Omaha daily bee., 1889-06-15
POpular

and the proportions of population per acre
to those areas, In some of the principal cities
of the United States and Europe:
Popula-
tion per
Area of acre Of
Population. parks. parks
Boston ;:........ 400 10000 S0c 1000 sOO SOO
New York. ......1, ,S39,000 4,90a 1916
Philadelphia. .... 971, 1853 5000 1913
Chicago. ..... 100000 5000 234
ST. Louis. 1900. 100000 2,232 179
San Francisco. Sao, , eco eco I,lsI 2ll
Paris. ,270, 900 $4,000 81
Berlin. n............1, l22 900 5000 229
Vienna: ..........1, 600 5000 13S
Brussels ......... $4,000 1000 $50
In comparing these areas you can not fail
| to be struck by the vastly greater proper
tionate area of parks in European cities as
compared with our own country, and the
inference is natural that their longer ex-
perience has impressed upon them the ne
cessity of such provision tor the health and
comfort of the inhabitants. 1t is obvious,
however, that the circumstances of the sit.
uation must in every case exert an important
influe nee, and these may differ so widely
| that the experience of one city may afford no
criterion for another. Many of the old
European cities were formerly, as some are
still, enclosed in walls within which economy
of space demanded very narrow streets
| Modern military science has rendered the
walls useless, and sanitary science has de-
veloped the necessity of relief from the ma
| lara incident to such lack of ventilation as
was a consequence of such confinement. The
broad avenues which are customary in most
of our western cities relieve US of the need
| of such frequent breathing places as are
found necessary in the more closely built
| cities. and if the site is upon the shore of a
| great lake or river, that fact alone insures
for all time sufficient ventilation for the
quarters Immediately adjacant. OF the
| American cities in the above list, il we take
the SIX which have more than two hundred
| thousand inhabitants and strike an average
| of the proportions of park area to
3opulation, we find it to give one acre of
| park to every 253 inhabitants. Providence
with only l23.0O0 inhabitants, has only one
| acre for every 1000 Of her population But
| Providence enjoys the peculiar Topographic
| cal advantage of being divided by broad
arm of the sea, which enters the city on the
| southern side, SO that the prevailing winds
| during the hot season are tempered and pu-
| ritied by sweeping over the salt water into
the city. Nevertheless, no city in the east
| ern states is making more earnest efforts to
| enlarge its area Of park lands than Provl-
| dence, and am not aware Of single in
stance of a complaint from any city of hay
| ing too much park land. On the contrary,
in every case within my experience, they
| have proved so advantageous, not only to the
| health and beauty, but to the pecuniary in
| terests OF the cities which have adopted
| judlcous system of park improvements, that
| the opposition which at first is sure to be
| awakened, is equally sure to be effectually
| silenced by the result.
The most strenuous opponents to Central
| park, in New York, in its early stages were
I capitalists, who declared its creation would
| bankrupt the city. In reality it was only the
increased revenue resulting from the crea-
| tion of Central park that saved the city from
| bankruptcy, at the time of the collapse of
| the Tweed ring. The whole cost of Central
park for the first twenty-five years of it's
| existence, including first cost of land con-
l ,t,,, IL a airfa ~ fka
interest on bonds was, in round numbers,
| S44 000, 900. The receipts from taxes in
wards adjacent to the park curing that same
| period were Sl10000000 The average rate
| would have given but s50,090,000 for these
waads, which leaves $50, 600 to be cred
| tied to the park. If from this we deduct the
| whole cost of the park, there remains "a
| clear prorU of SIG, 900 600 besides which the
| city owns the park clear of debt, which is
| now worth not less than 5000, 900, 900, and it
| would it be idle to attempt to estimate the
| Incidental revenue accruing annually to the
| city from the uncounted millions of visitors
| to those beautiful scenes, which it seems to
| me but yesterday were an denomination of
| desolatiou" whose dreary precincts 1T was
| hardly safe for a respectable citizen to pen-
| citrate. The experience of New York is but
| the type of that of every city that has fol-
, lowed her example, rs might be easly dem
onstrated by the park histories of every
prominent city, and the lesson taught by it is
that true economy is best subserved by a
| liberal appropriation of land while 1t can be
had at low rates, and by that mean, com
| pared to what the rates will he when the
need of the park becomes pressing-not with
what 1t was when it was only wanted for a
cow pasture.
In the effort to profit by the experience of
other cities in determining the proportionate
area Of parks to population we must not
overlook the fact that with the growth of
the city the pressure OF necessity gains in an
| increasing ratio.
| With free access to open fields and woods
within u mile or two, we think of parks only
as luxuries, but when the distance is so in
creased that day must be devoted 10 the
journey in order to secure the boon of green
fields and fresh air, the sense OF confinement
becomes sitting and we mourn the folly
which prevented us from toreseeing and
providing for the certain want.
When De Witt Clinton was governor Of
New York in 1909. he tried TO secure the
reservation OF a tract of 500 acres for park
| for the future city. The tract selected for
the purpose could then have been bought for
| 81 900, 0O0, but IL was so remote from the CITY
| and the sum seemed so enormous that the
scheme was thought too visionary TO merit
| serious attention. The center of that tract
| is not far from where the Fifth Avenue
hotel now stands. IL would require a good
arithmetician to estimate how many millions
the area would be worth to-day. And yet
the opposition TO Central park was scarcely
less strenuous, and the same appeals Were
urged against 1t that are everywhere relied
upon 10 win the favor of the multitudes
who have only time and opportunity 10 look
superiicially at the subject
Assuming as the least proportionate area
necessary 10 future demands, that an acre
should he allotted 10 every $50 inhabitants,
or four acres for every thousand, you per-
| celve that 400 acres are required for popu-
lation of 100 900, and 1000 acres for 100000
Omaha already contains more than loo, 900,
and at present is ia no pressing need OF a 40O
acre park. 1t would be o luxury now, the
want Of which is no. seriously felt because
the woods aud fields lie all around within
easy access. But IL will be an urgent neces-
| sity when the population has come TO be halt
million, and unless that necessity Is pro
vided for today its relief will then be i'm
possible except AZ such a distance as will in