1 
40 P A R K AN D C E M ET ERY. 
I THE CIVIC AWAKENING 
New York Improvement Report 
The great scope of improvement 
which is contemplated by the Im- 
provement Commission of Greater 
New York is set forth in a report of 
the commission to Mayor McClellan 
and the Board of Aldermen, recently 
issued. The general scheme as it af- 
fects the city as a whole is to afford 
adequate, proper and suitable ave- 
nues of connection between the 
different parts of each borough as 
well as between the different bor- 
oughs themselves, and, while secur- 
ing to each borough a park system 
■of its own, at the same time to con- 
nect the parks of each borough with 
a suitable parkway to make a har- 
monious whole. 
The commission recommends that 
■portions of the water front of New 
York not adapted to commercial pur- 
poses should be all reserved for 
parks. It advises that the city take 
proceedings at once to acquire these 
stretches of land before the advance 
■of population has impaired them for 
park purposes by destroying the trees 
or by being built upon, which would 
greatly increase the cost of purchase. 
The commission favors the purchase 
of the entire slope fronting on the 
Harlem River in Manhattan. The 
property at Inwood which would be 
included in this statement would fur- 
nish an approach by parkway to the 
proposed Hudson Memorial Bridge. 
They also advocate the building of a 
parkway properly planted with trees, 
to be laid out along 181 st street, con- 
necting the North River shore by 
way of Washington Bridge and the 
Grand Boulevard with the parks of 
the Bronx. In discussing the open- 
ing of the Blackwell’s Island Bridge 
and the remodelling of Fifty-ninth 
street it is suggested that Blackwell’s 
Island itself should ultimately be re- 
served as a park. 
New York has few avenues run- 
ning the long way up the city and a 
large number of streets running the 
narrow way across. Among the 
radical changes which are suggested 
in the remodelling of the street 
geography of Manhattan Island is to 
extend Riverside Drive in a south- 
easterly direction to West End ave- 
nue, thus making a continuous, direct 
route from Riverside Drive to Fifty- 
ninth street and thence through the 
Park to the Blackwell’s Island Bridge 
approach. The enlargement of Mad- 
ison Square is also contemplated, by 
adding to it a triangular shaped sec- 
tion at the lower part, conforming 
with the angle at which Broadway 
passes. Also from Madison Square 
it is proposed to extend Madison 
avenue in a southeasterly direction 
SQUARE ANDIMADISON AVE.. NEW 
YORK. 
HEAVY BLACK LINES SHOW INNER 
AND OUTER BOULEVARD SYSTEMS 
PROPOSED FOR BOSTON. 
to Fourth avenue and Union square, 
thus furnishing a continuous thor- 
oughfare to the lower part of the 
city by the way of Fourth avenue, 
Lafayette place and Elm street. Any 
plan for diverting Madison avenue to 
Broadway or Fourth avenue before 
reaching Union square would be, in 
the opinion of the commission, en- 
tirely inadequate and fail to accom- 
plish the purpose desired. The com- 
mission believes that Fourteenth 
street, from Broadway to Fourth 
avenue, should be widened by taking 
a strip off the southerly end of 
Union square, which would relieve 
the congestion at that point. 
Boulevard Systems for Boston 
Boston beautiful, but also more con- 
venient, progressive and careful of its 
natural advantages, more heedful of 
the chances of the future, has been 
studied by a committee of the Boston 
Society of Architects, in an elaborate 
report just issued. 
The leport, a handsomely illus- 
trated folio, is published at the joint 
expense of a number of public organ- 
izations. The plan of the study was 
to collect the schemes thus far pro- 
posed for making Boston more con- 
venient for its inhabitants, better 
adapted for commerce and more beau- 
tiful in appearance. Among the plans, 
proposals for new boulevards are the 
most numerous. They are designed 
to open up districts in the city now 
unprofitable, although in the heart of 
the city, but which if placed within 
the reach of traffic would probably 
paj' a large interest on the investment. 
A large number of main thorough- 
fares, radiating from the city proper, 
extend intC' the suburbs and resemble 
generaly the spokes of a wheel. But 
travel from- one outlying district to 
another is inconvenient and circuitous. 
To better this condition, two “belt” 
lines are proposed, encircling the city 
to the south and west and crossing 
the main radiating lines. The “inner 
boulevard” begins at Andrew square, 
in South Boston, and crosses the now 
vacant mud flats of the South bay to 
tlie vicinity of the Dudley street sta- 
tio-a in Roxbury. Thence, swinging a 
little to the north, it follows the line 
of Vernon street, crossing Tremont 
street to Huntington avenue, travers- 
ing the vacant lands of the Fenway 
region, passing between the Gardner 
museum and the new normal school, 
and crosses the newly planned ap- 
proach to the medical school at right 
