S2 



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, real- 

 izing 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 bring- 

 ing on a part of the city for the good of the whole? 



Three millions and a half of dollars have been already expended for 

 land and improvements, anil 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 improve- 

 ment was considered a public and not a local one. 



The cost apportioned t<> 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 superseded as a place of general resort, by Prospect Park; and it can 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 commu- 

 nity at large. Nor will it be long needed for military 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. Put 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. If further ex- 

 penditures are incurred and the grounds made more attractive, they 

 will not be sacred to any better uses than hitherto, unless maintained 

 at increased expense by a strong force of police, and thus kept free of 

 vagabonds by day and by night. 



The bones of the martyrs of the Revolution, may with much pro- 

 priety be transferred to a portion of Prospect Park, which lies near 



