280 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
well selected, also good work done in securing park lands, 
and the parks made beautiful and satisfactory to the peo- 
ple, yet there has been no system of parkways established 
to connect the several parks, and the commission has failed 
to improve its opportunity in accomplishing this result. 
In every extended park system in the country one of the 
first duties of the commissioners has been to secure the 
requisite parkways. The impotent and ineffectual action 
of the Essex County Park Board, for years, after asking 
for the control of Central, Park, and other avenues for park- 
ways, appears from every standpoint unjustifiable. If the 
commission had followed up the application for the main 
parkways, with earnest work, as have other park commis- 
sions, and made the fact appear that without them no real 
park system could be established, the commission would, 
without doubt, have been successful. ~ 
As a result of this non-action and of these adverse influ- 
ences, the Central Avenue Parkway was forever lost, with 
no possible avenue to take its place, as the great cost of 
land for such a parkway makes it prohibitory. 
Park avenue will, when improved, make an excellent 
parkway, although lacking in accessibility to the people of 
the county in the convenient and central location and easy 
grades of Central avenue. 
