUBLIC 
 BUILDINGS 
 
 The County Court House and the Hall of Records face each 
 other symmetrically, separated by Broadway. But in order 
 to achieve an architectural effect of ensemble it is not enough 
 to bring public buildings together. In this case the width of 
 the separating street (110 feet) added to the distance which the 
 buildings are set back from the street line is sufficient almost 
 entirely to destroy the cohesion. Only a point as high as the 
 one from which this picture was taken shows tl\e two build- 
 ings in any proper architectural relation. 
 
146 
 
 CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 OAKLAND CIVIC AUDITORIUM 
 
 This building of steel, granite, and concrete was erected by the City of Oakland 1913-1915. The structure is 198 by 400 feet; 
 it contains a complete theater seating 1989; the auditorium proper seats 3728 in the balcony, 3958 on the main floor, 508 in 
 boxes. The arena floor is 117 by 212 without boxes, 96 by 212 with boxes. The auditorium contains many other rooms, the 
 largest of which are the art gallery, 36 by 109; ball room, 39 by 78, and two committee rooms, 22 by 60 and 24 by 30 respec- 
 tively. Cost $1,000,000. This costly monument of civic enterprise with its simple form like a great tent of concrete — a real 
 structural form rejecting classical masquerade or gingerbread — may become the nucleus of the future Civic Center. If new 
 public buildings are placed in immediate neighborhood care should be taken that intimate architectural connection with the 
 auditorium should be planned for in time; the mere placing of buildings symmetrically establishes no architectural unit. 
 Together with a scheme of flanking the auditorium with new buildings, the course of Twelfth Street in front of them 
 should be changed so that it may be parallel to the facade of the auditorium. Ample room is left for the creation of a 
 plaza with formal stairs leading into the water. A small part of the lake adjoining this plaza could be treated as a formal 
 basin with a fountain in the center. The change of the course of Twelfth Street is equivalent with the extension of Thir- 
 teenth Street across the Lake. 
 
 buildings, possible. As ground values are, there 
 is no hope nor is it even desirable from a business 
 point of view, of ever surrounding the City Hall 
 with well-conceived public buildings. The City 
 Hall forever will be a busy business building 
 among private business structures, a splendid ex- 
 pression of busy East Bay life. What the business 
 men of Oakland can and ought to do for the 
 greater glory of their City Hall, is to watch every 
 building going up in the neighborhood, its height, 
 size, lines, colors and material and, in no way to 
 permit anything harmful to the appearance of the 
 City Hall; no water tanks too much in view on 
 neighboring structures, or red brick buildings; or 
 any structures so high as to make the City Hall 
 appear small. The triangular place close to the 
 City Hall has great architectural possibilities. If 
 the civic spirit of the town should become strong 
 enough to subject these possibilities to a study 
 by some great architect, the general outlines 
 of what kind of buildings are desirable around the 
 triangle to give the highest effects, the materials 
 to be recommended, the heights permissible, the 
 subdivision of the place and its planting, could 
 be determined and gradually something sur- 
 prisingly beautiful would work out, worth while 
 and honorable to the East Bay. For the grouping 
 of new. public buildings which gradually will be- 
 come necessary, another place must be found. The 
 new municipal Auditorium indicates the direction 
 in which to look. From an aesthetic point of view 
 it may 1 be said that the auditorium, in its present 
 location, like the new boat landing at the northern 
 end of Lake Merritt, obstructs the main north- 
 south axis which instead of being obstructed by 
 
 buildings placed across, should have been empha- 
 sized by buildings placed parallel to it in order 
 to preserve the feeling of free connection and con- 
 tinuity between the water of the Harbor, Lake 
 Merritt and the Parks adjoining, or to be added 
 at the head of the Lake and towards the northeast. 
 If, therefore, the adding of further public build- 
 ings to the auditorium should be found inadvis- 
 able, this would not altogether be regrettable. 
 Another and better site for a powerful grouping of 
 public buildings on the lake should be found on 
 the west shore of Lake Merritt, where there is still 
 a considerable body of land in private hands 
 which under all circumstances ought to become 
 publicly owned. The Auditorium, however, rep- 
 resents such a considerable investment that it may 
 
 FRONT OF PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S HOME 
 
 As seen at the San Francisco World's Fair. The little arcade 
 between the main and side buildings is a charming and quite 
 naive expression of the architectural necessity for creating 
 some kind of a connection in order to create an architectural 
 ensemble. Arcaded colonnades in case of larger buildings are 
 seldom sufficient to produce unity and to create a self-con- 
 sistent volume of space inclosed by architecture. More organic 
 connection is needed. 
 
CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 147 
 
 BIRDSEYE VIEW OF THE SAN FRANCISCO CIVIC CENTER 
 
 Plan by John Galen Howard, Frederick H. Meyer, and John Reid, Jr. The realization of this Civic Center will be one of the 
 great modern achievements in ornamental city planning. Work is well under way. The point of departure was the demand 
 for a new City Hall covering two city blocks and costing $3,400,000. Before placing this enormous structure sufficient land 
 was acquired to secure adequate sites for a dignified grouping of public buildings in immediate neighborhood of the City 
 Hall, the entire expense for City Hall and land acquired being $8,800,000. Of the buildings to surround the central plaza the 
 City Hall is almost completed. The Auditorium has been constructed by the Panama-Pacific Exposition Company; it seats 
 10,000 people in the main hall and cost $1,200,000. The Public Library, costing $1,120,000, is under construction. The 
 bonds ($1,000,000) for the State Building have been voted. The buildings on the other sites are not started yet or not deter- 
 mined upon. Headquarters for the City Health Department, Central Fire and Police Stations and a municipal Opera House 
 are considered. An important feature of this plan is to be found in the fact that it gives special attention to the treatment 
 of the buildings in the corners of the plaza. The importance of buildings thus placed in the corners of a formal scheme has 
 often been overlooked in other schemes. The character of these corner buildings is essential in determining the entire aspect. 
 Three of the corners have been acquired; the fourth one still is to be secured. Even the acquisition and harmonious treat- 
 ment of these corner sites will hardly be sufficient if wild commercial building should be permitted to go on on the sites 
 immediately adjoining. This danger of inharmonious building in the neighborhood can be averted by either regulating their 
 architecture or by closing the vista, i. e., by closing or bridging the street or by making it turn in a curve. The City Hall, 
 itself, as it appears from Market Street at the end of the contemplated new street, for which some buildings have already 
 been razed, is a fine example of a building closing a vista entirely and powerfully. In acquiring the land for this Civic Cen- 
 ter many private buildings had to be razed, including a number of steel-frame constructions. A large school building, steel 
 framed and brick, previously on this land has been moved bodily to another site at an expense of $105,000. In the streets 
 the street car tracks have been rearranged, spreading them and placing all trolley poles between tracks. The number of 
 poles thereby has been decreased and the introduction of ornamental poles thus prepared. The railroad and the city divided 
 the expense 
 
148 
 
 CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 Proposed New 
 High School 
 
 Proposed 
 Police Station 
 
 Proposed 
 Fire Station 
 
 Proposed New 
 Public Library 
 
 PROPOSAL FOR A CIVIC CENTER IN FRONT OF THE PRESENT CITY HALL. BERKELEY 
 
 Line drawing of a rendering exhibited by Messrs. Lewis P. Hobart and Chas. H. Cheney, Associate Architects, at the Oak- 
 land City Planning Exhibition, March, 1914, showing the block between Milvia, Grove, Allston, and Center Streets, looking west 
 from Milvia. 
 
 be considered as a sufficient nucleus for a further 
 grouping of buildings around it. In regard to the 
 possible grouping of further buildings and espec- 
 ially in view of the plans which already have been 
 exhibited for such grouping, I suggest the treat- 
 ment of the buildings not as independent units but 
 as a connected ensemble. 
 
 IF FORUM EFFECT IS DESIRED GAPS 
 
 BETWEEN BUILDINGS MUST 
 
 BE AVOIDED. 
 
 In other words, there should be no gaps between 
 the buildings because these gaps very seldom leave 
 any but an unsatisfactory impression, cutting the 
 architectural ensemble into pieces; as a rule they 
 form a nearly unsurmountable difficulty. On the 
 contrary, if the new buildings are placed in or- 
 
 ganic connection with the auditorium, a satisfac- 
 tory "place" or "square" can be created, which, 
 with the addition of land originating from the 
 extension of Thirteenth Street across the Lake, and 
 with stairs leading into the water, will form a 
 beautiful open air room of the city. Also the 
 borders of the Lake as far north as Fourteenth or 
 Fifteenth Street should be treated in a formal 
 manner, adding thus a strictly formal water basin 
 to the formal architectural square in front of the 
 auditorium. The center of the formal basin would 
 be the place ' for a powerful and high fountain, 
 again treated very formally with electric illumina- 
 tion at night, if desired, as on the Schwarzenberg 
 Platz in Vienna. I further recommend the re- 
 striction of all formal and architectural treatment 
 to the southern end of the Lake; it would then be 
 like a beautifully carved handle to the remainder 
 
 ALTERNATIVE PROPOSAL FOR A BERKELEY CIVIC CENTER IN CASE THE LAND ADJOINING CAN NOT BE ACQUIRED 
 
 FOR PUBLIC BUILDINGS 
 Compare birdseye Sketch and Key on next page (149), also Sketch, p. 150. 
 
 In case part of the block in front of the Berkeley City Hall should be needed for Public Buildings this report proposes a. 
 grouping that takes special consideration of the Campanile Vista and of the difference in level between Milvia and Grove 
 Streets. This difference amounts to 16 feet and desirable effects can be gained if this difference is not smoothed over but 
 emphasized. Regarding the Campanile Vista, I propose to permit none of the new buildings to come out far enough to 
 obstruct this vista. (The angle is determined by the private property on Milvia and Center Streets.) Regarding the difference 
 in level referred to, I propose to create four levels distinctly different and producing a kind of terracing effect like foothills 
 leading up to the great Berkeley feature, the Campanile, ruling architecturally as a glacier rules the mountains. 
 
 The highest level (B) is created by an open air reading room of the proposed new library. The next lower level (C) is an 
 oblong bosquet (shown here by two high hedges) leading to the stairs connecting with the third level (D), a sunken garden, 
 which on its western edge connects with the fourth level, (E) a large plaza in front of City Hall. This last and largest 
 level is to be treated, in contrast with the others, without any planting — purely a large expanse of colored paving or red 
 gravel, surrounded by architecture. 
 
 This plaza will be the point at which to collect and start civic parades and for occasional civic demonstrations and 
 open-air meetings. The buildings surrounding it would be to the west, and as the main feature, the City Hall ; to the south, 
 a building housing archives and a police station; this building must bridge Grove Street, the effect of space and the feeling 
 of the volume of the plaza can not be secured when this volume flows away in every direction through street openings. This 
 building bridging Grove Street must be very simple, not higher than two stories, keeping lower than the City Hall in actual 
 height as well as in spirit. Compare the proposal for its outlines in the sketch (p. 150). To the east the plaza would be 
 inclosed partly by the proposed new high school, partly by the balustrades of the sunken garden, and especially by the feeling 
 of beautiful inclosure created by the mounting terraces, preparing for the high hills to the east and their dominating guar- 
 dian, the Campanile. To the north the plaza and Center Street should be lined with a row of one-story business houses, 
 simple in architecture, so as not to take away attention from the public buildings. 
 
 Where the ends of the levels B, C, and D protrude pointedly into the silhouette of the street, ideal locations for the placing 
 of statuary may be found (emphasized in the sketch by a cypress and a monument.) Monuments placed that way have the 
 double advantage of being prominent in the vista of any one moving along the main streets, also of being in a place to be 
 contemplated in quiet from the terraces of the gardens. The architecture of the public buildings can be accentuated in 
 such a way that every one of the different levels is felt as a unit or as an individual room in the group of gardens, terraces, 
 and plazas. In the retaining wall backing up the highest level (B, open-air reading room) a little fountain is proposed, to 
 send a slender stream of water through the entire length of the second level to a pool in the center of the sunken garden (D, 
 third level); this little play of water is indicated on the sketch; benches may line the high hedges on either side. The pro- 
 posed high school annex contains a large open-air auditorium such as every California school ought to have; this is not 
 the foggy North. What is termed "school garden" forms "court of honor" with the old high school building opposite the street. 
 
CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 149 
 
 of the Lake, the northern part to be treated en- THE BERKELEY CIVIC CENTER, 
 tirely in a natural and romantic manner with the 
 
 avoidance of concrete or plaster work of any The so-called Civic Center of Berkeley presents 
 
 kind. 1 a very different problem. If the City should suc- 
 
 'Regarding the desirability of avoiding gaps between the buildings, the visitors of the Panama-Pacific Exposition will 
 have noticed the harmonious joining together of the buildings and the effort made towards closing in even every street 
 axis by terminating the vista with a monument. 
 
 KEY 
 
 A- STAIRS TO MAIN ENTRANCE OF LIBRARY. 
 B -HIGHEST LEVEL OPEN AIR READING ROOM 
 
 CONNECTING WITH MAIN READING ROOM 
 
 ON SECOND FLOOR. 
 C- SECOND level: BOSQUETS LEADING 
 
 TO SUNKEN GARDEN. 
 D-THIRD LEVEL! SUNKEN GARDEN 
 E -FOURTH LEVEL: PLAZA IN 
 
 FRONT OF CITY HALL. ^^ ^ 
 
 PLAZA 
 
 S*79 STTsl&OVZ: SEA. LEVEL 
 
 lARCHtVESi (—, 
 AND / CO 
 POLICE ' 
 STATION 
 'BRIDGINCI <f 
 GflOV£ ST. I ^i 
 
 WEST 
 
 
 In consultation with Chas. H. Cheney, Architect 
 
 BIRDSEYE SKETCH AND KEY TO ALTERNATIVE PROPOSAL FOR A BERKELEY CIVIC CENTER 
 
150 
 
 CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 OLD VIEW OF THE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS AND BERKELEY 
 
 Looking west, one sees in the foreground the first grouping of University buildings along the axis proposed by the elder 
 Olmsted, i. e., before the conception of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Plan (which in order to gain space shifted the axis fur- 
 ther north; both axes, however, point to the Golden Gate). All these buildings have to give way to the new plan (see p. 152). 
 Behind the University buildings the almost unbuilt upon site of Berkeley appears. What a site for a great city! 
 
 ceed as hoped in acquiring the land in front of 
 the Berkeley City Hall containing no buildings 
 of considerable value, a great possibility of gradu- 
 ally grouping all public buildings would present 
 itself. Various courses could then be pursued. 
 The public buildings, as has been proposed, for in- 
 stance, by the architects Hobart & Cheney in their 
 fine perspective view (p. 148), could be placed 
 around the area, which, with the area of the ad- 
 joining streets, corresponds to a surface of about 
 650 by 350 feet, i. e., over 5 acres Additional land 
 would have to be acquired around the so-called 
 
 Civic Center block in order to secure the building 
 sites. In this case, the area between the buildings 
 is so large that it cannot be treated as an archi- 
 tectural square or place, but it will form a small 
 park, which can stand a good deal of planting. 
 This planting, being so close to architecture, of 
 course must be formal. This formality of 
 course does not exclude the use of the park for 
 many civic or playground purposes; on the con- 
 trary a formal treatment makes an almost mathe- 
 matical use of every square foot possible, as many 
 of the schoolground plans of Mr. Prager for the 
 
 In consultation with Chas. 11. Cheney, Architect 
 
 THE PLAZA, SKETCH OF THE ALTERNATIVE PROPOSAL FOR A BERKELEY CIVIC CENTER 
 
 Sketch showing view from Center Street looking south across the plaza towards the building proposed as a bridge over 
 Grove Street south of the City Hall. In the left foreground part of the proposed sunken garden (D) and of the proposed high 
 school annex. The little arrow pointing south across Center Street on the preceding diagram gives the point from which this 
 picture is supposed to be taken. For explanation see p. 148, footnote. 
 
CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 151 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, HUMANITIES GROUP 
 
 Looking east — the Campanile in the center. Showing how the somewhat small units of the individual buildings are 
 brought into composition by planting and balustrades and by harmonious horizontal roof lines mounting in terraces. For 
 the very small units on the right side a little arcade is proposed to make the necessary architectural connection and avoid 
 the effect of "spottiness." 
 
 City of Oakland have proved (p. 139). In order 
 to secure satisfactory effects, it will not be suf- 
 ficient to build satisfactory facades on the four 
 sides of the park, but it will be absolutely neces- 
 sary to exert a strong influence on the buildings 
 on the corners, as was very properly planned in 
 connection with the new civic center in San Fran- 
 cisco (see p. 147). Otherwise the finest aspirations 
 of the architects building the facades immediately 
 adjoining the little park would be annihilated by 
 disproportionate and inconsiderate building on 
 those corners. 
 
 Another procedure could be followed if Berke- 
 ley should be able to secure sufficient parks in 
 other localities as suggested in the chapter on 
 Parks. In this case the area between Grove, Mil- 
 via, Center Street and Allston Way could be 
 treated in an architectural way; i. e., the public 
 buildings could be placed on the edges of this 
 territory with facades not only towards the streets 
 named but also and especially towards a square to 
 be reserved in the center which, with entrances 
 under arcades on the style of Place des Vosges in 
 Paris, could become one of those fine beautifully 
 set jewels — an open-air room with the sky as an 
 ever-living ceiling — which are among the best 
 architecture can produce. Since Berkeley is very 
 slow in acquiring land, and since the latter pro- 
 cedure requires less land and is cheaper, it may 
 have more hope of realization. Both procedures 
 
 BIRDSEYE VIEW OF THE GREEK THEATER AS IT IS TO 
 APPEAR ULTIMATELY 
 
 The Greek Theater of the University, in spite of its having 
 given the impetus to quite a development of open air theaters 
 in this country represents in its present state (compare ad- 
 joining picture) not much more than the mere foundations of 
 the building ultimately planned for. The present concrete 
 structure will be covered with marble, three more rows of 
 seats, and a peristyle will be added; the present structure, 
 beautiful as it is, is but a sketch of the ultimate appearance. 
 
 will have as much merit as the architects and land- 
 scape architects called upon. Either procedure, if 
 it means nothing but a haphazard lining up of 
 
 V:,; - j ' . ,i ■ | 
 
 
 
 ■;■*'&. W;* »>rt 
 
 
 A MEETING PLACE WORTHY OF A CITY— THE GREEK THEATER DURING FLAG DAY EXERCISES 
 
 The Greek Theater, which ordinarily seats 8000 people, may seat 10,000 when use is made of stage and orchestra, as 
 shown on this picture. The building of large cities brings great masses of people close together. To create dignified meeting 
 places for festive occasions and provide suitable approaches, is a worthy object of architect, landscape architect, and city- 
 planner. California is blessed with a climate that permits open-air meetings all the year around. 
 
152 
 
 CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 
 ~*- »V»»^i - -£* lu <-*(*• *-_•*-.«*.«*» mar. wain 
 
 ■ ■Mil. ,3 #T ikl 1'i.UV. >M^ 
 
 
 J? •"*. ..$£*4i 
 
 fcylS 01 -■& % % e*m -SKF. 
 
 This plan is the outcome of two 
 international competitions. Both 
 were judged by five representative 
 architects from San Francisco, 
 New York, France, Germany, and 
 England. The following are ab- 
 stracts from the "preliminary 
 prospectus," published 1897: 
 
 "The purpose of the competition 
 is to secure a plan to which all 
 the buildings that may be needed 
 by the University in its future 
 growth shall conform. All the 
 buildings that have been con- 
 structed up to the present time 
 are to be ignored and the grounds 
 are to be treated as a blank space, 
 to be filled with a single beautiful 
 and harmonious picture as a 
 painter fills in his canvas. 
 
 "In fact, it is a city that is to 
 be created — a City of Learning— 
 in which there is to be no sordid 
 or inharmonious feature. There 
 are to be no definite limitations of 
 cost, materials, or style. 
 
 "There will doubtless be devel- 
 opments of science in the future 
 that will impose new duties on the 
 University, and require alterations 
 in the detailed arrangement of its 
 buildings, but it is believed to be 
 possible to secure a comprehensive 
 plan so in harmony with the uni- 
 versal principles of architectural 
 art, that there will be no more 
 necessity of remodeling its broad 
 outlines a thousand years hence 
 than there would be of remodel- 
 ing the Parthenon, had it come 
 down to us complete and unin- 
 jured." 
 
 In the first competition, Ant- 
 werp, 1898, 105 plans were sub- 
 mitted, 11 premiated. The pre- 
 miated architects entered a second 
 competition, judged 1899, in San 
 Francisco, in which five prizes 
 ranging from §1000 to §10,000 were 
 awarded. The first prize was 
 given to Emile Benard, Paris. His 
 drawings, preliminary sketches 
 only, formed the basis for the 
 studies which have been made 
 since 1902 under direction of 
 Professor John Galen Howard, 
 another one of the premiated 
 architects. The rapid growth of the 
 University and the constantly 
 changing conditions have inev- 
 itably resulted in considerable 
 modifications of the preliminary 
 scheme. The plan, while thus elas- 
 tic, remains a unified scheme 
 taking its title from the benefac- 
 tress whose munificence has made 
 it possible. The individual build- 
 ings of the revised scheme erected 
 to date are: Mining Building, Greek 
 Theater, University Library (in 
 part), California Hall, Boalt Hall, 
 Agricultural Hall, Sather Gate, and 
 Sather Tower. 
 
 The bond issue recently voted 
 for new buildings has provided 
 funds for completion of the library 
 and erection of a large classroom 
 building, a new building for the 
 College of Agriculture, and a wing 
 of the proposed new Chemistry 
 Group. 
 
 An essential change of the plan 
 premiated with the first prize is to 
 be found in the orientation of the 
 axis. While Emile Benard made 
 the continuation of University Ave- 
 nue the axis of the University, 
 Professor Howard has reverted to 
 an axis almost parallel to the one 
 proposed by the elder Olmsted in 
 order not only to conform with 
 the configuration of the soil but 
 also to satisfy an ideal require- 
 ment emphasized by Olmsted, i. e., 
 having the axis pointing directly 
 to the Golden Gate, thereby bring- 
 ing the University Group into 
 ideal relation to the entire Bay of 
 San Francisco. This should lead 
 to a slight relocation of Addison 
 Street. (Compare p. 97.) 
 
 "CITY OF LEARNING"— THE PHOEBE APPERSON HEARST PLAN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 As revised January, 1914. Scale in right corner measures 250 feet. 
 
CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 153 
 
 PHOlBI'" APPERSOiM' 1 HEARST^ 
 PLAN ; 
 UNIVERSITY •< CAUIFO'RNTAL 
 
 MttHlTtCT 
 
 public or semi-public buildings in varying styles, 
 heights, materials and sizes, will have little value. 
 Compare sketches pp. 149, 150, and footnote p. 148. 
 
 A CALIFORNIA STATE CENTER; THE 
 CAMPUS OF THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Whatever the individual communities of the 
 East Bay may be able to produce in the line of 
 happily grouped public buildings they will not be 
 able, and ought not to be able, to surpass the 
 greatest civic center not only of the East Bay sec- 
 tion, but of the entire State, i. e., that tremendous 
 group of buildings which, measured by quality 
 and cost must surpass even the Capitol Grounds of 
 the State in Sacramento, namely, the University of 
 California. To have this unique group of build- 
 ings, as it is planned, in its midst, is one of the 
 highest privileges of the East Bay; and any East 
 Bay community outside of Berkeley which should 
 
 consent to consider the Campus as a mere Berke- 
 ley affair instead of seeing therein the pride of the 
 entire East Bay section would be altogether too 
 unassuming and very shortsighted. From the 
 broadest point of view the plans for the University 
 of California represent one of the most interesting 
 and largest attempts in the world towards dignified 
 and effectual grouping of public buildings. It is 
 not the object of my report to go into a discussion 
 or rather appreciation of these plans, which are in 
 the best possible hands, and are prominently be- 
 fore the eyes of the public at large. I beg to make 
 two observations only regarding them: In order 
 
 PROPOSED TREATMENT OF LEVELS AND PLANTING 
 SCHEME AT BASE OF THE CAMPANILE 
 
 JANE SATHER TOWER, SO-CALLED CAMPANILE 
 
 This tower is 303 feet high, 34 feet square at base, 30 feet 
 fi inches at the top. The lantern is 610 feet above sea level. 
 The tower is set on a grillage of steel beams encased in con- 
 crete 8 feet thick 18 feet below ground. The tower, therefore, 
 is like a lily on a heavy bulb, and is thereby insured to some 
 extent against possible effects of earthquakes. The steel-frame 
 structure is faced with granite. Chimes in the tower play at 
 hours and quarters. 
 
 Apropos of the discussion which has been started by the 
 erection of this powerful building chiefly as an ornament, the 
 following authentic story of King Frederick Wilhelm of Prus- 
 sia (1713-40) is of interest. This King, father of Frederick the 
 Great, was a most economical and spartan ruler, abhorring the 
 pompous inclinations of the European despots of that time. 
 This saver of pennies wrote to his architect (in a state docu- 
 ment November 10, 1730), "To your request regarding the tower 
 of the Petri Church, I reply that this tower shall be built so 
 high and possibly even higher than the Cathedral steeple of 
 Strasburg and I will pay for the cost thus increased." The 
 steeple of Strasburg was then the highest tower in existence. 
 This spartan King built a number of other churches on a 
 quite new style — simple round meeting halls without having 
 towers, but he seems to have felt that a shaft if inserted 
 at one appropriate place would have great inspirational value. 
 
154 
 
 CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 THE NEW CLASSROOM BUILDING— BENJAMIN IDE 
 WHEELER HALL 
 
 The so-called library annex (south of the library), under 
 construction and built around an auditorium to seat 1000 
 people. 
 
 to realize the tremendous size and ambition of the 
 great architectural plan of the University, it is in- 
 teresting to compare it with the views which were 
 held by the great Olmsted on the same subject. 
 This is what he said in his report of 1866: "I 
 should contemplate the erection of no buildings 
 for college purposes, whether large or small, ex- 
 cept as detached structures, each designed by it- 
 self, and as would be found most convenient for 
 the purpose to which it was devoted. In other 
 words, I would propose to adopt a picturesque, 
 rather than a formal and perfectly symmetrica] 
 arrangement, for the two reasons that the former 
 would better harmonize artistically with the gen- 
 eral character desired for the neighborhood, and 
 that it would allow any enlargement or modifica- 
 tion of the general plan of building adopted for 
 the College, which may in the future be found 
 desirable." 
 
 This statement of the elder Olmsted is interest- 
 ing not only for what it says, but becomes of in- 
 creased weight from the fact that he made it, 
 though in his wildest dreams he did not think of 
 an institution that would ever be as large as this 
 great institution has become today. In other 
 words, a formal and symmetrical arrangement of 
 tbe College buildings which seemed to him "a 
 cause of great inconvenience and perplexity" has 
 become a much more difficult undertaking with 
 the unheard of growth of the needs of the College. 
 Considered in this light, one realizes the enormous 
 task represented by the present formal arrange- 
 ment based upon the results of the international 
 competition of 1899 and modified by the architect 
 of the University, Professor John Galen Howard; 
 and in view of the arising difficulties one ad- 
 mires the successful progress of this great work. 
 The enormous difficulty of the undertaking 
 
 as foreseen by Olmsted justifies the precautions 
 with which every step in the building of the Cam- 
 pus is taken. There are two serious doubts and 
 dangers connected with this work both intimately 
 connected with each other. One of them is ex- 
 pressed by the question: "Will not the develop- 
 ment of the needs of the College break down the 
 frame of the great formal scheme, however am- 
 bitious and big it may have been conceived.?" The 
 other question: "In view of the menacing lack of 
 space, is it possible, and also is it artistically de- 
 sirable, to try the difficult experiment of basing the 
 final formal effect upon grouping of detached 
 buildings?" Some answer to this question may be 
 found in the way that the size of the new build- 
 ings under construction and proposed has in- 
 creased compared with the smaller units built or 
 planned previously. If the plan for each individ- 
 ual building is made in such a way as to allow 
 for an organic and individual extension of each 
 building as soon as the need arises in the case of 
 every individual building, then a large margin 
 is left, and at the same time the entire plan 
 will in the course of time bend to a final con- 
 nected grouping, the latter being architecturally 
 more promising because its effects have been tried 
 out by generations of the greatest architects. The 
 difficulty of artistically grouping detached build- 
 ings and of overcoming the undesirable gaps be- 
 tween them can in many cases be tempered by 
 luxurious planting; but in order to do so, more 
 space is needed than is available between some 
 of the University structures. If planned for 
 in advance it is comparatively easy to trans- 
 form a scheme of individual buildings into a 
 scheme of physically connecting buildings creating 
 thereby considerable additions. While if the 
 scheme is composed of small and independent 
 
 SKETCH FOR THE AGRICULTURAL GROUP 
 
 The building in the center is standing. Originally four 
 smaller buildings were proposed around it. Later (see plan, 
 revised January, 1914) it was proposed to group these four 
 buildings behind the main building; the sketch reproduced 
 here goes one step further, showing only two buildings; thev 
 will flank the main building and form a fine cohesive group, 
 a unit in itself and an effective part of the larger scheme. 
 In connection with this development compare the buildings 
 proposed in the plan revised 1914 (eastern part). They are 
 to form with their facades part of the necessarily somewhat 
 rigid formal central axis and to give by the flexibility of their 
 courts possibility for large extensions. 
 
CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 155 
 
 units like Boalt Hall or California Hall organic 
 connections and extensions are hard to make. No 
 architectural beauty in the world would be con- 
 sidered as a recompense for lack of space and 
 crowding of students and professors. 
 
