THE WHY OF PARKS 11 



especially where congestion is greatest, and the establishment of com- 

 munity centers to provide opportunities for playing and wholesome 



recreation. ' : 



When St. Paul, Minnesota, checked up on its delinquency, it found 

 that in areas where playgrounds were operating the definite programs 

 the cases of delinquency had decreased materially, but in sections where 

 there were no playgrounds, there were large numbers of delinquents. For 

 the opening of supervised playgrounds in the public park area of Ana- 

 heim, California, in the summer of 1924, according to Judge E. J. Marks 

 of the Juvenile Department, Orange County Court, juvenile delinquency 

 decreased. During the first six months of 1925 it was seventy per cent 

 less than for the same period in 1924. 



Analysis of a Philadelphia neighborhood by District Attorney Fox, 

 who covered the district for five years before and a like period after the 

 establishment of playgrounds, led him to state, "I discovered the remark- 

 able fact in five years of playground recreation, the neighborhood showed 

 a fifty per cent decrease in juvenile delinquency as compared with pre- 

 vious years." 



In providing such material facilities as parks and playgrounds, it should 

 always be kept in mind by community leaders and governmental officials 

 that these facilities constitute only a part of the necessary body-building, 

 mind-developing and character-forming environment. A vital part is leader- 

 ship. Just as parents are the most important factor in the home, the 

 teacher in the school, the trained executive in the business organization, 

 so on the playground, at the swimming center, in the park, the leader is 

 the most important and fundamental of all environmental factors. 



PARKS AND RECREATION AREAS INCREASE PROPERTY VALUES 



It is inevitable that when living conditions are made more desirable in 

 any section of a city, people are more willing to pay for the better oppor- 

 tunities of living they thus enjoy. Sunlight, beauty of surroundings, the 

 opportunity to enjoy wholesome exercises and to renew acquaintance with 

 the things in nature these are the real reasons why parks and recrea- 

 tion areas increase property values and people are willing to pay for the 

 privilege of having them. 



To offer increase in property values as a basic reason for acquiring, 

 developing parks and open spaces is to place the stamp of commercialism 

 on the life needs of the people. Since the argument, however, is potent 

 with many of those who control the destinies of America's communities, 

 the following statements are given as testimony to the value of recrea- 

 tion areas in increasing property values. 



