REPORT OF PARK COMMISSIONERS 29 



Since the report of 1910 was published much important 

 work has been done in Golden Gate Park, Lincoln, Balboa and 

 Mission Parks, and in the squares, plazas and school lots under 

 the jurisdiction of the Commission. The area under the con- 

 trol of the Commission is 1850 acres. 



ORIGINAL RESERVATIONS 



The population of San Francisco (computing the number 

 of inhabitants at 500,000) per acre of park acreage, is 270. 

 In Detroit the population per acre is 370; in Cleveland, 248; 

 in Boston, 259 ; in Rochester, 128. 



The framers of the Van Ness Ordinance and their succes- 

 sors who framed Order 800 reserving other tracts of lands for 

 avenues and places of public recreation had remarkably clear 

 vision of the future expansion and eminence of San Fran- 

 cisco. When the main reservations contemplated by the 

 framers of the Van Ness Ordinance were made, under the 

 provisions of Order 800, the population of San Francisco did 

 not exceed 130,000. At that time (1866), the number of acres 

 reserved for public use, including school lots, small squares 

 and plazas, Golden Gate Park, the Great Highway and Buena 

 Vista Park, was 1533, or 85 inhabitants per acre of park reser- 

 vation. Since that time the population and wealth of the city 

 have increased three-fold, but the increase in reserved lands 

 for public use is but 297 acres. This increase embraces the 

 Presidio Parkway of seven blocks, Balboa Park and Mission 

 Park. The wisdom of the pioneer citizenship in fixing the 

 width of Market street at 125 feet from the Bay to Twin 

 Peaks is now clearly manifest. If the pioneers were not proph- 

 ets, they had an inspiration of San Francisco's future great- 

 ness that approached very nearly to the gift of phophecy. 



In the light of past events, is it not now the part of wisdom 

 and true economy to take up the problem of the further ex- 

 pansion of the city on the peninsula, and to secure at moderate 

 figures lands for the park system of fifty years hence? New 

 York, Boston, Chicago and other cities waited and were com- 