 A scheme of individual buildings among trees 
 would be especially beautiful if plenty of space for 
 intervening gardens was available. But this un- 
 fortunately is not the case. In spite of the 
 fact that most of the finest architectural effects 
 in the world are based upon the grouping of con- 
 nected or seemingly connected buildings, I should 
 prefer the present plans for the development of 
 the University with detached buildings, provided, 
 of course, it can be carried out without shortage 
 of available ground for buildings. The idea of 
 having the buildings all detached is more worthy 
 of California where the climate makes every walk 
 from one building to another a real delight. If 
 this plan of grouping detached buildings is ad- 
 hered to, regardless of the scarcity of ground, 
 then all the connecting links which the eye 
 requires between the different buildings have 
 to be made by the landscape architect. His task 
 will be at least as important and as difficult as the 
 work of the architect and it therefore must be 
 given into the hands of a man as competent and as 
 great as the architect in charge of the buildings. 
 It seems a serious matter to me that the lack of 
 funds seems to have delayed this necessary co- 
 operation (compare p. 126). 
 
 NEIGHBORHOOD OF UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Also the streets on the three sides of the Uni- 
 versity grounds should be made more impressive 
 avenues. This can be done to some extent by 
 eliminating the sidewalk next to the Campus, 
 planting uniform avenue trees within the Univer- 
 sity boundary line, and throwing the space form- 
 erly occupied by the sidewalk into a widened road- 
 way and a much widened sidewalk area on the 
 other side of the street, on which trees should also 
 be planted; where street car tracks occupy these 
 streets the city must also add to their width (pp. 
 97, 135). There should be no pedantism about 
 sidewalks, where they are not required. A sim- 
 ilar case presents itself in roads through parks 
 as, for example, in Lakeside Park; there it is pe- 
 dantic to carry a street of the paved city type with 
 uniform sidewalks and curbs among lawn and trees 
 as if they were houses. An independent foot walk 
 following the street at some distance, as in Lake- 
 side Park close to the water, would be more inter- 
 esting. 
 
 It also will be necessary to reach some under- 
 standing about height, material, color and style of 
 all buildings facing the college grounds; and even 
 of those buildings which somehow are in 
 view from the grounds, in order to form a dig- 
 nified setting of the jewel in their midst. Since 
 the college buildings are white, I would suggest 
 the avoidance of white in the surrounding build- 
 ings for the sake of contrast and also modesty; 
 private buildings in no way should compete 
 with public ones. 
 
 Another important matter is the proper connec- 
 tion of the Campus with Shattuck Avenue. Since 
 the axis of University Avenue, as originally pro- 
 posed by the winner of the first prize in the inter- 
 national competition had, in view of the contours 
 of the college ground, to be changed to a line 
 pointing exactly into the Golden Gate, a slight 
 change of the course of Addison Street at least 
 between Oxford and Shattuck, as shown on plan 
 p. 152, is desirable. This matter has been touched 
 upon in a previous chapter (p. 97). If the citi- 
 zens of Berkeley really appreciate the great privi- 
 lege of having the University, they will not let 
 values increase to a prohibitive point before reach- 
 ing some agreement equally satisfactory to Town 
 and Gown thereby doing their small share for the 
 greater glory of the State Institution. This mat- 
 ter should be studied, as mentioned in another 
 chapter, in connection with the organization of 
 "Shattuck Square" and the "Civic Center." 
 
 CLOSING REMARKS 
 A great number of various phases of city-plan- 
 
 SKETCH FOR THE STADIUM SEEN FROM CAMPANILE 
 A reinforced concrete structure to seat 40,000 people. 
 
CLOSING REMARKS 
 
 156 
 
 ning have been more or less slightly touched upon 
 in this Report, many of which are of vital impor- 
 tance to the East Bay cities. The writer hopes 
 that his Report will convince a sufficiently large 
 body of East Bay citizens that these matters cannot 
 further be let drift along without serious damage 
 to the East Bay property. I think every careful 
 observer will agree with me that the City Councils, 
 both of Oakland and Berkeley, should be advised 
 to adopt an ordinance providing for the appoint- 
 ment of a City-Planning Commission at once. 
 The various City-Planning Commissions of the in- 
 dividual East Bay cities must often sit in com- 
 mon; their permanent secretaries must be posted 
 about every move intended by the sister commit- 
 tee. Special arrangements are necessary to make 
 hearty co-operation in all matters of mutual inter- 
 est between the East Bay cities easy and even ob- 
 ligatory. These commissions must be composed 
 of active and progressive men ready to give con- 
 tinuous thought to these matters, but these com- 
 missions also must have sufficient funds at their 
 disposal not only to employ permanent secretaries 
 but also outside expert advice on important issues 
 in the solution of each of their particular prob- 
 lems. The creation of better maps, showing con- 
 tours, streets, buildings, population and the like 
 will be one of the first requirements. In gather- 
 ing information about the progress of other cities 
 the commendable work of the Oakland Municipal 
 Reference Library and its start toward a fine col- 
 lection of municipal literature will be of great 
 help. 
 
 Gradually general lines of city-planning pro- 
 cedure must be agreed upon and a city-plan, very 
 flexible in detail but firm, in all matters of prin- 
 ciple, must be worked out and safeguarded and 
 made efficient by legislative acts, ordinances, 
 funds and daily practice. It is for the preliminary 
 work of these city-planning committees that this 
 report (completed 1914) may prove of value as a 
 starting point for discussion. 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 
 
 No funds have been available to obtain perspect- 
 ive drawings that might give an inspiring idea of 
 how some of the things suggested by this report 
 would look if carried out. Drawings of this kind 
 are valuable in order to visualize the ends to be 
 aimed at and I am greatly indebted to the archi- 
 tects, Messrs. Louis C. Mullgardt, Lewis T. Hobart, 
 
 and Charles H. Cheney who, by very kindly vol- 
 unteering their co-operation, made possible the 
 production of at least a few sketches. I believe an 
 inspiring set of birdseye views showing the pro- 
 posed park system, grouping of public buildings 
 and various features of transportation, streets and 
 street junctions should be secured at an early date. 
 
 In closing this report I beg to express my very 
 sincere appreciation and gratitude for the unceas- 
 ing patience, with which I have been supported in 
 the course of my investigations by so many East 
 Bay citizens. Besides the many persons men- 
 tioned in the body of the report I am greatly in- 
 debted to various city officials and the members 
 of the various co-operating committees: the City- 
 Planning Committee of the Oakland Chamber of 
 Commerce and Commercial Club, composed as 
 follows: W. H. Weilbye, chairman, W. H. Leim- 
 ert, A. S. Lavenson, Joseph H. King, C. W. Dickey, 
 C. H. Cheney, Executive Secretary; the City Club 
 of Berkeley, T. H. Reed, President, F. T. Robson, 
 Vice-President, J. R. Douglas, Secretary; and, dur- 
 ing the publication of the report in 1915, the 
 Civic Art Commission of the City of Berkeley, 
 Duncan McDuffie, President, R. W. Osborn, Vice- 
 President, B. J. Bither, B. D. M. Greene, J. W. 
 Gregg, J. C. Merriam, A. T. Sutherland, J. J. 
 Jessup, City Engineer, W. H. RatclifF, Jr., City 
 Architect, Chas. H. Cheney, Secretary and Con- 
 sultant. 
 
 I am greatly indebted to the many who have 
 kindly loaned photographs from their collections. 
 These include a number of hitherto unpublished 
 plans and drawings for the University of Califor- 
 nia secured through the courtesy of Mr. John 
 Galen Howard, Professor of Architecture. 
 
 I have to thank especially the members of the 
 Committee of Publication of the Oakland Cham- 
 ber of Commerce and Commercial Club, Harmon 
 Bell, Chairman, M. J. Laymance, H. C. Capwell, 
 Duncan McDuffie, Prof. J. C. Merriam, W. H. 
 Weilbye, Walter H. Leimert, Owen E. Hotle, 
 Joseph E. Caine, H. A. Lafler, Secretary. 
 
 Had it not been for the most patient and kind- 
 est devotion of Mr. McDuffie and Mr. Lafler to 
 the idea of a plan for the East Bay cities this 
 Report could never have been brought to com- 
 pletion. 
 
 WERNER HEGEMANN, 
 
 Care of the People's Institute, 70 Fifth Avenue, 
 New York. 
 
 THE END 
 
INDEX 
 
 (FOR TABLE OF CONTENTS SEE PAGE 18) 
 
 A 
 
 Acknowledgements of the author 156 
 
 Accidental boundary lines of East Bay Cities 35 
 
 Adams Wharf, Car floating to 53 
 
 Santa Fe owner of 77 
 
 Addison Street 97 
 
 Change of direction of (map) 152 
 
 Adeline Street, Berkeley 87 
 
 Adeline Street ■. 85, 95 
 
 Agricultural Land. See Subdivisions, Land Values 
 
 Air. Market value of _ 98 
 
 Alameda County taxed for proposed tunnels 76 
 
 Alameda, Oakland connection with 76-7 
 
 "Webster Street bridge service to 77 
 
 Rapid transit benefit to 71 
 
 Lands controlled by Public Service Corporations 
 
 in (chart) _. _ 44 
 
 to co-operate for East Bay Harbor 35 
 
 Alameda marshes 31 
 
 Lighters in „ _. 77 
 
 Alameda Mole (map) 37 
 
 Alameda pier _ 32 
 
 not paying proposition „ 77 
 
 Alameda, The 95 
 
 Alaska Packers' fleet (picture) 19, 32 
 
 Albany to co-operate for East Bay harbor 35' 
 
 Alberni, Don Pedro de, on the Bay 3 
 
 Allardt, G. P. (map) 126 
 
 AUston "Way . „ 86, 96 
 
 American city's appearance 13 
 
 Antwerp harbor _ , 21 
 
 Apartments, Open-air (Olmsted) 108 
 
 East bay experiment -in Cottage (picture, plan) 123 
 
 Approaches, Value of pleasant (Olmsted) _ 109 
 
 Interurban stations forming attractive (picture) 114 
 
 to University grounds 97 (map) _ 152 
 
 Arcades, as architectural link (picture) - 146 
 
 (picture) : '. 151 
 
 for foot passengers, Walnut Street 96 
 
 under elevated Railroad, Berlin (picture) 75 
 
 See also Colonnade. 
 
 Arches. In Tokio, carrying trunklines over (plan) 62 
 
 Girder spans as _ 54 
 
 Architects advancing city planning in Boston, Chicago, Berlin, 
 
 Duesseldorf „ 45 
 
 Areas of cities, old and new, compared _ 17 
 
 See also Park areas. 
 Aristocracy of blood and thought in influencing city-plan- 
 ning _ 15 
 
 Arlington Boulevard 72 
 
 Arnold, Bion J. recommends subways for congested parts 
 
 only 74 
 
 Population forecast of 8 
 
 Chicago Terminal Plan of 45 
 
 San Francisco Traction report of 66 
 
 Remarks on municipalities and Railroads by 43 
 
 Ashby Avenue _ 96 
 
 Assessment. See Taxation. 
 
 Athol Avenue 85 
 
 Auditorium. The approach to _ 95 
 
 (picture) — 146 
 
 See also Civic Center. 
 
 Australian States financing home-building —124 
 
 Automobile traffic in relation to street conditions 80 
 
 (map) - 83 
 
 requires municipal garage 95 
 
 Influence on pavements of 88 
 
 Increase of (Baccus) 88 
 
 B 
 
 Baccus on increase of motor traffic 88 
 
 Baltimore: Roland Park example of grouping (photo, plan) 122 
 
 Street gas lamps in (picture) , -. 143 
 
 Planting on traffic street in (picture) 71 
 
 Baltzer, F., Terminal plan in Japan of _ 62 
 
 Bancroft Avenue 86 
 
 Barge canal, New Orleans 28 
 
 Bascule bridges in Toledo, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia... .31-32 
 
 for estuary (birdseye view) 30 
 
 See also Estuary. 
 
 Bay region, Population, present and future, of 8, 9 
 
 Beck Street 86 
 
 Bell, Harmon, acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Bellevue Avenue 131 
 
 Belt-line, Meaning of term _ 52, 42 
 
 Provision along Estuary for 55-6 
 
 basis of clearing system in traffic interchange 52 
 
 to open up industrial districts 52 
 
 to open up water front '. 51 
 
 Ideal situation at waterfront for new 54 
 
 and freight congestion 52-53 
 
 New Orleans (map) 52 
 
 Cleveland (map) 54 
 
 Cleveland opening up efficient factory sites by 55 
 
 Double track trunk switches in Cleveland 54, 55 
 
 Belt-line service 42 
 
 Factories along water front may secure (picture) 53 
 
 in East Bay Cities to be encouraged 54 
 
 See also Electric Belt-line, Car-float service. 
 
 Benard, Emile, first prize winner U. of C. plan competition 152 
 
 Benicia, the old Francisca 5 
 
 Natural deep water point at 20 
 
 Berkeley formerly opposing Rees Plan * 35 
 
 Municipal tidelands of 38 
 
 waterfront development endangered by Oakland plans 36 
 
 Berkeley Maps, Birdseye views of Civic Center 148, 149, 150 
 
 Progress of Building to 1914 137 
 
 Hearst Plan, U. of C 152 
 
 Factory District 55' 
 
 Olmsted Sr., university neighborhood 106 (key) 107 
 
 See also Oakland Maps. 
 Berlin, city-planning competition showed changing attitude of 
 
 city-planners toward railroads 43, 45 
 
 city-planning competition (1910) 63 (map) 61 
 
 Foresighted city-planning (1648-1789) in „. 15 
 
 Width of Unter den Linden and Kaiserdamm in 86, 87 
 
 Unter den Linden (Tiergarten) in 15 
 
 Stadtbahn, through- routed 62-3 
 
 Passenger traffic and terminals in (diagram) 61 
 
 Increased values along elevated railroad in (picture) 75 
 
 Population and area of 17 
 
 Congestion in 10 
 
 Harbor of 19 
 
 Height of buildings in 98 
 
 Street signs in 142 
 
 Billboards * _ 142 
 
 Either, B. J. . — _ 55, 156 
 
 Blaine Street 86 
 
 Blanch Street _ 86 
 
 Blocks, Long Oakland (picture) 79 
 
 Advantages and disadvantages of long 90-91 
 
 Shortening needed between Telegraph and San Pablo 
 
 of long ; 5, 91 
 
 Shortening needed between 14th and 19th and Franklin 
 
 and Oak of long _ __ 89 
 
 Comprehensive planning of (picture) 101 
 
 Comprehensive planning in building of entire 98-102 
 
 Hotel Oakland as good treatment of (diagram and pic- 
 ture) _ 101 
 
 Hotel Shattuck as good treatment (picture) —101 
 
 Treatment by Mullgardt of (design) 93 
 
 Boston water supply and park reservation 135 
 
 standard in park development 131 
 
 metropolitan park system...- 113 
 
 Arborway at Franklin Park in (diagram) _. 86 
 
 Arborway and Commonwealth in (diagram) 87 
 
 Cost of street widenings in 10 
 
 IT. S. harbor expenses at 21 
 
 Elevated Railroad property treated in (picture) 74 
 
 Example of subdivision: Commonwealth Avenue in 88 
 
 Area of metropolitan district in 17 
 
 Metropolitan Improvements Commission on Railroad Co- 
 operation 43 
 
 Metropolitan Improvements Commission on reducing 
 
 local charges 43 
 
 Bourgeois as city-planners, The 157 
 
 Bremen harbor 27 
 
 Bremerhaven docks, Plan of 21 
 
 docks, Cost of 
 
 Bridge on Richmond Boulevard (picture) _ 133 
 
 Bridges, Reorganization of Alameda ]„ 77 
 
 In Cleveland, ornamental railroad 54 
 
 Tidal Canal [ 77 
 
 See also Bascule bridge. 
 
