746 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, lftl3. 



The diverse schemes of New Zealand, Germany, England, and west- 

 ern Canada should, therefore, be studied, and the desirability of 

 using one of these methods should be considered. 



The application of a heavy tax on land values (Vancouver method) 

 in the district under consideration [a district in which the value of 

 the land far exceeds the value of improvements upon the land] would 

 have a marked effect upon housing conditions, and would be the 

 cheapest way (assuming that a just method of appropriation was 

 found and employed) in which the city could deal with this district. 

 If the tax were taken off the buildings within such a district and the 

 entire tax was levied upon land, the owners of this property would 

 find it unprofitable to hold their land in its present wretched state. 

 If the entire tax of the city were levied upon land values, the owners 

 of all property that is improved would find tlieir taxes reduced, but 

 the holders of vacant land or of land uneconomically developed would 

 find their taxes increased, and would be confronted with the necessity 

 of building or of selling to some individual who would be willing to 

 build. 



IMPORTANCE OF RADIAL. STREETS. 



The housing conditions of a city are affected materially by the 

 street plan. If suburbs are not accessible directly and cheaply from 

 the centers of industry and commerce, population will tend to crowd 

 in tenements near the heart of the city. Suburbs are rendered espe- 

 cially accessible by means of broad, direct, radial streets, suggestively 

 termed the arteries of tlie city. Many American cities are built upon 

 a gridiron plan of streets, which renders certain suburbs peculiarly 

 remote because accessible only by following two legs of a triangle 

 instead of following directly upon the hypotenuse. 



TENEMENT A^RSUS COTTAGE. 



The type of city plan which should be secured for your city must 

 depend upon our answer to the question, What is the most desirable 

 dwelling place, the tenement or the cottage? In the cities of the 

 Northeastern States we have become accustomed to the tenement 

 house and do not ordinarily question its social utility. There is 

 scarcely a city in the country that is attempting in any well-consid- 

 ered way to eliminate the tenement house, yet there can be no ques- 

 tion but that it is an undesirable place of residence for families with 

 children. Even for the childless family, the most expensive apart- 

 ment house as well as the cheapest tenement may constitute an unde- 

 sirable environment, because of the facility with which disease may 

 spread from one apartment to its neighbor through the common hall 

 and through the mediation of vermin which pass easily from one 

 suite to another. 



