Los Angeles herald., 1891-11-16
THE NEW STREET BOND LAW.

As Mayor Hazard has yielded to the
pressure of extraneous influences, and
has declined to approve the ordinance
to pave and sewer Pearl and Figueioa
streets, we shall not have a chance
to test the workings of the new
street bond law, unless the council
should have the backbone to over
ride his veto. The residents on those
streets are, with few exceptions, the
owners of the homes in which they live,
and represent majority of the feet
frontage. They have petitioned to have
the work done under the new law, and
will have ten years in which to pay for
the splendid improvement. A respon-
sible company has been awarded the
bid to do the work and take the bonds
in pay, and with the passage of the
ordinance, Pearl and Figueroa, which is a
continuous thoroughfare, and one OF the
finest and widest residence streets in the
city, would soon become a beautiful
boulevard reaching from Sixth street to
the city limits. The contract calls for a
paving to consist OF foundation of six
inches of concrete covered with two
inches of bitumen, and granite cutters
three feet wide, laid ON concrete and
aligned with cement curbs. The price
bid for the paving on Pearl street is 3l14
cents per square foot. When this price
is compared with the prices paid for
work on some other streets, and with
the fact that the property owners will
have ten years in which to pay it, the
bid seems reasonable. The paving of
Sixth street cost 26 cents a foot, with
out granite cutters, and has proved to
be most wretched and execIable job.
Broadway, without granite cutters, cost
2S cents, and Spring street, 80 cents, not
including cutters. When these figures
are considered alongside of those to be
paid on Pearl street, they do not appear
unreasonable. The property holders on
Figueroa street elected to have porphyry
foundation to their pavement, and the
cost of the work on that street will there
fore be % cents.
The whole city would look with pro-
found interest on this new departure in
street work. and upon it's success and
satisfactory execution by the contract
ors, home company, would depend the
general disposition of property holders
on the other improved streets to make
similar improvements. 1t would give
such an impetus to street work under the
bond law as would result in few years
in making Los Angeles both in its busi-
ness and residence portions the most
beautiful and attractive city in the
Union outside OF Washington.
Everybody will at once admit that
city the streets of which are smoothly
paved with bituminous rock in the mod
ern style, possesses an attraction for
strangers which must go far to fill it
with desirable kind of population.
And when we add to this the fact that
our streets will be thoroughly severed,
who will limit the beneficial effect these
important improve nents will have upon
our city's growth? The natural salu-
brity of our matchless climate will be
supplemented by the most approved
methods OF sanitary improvement in
our drainage and in the paving of our
streets, and these, added to the fine
esthetic effects of our open lawns, rich
foliage and beautiful gardens, enriched
with the choicest flowers, some of which
are in perennial bloom, will make Los
Angeles the most universally attractive
citG in the country to all classes OF
people.
We have now the opportunity to
inaugurate this general system OF street
improvement in most thorough and
effective manner, without bearing hard !
upon the property holders or subjecting |
the poor homestead owners to the risk |
of confscation, which too often followed |
the old plan of compulsory payment in
lump for all street work. We are pro-
foundly sorry that this chance should
be imperilled at the start.