 Broadway, Station at foot of 63 
 
 and San Pablo (1867-1914) 8, 9 
 
 Skyscrapers on (picture) 98-9 
 
 High buildings at present near ideal on 100 
 
 See also Fourteenth Street. 
 
 Brooklyn Basin and possible Belt-line system 56 
 
 Building, In Berkeley progress to 1914 of (map) 137 
 
 Necessity for wholesale methods of „.124 
 
 lines in regard to street widenings 88 
 
 Building Lots. See Subdivision, Corners. 
 
 Building Restrictions „ 97-102 
 
 necessary in every city 98 
 
 as they relate to skyscrapers 101-2 
 
 Building Societies under municipal control 124 
 
 Buildings at road junctions to have special form ! 89 
 
 See also Grouping, Heights of, Co-operation, Land 
 Values, Skyscrapers, Housing, Homes, Blocks, Factories. 
 
 Bungalows, East Bay (pictures and plans) 120, 121, 144 
 
 Burnham, D. H 41 45 go 
 
 Business Centers of East Bay Cities (diagram) ! '_ 30 
 
 and rapid transit 64-5 
 
 Large vs, small '.....".. 65 
 
 crowded by railroad 61 (map). "~ 59 
 
 Berkeley's growing .™95-6 
 
 Connecting northern districts of Berkeley with....!!.."""" 95-6 
 
 to compete with shopping district of S. F 85 
 
 See also Shopping Center. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Business district, not distinct from residential in old 
 
 cities 11, 12, 81 
 
 "Wilderness and glory of _ 13 
 
 seen from Lakeside Park (picture) 102 
 
 from aeroplane (1913), Oakland (picture) 90 
 
 Restrictions of height of buildings in _• 13 
 
 and carriage trade 92 
 
 Example of rapid transit benefit to 71 
 
 and circular streets 81 
 
 Proposed street openings in central (map) 92 
 
 See also Railroad Taxation, Rapid Transit. 
 
 Business Streets chapter beginning 89 
 
 See also Streets. 
 
 Bushnell Place (picture) - 107, 136 
 
 California population and area compared 20 
 
 Progress of urbanization in 16 
 
 Hydro -electric power resources of 56 
 
 First elevated suburban line in 74 
 
 Climate favors elevated railroad in 74 
 
 Taxation methods and railroad property in 5*8 
 
 California State Railroad Commission. See Railroad Com- 
 mission. 
 
 California "Wire Cloth Co.'s plant (picture) 58 
 
 Caine, Joseph E., Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Cambridge, Mass. Fresh Pond Park in (picture) 134 
 
 Campanile, of importance at Berkeley - 97 
 
 in vistas (picture) -- —97 (picture). .142 
 
 Treatment of levels and planting of (3 drawings) 153 
 
 Campus; See University Campus. 
 
 Canyons, East Bay (picture) 129 
 
 See also Proposed Park Sites. 
 
 Capwell, H. C, Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Car floating, Delays due to 24, 25 
 
 a great expense 53 
 
 to Bush Terminals - 48 
 
 Car float service vs. Belt-line 77 
 
 between Richmond and Adams Point —.53, 77 
 
 Carriage Trade 92 
 
 Castro Street . _ „ 91 
 
 Cedar Street , 136 
 
 Cemeteries. See Proposed Park Sites. 
 
 Centers in Berkeley, trinity of _ 97 
 
 Rapid transit between Oakland and Berkeley 72 
 
 See also Civic Center, Business Center, State Center. 
 
 Center Street _ 97 
 
 Cheney, C. H., architect „ _ 148, 50, 156 
 
 Chicago, Citizens' Terminal Plan Committee of 45 
 
 City club advancing city-planning in -. 45 
 
 Commercial club advancing city-planning 45 
 
 lagoon Park opposed by Col. Rees 41 
 
 Harbor congestion in 29, 41 
 
 "Closed hours" of bridges in 77 
 
 clearing yard 57 
 
 "Chinese Wall" (map) 59 
 
 railroad development 60-1 
 
 railroad land problem 58 
 
 Detouring railroad traffic in * 53 
 
 Hideous and noisy elevate railroads in 74 
 
 Berlin passenger traffic compared with — 63 
 
 China's population could be housed in New York 17 
 
 "Chinese Wall" in Chicago (map) 59 
 
 Chittenden H. M., "Ports of the Pacific" 20 
 
 Circuit, Alameda rapid transit 71 
 
 See also Traffic Circuit. 
 
 Circular Streets, their origin 81 
 
 in regard to business districts 81 
 
 Columbus Circle, N. T 82 
 
 local beginnings already - 92 
 
 Cities' relations to railroads 43 
 
 City Clubs, role of - - ~ 16 
 
 City Hall, Oakland, ideal skyscraper (picture) 9.— 145-6 
 
 on Christmas eve (picture) 99 
 
 to be protected - 146 
 
 "City of Palaces" General Sherman's 5 
 
 City attorney's office on railroad franchise and elevated 
 
 roads 75 
 
 City-planning, Definition of — 2, 16 
 
 revival, last quarter of 19th century, in Austria, Ger- 
 many, Sweden, England — _ 15 
 
 Prince vs. Bourgeois in relation to 15 
 
 mistakes of the past 10 
 
 Great artistic ideas in 15 
 
 Prussian rulers and 15 
 
 New and old standards of 17 
 
 Objects of modern 16 
 
 elements and their rank 18 
 
 The most important question in 119, 124 
 
 Necessary to compel confidence of voters in 136 
 
 Losses from lack of 38, 47 
 
 serving industrial and commercial interests 48 
 
 insurance against dangers of city growth 117 
 
 Proper taxation of railway areas necessary in — 59 
 
 Municipal reference library and 156 
 
 Fifth National Conference, 1913, in Kansas City on 136 
 
 exhibition at Oakland: harbor model _ 134 
 
 See also Civic Art, Competitions. 
 
 City-planners' changing attitude towards railroads 45 
 
 City-planning Commission, Oakland and Berkeley 156 
 
 Civic Art. 
 
 Necessary foundations for 143 
 
 Home architecture and 143-4 
 
 Co-operation among home-builders and 144 
 
 Public buildings and vistas as affecting 145 
 
 Well-placed towers and _ 145 
 
 and architectural harmony with local conditions: Faculty 
 
 Club, Private School (picture and birdseye view) 144 
 
 (See also Bungalows, Street Junctions, Landscapes, Gar- 
 dens. ) 
 
 Parkways on residential streets a feature of 143 
 
 City Hall protection a concern of 146 
 
 Electrolier Washington, D. C, and (picture) 143 
 
 Gas lamp, Baltimore and (picture) 143 
 
 Gas lamp, Baltimore (picture) and 143 
 
 Billboards and _ 142-3 
 
 Removal of wires, street signs, electroliers and 142 
 
 a department of city-planning 1 
 
 not main concern of city-planning 11 
 
 "Feel of the land" in relation to 14, 126 
 
 ' 'Great thoughts' ' in 15 
 
 Failures in 15 
 
 New vs. old city (picture) 16 
 
 D 
 
 Decentralised city and gardens 12 
 
 De Fremery Park (picture) 139 
 
 Delivery district, chapter beginning 89 
 
 See also Streets, Business Center, Business district. 
 Delivery Loop, chapter beginning 79 
 
 See also Streets. 
 Delivery tracks, primitive clearing system between trunk- 
 lines and _ 57 
 
 Democracy failed in artistic city-planning 15, 16 
 
 Department store, A treatment in Berlin of 99 
 
 Derby Street 96 
 
 Dickey, G. E., report on Playgrounds, Oakland of 140 
 
 Dickey, C. W., Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Dimond canyon, Proposed parkway along „ 129 
 
 Districting a city for building purposes _.98-9 
 
 Douglas, J. R., Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Dover, Breakwater expense at 20 
 
 Dover Street 86 
 
 Dresden, Grouping of homes in (picture) 119 
 
 Duisburg harbor equals New York's tonnage 27 
 
 Dumbarton cut-off 25 
 
 Belt-line for East Bay and 53 
 
 Dunn, W. A. Supt. of Parks in Kansas City (map) _ 131 
 
 Durant Avenue _ 96 
 
 Duesseldorf city-planning competition and changing attitude of 
 
 city-planners toward railroads 45 
 
 Konig's Allee in _ 15 
 
 good street subdividing in _ 87 (diagram).. 88 
 
 Dust, Grass vs. pavement and _ 88 
 
 Factory _ 55 
 
 Dwight Way: and its American elms (picture) 109 
 
 E 
 
 East Bay cities' accidental boundary lines 35 
 
 East Twelfth Street _ 86 
 
 East Fourteenth Street _ 85 
 
 East Fourteenth Street district vs. S. P. right-of-way— _ 72-3 
 
 East Oakland, Alameda workingmen's homes in 77 
 
 Economics in the city plan 18 
 
 Economic value of building restrictions 98 
 
 Eighteenth Street _ 95 
 
 Elberfeld, Co-partnership for street openings in 95 
 
 Electric Belt-line, California's resources of hydro- electric 
 
 power and _ 56 
 
 growing importance of East Bay 56 
 
 Key Route (map and picture) _ 5'6 
 
 freight service for department store 57 
 
 See also Rapid Transit. 
 
 Elevated railroad vs. Subways 74 
 
 Good and bad types of 63 
 
 in Berlin - 63 
 
 steel construction of Paris (picture) 76 
 
 Philadelphia report on 87 
 
 planting in New York and Berlin (pictures) 75 
 
 properly treated in Boston (picture) 74 
 
 for rapid transit _ , 73-76 
 
 Suggested route for 75 
 
 to connect Oakland and Berkeley 75 
 
 in Berkeley 96 
 
 at 14th and Franklin Streets 70 
 
 effect on land values _.75, 87 
 
 and shopkeepers 75 
 
 and cross-town traffic 75-76 
 
 benefiting property „ 87 
 
 Climatic advantages of California for 74 
 
 Elevated Speedways 87 
 
 Eleventh Street 86 
 
 Elms, American (picture) _ 109 
 
 Elmhurst 47 
 
 Emeryville, Trunk-line trackage, at (chart) 46 (picture).. 50 
 
 to co-operate for East Bay harbor 35 
 
 Emerson School 139 
 
 Eno, William Phelps, and traffic problem of New York 82 
 
 Emperor of Austria: "I want an elegant capital" 11 
 
 Essex County's successful county park system 132 
 
 Esthetic value of old European city-plans 14, 15 
 
INDEX 
 
 Estuary 29, 30 
 
 Tunnels under 31, 69, 70 
 
 Subway plan for 76 
 
 Bascule Bridge vs. Subway for 76-7 
 
 Cost for maintenance of 35 
 
 New trunk lines along 50 
 
 frontage; belt-line provision; harbor plans 56 
 
 See also Land Values. 
 
 Eucalyptus (pictures) 114, 120 
 
 European capitals developed good types of elevated railroads 
 
 j 1 74 (picture) 75 
 
 Euclid Avenue 95 
 
 Extensions. See under Streets, Names of Streets and Railroad 
 references. 
 
 Faculty Club, Berkeley 1 2 (pictures)— .144 
 
 Factory districts to be screened by parks in Berkeley (map).... 55 
 
 in Frankfort (map) 28 
 
 endangering residential (map) 55 
 
 See also Smoke. 
 
 Midway Plaisance. 
 Factory Sites. "* See also Belt Line. 
 Factories, Necessary for restricting (map) 55 
 
 Electric spur track of Key Route aud (picture) 57 
 
 Units of 28 
 
 Ideal rail and water connections for 27, 28 
 
 Fallon Street, New trunk-line crossing 50 
 
 Feel of the land in artistically planned cities 14 
 
 Ferry-boats, Saving in number of (picture) 67 
 
 Ferry Freight between Oakland and San Francisco 23 
 
 See also Lightering. 
 Ferry passenger service: Goat Island Terminal plan increased 
 
 safety and speed for 69 
 
 State Harbor Commission report on transbay 69 
 
 Ferry slips, Future location of 39, 41 
 
 Ferry Traffic on S. F. Bay 65-70 
 
 Importance of East Bay 65 
 
 Fifteenth Street 95 
 
 Fifth Street, New trunk-line on 50 
 
 First Street, S. P. station on (picture) 60 
 
 Fifty-third Street 86 
 
 Flatiron appearance of too sharp corners 9 
 
 (picture) ....Ill 
 
 Foliage as part of artistic middle distance (Olmsted, Sr.) 
 
 Claremont home and (picture) 112 
 
 Foothills, Climatic advantages of East Bay (Olmsted) 109-110 
 
 See also Hill Districts. 
 Foothill Boulevard 85, 133 
 
 See also Highland Drive. 
 Ford, Bacon & Davis, Engineers of New Orleans Harbor Com- 
 mission _ 28 
 
 Foreground, Value of foliage in (picture) Ill 
 
 Forest Avenue, Parking on 139 
 
 Fortifications, Restricting influence on old cities of 12 
 
 Forty-seventh Street 86 
 
 Forum. See Plaza 
 
 Fourteenth Street trestle extension 38 
 
 Fourteenth and Franklin, Proposed rapid transit connections 
 
 for _ 72 
 
 Railroad Terminal at 70 
 
 Fourteenth Street and Broadway, Southwest Oakland, has no 
 
 radial connection with 86 
 
 Traffic problem at 89 
 
 affected by too long blocks 90 
 
 benefited by widening Seventeenth Street 92 
 
 in regard to street openings 91 
 
 Suggestions for deflecting traffic from 91 
 
 Fourth Street, New trunk-line on 50 
 
 Fourth Avenue district, Street extensions in 73 
 
 Franchise for West Street car line 86 
 
 Fundamental conditions for railroad 77 
 
 Frankfurt-on-the-Main, Harbor of (plan) 28 
 
 Franklin Street 89, 91 
 
 Frederick Wilhelm I of Prussia on towers _ 153 
 
 Freight transportation by rail, chapter beginning 48 
 
 Freight charges - 59 
 
 See also Southern Pacific Switching Charges. 
 Freight Houses, Universal 57 
 
 See also Terminals. 
 Freight Station. See Stations. 
 
 Freight Traffic System to be supplemented by street-car sys- 
 tem 56 
 
 Freight Yards. See Yards. 
 
 Freight. See also Clearing System and references under Rail- 
 roads. 
 
