PARKS INCREASE LAND VALUES 



),000 increase of value to each $1,000 cost in maintenance, 

 then the increased valuation on account of Keney Park should 

 be $600,000, but the increased valuation as estimated by me 

 is four million dollars, and the lands about Keney Park are not 

 more than twenty per cent, developed, so that it is easily seen, 

 under those conditions, that Keney Park will bring into the 

 city treasury much more money than it has taken out, and 

 that it has already brought into the treasury during the six- 

 teen years of its construction a large sum of money from in- 

 creased taxes, and has not as yet taken one dollar from it. 



For several years I have given this subject considerable 

 thought and study, and my conclusion is that when parks are 

 properly located as to the city's area and population, and are so 

 constructed and maintained as to meet the needs of the people 

 they are to serve, also made beautiful, attractive, and suitable 

 for the work they are to do, they will bring more money into the 

 city treasury than they take out, the amount depending upon 

 how well they are balanced with the needs of the people. 



(G. A. Parker, Park Superintendent, Hartford.) 



New York City 



The amount collected [in taxes] in twenty-five years on the 

 property of the three wards [the wards contiguous to Central 

 Park], over and above the ordinary increase in the tax value of 

 the real estate in the rest of the city, was $65,000,000, or about 

 $21,000,000 more than the aggregate expense attending and 

 following the establishment of the park up to the present year. 

 Regarding the whole transaction in the light of a real estate 

 speculation alone, the city has $21,000,000 in cash over and 

 above the outlay, and acquired in addition thereto land valued 

 at $200,000,000. 



(Report New York Park Association, 1892.) 



Harrisburg, Pa. 



It can hardly be surprising that the whole face of the city of 

 Harrisburg has been changed by this movement for improve- 

 ment. When the cost of it is inquired into, a marvel appears; 

 for while the most favorable construction placed upon the cost 

 proposed, in 1906, an increase in the city taxes of two mills, the 

 effect of the improvement feeling in increasing enterprise, the 

 further effect of a better adjusted valuation, and the city's 



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