PARK FINANCING 477 



3. Acquisition and Improvement of Properties through Proceeds from the Sale 



of Bonds Secured by Special Assessments. 



This is a device whereby the acquisition and improvement (or each of 

 these actions separately) of such properties as large children's playgrounds, 

 neighborhood parks, neighborhood playfield-parks, may be initiated and 

 carried out by the people living within the use-radius of the properties, 

 who pay the whole cost themselves through a system of special assessments 

 on the property within the district benefited. The same principle, with 

 certain modifications, has been applied to the acquisition and improvement 

 of boulevards and parkways. When the district has been determined and 

 the rate of taxation on each parcel of property fixed, bonds or certificates 

 of indebtedness may be sold on the security of the income from the assess- 

 ments. The advantages of this method of financing the acquisition of large 

 children's playgrounds, neighborhood parks, and neighborhood playfield- 

 parks are: (a) It enables the people living in any given neighborhood of a 

 city to, on their own initiative, secure a needed property without having to 

 wait for the slow process of securing a special appropriation from the munic- 

 ipal government or general bond issues, (b) It places the burden upon those 

 who are to receive the most benefit from the improvement, (c) This type 

 of bond does not lessen the general bonding power of the whole community. 

 (d) It enables the people, especially in newer sections of cities, to perform a 

 master stroke in fixing the character and quality of their neighborhoods 

 before that character and quality become fixed in some undesirable manner, 

 as frequently happens when such an improvement is long delayed, as it 

 would likely be under all other methods of general financing, (e) The per- 

 sonal interest that every citizen in the assessment district has in the project 

 creates an interest in its use and care that is a social asset of great value - 

 an interest that might not have been felt so keenly if the project had been 

 financed by the community as a whole. 



Some of the dangers in this method of financing the acquisition and 

 improvement of recreation areas are: (a) There is a great temptation to 

 spread the assessments over too long a period of time so that people find 

 themselves paying for something which has already been worn out. This 

 is especially true with respect to improvements. This also "enables real 

 estate manipulators to advocate an improvement, knowing that the bene- 

 fits will be received as soon as the improvement is completed, whereas a 

 very small percentage of their assessments will then have been paid and 

 they can dispose of their property, pocket the entire benefits themselves, 

 and usually the investor is so unwary that he does not realize that he will 

 be paying over a period of years for the very attraction which caused him 