 French Revolution influencing city planning 15 
 
 Fulton Street 86, 96 
 
 Galveston, U. S. harbor expenses at 21 
 
 Gardens as influenced by land values 12 
 
 Importance of large private 114, 116 
 
 between Bungalows (picture) 119 
 
 East Bay roses in (picture) 110 
 
 on hillside above Lake Merritt (picture) 108 
 
 as gateway to garden cities 134 
 
 Garden city ideals and workingmen's homes 115-116 
 
 Typical residential streets in a (design and diagram) 104 
 
 Garden courts (pictures) 122 
 
 Garden homes, Square miles of 14 
 
 Garden suburbs, Inexpensive 124 
 
 Gary, U. S. Steel plant at 27 
 
 Gateway to East Bay garden (picture) 108 
 
 Genoa Street 86 
 
 Germany, Subdivision of traffic streets in (diagram) 88 
 
 municipal land ownership in (map) 127 
 
 See also German city names. 
 
 Ghent, Belgium, Old Staple House in (picture) 16 
 
 Glasgow harbor 21, 27 
 
 Glen Echo Creek (picture) 133 
 
 Practical example of assessment for proposed parkway on„137 
 See also Proposed Parkways. 
 
 Goat Island, North shoal to be filled of 67, 70 
 
 to be ceded to California 69 
 
 project and Island Park 134 
 
 and Rees plans 66-70 
 
 Goat Island Terminal Plan, Objections to 69, 70 
 
 and ocean traffic 70, 41 
 
 and west waterfront industries 67 
 
 in 1867 (map) 66 
 
 Goethe on Panama Canal and American "West 17 
 
 Gould, Jay, St. Louis railroad terminal case and 51 
 
 Grades, Separation of street and railroad 52 
 
 and Cleveland Belt-line 54 
 
 Adjustment of street to land 14 
 
 Grade -crossings, Danger of (picture) 62 
 
 of S. P. and "Western Pacific Railroad 49 
 
 Railroad 47 
 
 Grade-crossing elimination at main and belt-line tracks 52 
 
 a condition of future franchises 77 
 
 by belt-line 5'0-l 
 
 to be object of terminal organization 49, 50 
 
 cost 47 
 
 in Cleveland (map) 54, 47 
 
 Grain Elevators (picture) 16 
 
 Grand Avenue ...85, 86, 94 
 
 Cutting to Broadway of 73 
 
 Grass for residential streets 88, 103 
 
 See also Paving. 
 
 Greek Theatre, finished (birdseye view) 151 
 
 during Flag Day exercises (picture) 151 
 
 See also Highland Drive. 
 
 Greene, B. D. M., Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Gregg, J. "W., Acknowledgement to -. 156 
 
 Grouping of homes on curving road (picture) „ 124 
 
 in San Francisco (photo and plan) 122 
 
 in Hellerau, Hampstead _ „.124 (picture)....119 
 
 in Baltimore (photo and plan) 122 
 
 Grouping of homes vs. lining up (picture) 120 
 
 at road junctions (diagram) 121 
 
 possible under wholesale methods of building 124 
 
 Grouping of Public buildings, Early attempt in Oakland 
 
 at (picture) __ 145 
 
 See also State Center, Civic Center, Civic Art. 
 
 Grove Street _ _ 85, 95 
 
 Guerin, Jules, painter of Chicago city-plan 45 
 
 Color plate of Chicago Island Park by, Facing 134 
 
 H 
 
 Hamburg harbor 27 
 
 Area of 20 
 
 Expenses of 21 
 
 docks (plan) 21 
 
 Hampstead, Letchworth and Eastwick residential streets (de- 
 sign and diagram) 104 
 
 Grouping in 124 
 
 Harbor: chapter on Harbor 19-41 
 
 rank in city plan 18 
 
 Political reasons diffusing ocean trade of Europe 36 
 
 Comparative statistics of 19, 20, 21 
 
 Fundamental idea of organization of 22 
 
 Commercial, old type; industrial, new 27 
 
 Lack of comprehensive plan for 33 
 
 Necessity of comprehensive plan for 26 
 
 agitation 1913 36 
 
 management missing in S. F. Bay 22 
 
 Danger of independent planning for 36 
 
 expenditure in East Bay. Who pays for „ 38 
 
 Costly reconstruction in London and. New York 26 
 
 Expensive locks in European 20 
 
 charges for local handling 24, 25 
 
 Boston Metropolitan Improvement Commission on reduc- 
 ing local charges in 25 
 
 Hamburg, Glasgow, Bremen, Duisberg, Mannheim 27 
 
 See also Inner Harbor. 
 
 Harbor districts, New trunk-lines for 50 
 
 Harbor and Park co-operation (Frankfurt plan) 28 
 
 Harbor Plans, Belt-line provision along estuary for 55-6 
 
 See also Rees Plans. 
 
 Harrison Street 85, 94, 95 
 
 Harrison Street Bridge criticised 31 
 
 Harvard University, influence in fostering parks of 125 
 
 Haussmann, Cost of work in Paris of 10 
 
 striving for spectacular city 11 
 
 Haviland-Tibbetts Report 19 
 
 Population forecast by 8, 9 
 
 Hawley Street 86 
 
 Hayward and Oakland rapid transit 64 
 
 Hearst Avenue 95 
 
 Hearst, Phoebe A., Plan, University of California 152 
 
 Heights of Buildings Commission report, New York 98 
 
 in relation to street widths 98 
 
 in European capitals 98 
 
 Hellerau-Dresden, a garden suburb 124 
 
 (picture) .„.,...,...... 119 
 
INDEX 
 
 Henard, Eugene, "Theoretical Scheme" of traffic streets, Paris, 
 
 of 80-81 
 
 Traffic circuit of (diagram) 82 
 
 Highland Drive, foreshadowed (Olmsted) 112, 135, 136 
 
 See also Proposed Parkways. 
 
 Highways, Railroad. - 49 
 
 Hill districts above Lake Merritt (picture) 103 
 
 Lack of parks in 128 
 
 home architecturally mastered (picture) 113 
 
 Advantage as residence sites of 105 
 
 Climatic advantages of East Bay (Olmsted) „. 109-110 
 
 Hinterland of S. F. Bay (plan) 20 
 
 Hiroshige (picture) 100 
 
 Historic monuments, Rank in city plan of 18 
 
 Hobart & Cheney, Civic center plans of 148, 150 
 
 Hoffman, R., City Engineer, Cleveland 47 
 
 Homes, Distribution in Oakland and Piedmont 1914 of (chart).. 78 
 
 Number and costs in Oakland, 1913, of (chart) 116 
 
 Aggregate value in Oakland, 1913, of (chart) 117 
 
 buyer, Education of 122 
 
 Importance of cheap 122 
 
 Medium-priced and cheaper 115 
 
 Workingmen's 119 
 
 of masses, Importance to community of 118 
 
 Wholesale methods of building 124 
 
 determines character of Building lot 105 
 
 on corner lots (picture) 123 
 
 Type of East Bay (picture) _ 115 
 
 in East Bay hills (pictures) 103, 114, 113 
 
 Report on ideal (Olmsted) 105-112 
 
 Rapid transit aids ideals of 113-114 
 
 See also Housing, Grouping, Savings, Civic Art, Hill 
 Districts. 
 
 Home Street 86 
 
 Hooker, G. E., Civic Secretary Chicago City Club 63 
 
 Hopkins, Ben F., Engineer Cleveland Belt-line 54 
 
 Hopkins Street 96 
 
 area, street extension, rapid transit 73 
 
 Hotel Oakland (picture and diagram) 101 
 
 Harmonious treatment of block of 99 
 
 Hotle, Owen E., Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Houses, universal height 57 
 
 Housing, Politics and 12-13 
 
 investigations (Sacramento) 117 
 
 Importance of good _ 124 
 
 Bad conditions in (picture) 118 
 
 for $10 a month 119 
 
 Railroad as pioneer of good 72 (picture).. 64 
 
 See also Apartments, Lodging House, Bungalow, Tene- 
 ments, Homes. 
 Housing, Harbor and Park co-operation in (Frankfurt Plan).. 28 
 
 Houston, Texas, municipal wharf (pictured 2.8 
 
 17 trunk-lines in 49 
 
 Arched Colonnade in (picture) 94 
 
 Howard, J. G., architect, on co-ordination in city planning 45 
 
 and San Francisco Civic Center 147 
 
 University of California pictures from 151-6 
 
 Howe, F. C, author of introduction p i and ii 
 
 Huggins, C. L., Estimate of paving cost, Berkeley, of 103 
 
 Humboldt, Alex, von 17 
 
 Hurd, R. M., on land values and elevated roads 75 
 
 on depth of blocks 90 
 
 Hyde, Chas. G., street paving 88, 103 
 
 Indian Gulch, Natural stage in (pictures) 125, 129 
 
 See also Proposed Park Sites and Parkways. 
 
 India's population housed in New York 17 
 
 Individualism, Danger to city-planning of political 15 
 
 Industries, Location of 42 
 
 Street-car freight service to advance distribution of 57 
 
 brought near labor supply 57 
 
 Segregation of, Cleveland 55 
 
 See also Factories. 
 
 Industrial spur tracks, New franchise provisions regarding 60 
 
 development and workingman's home 116 
 
 "Spotless town' ' 55 
 
 Inner Harbor, plans made before conception of Rees plan and 
 
 without regard to possibilities of west shore 31, 32 
 
 New trunk-lines along 50 
 
 Progress of work in 32 
 
 Alaska Packer fleet in (picture) 19 
 
 See also Estuary, Rees Plans. 
 
 Institute of Deaf and Blind. See Highland Drive. 
 
 Island Park for East Bay endorsed by Col. Rees 41 
 
 Chicago, color plate by Jules Guerin of, Facing 134 
 
 in Chicago, opposed by Col. Rees 41 
 
 in Toronto (picture) 41 
 
 See also Proposed Park Sites. 
 
 Italian princes, Influence of 15' 
 
 Jackson Street v 95 
 
 Japan, Treatment of home building lots in 105 
 
 and Berlin Railroad plan 63 
 
 shopping street (picture) 100 
 
 Jefferson Street, Boardman, 1868 (map) 91 
 
 (map) 91 
 
 Jessup, J. J., Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Jitneys. See Automobile Traffic. 
 
 Johnson, F. W 37 
 
 Junctions. See Street-Junctions. 
 
 K 
 
 Kansas City and park investments ~ 136 
 
 (map) 131 
 
 Narrower roadways in 103 
 
 Keith Avenue, Oakland (picture) 13 
 
 Keith, William, Painting of S. P. station in 1867 by (picture)- 65 
 
 Kellersherger's first survey _ -. 84-5 
 
 Kessler, Geo. E., landscape architect, Kansas City (map) 131 
 
 Key Route, Areas controlled in East Bay region by (chart).... 44 
 
 holdings _ 58 
 
 franchise and harbor development 77 
 
 Rapid transit service of - 71 
 
 lines and business center 72 
 
 trans-bay traffic, figures 1913 66 
 
 22nd Street line: Value of property along 75 
 
 proposed terminus north of Broad-gauge mole 62 
 
 and Goat Island Terminal plan 66 
 
 electric belt-line (map and picture) 56 
 
 electric spur track, Oakland factory (picture) 57 
 
 as freight distributer 56, 57 
 
 barred from carrying freight 5'6 
 
 and Santa Fe traffic arrangements 62 
 
 lacks some strategic advantages of S. P 72 
 
 and Shattuck Avenue congestion 96 
 
 Key Route Basin (map) 37 
 
 deficiencies 36 
 
 Further development of 38, 39 
 
 a new trunk-line terminal 50 
 
 Key Route Pier, monument of civic carelessness 38 
 
 ferry-boat terminal (picture) 66 
 
 King, Joseph H., Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Lafler, H. A., Address to Berkeley City Club of 25 
 
 Lafler, H. A., Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Lake Street _ 95 
 
 Lake Chabot (picture) _ 135 
 
 Lake Merritt __ 85 
 
 Proposed civic center site on west shore of 146 
 
 Beauty endangered of 100 
 
 unsuitable as union terminal _. 63 
 
 Lake Merritt district and carriage trade _ 94 
 
 Lakeshore Boulevard 85 
 
 Lakeside Park, Oakland (picture) 132 
 
 Land, Ideal accommodations for railroad rights- of -way on 
 
 East Bay _ 54 
 
 for home-building, opened up by railroad (picture) 64 
 
 Marketing city-owned 78 
 
 to be acquired for public park, Oakland, 1889 (map) 126 
 
 See also Reclaimed Land, Reclamation. 
 
 Land ownership by municipality of Oakland (map) 127 
 
 See also Parks, Railroads. 
 
 Land values, municipal (map) 127 
 
 Railroad holdings and. 58-9 
 
 and estuary bridges 77 
 
 Vacant lots in relation to 70 
 
 Railroad crossings and 70 
 
 Effect of elevated railroad on 75, 87 
 
 and workingmen's homes 115-116 
 
 and medium-priced and cheaper homes , 115 
 
 Agricultural — _ 119 
 
 Loss by bad platting in 90 
 
 as affected by indiscriminate elevation of buildings 101-2 
 
 and aesthetic factors (Olmsted) _.108 
 
 to regulate width of roadways 105 
 
 New York conditions affecting 102 
 
 influencing type of building and appearance 13 
 
 Spreading of 12 
 
 Oakland and Antioch Railroad and 114 
 
 in Alameda marsh 38 
 
 Landscapes (Olmsted, Sr.) _ 109 
 
 Landscapes, Typical East Bay (picture) 131 
 
 Preservation in city of typical California (picture) 132 
 
 treatment, Thousand Oaks (picture) 126 
 
 See also Hill Districts, chapter on Civic Art, Vistas. 
 
 Landscape architect, Duty of municipal (picture) 131 
 
 Importance in state center of 155 
 
 Lanes, Charm of (Olmsted) 112 
 
 Laurel School grounds (plan) 139 
 
 Lavenson, A. S., Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Laymance, M. J., Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Laymance, M. J., Chairman of Harbor Committee 23 
 
 Leimert, W: H., Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 L'Enfant, planner of Washington, D. C. ; teacher of Kellers- 
 
 berger 85 
 
 Leroy Avenue (picture) 109 
 
 Light, Market value of 98 
 
 Lightering 28 
 
 for Inner Harbor and Tidal Canal 31 
 
 freight 56 
 
 between Alameda factory and Oakland 77 
 
 "Lighter" channels, Alameda marshes 77 
 
 Linking together of railroad entrances necessary 49 
 
 Liverpool dock estate _ 20 
 
 Loans on workingmen's homes 123 
 
 Lodging house, workingman's 124 
 
 London, Aldwich Kingsway opening in 10 
 
 Commission on Traffic in .."" 10 
 
 Harbor reorganization of 21, 26 
 
 Regent Street in [ 99 
 
 fire and plague origin of garden suburbs 12 
 
INDEX 
 
 Long Wharf (picture) _ 24 
 
 and Goat Island channel 67 
 
 Los Angeles Harbor 19, 20 
 
 parks 131 
 
 Lowell, James Russell 17 
 
 Lumber crane, Oakland Harbor (picture) 26 
 
 M 
 
 Madison Street 95 
 
 Main lines. See Trunk-lines. 
 
