Meanwhile, the former City Council had awarded a franchise to the Tunnels Transportation Company to build a moving sidewalk within the Second Street Tunnel, with seats, "on each side of which would be a public sidewalk." Fitzpatrick and Charles E. Downs, both new council members, said they were opposed to the project, but, according to William Hodges, vice-president of Tunnels Transportation, one of Downs's tenants — Jack Murphy, or J. Howard Murphy — told Hodges that the councilmen's votes could be obtained.