Iii Transportation and Communication

Ferries.

The city department of plant and structures, the railroads with terminals in New Jersey, and many private com panies operate ferries in and about New York harbour.

Airports.

Among commercial flying fields in operation in 1937 which serve the city should be mentioned Curtis Field at Garden City, Long Island, and Roosevelt Field at Mineola, Long Island, Teterboro Airport at Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., and the Newark Airport at Newark, N.J.

Telephone and Telegraph.

On January 1, 1935 there were in Greater New York City 1,493,374 telephones as compared with 1,811,410 in the year 1930. Telegraph and cable service is supplied mainly by the Western Union and the Postal Telegraph companies. The former maintains something over two hundred offices and the latter more than one hundred within the limits of the city. Twenty-six cables touch New York, 13 owned by the Western Union, seven by the Commercial, three by the French, two by the All America and one by the United States and Haiti cable companies.

Postal Service.

The post-office of New York city in 1827 was located in a small two-storey frame building on Garden street (now Exchange place), and the entire force consisted of some eight clerks and six letter carriers. Fifty years later the present City Hall station at Park Row and Broadway was the general post-office. In 1914, the present General Post-Office building was opened on Eighth avenue from 31st to 33rd streets, containing a half million square feet of floor space. There were in addition 71 classified stations and 93 contract stations in the city in 1936 and a total of 19,400 employees. The trans portation of mails is expedited by means of an underground pneumatic tube system consisting of 27 miles of double line 8 inch tubes, with a carrying capacity of over 200,000 pieces of mail per hour. In the year 1827, the postal receipts amounted to about $125,000; in the year ending June 30, 1936 they ex ceeded $70,000,000.

The present form of government was inaugurated by the Greater New York charter of 1897. This provides for a mayor elected at large, five borough presidents, chosen by the voters of their respective boroughs, a board of aldermen of 65 elective members, one from each aldermanic district, with a president of the board of aldermen, elected at large. A controller, elected at large, is also provided to be the head of the department of finance. The mayor, controller, president of the board of aldermen and the five borough presidents are designated as members of the board of estimate and apportionment. In this body, the mayor,

controller, and president of the board of aldermen have three votes each, the presidents of the boroughs of Manhattan and of Brooklyn, two votes each, and the presidents of the boroughs of the Bronx, Queens and Richmond, one vote each.

A new city charter, adopted by popular referendum on Nov. 3, 1936 to become effective on Jan. I, 1938 provides for a city council whose membership will vary in rough proportion to the population of the boroughs : that is, each borough will be entitled to one councilman for every 75,00o of its inhabitants with an additional member for any fraction of that number above 50,000. This body will take the place of the present board of aldermen. The board of estimate is to continue with little change beyond the substitution of the president of the council for the president of the board of aldermen. It will constitute the general administrative branch and will have no control over legislation except in the case of local laws directly affecting the organization and administration of the government and amend ments to the charter, for which its approval is required. With respect to all local laws, however, the mayor will retain his veto, which can be overridden only by a majority of the council. A city treasurer appointed by the mayor is to head the depart ment of finance, relieving the controller of duties with regard to collection of revenue and disbursement of funds and leaving to the latter only his more proper functions of audit and investi gation and the management of the sinking fund.

In addition to these major divisions, there are to be a new department of public works responsible for the municipal plant and structures; a department of housing, a city-planning corn mission ; a department of investigation ; and twenty other de partments and bureaus, including departments of education, of docks, of correction, of health, of hospitals, of law, of parks, of police, of public welfare, of purchase, and of sanitation, a fire department, and a civil service commission. Among its functions, the planning commission will have control of zoning. The board of estimate will have exclusive authority to grant franchises, but no franchise will be for a longer term than 25 years.