The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-09
The Park scheme.

To the Editor of the indianapolis Journal:
In these times, when people are thinking
about war to prevent injustice and bar
barity, we need about ten thousand volun-
teers in indianapolis to prevent few peo-
pie who happen to occupy official positions,
and who are working for spoils, from con-
fiscating our property. The Board of
Works, under pretense of park system,
for which the city has no use, are now act
ing as confiscation committee. The pur-
pose of this proposed system is private gain
without expense to the parties who get the
most out of it or expense to the city. They
confiscate the property to make park and
assess the property along the line of the
proposed park at much higher figure than
they allow for property taken. They APP
propriate lots at much less than they are
worth, while they assess lots along the line,
no better than those taken, at a much
higher value. The rich on our principal
streets pay nothing, but they expect their
property to be increased in value. With
fine carriages and buggies they can show
strangers through the parks and show off
city improvements. 1t is a fine scheme,
They propose to take lots and lands in some
places at one-tenth value, but they do not
make such estimate the basis of assess
ment of benefits. This is the great fairness
our mayor talks about. 1t is a grand thing
10 have the rich enjoy these nice things,
wrongfully taken from men who cannot af-
ford it. If the park is of any benefit it is
a benefit to the whole city. Who will be
allowed to drive lin it? The men who pay
for it, or the few wealthy men who expect
to make money out of the scheme? The
men who pay for it are not able to own
carriages and buggies Are not all our cit
liens expected to use 1t? II so. why should
they not assist in paying for it? But it
would not do to attempt this; 1T would start
up opposition of a few wealthy men who
are not in the scheme and who do not get
any share of the spoils. They say the lots
along the line will be increased in value
and this is the excuse for confiscation on
the one hand and robbery by assessment
$25 to $50 lots that are worth five or six
times that amount They propose to take
land at 5000 per acre that has been selling
for more than $1,000 per acre. These men
of astonishing public spirit, so liberal with
other peoples property, so generous at
somebody elses expense, are profuse in
their professions of fairness. The mayor
says they called in the best real-estate men
in the city, but he does not tell us who
these remarkable men were. l have thought
/ had some idea of the value of real estate
in this city. l tried to find out something
about what the board was going to do, and
was told it was none of my business
property, so, of course, it was none of my
business. The mayor and the boards are
our servants, not our BOSSES 1t IL our prop
erty they are dealing with not theirs.
What they propose is public robbery All
the land along the line of the park needs
to make it as valuable on the west side of
Fall creek as on the east side is to allow
us to improve our streets and bridges as
others have done. The difference in the
price at which this board proposes to take
our lands and what they are really worth
would build walls and embellishments on both
sides of Fall creek from one end of the park
to the other, and leave us a thousand dol
lars per acre profit. We would then be able
20 build fine stone houses like that of Mr..
Holt, who has so generously given the city
eighty or ninety dollars damages assessed
in his favor. Considering the manner in
which he has been treated by the people of
Indianapolis his generosity is wonderful.
The whole thing is a humbug, a scheme, a
wrong and a confiscation Our city is a
park in itself. Our streets are not built up
in solid rows like many other cities. AL
most every house has large space about
it. There is no public necessity for this
proposed park. The men who are at the
bottom of the scheme have never been noted
for philanthropy. They have never been
public good. They have never been knOwn
to advocate anything that did not pay them
a per cent.
While the war spirit is up think we had
better have a declaration of Independence
at home and declare war this crowd of
schemers that are trying TO take private
property for almost nothing. 1T is a little
piece of local tyranny that ought to be up
set. / suggest that d day and place be Sc
lected for a meeting of citizens to organize.
Let us see If there is not some way to pro-
tect ourselves and block the way OF this
crowd, who are trying to make money out
JOHN j. CARRIGER.
Indianapolis. May g.