The Future of Brooklyn

by Alfred Clark Chapin

The conclusions thus arrived at as to the present and future of Brooklyn are reinforced by observation of the life of the people as it ebbs and flows about us. Closer union with New York has—to put it paradoxically—removed us further from New York. The increased population, whose growth is undoubtedly stimulated by improved transit, consumes such a volume of home supplies that our local business has vastly augmented and varied. The tendency to visit New York for every sort of purpose declines. Closer alliance with New York means a more discriminating alliance and less general indiscriminate dependence on that city. This must ever be the rule of growth in great communities. It is the rule of national growth. Of the products of the West some must be shipped in undiminished bulk, but even these are so handled that a small room in New York suffices to accommodate enough buyers and sellers to dispose in one day of a year's crop. Other forms of product reach the East for consumption or export in a concentrated form. By the natural law of growth the process of concentration is constantly moving Westward in its place of performance to intercept the raw material at a point as near as possible to that of its production. Similar laws apply to New York and Brooklyn with unusual intensity. Obviously New York must be the clearing house and the site of the finer and more costly grades of industry. That it cannot be the abode of large industrial activity demanding bulk or space is not less clear. Manufacturers who are to occupy much of the earth's surface, or whose products are bulky, must establish themselves elsewhere. Some of them must and will come to Brooklyn, and the population growing up about them will hereafter depend less and less upon New York for any except the finer bonds of relation which unify the diverse purposes and interests clustering around our majestic bay.

It has seemed best to dwell upon this topic of the City's present magnitude and general condition. Such a study of the people can hardly fail to enlighten those who conduct their affairs, or to arouse and stimulate a collective and aggressive public spirit, and a sentiment of just local pride, such as become a great community. Few revelations of the future are as clear as that the commanding, if not the overwhelming problems of politics, are to spring hereafter from such communities. The necessities of compact and highly-organized bodies of people; the vast private enterprises, as well as public works, which must minister to their daily wants; the stress of industrial competition among them; the pressure of class upon class; the jarring of interest upon interest; the demand for comprehensive, honest and far-sighted administration of their public affairs; the absolute need to maintain order upon its established foundations; the fierce contentions and uneasy vitality which accompany hasty or irregular municipal growth; these and other features of city life, suggests much food for thought for the present and approaching generation of Americans. Since cities are to be so great a factor as well as so great a product in our material expansion, it follows that the government of cities is the one quarter of the political field in which American institutions must not fail; for if popular self-government fails there it fails at the heart, at the centre and source of vital and nervous power. In cities, therefore, are to be met those trials whose issue will determine in what characters the later pages of American history are to be inscribed. To designate great cities as an evil, or as a peril, is to note but half their significance. If men, when massed together, are accessible to evil suggestions they are likewise accessible to that which is good. At all events, the problem is not obscure or hard to find. One might go farther and say that in the question of the future of our cities is involved more even than the destiny of popular self-government. It involves the success or the failure of all the agencies of progress and of enlightenment. The moral and spiritual interests of the people cannot be separated from those which fall within the scope of governmental influence. Moreover, these great populations will not remain at rest either materially or otherwise. Their condition will be one of advancement or of progressive demoralization and decay.

In its practical suggestions such information as is given by these statistics is of much value. In earlier days the forecasts of coming greatness were not and could not be accompanied by material provision for the future. They formed no basis for definite concrete policy. To-day the situation is changed. The vision of an approaching multitude casts before it the shadow of responsibility. Their well-being must be made secure. Nor is this obligation remote or of little present moment. Already our numbers and rank place us among the great, advanced and interesting communities of the civilized world. On the continent of Europe there can be found but six cities more populous than our own. The British Isles contain but one. Our place is surpassed only by that of the capitals of the great powers. What is done now, therefore, by way of provision for the Brooklyn of to-day as well as for the Brooklyn of the future, should be done in a manner befitting the character and needs of a numerous, permanent and expanding population. Heretofore the public works not less than the private enterprises of our countrymen have often been experimental and insufficient. Even those who dimly foresaw the magnitude of the future dared not prepare for all that seemed to them probable. Hence the varieties of effort to supply the people have usually proved inadequate. Demand has speedily overtaken the new methods of supply. There is more than one reason why this has been true. Not infrequently the means with which to make adequate provision did not exist. Often the drift of population or the general desire for some new product or convenience has set all previous calculations at defiance. In public matters the necessity of submitting large propositions to minds not familiar with them has operated to the public disadvantage. Such a project as the Erie Canal or the Brooklyn Bridge is denounced for years as wild and extravagant. When completed, its capacity may almost at once be taxed to the utmost. It is now time to recognize that cities like ours are to be the homes of multitudes for successive generations—that the battle of civilization, of progress and of all that gilds the future with the light of hope must be fought out on this field. Here must be established the broad and sure foundations of systematic provision for those vital daily needs upon whose gratification depend comfort, health, contentment and peace of mind.

Neither is there now the excuse that resources are not at hand. Our credit is second to that of no existing community; the labor of those dwelling among us is not to be surpassed in intelligent and conscientious effectiveness; our frugality has produced at least one good result, for the cost of government to the citizen is less than in almost any other city. Comprehensive effort and manly determination alone are needed to begin the task of supplying Brooklyn with what is due to the city and its visible future. This task does not immediately involve any gigantic project. Extraordinary outlay, such as attended the establishment of the Park and the construction of the Bridge, need not at once be contemplated. Doubtless other bridges will some day be built—and that day may be nearer than some imagine—but I speak now only of such general forms of improvement as are necessary to the prosperity of the whole city. In a previous message I have outlined one such proposition to your honorable body. In other communications I shall complete the list.

Respectfully,

ALFRED C. CHAPIN,
Mayor.