 Main Traffic Streets chapter beginning 79 
 
 and elevated speedways 87 
 
 Width of 86 
 
 need better subdividing 87-8 
 
 to north (picture) 79 
 
 Subdividing and planting schemes for (diagram). .86, 87, 88 
 
 in Oakland and Berkeley (diagram) 84 
 
 Maltbie, Milo R., N. Y. Public Service Commission...- 43 
 
 regarding subways 74 
 
 on through-routing and union terminals 62, 63 
 
 Mannheim harbor _ 27 
 
 Mandana Boulevard 85 
 
 Manuel, W. A., Wildwood Park proposal of 135 
 
 Maps. See Oakland, Berkeley and names of cities. 
 
 Marin Avenue 95 
 
 Market Street 85 
 
 Market value of air and light 98-99 
 
 Marsh land at $4000 an acre 38 
 
 See also Alameda. 
 
 Maybeck, B. R 143 (picture) -11 5, 144 
 
 McDuffie, Duncan, Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Metropolitan districts 17 
 
 Merriam, J. C, Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Meyer, P. H., civic center 147 
 
 Midway Plaisance, a factory screen (map) 55 
 
 See also Proposed Park Sites. 
 
 Milvia Street _ 86 
 
 Mole, S. P. Oakland (picture) 67 
 
 Monarch Oil Refining Co 25 
 
 Monterey Station, Berkeley (picture) 114 
 
 Montreal, harbor 21 
 
 Morgan, F. W. (map) 126 
 
 Motor traffic. See Automobile Traffic. 
 
 Mott, F. K., Mayor, on Goat Island Terminal 69 
 
 Mountain View Cemetery 133 
 
 Mullgardt, Louis Christian, proposed crescent at Telegraph, 
 
 19th and Clay (design) 93 
 
 (pictures) ... _ 143, 113 
 
 Municipal wharves, Oakland 24, 38, 39 
 
 (map) 37 
 
 waterfront control 36 
 
 warehouses (picture) 39 
 
 land ownership (map) 127 (See also Parks) belt-line 56 
 
 (See also New Orleans) garages _ 95 
 
 Municipal City Planning Bureaus, Oakland, Berkeley, Germany, 
 
 Sweden 102 
 
 Municipal Reference Library, Oakland, a help in city-planning.. 156 
 Muthesius, Herman (picture) 119 
 
 O 
 
 N 
 
 Napoleon III. See Haussmann. 
 
 National City Planning Conference on Subways 74 
 
 Neighborhood ideals (Olmsted, Sr.) 113 
 
 See also State Center. 
 Newark, N. J. central terminal planned by traction interests 
 
 for 70 
 
 New Orleans (map) 52 
 
 municipal belt-line 77 
 
 Public Belt Railroad Commission charges 59 
 
 Barge canal in 28 
 
 American Sugar Refinery in 28 
 
 New York, Area of metropolitan district in 17 
 
 and land values 102 
 
 Central Park in 10 
 
 Trans-bay comparison with 66 
 
 and rotary street system 82 
 
 Hideous and noisy elevated Railroads in 74 
 
 Elevated Railroad station in (picture) 75 
 
 Elevated railroad land values in 75 
 
 subways 74 
 
 slums can house China's population 17 
 
 Bush Terminal freight yard (picture) 48 
 
 also (picture) ... 1 23 
 
 New York Harbor, Bush terminals (plan) compared with Pac- 
 
 steel station 58 
 
 Dredging in 21 
 
 Statistics of 19, 20 
 
 Need of reconstruction of 26 
 
 "New York of the Pacific," General Sherman 3, 36 
 
 Niles Canyon 47 
 
 Nineteenth Street, proposed opening, Mullgardt (design) 93 
 
 See also , 89, 94, 95 
 
 Nolen, John, Street subdivision of (plan) 104 
 
 Northbrae, Berkeley, residence (picture) 114 
 
 Northbrae Station, Berkeley (picture) 114 
 
 Northern Electric, Traffic connection with 62 
 
 Nuremberg, ideal of artistic city-planning 11 
 
 Feel of the land in 14 
 
 Oaks of Oakland, on old maps - 3, 4, 6 
 
 (picture) 8, 9 
 
 Flight of the 9 
 
 Importance of conservation of (pictures) 
 
 141, 113, 114, 129, 131, 139, 144 
 
 as street tree 9 (pictures)-109, 126 
 
 Oak Street 89, 91, 95 
 
 Oakland, Area of metropolitan district of 17 
 
 from City Hall Tower (picture) .79 
 
 yards, handling S. F. long distance traffic 47 
 
 Oakland, Antioch & Eastern Railroad - 62 
 
 and Key Route 66 
 
 opening up new land for homes (picture) 64 
 
 as a trunk-line _ 49 
 
 opens up cheap land 114 
 
 Oakland Associated Charities (pictures) 118 
 
 Oakland Chamber of Commerce and 14th and Franklin 70 
 
 Oakland Maps, map 1857 4 
 
 1860 5 
 
 Birdseye view in 1872 6 
 
 Map of water front 37 
 
 Rees Harbor plan 34 
 
 U. S. Geological Survey 7 
 
 Chart showing lands controlled by Public Service Cor- 
 porations 44 
 
 Chart of railroad trackage „. „ rf 46 
 
 land owned or controlled, 1914 127 
 
 Jefferson Street, 1868 -_. 91 
 
 Proposed street openings, Central Business District 92 
 
 Key Route electric belt-line 56 
 
 Suburban electric lines 68 
 
 Playground, 1915 _ 140 
 
 West Oakland lands for park _.126 
 
 Chart of costs and number of dwellings 116-117 
 
 Oakland and Berkeley Maps, Proposed parks 138 
 
 Oakland Avenue 85 
 
 Old city mixed business, manufacturing and dwelling house 
 
 districts „ 11 
 
 Olmsted, F. L., Sr., University neighborhood 1866 (plan) 106 
 
 on East Bay canyons as Park Sites 132 
 
 Report on ideal home building of _ 105-112 
 
 questioning park possibilities in San Francisco 1867 4 
 
 Osborn, R. W., Acknowledgement to _ 156 
 
 Oxford Street 86, 96, 97 
 
 P 
 
 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. as smoke producers 30 
 
 Pacific Guano Co 25 
 
 Pacsteel Station, East Oakland (2 pictures, plan) 58 
 
 Palms unsuitable as street trees 13 
 
 (picture) 112 
 
 Pantheon _ _ 145 
 
 Paris, Grand Boulevards of 15 
 
 Rue de Rivoli in (picture) 11 
 
 Coat of arms of 19 
 
 Place Vendome in 99 
 
 Champs Elysees, width of 86 
 
 Population and area of 17 
 
 Congestion in 10 
 
 largest French harbor 19 
 
 Elevated railroad steel construction in (picture) 76 
 
 Cost of rebuilding 10 
 
 area compared with East Bay lands controlled by Public 
 
 Service Corporations _ 44 
 
 S. P. holdings, Oakland, compared with 58 
 
 old formal gardens adapted to city needs 15 
 
 Place des Vosges, treatment of "square" 151 
 
 Theoretical diagram of streets by Henard in 80-81 
 
 Parks and Playgrounds chapter beginning 125 
 
 Parks, Rank in city plan of „ _ 18 
 
 In old cities, lack of t 12 
 
 Street-trees to offset absence of 89, 104 
 
 In the hills, lack of 128 
 
 Seattle (map) _ 130 
 
 Boston's example as to 131 
 
 Shellmound, Alameda waterfront.... __ 134 
 
 University Campus and 125-6 
 
 San Francisco, San Diego 126 
 
 and East Bay climate 131 
 
 Dangers of political minority rule in matters relat- 
 ing to 136 
 
 Middle west county system of 132 
 
 Wisdom of East Bay co-operation in 131 
 
 Saving in a large central (Robinson) 128 
 
 Necessary attractions for 128 
 
 See also Proposed Park Sites. 
 
 Park areas, comparisons 125, 128 
 
 Water 134 
 
 Park Assessments, investments, not taxes 136 
 
 Park Commission to care for street trees 104 
 
 Park Drives. See Parkways, Proposed Parkways. 
 
 Park and Harbor co-operation (Frankfurt plan) 28 
 
 Parking scheme as terminal feature of Shattuck Avenue 96 
 
 and paving, residential street, St. Louis (picture) 105 
 
 of Forest Avenue 139 
 
 Parkways, Philadelphia (map) 83 
 
 Park Boulevard : 85 
 
 Parthenon 145, 152 
 
 Party walls ruining appearance of American business districts.. 14 
 
 Avoidance by co-operation of blank 100 
 
 of St. Francis Hotel, S. F. (picture) 101 
 
VI 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Pasadena, Park Department' s nursery in 104 
 
 Passenger transportation by rail, chapter beginning 60 
 
 Berlin local 63 (map).. 61 
 
 Passenger traffic, trans-bay (figures 1913) 66 
 
 Key Route pier (picture) 66 
 
 Railroad terminals, Berlin, for (diagram) 61 
 
 See also Rapid Transit, Ferry and references under Rail- 
 roads. 
 
 Paving of residential streets 103 
 
 Sewer, water and gas connections in relation to 142 
 
 Estimate on Berkeley's (Huggins) 103 
 
 advantage of grass close to tracks 88 
 
 See also Saving, Street Subdivision. 
 
 Peoples Water Co. (picture) 135 
 
 Areas controlled in East Bay cities by (chart) 44 
 
 Peoples Water Co. reservoir. See Highland Drive. 
 
 Peninsular location of S. F. danger to California industries 22 
 
 Peninsula a city of hills (map) 23 
 
 See also San Francisco. 
 
 Peralta Park a proposed playground 140-1 
 
 Perimeter of distribution. See Traffic Circuit. 
 
 Perkins, Albert L., on terminal co-operation 51 
 
 Petersen, T., engineer, prize-winner, Berlin, 1910 61 
 
 Philadelphia, Area of metropolitan district in 17 
 
 elevated railroad and increase of values 75 
 
 a typical checkerboard city 83 
 
 Report on elevated railroads for 87 
 
 Example of street widening method in 8.9 
 
 Traffic circuit in (diagram) 83 
 
 Physical contours, East Bay, and railroad lo cation. „.5"2, 60, 72, 74 
 
 Piedmont Avenue 85, 86, 96 
 
 Planting on (picture) _ 113 
 
 See also Highland Drive, Proposed Playgrounds. 
 
 Piedmont Park 130 
 
 Pinole Creek, new trunk-line 50 
 
 Pioneer, of the Garden Suburbs (picture) 64 
 
 Pittsburg, Area of metropolitan district in 17 
 
 Planting, at Pacsteel station, East Oakland (picture) 58 
 
 traffic street, St. Louis and Baltimore (pictures) 70, 71 
 
 of trees, converts cities into parks 104 
 
 elevated railroad, New York, Berlin (pictures) 75 
 
 elevated railroad, Boston (picture) 74 
 
 Dwight Way (picture) 109 
 
 Bushnell Place (picture) 107 
 
 typical residential street, garden city (design and dia- 
 gram) _ 104 
 
 Roadside treatment with (picture) 112 
 
 Piedmont Avenue (picture) - 113 
 
 on main avenues, Paris (picture) 9 
 
 of trees a necessity 89 
 
 See also Street Trees, Foliage, Paving. 
 
 Playgrounds chapter beginning 139 
 
 Cottage grouping around (picture) 123 
 
 Olmsted Sr., and (key) - - - 107 
 
 in Oakland 1915 (map) 140 
 
 too few in Berkeley 139, 141 
 
 Schools as factors in (plans) 139 
 
 and Industrial Efficiency 141 
 
 Oakland superior to Berkeley in 140 
 
 De Fremery Park a typical municipal (picture) 139 
 
 See also Proposed Playgrounds. 
 
 Plaza (picture) 146 
 
 4 'University Circle' ' 97 
 
 See also chapter on Civic Centers - 142 
 
 Point Richmond, harbor channel 67 
 
 Politics and housing 12, 13 
 
 Poplar" Junction 72, 73 
 
 Population, 1910-1950, forecast by B. J. Arnold 8 
 
 forecast by Haviland and Tibbetts 9 
 
 of Paris and Bay Cities compared 9 
 
 increase related to growth of traffic 45 
 
 increased by rapid transit 64-5 
 
 Portland, Parks of 131 
 
 Prager, Oscar, landscape architect, plan for school play- 
 grounds of 139, 150 
 
 on canyons as park sites - 127, 132-3 
 
 Pre-railroad conditions 6 
 
 Promenade under elevated railroad, Berlin (picture) 75 
 
 Proposed Park Sites, Oakland and Berkeley (map) 138 
 
 Berkeley, sunken garden 148-9 
 
 Midway Plaisance 134 
 
 Island Park 134 
 
 Olmsted, Robinson, Prager, Rees ~ 127-139 
 
 Indian Gulch 128 
 
 1889 western waterfront (also map) 126 
 
 Thousand Oaks 126-7 
 
 Simson Tract 126 
 
 Lake Merritt Park 128, 129 
 
 Importance of park approach from S. F 134 
 
 and the new harbor 134 
 
 competition may bring down prices 136 
 
 Oakland and Berkeley land that should enter into com- 
 petition for (map 138) 139 
 
 and East Bay Canyons (Olmsted) 132 
 
 Mountain View Cemetery 133 
 
 Piedmont Park to Indian Gulch 130 
 
 Proposed Parkways: Indian Gulch road 129 
 
 Glen Echo drive extension 130, 133 
 
 Moraga or Thorn road 131 
 
 also 133 
 
 Glen Echo Creek 133, 137 
 
 Skyline Boulevard and the AVildwood Parks 135 
 
 Highland Drive improvement 135-6 
 
 Saving of storm sewer expense in 133 
 
 Temescal Creek I 33 
 
 Residential streets as - 143 
 
 Sausal Creek '.. 133 
 
 Dimond canyon - 129 
 
 System of circuits, combining high and low levels in 130 
 
 Proposed Playground, school, on Piedmont Avenue 139 
 
 in Oakland 141 
 
 Peralfla Park 141 
 
 Four recommendations for 141 
 
 Protections, of residential districts 47 
 
 See also Building Restrictions. 
 
