713 
PARK AND C EM ET-ER Y. 
PARK PROGRESS UNDER NEW ASSESSMENT LAW 
The beginnings of the extensive 
park system for Indianapolis, made 
under the assessment law of 1909, 
have previously been reported in 
these pages, and it is gratifying to 
note that the park board of that city 
reports a development that has been 
a record of steady and consistent 
progress under the new law. 
The chief fact that stands out in a 
review of the work of 1910 is that the 
new law was found to be practicable, 
and that a great deal could be ac- 
complished under its provisions. 
The year just closed has seen 
marked progress in .the direction of 
solving these difficulties, although 
there is now litigation in the county 
courts over an assessment in the East 
Park District involving the validity of 
the law. The Board of Park Com- 
missioners is sanguine of an entirely 
successful outcome in this litigation, 
and feels that no questions have been 
raised that will not be found quite 
easy of solution with the proper in- 
terpretation of the provisions of the 
1909 act. The board believes that any 
faults that may be developed in the 
process of this litigation will be 
found to be not in the essential prin- 
ciple of the assessment idea, but in 
details of administration. 
In a general way it may be said of 
the park law of 1909 that the work 
so far done under its provisions has 
demonstrated the necessity for this 
special measure, but at the same time 
has shown its limitations and its 
weaknesses. The growth of the city 
is such that property values are in- 
creasing so rapidly that the limit of 
annual expenditure fixed in the law 
($200,000) is too small to keep pace 
with the city’s progress. This has 
been shown especially to be true 
since the new work was started; be- 
cause the work done along the 
streams in the direction of parkway 
development has itself operated to in- 
crease property values along the line 
of future extensions; the city thus be- 
ing placed in the position of throw- 
ing obstacles in the path of its own 
progress. At the same time, the work 
so far done has created a public de- 
mand for more work to be done on a 
scale larger than the limitations of 
the law will permit, and the board 
has therefore been forced to the con- 
clusion, either that the limitations of 
the law must be modified, or some 
other means must be found of sup- 
plementing the revenues derived from 
benefit assessments under the 1909 
statute. 
It is encouraging, however, to note 
that the operations of the Indian- 
apolis law have made such a favor- 
able impression upon the second- 
class cities of the state, which include 
Evansville, Fort Wayne, Terre Haute 
FISH HATCHERT AND KEEPER’S LODGE IN RIVERSIDE PARK, INDIANAPOLIS; VIEWED FROM TOP OP BLUFF. 
