OFFICE ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT 605 



should be compared with other city departments and similar departments 

 from other cities. Comparison should always be made on a fair basis. 



Financial records should be supplemented with records showing the 

 unit quantities received from the money expended and various other records 

 which will tend to show the efficiency with which the department is oper- 

 ating. City departments in general are accused of being operated in a most 

 inefficient manner, and park departments should be ready and equipped at 

 all times to show conclusively how efficient they really are. Incidentally, 

 the keeping of these records may show what branches of the department 

 can be operated in a better manner and may reveal possibilities for increased 

 efficiency well worth the cost of keeping such records. 



5. Showing the effect of parks on property values. Especially where 

 parks are acquired by levying special assessments against benefited property, 

 and consequently where the question of benefits is open to argument, it is 

 well for the park department to be equipped with statistics showing the 

 rise in real estate values which can be traceable to the establishment of 

 parks. If possible, statistics should be compiled which will tend to show 

 that parks maintain property values after they are once established in 

 spite of the fluctuation of property values some little distance away from 

 park areas. Such statistics are ordinarily left for rainy day compilation if 

 thought of at all. They are worthy of greater consideration. 



In one city where the acquisition and improvement of neighborhood 

 parks was paid for by special assessment on the local benefited district, 

 assessments had ranged from $125 a lot facing the neighborhood park to $10 

 a half mile distant. Four years after the levy was made and the park acquired 

 and improved, it was found that the rise in real estate values of property 

 immediately facing the park was about $400, while the rise in values of 

 property a half mile away was of course immeasurable. This analysis, 

 together with others all revealing the same relationship between assessments 

 and rise in values, showed that assessments were not as equitable as they 

 might have been, and consequently the policy was revised on future assess- 

 ments. Similar experience on the assessment of parkways shows that prop- 

 erties immediately facing the park improved were not assessed as much 

 in proportion to benefits received as those a little way from the park. 

 This illustrates the importance of making these special investigations. 



4. Recreation statistics. Statistics showing the effect of parks on the 

 health and happiness of the citizens, and attendance records of all sorts 

 should be available, but very great care should be exercised in determining 

 methods of estimating these attendances and their significance. Records 

 showing the number of people actually organized into various groups and 

 all sorts of information concerning the type of people interested in various 



