New York City

Retail Trade

has followed the northward movement of popu lation of Manhattan. In 1850, it was at Canal and by 188o at 14th street. It now lies between 31st and 59th streets, and Third and Eighth avenues.

Fifth avenue was formerly exclusively residential but is now given up to retail trade as far north as 59th street. Beyond that a zoning ordinance reserves it for residence. Some of the largest department stores are still on 34th street, and the greatest volume of trade is done there. One store on this street receives more than a million dollars a week from purchasers. But the northward trend of the residential section has affected the character of the trade and the more expensive shops, including some of the oldest retail firms, are farther up Fifth avenue continually pressing on toward the most exclusive residential quarters of the city which are now on Park and Fifth avenues, above 6oth street. The dress makers, milliners and tailors for this district are in the side streets leading off Fifth avenue. Madison avenue, because of its situa tion between Park and Fifth avenues, is rapidly taking on the aspect of the latter, and is lined with shops from 42nd street to the Eighties. The art and antique dealers are on 57th and adjacent streets, and on Madison and Lexington avenues. There are a number of small antique shops on 8th street. Automobile houses are near Columbus circle and up Broadway from 55th street for more than ten blocks. Brooklyn and the Bronx now have impor tant local shopping districts of their own with department stores and banking and financial districts.

Building Construction.

In 1936 the total number of build ings constructed in the 5 boroughs was 11,67o, with an estimated cost of $171,228,892 as compared with 6,105 costing $49,888,333 (the lowest recent year) in 1933.

Modern building construction in New York dates from the erection of the ten-storey Tower building in 1889. Much higher

structures have since been made possible by the increased knowl edge of steel and concrete and the perfection of passenger eleva tors. The loftiest human edifice in the world to date, the Empire State building on Fifth avenue at 34th street, rises to a gross height of 1,250 ft. from the street level and has 102 storeys.

Building in the city, however, is regulated by a strict building code. A Tenement House law of 1901 provides especially for better lighting, ventilation, and sanitary conditions; the building zone resolution of 1916 regulates the location, height, and bulk of buildings (see CITY PLANNING AND ZONING) ; and the municipal housing law of 1927 grants local tax exemption for 20 years to buildings constructed as substitutes for old unsanitary tenements. Under stimulus of the New Deal several slum clearance projects have recently been inaugurated. Among these, the Knickerbocker Village, on the "Lower East Side," financed by RFC, was com pleted in 1934; the Bronx Hillside project of PWA was completed in ; and the Brooklyn Williamsburg project, also PWA, was still under construction at the end of 1936.

Manufacturing.

The total value of the products manufac tured in the factories of New York City in 1933 was $2,860,672, 855. The average factory in 1933 employed 20 wage-earners and manufactured $148,737 worth of goods.

The ten leading industries were: women's clothing, $607,184, 461; printing and publishing, newspapers and periodicals, $230, 921,166; men's clothing, $168,182,615; bread and other bakery products, $140,139,613; printing and publishing, book and job, $117,295,197; furs, dressed and dyed, $88,066,368; slaughtering and meat-packing, cane sugar refining, $75,728,867; fur goods, $66,321,087; malt liquors, $51,264,954.