 Public union terminal, Goat Island 69 
 
 Pure Carbonic Co -— - 25 
 
 Purdy, Lawson, on value of real estate in relation to building 
 
 heights 102 
 
 Quay wall, Oakland (picture) 
 
 R 
 
 Radial connections, Importance in large American cities of 83 
 
 in Berkeley 86-95 
 
 Radial lines, Beck, Blanch & Bancroft as 86 
 
 Radial streets, Asset to a growing city of 83 
 
 Special study needed for — 87 
 
 East Bay area opened up by 85 
 
 Railroads, Chapter beginning 42 
 
 in relation to industries and commerce 48 
 
 Hostile attitude against 43 
 
 Arbitrary attitude of - 43 
 
 introduced, 1867 - 6 
 
 Rank in city-plan of _ 18 
 
 Modern relation to cities of 43 
 
 Typical development in cities of 60 
 
 Level plain cities vs. hilly cities and 47 
 
 Railroad Commission of California 44 
 
 Railroad district, Oakland center of 47 
 
 Railroad land ownership in Chicago (map) 59 
 
 Necessity for proper assessments of 58-9 
 
 Intensive vs. extensive use of 5'8-9 
 
 Railroad highways to be unified and highly developed 49 
 
 of S. P. Emeryville (picture) 50 
 
 Railroad taxation, operative and non-operative property 59 
 
 in business district, Chicago (map) 59 
 
 and sub-companies 59 
 
 Fourteenth and Franklin example of 70 
 
 and necessity for proper land assessments 58-9 
 
 Railroads. See also Terminals, Grades, Grade-crossings, Su- 
 burban lines Traffic, Transportation, Through-routing, 
 Rapid Transit, Trunk-lines, Belt-lines, Elevated Rail- 
 roads, Subways, Trackage, Bridges, Stations, Ferry, 
 Yards, Car-floating, Congestion, Factory, Homes, Hous- 
 ing, Streets, Southern Pacific, Santa Fe, Western Pa- 
 cific, Oakland, Antioch & Eastern and names of cities. 
 
 Rapid transit, Ordinary use of term 71 
 
 missing in old cities and East Bay development 73 
 
 imperative between Oakland and Berkeley 73 
 
 proposed connection between Oakland and Berkeley.- .72, 73 
 
 needed between East Bay centers 70 
 
 and business centers 64-5 
 
 equalled by high speed lines in Oakland and Berkeley. .71, 73 
 
 express service Oakland to Berkeley 73 
 
 to keep ahead of building 73 
 
 advantages over street-car 72 
 
 an aid to home ideals 113-114 
 
 not danger to local interests .. 64 
 
 planned to serve ferries 72 
 
 San Francisco and Peninsular 66 
 
 Future limits of trans-bay, Arnold _ 66 
 
 and Oakland mole (picture) 65 
 
 for increased population _v64-5 
 
 to be separated from street levels 73 
 
 traveling time; possible cut between Oakland and Ber- 
 keley and Oakland and San Erancisco 65 
 
 lacking between Sixteenth Street Station and Fourteenth 
 
 and Franklin 72 
 
 between East Bay-San Francisco to serve East Bay 
 
 cities 72, 3 
 
 Extension of West Street for 86 
 
 lines serving as freight belt-line 56 
 
 Rapid transit system, East Bay dependance on 72 
 
 Rapid transit between Oakland and Berkeley centers 72 
 
 Rapid transit. See also Elevated Railroads, Street-car Sys- 
 tem, Traffic Streets and references under Railroads. 
 
 Ratcliff, W. H., Jr., Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Real estate speculation, Danger in congested city of 4 12 
 
 Real Estate. See also Subdivisions, Lands, Land Values, Build- 
 ing Restrictions. 
 Reclaimed lands (Rees Harbor plan), improved trackage nec- 
 essary (picture) 50 
 
 in present marshes 38 
 
 Reed, T. H., Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Reclamation, Cost on East Bay shore of ..,.. 33 
 
 projects on East Bay "* 35 
 
 on East Bay to provide for belt-lines 48 
 
 Redistribution center 42 
 
 Redwoods in Oakland 3 
 
 Rees, Col. T. H., U. S. Engineer "!!"!."."! 8 
 
 suggestion for Union Passenger Station 40, 63 
 
 Rees Channel (jg 67 70 
 
 New trunk-lines paralleling [ '. 50 
 
INDEX 
 
 vu 
 
 Rees Harbor Plan: letter on East Bay harbor 33-35 
 
 described 35 (map) _ 34, 48 
 
 and trunk-line on filled land 50 
 
 and through-routing 62-3 
 
 and Goat Island 66-76 
 
 Reid, John, Jr., civic center 147 
 
 Repton, Humphrey 109 
 
 Residential districts not distinct from business districts in 
 
 old cities 11, 12, 81 
 
 Residential districts naturally protected _ 47 
 
 Residential districts, nine, in need of playgrounds 141 
 
 Residential Streets chapter beginning 103 
 
 See also Streets. 
 Restrictions. See Building Restrictions also Protections. 
 
 Retail merchants and the carriage trade - 92-4 
 
 Richmond 47 
 
 natural deep water point "... 20 
 
 to co-operate for East Bay harbor 35 
 
 Santa Fe and rapid transit at 73 
 
 Proposed receiving yard at 58 
 
 Belt railroad 52 
 
 connected with Inner Harbor by car-float 53 
 
 Richmond Boulevard. See Glen Echo Creek. 
 
 Rights-of-way, Saving in railroad 54 
 
 Belt-line securing 51 
 
 to street ears 88 
 
 Roadways, Necessity of attractiveness of (Olmsted) 108-9 
 
 Three important considerations for (Olmsted) 111-112 
 
 in Bushnell Place (picture) 107 
 
 in typical garden city (design and diagram) 104 
 
 Grouping of houses on curving (picture) 124 
 
 width to be regulated by purpose and land values 105 
 
 See also Proposed Parkways. 
 
 Roadside, Importance of foliage on (Olmsted) 112 
 
 treatment, Claremont (picture) 112 
 
 Robson, F. T., Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Robinson, Charles Mulford, on parks 128-131 
 
 also Proposed Park Sites, report 127-132 
 
 Ronada Court: Cottage apartments (picture and plan) 123 
 
 Roses (picture) _ 103, 108, 110 
 
 Rose Street 95, 96 
 
 Rotary system. See Circular Streets. 
 
 Rothenburg, ideal of artistic city-planning 11 
 
 Feel of the land in 14 
 
 Russell Street vista and Claremont Hotel (picture) 145 
 
 Sachse, R., Engineer 44 
 
 Sacramento, Municipal belt-line in 77-78 
 
 Housing investigations in 117 
 
 Capital grounds of 153 
 
 Sacramento Street 87, 96 
 
 Salt Lake City, example of too long blocks 90 
 
 San Antonio Creek, map, 1857 4 
 
 San Diego, Balboa Park 126 
 
 San Francisco World's Fair in 134 (picture). .146 
 
 civic center (birdseye view) 147 
 
 Golden Gate Park in 126 
 
 cemeteries as proposed park sites 133 
 
 Grant Avenue in 94 
 
 Call Building in (picture) 100 
 
 Example of grouping homes in (photo and plan) 122 
 
 Proposed system of planning in 80-81 
 
 St. Francis Hotel in (picture). 101 
 
 Forest Hill in 30 
 
 St. Francis "Wood in 30 
 
 freight handled in Oakland yards 47 
 
 hills a hindrance to industrial development (picture) 22 
 
 (plan) 23 
 
 Area of metropolitan district in 17 
 
 land values prohibitive for many industries 23 
 
 "worst place" for settlement 3 
 
 East Bay shopping forced to 73 
 
 Goat Island terminal effect on 67 
 
 East Bay rapid transit service to 71 
 
 State-owned terminal facilities in 77 
 
 to Oakland, without Alameda pier 77 
 
 original objective of railroad builder 60, 64 
 
 -Oakland Terminal Railways. See Key Route. 
 
 -Oakland, rapid transit 64 
 
 Twin Peaks Tunnel in 66 
 
 and Peninsular development, Arnold 66 
 
 trans-bay expansion in Arnold report 66 
 
 Oakland merchants' attitude to 65 
 
 San Francisco Bay, Wright, C. T., Prof, on uniform manage- 
 ment of 22 
 
 The Golden Gate of 21 
 
 Hinterland plan of 20 
 
 Oldest map of 3 
 
 (map) 1914 7 
 
 Shallow and deep water (map) on 20 
 
 Car floats on 53 
 
 Ferry traffic on _ 65-70 
 
 San Francisco, Belt-line service and State Harbor Commis- 
 sioners (diagram) _ 53, 5*2 
 
 and switching charge 60 
 
 time restrictions 54 
 
 San Francisco Harbor State owned 22 
 
 "capitalized" at $250,000,000 21 
 
 Comparative statistics of 19, 20 
 
 San Francisco State Harbor Commission 21 
 
 Santa Fe Railroad inefficiently duplicating S. P. tracks — - 49 
 
 No rail connection with San Francisco by 23 
 
 at San Pablo Avenue: proposed extensions 73 
 
 may provide rapid transit with Richmond 73 
 
 Proposed change of location of (map) 55 
 
 Berkeley station of (picture) 62 
 
 car-floating to Adams Point 77, 53 
 
 receiving yards 58 
 
 deep water approach 62 
 
 San Leandro 47 
 
 Saving in time to Broadwav from 72 
 
 Dutton Avenue 71 
 
 Proposed receiving yard, S. P. at 58 
 
 San Pablo Avenue 91 
 
 and West Street 86 
 
 Deflecting traffic from 92 
 
 a remarkable radial street 85 
 
 and Santa Fe and extensions 73 
 
 Elevated railroad for 76 
 
 Sather Park. See Indian Gulch. 
 Sather Tower. See Campanile- 
 Savannah, U. S. harbor investments at 21 
 
 Savings, in sale-commissions 121 
 
 in railroad reorganization 51 
 
 in railroad rights-of-way 54 
 
 in private ownership of home 124 
 
 Banks, American Postal 124 
 
 loans on workingmen's homes 123 
 
 in paving methods 103 
 
 in paving, by grouping in Baltimore (photos and plan)....122 
 
 in a large central park (Robinson) 128 
 
 of storm-sewer expense. See Proposed Parkways, 
 furthered by real estate speculation in decentralised city 
 
 12, 13 
 
 in terminal costs 48 
 
 in original purchase price 122-3 
 
 in traveling time 72, 67, 65 
 
 Scherzer Rolling Lift bridge (picture) 31 
 
 Schools. See Playgrounds. 
 
 Seattle, Lake Washington lock at 20 
 
 Municipal grain elevator at (picture) 16 
 
 Park system of (map) 130 
 
 Second Street grade to Estuary bridge 77 
 
 Sequoia School, Grounds of (plan) 139 
 
 Seventeenth Street, should be widened 92 
 
 Seventh Street, Elevated railway for 76 
 
 Seventh and "Webster, Proposed railroad connections at 72 
 
 Seventh Street, edge of business center 71 
 
 Seventh and Adeline, S. P. station, Keith 1867 (picture) 65 
 
 Shattuck Avenue _ 87, 96, 155 
 
 advantageous for elevated 87 
 
 Shattuck alnd University Avenue Center, Importance of good 
 
 approach to 95 
 
 Shattuck Hotel (picture)., 101 
 
 Shattuck Square 1888, 19i5 (pictures) 69 
 
 Shattuck Square 96-7, 15'5 
 
 See also State Centers and Civic Centers. 
 
 Shellmound Park _ 134 
 
 Sherman, General, on the Bay 3-5 
 
 Sherman Act and St. Louis Terminal Association 51 
 
 Shingled homes, Types of East Bay (picture) 115 
 
 Shipper, Present terminal policy and the individual 59, 60 
 
 Shops, Display along elevated lines of 75 
 
 Shopping in Alameda, Oakland vs. San Francisco 71 
 
 Shopping center, East Bay, rapid transit necessary for 73 
 
 in Berkeley made possible by rapid transit 69 
 
 East Bay development of 65 
 
 See also Business Centers. 
 
 Shore line natural railroad highway of East Bay cities 47 
 
 Simson Tract 126 
 
 Sixteenth Street 95 
 
 station 63 
 
 depot and business center 71 
 
 Skyline Boulevard, See Proposed Parkways. 
 
 Skyscraper 98 
 
 San Francisco (picture) 100 
 
 on Broadway, Oakland (picture) 98-9 
 
 and City Hall, Oakland (picture) 99 
 
 Oakland City Hall as a 145 
 
 Business district from Lakeside Park showing 102 
 
 Smith, C. A., Lumber Co 26 
 
 Smoke producers to keep away from west shore 31 
 
 Factories as 55 
 
 a nuisance 30 
 
 Social importance of real estate developer _-_ 12 
 
 value of European city plans 15 
 
 rendezvous (Olmsted) 109 
 
 importance of cheap homes 122 
 
 standards and the carriage trade 94 
 
 Sonoma Avenue 95 
 
 South Training Wall (map) 37 
 
 Southern Pacific, Areas controlled in East Bay region by (chart) 44 
 Influence of suburban extensions toward east of (chart).. 44 
 
 crossed by Western Pacific at grade 49 
 
 Sixteenth Street Station (picture) 42 
 
 entrances to East Bay cities 49 
 
 elevated railroad 74 
 
 Terminal, Fourteenth and Frarfklin 70 
 
 suburban electric lines (map) 68 
 
 electric street car (picture) 64 
 
 suburban electric, Shattuck Square (pictures) 69 
 
 undeveloped trackage, First Street (picture) 51 
 
 Highly developed trackages of (picture) 42, 50 
 
 New trunk-lines following on filled land (Rees Harbor 
 
 Plans) 50 
 
 Station, Seventh and Adeline, Keith 1867 (picture) 65 
 
VUl 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Oakland Mole (picture) 67 
 
 New trunk-lines to parallel 50 
 
 New trunk-line crossing 50 
 
 rapid transit service 71 
 
 rapid transit connections proposed 72 
 
 Estuary subway and 76 
 
 and Alameda pier 77 
 
 freight delivery „ 5'7 
 
 tracks, Emeryville (picture) 50 
 
 holdings, Oakland 58 
 
 Station, First Street (picture) 60 
 
 has monopolistic hold on East Bay freight 59 
 
 trans-bay traffic, figures, 1913 66 
 
 local passenger number (picture) 65 
 
 monopoly, new trunk-lines to break - 50 
 
 switching charges 57 (plan) 50, 58, 59, 60 
 
 Dumbarton cut-off of 53 
 
 Mole; removal of Long "Wharf; new work 37, 40 
 
 Long Wharf (picture) 24 
 
 Spring Street — _ 136 
 
 Spruce Street 95 
 
 Spur-tracks. See Trackage. 
 Square. See Plaza. 
 
 Stairs, in arrangement for university approach - 97 
 
 Standard Oil Refinery, Richmond (picture) 27 
 
 as smoke producer 30 
 
 Stanford Place - 96 
 
 See also view p 69 
 
 St. Louis and Oakland, railroad situation 51 
 
 St. Louis Terminal Association 51 
 
 St. Louis, Parking and pavement, on residential street in 
 
 (picture) 1°5 
 
 Planting, on traffic street in (picture) 70 
 
 State Harbor Commissioners, on Goat Island Terminal 69 
 
 and railroad valuation 59 
 
 Stations, Northbrae, Berkeley (picture) 114 
 
 Monterey, Berkeley (picture) 114 
 
 Union passenger - 63 
 
 Pacsteel, East Oakland (two pictures and plan) 58 
 
 See also Through Stations. 
 
