The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-14
A NOBLE IMPROVEMENT.
Some of Frank MoCoppin's Ideas Concerning
the City's Needs,

the City's Needs,
A boulevard from the south entrance to
the park through the hills to the region of
Lake MERGED at the county line would be
noble improvement and the idea is one
that should be carried out. 1t would prob
ably be one of the most desirable boule-
wards with which the city could provide it.
self, and it should be supplemented by
others, notably in connecting the park and
the Preside.
The region about Lake MERGED should be
made easily accessible to the people of the
city, and a boulevard leading to it, shell
tered by trees which would break the force
of the summer winds, would be great at
traction as pleasure drive. Lake MERGED
presents one of the most picturesque scenes
within easy driving distance of the city
and it would be a great attraction to people
who find brief opportunities for health
full outing. Owing to its comparative in
accessibility through the lack of con-
venient and pleasant driveways few San
Francisco people know anything about it.
Some years ago [ advocated before the
Board of Supervisors the purchase of about
1000 acres of the water company's prop
erty about the lakes to be used as a park
and that is its most natural use. L have
long thought that that picturesque prop
erty should belong to the city. 1t would
need no great amount of gardening or
other cultivation for twenty-five years.
With forest trees planted, and drives laid
out it would be popular picnic resort and
a delightful place for enjoyment in many
ways.
Such use of it would not pollute the
waters, which could still be used to supply
the city, and when it was slightly i'm
proved electric roads would quickly make
it cheaply accessible. The projected boule-
ward south to that region would be of in
terest and benefit to the entire city, and
should be paid for by the city. 1t should
be laid out by the best route and grades,
without regard to private wishes.
We have gone along in very contracted
way in regard to such public improve
ments. The development of the park has
been slow, but now that the people have
really come to enjoy it as their own there
will never be any lack of funds for its
maintenance and improvement. The peo-
pie should be given more such opportuEi-
ties for healthful pleasure.
The rich can 20 to Del Monte, Long
Branch or Carlsbad, but the masses have
to stay at home and their only convenient
recreation is a ride to the park on dummy
or a stroll on the beach. As they have
builded this city out of the sweat of their
faces, and made it great and powerful in
that they are entitled to have, and
ought to have, those simple, health
full and instructive enjoyments which
the garden, the park and the
boulevard enriched, expanded and
beautifed, would afford them. Just now
the whole of California could easily stand
for the garden planted eastward in
Eden,'''s beautiful is it. Nature seems to
have sympathized with the patriotic feel
ings of the people and made all the land
splendid. Beautiful boulevards, parks and
botanic gardens are not only popular de-
light, but they improve the people, better
their environment and uplift their moral
tone.
These things are needful to the masses
of the people whose lives are ebbing away
here, and therefore it is the duty of the
city in its corporate capacity to take meas
ures for their establishment and mainte-
nance.
In regard to public improvements gem
erallv / undertake to say, and | say it with
regret, that San Francisco is behind every
other English-speaking community of
equal size in the world.
1t is even behind Dublin, the capital of
an impoverished country, whose commerce
was strangled years ago by the British
Government. Its streets are miserably
paved, its sewers are rotten and exhale pes
tilential odors, its public grounds are in
adequate, and the approaches to the park
are not creditable to great city.
The city has lost priceless opportunities
for boulevard Improvements in the past.
and those that remain should be preserved.
One of the things that San Francisco has
lost is the chance of extending the park
panhandle to Market street This was
nearly accomplished in 1878 when / intro
duced in the Legislature bill enabling the
city to take ten blocks intervening between
the panhandle and Market street, giving
strip for public use one block wide from
the city's great central thoroughfare to its
park.
The survey, which was made by Colonel
Mendell and Hermann Schussler, required
the taking of block of land belonging to
the Protestant Orphan Asylum and an ex-
cavation thirty-eight feet deep at Bu-
chanan and Waller streets. The opposi-
ton of the asylum people defeated the
bill. The improvement could thenlhave
been secured for about $500 600. as there
was not house on the route proposed.
Now it would cost millions and is i'm
practicable. It is lamentable that the
project failed and the incident affords an
Illustration of the need Of building for the
future. One of the things that the city
should look to is the gradual abandonment
of the City Cemetery as burying ground
and its use as q park OF the future. As