48 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
y 
i 
I 
ENGLISH BAY BATHING BEACH, VANCOUVER, B. C. 
adequate the accommodation available for beach, at a cost of $13,687, which in- W. S. Rawlings is secretary of the 
bathers. There is now a handsome build- eluded furnishing and the laying out of Board, and A. Balmer, superintendent of 
ing erected on the western shore of the the surroundings. parks. 
DISTRIBUTION OF KANSAS CITY PARK COSTS 
An Address Before the City Planning Conference, Held at Chicago , May 
5, 6 and 7, By George E. Kessler, Landscape Architect, of St. Louis. 
Underlying a description of the accom- 
plishment of the park and boulevard de- 
velopment in Kansas City, Mo., is history 
covering long and serious struggles to 
secure a worthy accomplishment. This is 
true of any genuine result in any com- 
munity, and merely illustrates the need' of 
continuous control for a period sufficient 
in length of time to break through the 
crust of public apathy and both public and 
private avarice. As a rule people of every 
community show extreme willingness to 
secure fine public improvements of every 
character, but always at some one else’s 
expense. The attitude toward these de- 
velopments is expressed in the phrase, 
“Let the ;ity do it,” the average tax payer 
forgetting that the individual is the city, 
and that all the concurrent public neces- 
cities should be carried forward in a well 
balanced scheme of development and per- 
mitting none of the important elements of 
municipal improvement to lag behind. 
The scheme of government in American 
cities does not, however, encourage uni- 
form progress in all the several important 
needs of a community. The natural result 
is a condition which the people working 
on so-called city plans and those interes- 
ted in these city planning conferences must 
face and alleviate. 
As cities cannot be built without the 
lands upon which to place their necessary 
structures and the public thoroughfares 
giving access to all of these, so none of 
the public improvements can be made with- 
out ample means to accomplish these needs. 
In every community there exists a feeling 
of resistance against enforced contributions 
to public good in the form of taxation, and 
therefore, naturally a low limit, as a rule, 
of powers of taxation for public purposes 
is maintained. The extraordinary growth of 
urban population has, therefore, increased 
the demands upon current revenues in all 
municipalities usually far beyond the or- 
dinary sources of revenue. The ordinary 
expenditure of the municipal government 
for absolutely essential functions in the 
safeguarding of life and property, which 
leave no permanent record in existence, 
almost invariably absorb all general an- 
nual funds. The newer communities in 
the United States have, therefore, sought a 
further source of revenue for the estab- 
lishment and maintenance of supposedly 
permanent improvements, such as better- 
ment of streets, a great portion of drain- 
age work, and to some extent the purchase 
and improvement of parks and boulevards. 
The older communities of the country are 
still relying largely upon annual revenues 
or upon the issue of bonds based upon 
municipal credit, of course general taxa- 
tion, not special. 
It will doubtless be interesting to state 
the land tax method as applied in Kansas 
City, inclusive of the establishment and ; 
maintenance of the park system there. 
All lands are, of course, assessable for 
general taxation for state, city and school 
purposes, these several items of general 
’tax supplying the means of conducting the ; 
several general governments and provid- 
ing for the ordinary functions of each. 
Out of general revenues only very little 
of street improvement is made, and out 
of general revenue or bond issues, based 
on general taxation, are constructed the 
principle trunk line sewers. All else is 
done by means of special assessment 
against benefited land. In the case of 
special assessment for particular improve- 
ments, these assessments lie against the 
lands only, in no case taking the improve- 
ments thereon into account. When a . 
street or any public highway, inclusive of 
the boulevards, is to be established, the 
administrative boards and the legislative 
body adopt the necessary resolutions and j 
ordinances and inasmuch as general 
funds are rarely available for this pur- l 
pose, proceed in the local civil courts 
