230 



The interest on this sum would be per annum .... $84,000 

 Tax on value of lots and improvements estimated 



together at 3,000,000 



At three and a half per cent, per annum 105,000 



If this calculation is correct, there will be a direct gain to the 

 city of one million two hundred thousand dollars, and the public 

 debt for the cost of Prospect Park will be diminished to this extent ; 

 while the taxes on property to be improved will in a few years be 

 sufficient to pay the interest on one and a half millions more. 



The undersigned believe that in stopping any further outlay, 

 realizing by sale the full value of the grounds for building purposes ; 

 and by the taxes on improvements that would speedily follow, the 

 city would be benefited to the extent of nearly three millions of 

 dollars. And the question' may very naturally be asked why the 

 city should not thus be benefited, or why the first twelve wards of the 

 city should not be relieved to this extent of the burden which Prospect 

 Park is bringing on a part of the city for the good of the whole 1 



Three millions and a half of dollars have been already expended 

 for land and improvements, and from present appearances several 

 millions more will be required to carry out the projected plan of 

 improvement. 



When Washington Park was laid out in 1848, no part of the 

 cost was assessed for benefit on the surrounding territory, because 

 the improvement was considered a public and not a local one. 



The cost apportioned to certain wards, according to a supposed 

 interest in the improvement, has since been liquidated by a general 

 tax on the first twelve and the twentieth wards of the city. In the 

 event of a sale, a like distribution of a sum equal to the principal 

 of the whole cost might be deemed equitable. 



Washington Park has ceased to be a public necessity, being 

 wholly superseded as a place of general resort by Prospect Park ; 

 and it can never regain its importance, or be of any special value to 

 the community at large. Nor will it be long needed for militai-y 

 exercises, special provision having been made for a parade ground 

 adjoining Prospect Park. 



If public money is spent to adorn it, the public treasury will be 

 used for the private advantage, or mainly so, of those who live 

 immediately around it, and who have never been assessed for benefit. 

 But it is asserted by those who live in the neighborhood that the 

 park is not a benefit, but an injury ; being the resort of the idle, the 

 dissolute, and the depraved, to the exclusion of respectable citizens. 



