Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/632

 6 14 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

should erect small dwellings to sell to workingmen on small pay- ments not greater than they would pay as rent for tenement dwellings in the city so arranged that in about twenty-three years the tenant should come into full possession. Building operations began in 1894-95 the first of the thirty-two build- ings planned for; and in 1896 the rest were built. In this same year, 1896, the authorities decided on still greater improvements; namely, that the future buildings should not be tenements, but story-and-a-half cottages with gardens. In 1899 the building of thirty-three such cottages was decided upon. The location selected for the sixteen to be built first is fifteen minutes from the center of the city, twenty-five minutes from the railway sta- tion, and the electric street railway is already in the neighbor- hood. As the needs of traffic are not great, streets and sidewalks were made as narrow as possible, to leave room for front gardens, upon which the street may encroach if, in time, necessity demands. The price at which the city may buy back the front gardens is arranged at the time of the sale. Had it not been for this far- sightedness, the people would not have had the benefit of the gardens, and the cost for street-cleaning and repairs would have been increased. A municipal playground in the neighborhood was planned from the beginning.

The dwellings consist of two (or three) rooms, kitchen, W. C., entry, cellar, laundry, woodbin, and garden plot. The two rooms cover 34 square yards, the kitchen 9 square yards, and the garden plot 162 square yards for two dwellings. The ceilings are all 8^ feet high. The cost, including garden, is 6,000 marks. Interest at 3 per cent, and amortization at 2^ per cent, makes yearly payment of 330 marks, besides a first payment of 10 per cent. Repairs, taxes, and water tax are reckoned at 60 marks per annum. If the tenant rent the half story 140 marks he has but 250 marks per year to pay. In the dwellings with three rooms and kitchen similar conditions make the annual outlay 530 marks, which, reduced by the rent of the half story (220 marks), leaves 310 marks. Of the 232 dwellings already built by the municipality, 121 have two rooms and kitchen and in have three rooms and kitchen. Although it is in many cases