 Storm-sewer expense vs. creek preservation 133 
 
 Strawberry Creek. See Highland Drive. 
 
 Streets, chapter beginning 79 
 
 Adjustment grades of to the land of 14 
 
 powerful factor in business of character of 89 
 
 Dish gutters for residential 107 
 
 Influence of modern transportation system on 79-80 
 
 Planting as parkways of residential - 143 
 
 advertising. See Civic Art 142 
 
 congestion, Henard's report on 81 
 
 Private demands for rearrangement of 92 
 
 Street-ear stations (pictures) - 114 
 
 Street-car system. Importance in a city's destiny of 80 
 
 in relation to traffic 80 
 
 See also Rapid Transit. 
 Street-car tracks, St. Louis & Baltimore planting of (pic- 
 ture) 70 71 
 
 Street Junctions, Space necessary at 88-9 
 
 Proper treatment necessary for beauty of 89 
 
 and trees l^ 4 
 
 See also Corners. 
 
 Street levels, to be separated from rapid transit lines 73 
 
 Street Lighting. See Civic Art. 
 Street names. See Civic Art. 
 
 Street openings, Grand Avenue to Broadway TA 
 
 Mullgardt (design) of proposed 93 
 
 in central business district (map) 9^ 
 
 and widenings ; costly examples.. 10 
 
 recommendations for local syndicates 95 
 
 proposed 85 'J° 
 
 to the Auditorium - 95 
 
 Local demands for 91 
 
 Washington Street; Castro and Jefferson Streets 91 
 
 See also Blocks. 
 
 Street subdivision, good 8 »'™ 
 
 Tree space allowed in °« 
 
 schemes for minor (diagram) 104 
 
 Street Signs. See Civic Art. „ ,„ 
 
 Street trees, Unsuitable (picture) i<>, ii<= 
 
 See also Oaks, Elm. 
 
 Street widenings, Necessity of fixing building lines for 88 
 
 Philadelphia's policy in 89 
 
 Seventeenth Street - »| 
 
 Street width, Exceptional conditions regarding ... 105 
 
 Streets See also Traffic Streets, Main Traffic Streets, Traffic 
 Circuit, Radial Streets, Circular Streets, Paving, 
 Planting. 
 
 Subdivisions, Importance of cheap ;"ivi 
 
 Thousand Oaks , ,'a 
 
 (picture) .....— 119 
 
 failures in subdividing a tax on industries ;;"„„„ 
 
 Subdivision of agricultural land into building lots io2 
 
 Agricultural land for 123 
 
 Responsibilities of the real estate man for .J<si 
 
 Waste in subdividing lots in ,n\ 
 
 Lots to determine character of houses in 105 
 
 See also Street Subdivision, Land Values. 
 
 Suburban and Urban Passenger Traffic, chapter beginning..... 64 
 
 See also Rapid Transit and references under Railroads. 
 
 Suburban electric car (picture) 64 
 
 electric lines of S. P. (map) "8 
 
 electric trackage (two pictures) J>9 
 
 lines need through routing 70 
 
 passenger service *£ 
 
 rapid transit (map) °° 
 
 Efficiency of East Bay 7° 
 
 Subways, Uneconomical ?4 
 
 cost more than elevated road '5 
 
 See also Elevated Railroads, Estuary. 
 
 Sunlight and air primary requisite of homes (Olmsted)-- 108 
 
 Supreme Court U. S. on railroad co-operation and belt-lines. .43, 51 
 
 Surveyor's plats instead of city plans 11, 15 
 
 Sutherland, A. T., Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 Sweden, City planning movement since about 1870 in 15 
 
 Stub-end Terminals. See Through-routing. 
 Switching Charges. See Southern Pacific. 
 
 T 
 
 Taxation and large private gardens 114 
 
 See also Land Values, Germany's Railroad Taxation, Park 
 Assessments. 
 
 Telegraph Avenue 91. 96 
 
 Telegraph, San Pablo Avenue. Long blocks between 5 
 
 corner - 8, 9 
 
 Telegraph Avenue, Proposed opening to (Mullgardt design) 93 
 
 Temescal Creek. See Proposed Parkways. 
 
 Tenement house streets, Imposing appearance of 14 
 
 Tenements, Criticism of Carlton H. Parker regarding 117 
 
 Tenements. See also Homes, Congestion. 
 
 Tenement house district, Danger of East Bay becoming a 48 
 
 Terminals, Principles for reorganization of 52 
 
 and the new trunk lines 50 
 
 Berlin (map) - 61 
 
 business organization needed 77-8 
 
 Public necessity for community use of 51 
 
 co-operation, U. S. Supreme Court and Railroads favor 51 
 
 costs, Savings to be made in — 48 
 
 facilities, Present duplications in Berkeley of 96 
 
 Terminal system, Universal freight houses for _ 57 
 
 to be planned before Rees Harbor work begins 52 
 
 U. S. Supreme Court opinion on promotion of com- 
 merce by - 51 
 
 of commerce by 51 
 
 Terminal policy, necessary provisions of railroad need for 
 
 new 59-60 
 
 Terminal plans. See also Goat Island Terminal Plans. 
 Terminals. See also Through-routing, Grade-crossing. 
 
 Tevis Street 86 
 
 Thousand Oaks 71, 126, 127 
 
 residence (picture) 114 
 
 Through -routing, East Bay beginnings 61 
 
 Berlin example - 62 
 
 ideal railroad plan 61 
 
 methods vs. terminal, Fourteenth and Franklin 70 
 
 Through railroad lines vs. stub-end terminals, Berlin (map).... 61 
 Through-routing. See also Suburban Service, Rapid Transit. 
 
 Through -routing, stations vs. stub-end terminals 60-64, 70 
 
 Through station, Santa Fe, Berkeley (picture) 62 
 
 Western Pacific (picture) 60 
 
 First St. S. P. (picture) 60 
 
 Tibbetts, population forecast 1910-1950 9 
 
 Tidal Canal for industries 31 
 
 bridge, freight connections 77 
 
 Tidelands public and private 38 
 
 Tokio, Japan, railroad terminal (plan) 62 
 
 Toledo, Ohio, bascule bridge 31 
 
 Tomkins, C, Commissioner of Docks, New York 22, 49 
 
 explaining New York's harbor superiority 36 
 
 Toronto, Canada, Island Park (picture) 41 
 
 Towers (pictures) 102, 145 
 
 See also Campanile. 
 See Civic Art and Frederick Wilhelm I. 
 
 Towering and high-facades in old cities 12 
 
 Tuileries, Paris (picture) 11 
 
 Tunnel Road 96 
 
 See also Highland Drive, Proposed Parkways, Moraga 
 Road. 
 
 Trade at home movement 65 
 
 Traffic circle. See Traffic Circuit. 
 
 Traffic circuit, on basis similar to East Bay street system (dia- 
 gram) 83 
 
 Henard (diagram 83 
 
 Trackage, undeveloped, S. P. First Street (picture) 51 
 
 highly developed (picture) 42, 50 
 
 of trunk-lines in East Bay region (chart) 46 
 
 S. P. at Emeryville (picture) 50 
 
 Berlin (map) 61 
 
 through-routing, Berlin 62-3 
 
 street-car for rapid transit 71 
 
 Southern Pacific at Emeryville (picture) 50 
 
 See also Grade- crossings, Through-routing, Elevated 
 railroads, Subwavs. 
 
 Traffic conditions and the rotary system 81 
 
 problem of New York (Phelps) _ 82 
 
 congested where building heights are not proportioned to 
 
 street widths 98 
 
 San Francisco and East Bay served by elevated railroad.. 76 
 accommodations and local demands for street openings.... 91 
 
 and the length of blocks 90-91 
 
 and Berkeley business center 95 
 
 collecting and distributing 85' 
 
 laws of growth in railroad traffic , 45 
 
 through, subsidiary to city's needs 53 
 
 See also Automobile Traffic, Transportation. 
 
 Traffic streets, their rank in city plan 18 
 
 in transformation (picture) 14 
 
 planting, St. Louis and Baltimore (pictures) 70, 71 
 
 German subdividing (diagram) 88 
 
 even occasional widenings desirable 88 
 
 See also Main Traffic Streets. 
 Trans-Bay Commutation. See Rapid Transit and under Rail- 
 roads. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Transportation, main problems in rail 42 
 
 See also Freight, Passenger and references under Rail- 
 roads. 
 
 Trees, unsuitable street (picture) 13, 112 
 
 See also Oaks, Elms, Eucalyptus. 
 
 Tree Planting Acts 1913-15 104, 136 
 
 Trunk-lines, new and railroad highways 50 
 
 concentrating along Rees channels 73 
 
 new, handicapped by terminal policy 59 
 
 three distinct entrances for the new 50 
 
 in East Bay region (chart) 46 
 
 open door for 48 
 
 six in East Bay cities 49 
 
 and New York 36 
 
 terminal possibilities _ 40 
 
 Seventeen in Houston, Texas 49 
 
 new ones, to eventually break S. P. monopoly 50 
 
 undeveloped, example of (picture) 62 
 
 See also Grades, Grade Crossings. 
 
 Tunnels, Rees channel 67, 69, 70 
 
 See also Subways, Estuary. 
 
 Twelfth Street , 85 
 
 Twenty-second Street line, to extend eastward 73 
 
 Twenty-second Street, value of property 75 
 
 U 
 
 - Ulm, old houses, (drawing by Ruskin) 12 
 
 Uniformity of roof and" cornice lines (picture) 11 
 
 Union passenger station 63 
 
 Union terminals, Lake Merritt, unsuitable for 63 
 
 United Properties Co 38 
 
 U. S. Supreme Court favors terminal co-operation 51-60' 
 
 vs. Terminal Railroad Association, St. Louis 51 
 
 Steel plant, Gary..... 27 
 
 University of California 153 
 
 campus, old view 50 
 
 campus 86 
 
 Park features of 125-6 
 
 Old Live Oaks in (picture) 141 
 
 Benj. Ide Wheeler Hall at (picture) 154 
 
 Greek Theatre at (two pictures) 151 
 
 Some problems of grouping 15'4-5 
 
 Hearst Plan for _ _ 152 
 
 of California Humanities group (picture) 151 
 
 Importance of landscape architect in plan of 155 
 
 Mining building circle at (picture) 156 
 
 Proposed agricultural group at (sketch) 154 
 
 proposed Stadium at (sketch) 155 
 
 importance of worthy homes in neighborhood 105 
 
 (Olmsted) 105-112 
 
 natural conditions for refined homes at (Olmsted) Ill 
 
 University neighborhood, Proposed improvements at 155 
 
 and (Olmsted) 1866 (plan) 106 
 
 University, Olmsted on grouping for 154 
 
 University Avenue ^ 96 
 
 protected vs. factories (map) 55 
 
 Unobstructed entrance of trunk-lines paramount 49 
 
 Unwin Raymond, Town-planning (plan) 121 
 
 grouping of houses (diagram) 121 
 
 junctions 88-89 
 
 also 104 
 
 V 
 
 "Vaca Canyon, new trunk-line 50 
 
 Vallejo, General 4, 5 
 
 Values. See Land Values 
 
 Versailles, formal gardens preserved 15 
 
 Vienna, ' 'Ringstrasse' ' , 15 
 
 Traffic circuit (plan) 82 
 
 "Street of the Heights" 135 
 
 Schwarzenberg Platz, example lighting formal water 
 
 basin 148 
 
 Electroliers 142 
 
 Vine Street _ 95 
 
 Vistas 15 
 
 interesting distant scenes 109 
 
 gorgeous fog clouds 110 
 
 Telegraph Avenue and Campanile (picture) 142 
 
 example of building closing it powerfully, San Francisco 
 
 Civic Center (view) 147 
 
 Russell Street, Claremont Hotel (picture) 145 
 
 See also Civic Art,"Landseapes. 
 Vulgarity prevailing in modern city's appearance 16 
 
 W 
 
 Wadsworth, G. R., Engineer 43 
 
 Walnut Street 86, 96 
 
 Walnut Street, Berkeley, advantages as an apartment street.. .. 96 
 
 Ward Street 87 
 
 Warring Street 96 
 
 Washington Street 91 
 
 Washington, The Mall * 5 
 
 Washington, D. C, system of radial streets 85 
 
 electrolier (picture) 143 
 
 Washington, President 85 
 
 Waste in block planning 90 
 
 of wide pavements in residence streets 103 
 
 of land, in too deep blocks (Hurd) : 90 
 
 Also under Hurd. 
 
 of bad housing 119 
 
 produced by railroads crowding business center 61 
 
 of trans-shipment across Bay - 25 
 
 of individual railroad entrances 49 
 
 in subdividing a tax on industries 120 
 
 See also Savings. 
 
 Waterfront, absence of parks along 128 
 
 three routes of access by new trunk-lines 50 
 
 ideal connections between industries and trunk-lines 51 
 
 property strategically located 49 
 
 map of Oakland 37, 40 
 
 Water, as part of park areas 134 
 
 supply problem and wildwood parks - 135 
 
 Webster Street _ .". 95 
 
 Webster Street Bridge 77 
 
 criticised 31 
 
 openings 32 
 
 Weilbye, W. H, Acknowledgement to 156 
 
 West Oakland, industrial, not residential (chart) 78 
 
 waterfront, trunk-line terminals 63 
 
 citizens obtaining Fourteenth Street extension 38 
 
 yards 47, 49 
 
 Western Pacific, holdings, Oakland 58 
 
 trans-bay traffic figures, 1913 66 
 
 to use Goat Island as terminal 67 
 
 Western Pacific 60 
 
 new trunk-line to cross 50 
 
 crossing Southern Pacific at grade - 49 
 
 Railroad inefficiently duplicating S. P. tracks 49 
 
 areas controlled in East Bay region (chart) 44 
 
 Pier (see map) 37 
 
 West Philadelphia, elevated railroad 74 
 
 West Street 85, 91 
 
 its opening at Sau Pablo 86, 91 
 
 in regard to street-car franchise 86 
 
 express service 86 
 
 West shore for smoke-free industries 31 
 
 White meat district, Oakland 39 
 
 new trunk-lines 50. 
 
 Whitcher's map of Oakland — 5 
 
 Wholesale methods of land sale 123 
 
 of building 124 
 
 Widenings. See Street Widenings and Names of Streets. 
 Width of streets. See Street Widths and Street Widening. 
 
 Wildcat Canyon, should be preserved 135 
 
 Wildwood Parks. See Proposed Park Sites. 
 
 Winnipeg, narrower roadways 103 
 
 Wires. See Civic Art 142 
 
 Wright, C. T., Professor U. of C, on formation of harbor 
 
 district 22 
 
 subways 74 
 
 Yards, clearing, location of 57 
 
 universal freight yard combined with clearing 57 
 
 freight, Bush Terminal (picture) 48 
 
 receiving, San Leandro and Richmond 5'8 
 
 Yerba Buena, old San Francisco 4 
 
 Change of name 5 
 
 See also Goat Island. 
 
 Yolo Avenue - 95 
 
: ;l 
 
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