DEPARTMENT OE PARKS. 59 



TOMPKINS PARK. 



This park ranks next in relative importance to Washington 

 Park. Tts surface is perfectly level, affording a fine oppor- 

 tunity for the enjoyment of such gentle games as lawn tennis, 

 croquet, &c. Such games are largely indulged in by young and 

 old alike. Shade trees cover the lawn at grateful intervals, and 

 excellent shelter makes this park peculiarly attractive to nurses 

 and little children. There are 7j acres in its area. There has 

 been an appropriation of $10,000 set apart for the improving 

 of this park during the coming year, repairing walks, 

 enriching of soil, trimming of shrubbery, &c. It is proposed 

 to erect a substantial fence around the whole space occupied 

 by the park, or to light from the centre of this park with a 

 tower electric light of great power, thin out the shrubbery and 

 properly police it Tompkins Park, owing to its level surface, 

 would be an excellent place on which to test by experiment 

 the feasibility of such a project. 



CITY PARK. 



There has been but $5,000 appropriated for the year 1888, 

 toward the improvement of the City Park. 



This park, while resorted to and used to some extent by the 

 residents of the immediate neighborhood, is used even more 

 extensively as a thoroughfare by the working people and by 

 others, employed in the neighboring factories and manufact- 

 uring establisments, many of whom come from more or less 

 remote parts of the city. These people invariably take the 

 most direct route to any point to which they wish to go, in this 

 instance entirely ignoring the asphalt walks laid for their 

 accommodation, which if used would involve the taking of only 

 a few more steps in crossing the park. 



The consecpience has been that the green swarcl of this park 

 has been cut up into numerous sections by worn pathways, 

 diverging in the direction of the different gates and presenting 

 anything but an attractive appearance to the eye. 



To meet this obvious want of direct routes for the persons 

 who daily pass through the park, and compel them to keep to 



