CHAPTER II 



imiXGING UP A PARK THE WAY IT SHOULD GO 



BRINGING up a park in the way it should go more frequently 

 ' means bringing up people the way they should go. Citizens are 

 very apt to be heard from, frequently and vehemently, if in their 

 opinion their section of the city is not proportionately provided with 

 park areas or developed according to their ideas. Yet, frequently the 

 reason why park development is delayed in certain neighbourhoods is 

 because of the difficulty in maintaining parks where not sufficient 

 appreciation is felt, after the parks have been executed, to prevent 

 constant depredation. 



It is surprising how little protective interest is felt by the ordinary 

 citizen toward a park. He considers any restriction, necessary though 

 it may be for the very preservation of the park, as personal affront; 

 his dog should be permitted to race across flower beds without restraint 

 because it is his dog; he should be entitled to pick a bloom from such 

 flowering shrub as appeals to his casual fancy though the same privilege 

 extended to others would strip the entire park bloom in twenty-four 

 hours ; he should be allowed to crumple up papers and toss them away 

 irrespective of the fact that just such action on the part of his fellow 

 citizens would result in a constantly littered appearance of the parks 

 throughout the city. The average citizen does not want to be re- 

 strained in any way in his use of the park, and especially resents 

 criticism or reprimand; and he will retaliate in ways unbelievable if 

 his will is crossed in this respect. 



CARELESS CRITICISM IS DISHEARTENIXG 



If those whose duty it is to develop and maintain parks could be 

 rewarded with a word of commendation to the ten of criticism which 

 they receive, they would approach the problem of the day with new 



42 



