50 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
ficates, which made it possible to obtain 
immediate funds and collect and disburse 
installment payments within the installment 
periods. These securities immediately 
found favor with large investors, and have 
always found prompt and ready sale, 
always at a slight premium. The impor- 
tance of this latter condition cannot be 
overstated, inasmuch as it gives those 
specially assessed opportunity to either pay 
in full without using installment periods, 
or taking the easier method to those not 
having ready money and paying slowly 
and gradually. 
In the case of the boulevards there was 
practically the same procedure, and while 
under a different administrative board the 
streets were also established in the same 
manner, except that in the latter case 
no installment payment periods were per- 
mitted. 
For the purpose of improving and main- 
taining these parks and boulevards, and 
in the absence of sufficient current revenue 
appropriated by the legislative body, there 
was established a power to assess annually 
within the limits of each park district and 
for the sole benefit of that park district 
every parcel of private land within that 
district, at the same time and to the same 
effect as the same lands were charged with 
the annual ordinary taxation, but in addi- 
tion to and beyond the constitutional limit 
for general purposes. This created in each 
park district an annual fund for improving 
and maintaining the parks and boulevards 
within those districts. The real benefit 
of the division of the city into permanently 
established park districts is to create within 
those districts the annual revenue above 
described. Such park district maintenance 
funds are available for the improvement 
and maintenance of all the properties with- 
in their respective districts under the juris- 
diction of the Board of Park Commission- 
ers. 
It was found desirable, in addition to 
the district maintenance funds, to assess 
annually, also in the form of special assess- 
ment, a low maximum charge against the 
abutting private properties upon boule- 
vards and parkways for the exclusive pur- 
pose of maintenance of work upon the 
boulevards or parkways along which these 
assessments were made. Inasmuch as a 
low limit was finally placed upon the 
powers of the city to make the annual 
maintenance levies, the park department 
was given, for the benefit of its park dis- 
tricts, all of the vehicle licenses collected 
by the city. This in turn is apportioned in 
accordance with the annual revenues or 
the established valuation of the lands with- 
in the several districts. 
One difficulty of the annual park district 
maintenance levy is that the actual revenue 
then depends upon the assessed valuation 
of the lands within these districts. In 
Kansas City this is approximately fifty 
per cent of the actual value of the proper- 
ties. The older park districts naturally 
contain the high valued business areas, and 
therefore, obtain ample revenues for im- 
provement and maintenance within their 
limits. The outlying and intermediate dis- 
tricts, having comparatively low values, 
obtain insufficient funds to properly im- 
prove and maintain the lands and the high- 
ways within their limits. Therefore, there 
must each year be obtained from current 
general revenues a sufficient apportionment 
to the park department for the expendi- 
tures necessary in these districts beyond 
their local district revenues. This becomes 
particularly true of the large outlying park, 
the entire cost of improvement and main- 
tenance of which must necessarily be borne 
out of the municipality’s current revenues. 
In effect this has placed the park de- 
partment in Kansas City in a semi-indepen- 
dent condition with reference to its funds, 
and has made it possible to accomplish 
results that would have been entirely out 
of the question under any other financial 
system in that city. 
In practice this entire procedure is an 
amplification of the theory of single land 
tax. It certainly was not originated as 
a matter of choice but as a matter of 
necessity, and inasmuch as no properties 
have been acquired under any other sys- 
tem, the tax paying public finally acqui- 
esced, and is constantly urging further 
and even more extensive development in 
order that the entire city may obtain com- 
mensurate benefits through improvement in 
every section. While it undoubtedly has 
become a serious burden upon the private 
lands of the entire community, yet these 
burdens have been equitably distributed, 
and since all lands contribute there has 
been no reasonable objection. Its dis- 
tinctive advantage in that city has been a 
resultant stability of land values reaching 
very far beyond the values for residential 
purposes alone, and has very strongly 
tended toward proper segregation of the 
several sections of the city for these sev- 
eral uses in their distribution for indus- 
trial, commercial and residential use, and 
made possible what otherwise would not 
have been accomplished. 
OFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS 
AND CONTRIBUTIONS 
JAMES B. SHEA, Boston, Mass., President 
J. J. LEVISON, Brooklyn, N.Y., Sec.-Treas. 
THE ASSOCIATION QUESTION BOX 
I am in need of a capable man to take 
charge of the Zoo which we have here; 
can any of the members place me in touch 
with such a man or do you know where 
a capable man can be secured? Anything 
The essentials which make up a stand- 
ard of efficient park maintenance are 
those which would be prompted by 
proper regard for principles of honesty, 
cleanliness, beauty and usefulness. The 
city which possesses a well-maintained 
park is most fortunate. Many of our 
you can do to assist me will be greatly 
appreciated. 
Charles A. Whittet, 
Virginia, Minn. Supt. of Parks. 
cities, which pride themselves upon their 
rank among first-class American cities, 
are ever ready to boast of their acreage 
in so-called parks; but pride in mere 
expanse of land does not constitute a 
standard of park maintenance worthy of 
such a city, and acquisition of park land 
should be limited by the amount of rev- 
enue available to keep the park up to a 
fixed standard. It is far better for the 
community to own one park well kept 
than half a dozen neglected ones. 
Impractical or political park boards, 
either through neglect or a foolish de- 
sire to “do things,” often carry park 
maintenance to such an extreme that 
we may well apply the term “over- 
maintenance” to their labors. An active 
political park board — and how many 
cities are free from them — is often left 
undisturbed, but commended because of 
its great activity, whether good or bad; 
for the average citizen fails to see that 
this activity is a mask behind which 
hides the fact that many unnecessary 
men are being employed, that a little 
EFFICIENCY IN PARK MAINTENANCE 
