PARKS INCREASE LAND VALUES 



gift free from the risk of the decay which assails material con- 

 struction and of the mismanagement which menaces capital 

 dedicated to charitable endeavor. This conception regarding 

 vacant land shaped itself into the form of dedicated playgrounds 

 or parks, close to big cities, which could forever be the recrea- 

 tion place for the neighboring population. We began to realize 

 we were cutting up lands upon which people would dwell for 

 all ages to come; we were changing wholesale acres into a 

 form from which they could be changed again only at great 

 cost. At this point it would be the simplest thing in the 

 world to set aside, if we were so charitably-minded, some of 

 this land and leave it as a perpetual open space for generations 

 to play upon. At that time no other aspect of the case sug- 

 gested itself to us. It did not seem possible that such an 

 immediate sacrifice to our future expectations would work 

 any important benefit to our treasury balance; in other words, 

 that it was not a business proposition, although it did look like 

 the most justifiable sentimentalism. In this we were mistaken. 

 There were infinite business possibilities in such an act of gen- 

 erosity, and could we have seen ahead, as we can now look back, 

 we would immediately have begun the segregation of lands for park 

 purposes in all our subdivisions, and would not only have served 

 the community better, but would have received a return in dollars 

 and cents sufficient to amply repay for every foot of ground so 

 utilized. From a lack of courage we began reluctantly and 

 niggardly to carry out this policy; therefore, our education has 

 been slow, but we are at last convinced that upon every con- 

 sideration of public and private policy intelligent land segre- 

 gation pays the cost. 



Where these grounds are properly distributed and intelli- 

 gently laid out, in almost every instance, it will be found that 

 the land surrounding such spots can be marketed at a price 

 sufficiently high to entirely offset the cost of the contribu- 

 tion, which is the final test of the value of your enterprising 

 beneficence. 



Having watched the gradual growth of scattered suburbs 

 into densely populated city blocks, one cannot but wonder at 

 the short-sighted policy of the average municipal engineering, 

 department. There is no intelligible reason why there is not 

 incorporated into the official city map of every city a certain 

 percentage of the area to be set aside for small parks and play- 

 grounds, as a matter of public well-being, exactly as streets 

 and alleys are so treated. If 5 per cent, of the area of the 

 undeveloped land contiguous to large cities were properly 



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