PROBLEMS 161 



Individual control of all land from the curb-line 

 to the back of the lot-line has become with us at 

 present a recognized right. 



The usual solution of the problem of the ar- 

 rangement of the landscape with regard to the 

 average city street is for the municipality to con- 

 trol the paving of the streets so far as to regulate 

 the width and sometimes the type of materials 

 used, though in many eases even this is left to the 

 property-owners. Often the question of tree- 

 planting, the width of sidewalk, and the prescrip- 

 tion of the kind of material to be used ia the con- 

 struction has been controlled by the city. Other 

 than this, the problem has been left to each indi- 

 vidual lot-owner; but the result of such a type of 

 design has been the loss of virtually all the indi- 

 viduality and interest that one should find in the 

 development of the landscape along our streets. 

 In its place appear mediocrity and monotony; long 

 rows of houses rigidly adhering to a set building 

 line (Fig, 39), lawns entirely bare of shrubs, and 

 the street trees, if there are any, selected without 

 regard to their fitness for the needs that they are 

 supposed to satisfy. 



The possibility of an extension of intelligent 

 municipal control so as to include aU land from 



