Los Angeles herald., 1907-12-01

But that was obviously impossible in one
months time.
The financial phase os the problem is
cEly second in Importance to the senti-
mental. l have been surprised to observe
that there has been an idea abroad that
had set out to make plans the execu-
tion Of which would cost a certain sum.
Nothing could have been further from
my purpose In case Of sickness does a
physician undertake to give only a GER
tain number of dollars worth of cure
SGT myself no goal in dollars to be ex-
pended. l assumed that Los Angeles was
big enough and rich enough, and brave
enough, and had enough confidence in
itself to do what was necessary and
worth while; and my study has been only
this: What does the city need, how can
certain conditions be best improved, and
will the proposed remedy be- worth its
cost?
Recommendation
l.
THE BUSINESS DISTRICT-GENERA
SUGGESTIONS.
STREET Notwithstanding with the
business streets. and postponing discus
sion for the present of large improve
ment schemes, my suggestions have to do
mainly with the lighting system. This
believe is the handsomest In the United
States. 1t Is the one respect in which
Los Angeles now takes in municipal de-
velopment that foremost place which 1t
ought in many ways to have. The lights
are so fine, the effects on the streets so
beautiful and so rare in this country,
that they deserve all the protection and
development you can give to them. In
substitution for the vivid and cheaper
ing green paint now used the standards
11,1 10 f01 90 AAlr lie
They should, also, be kept clean. Dust
is now allowed to lie thickly upon them.
1t would be no great hardship for the
merchants, who already show so much
public spirit in maintaining the lights, to
have their janitors dust off the standards
in front of their own premises every
night; but the better way would be for
the city to take care of this matter
After the streets are swept each even
ing, one man could make the rounds,
cleaning off the ornamental standards.
Then the switch boxes of the street rail-
road should be raised little, in order
not to break, as now, the long lines of
lights, the perspective view of many
lights being, possibly, the systems most
beautiful featur Finally, the protec-
ton of the beauty of the lights by the
prohibition of flashing and glaring cleo
trio signs across the sidewalk-a pro-
hibition in which Los Angeles Is setting
an example of which it has great reason
to be proud, should by all means be con-
tinued. 1t, together with the lights thus
protected, is giving to the city a dis
tinction at night which no other city in
the nation has. Effects elsewhere are
cheap gaudy and claptrap by compari-
son. Broadway, New York. is as far be-
hind Broadway, Los Angeles, in this re-
spect as is the Bowery behind the
Champs Elysees.
AWNINGS-A bad feature of the busi-
ness streets is the irregularity, and es-
pecially the lowness, of the awnings. An
average sized man cannot walk through
any block without having to duck his
head more than once
STREET IRREGULARITIES the
junction of Main and Spring streets, and
of Broadway and Spring. here submit
no plan. But as the business district
extends to include these points, as it
must very shortly do. they will become
of increasing Importance to the city. 1t
would be possible for the municipality
to treat them effectively, and the far
conspicuousness of the narrow gorge to
persons approaching them from the
south makes them we'll worth develop
ment in the city's Identification. II left
to private owners they must either re-
main practically unimproved, owing to
their small area and bad shape. or they
will present an architectural knife edge
as unpleasant as that of the Flatiron
building in New York. The city should
acquire them. In Paris such sharp cor
ners are beautifully utilized in the bnsi-
ness districts by fountains, like the Mo-
liere, and when Los Angeles has the
Owens river supply it might we'll make
feature of these. In fact, even aow
there might be more use of water visibly
than there is, considering the attraction
of water in this climate.
Residential Streets
BEAUTIFYING INTERSECTIONS
What has been said of the cores in the
business section holds true in great
y easure throughout the city. The CITY
of Washington owes very much of its
beauty to the development of such spaces
into little parks. There are large num-
bers of them there-as there are here
and when improved they bring a beauty
lrto the street system-which is to say
into the very structure of the city-which
nothing else will do.
l have said there were many spaces OF
The kind here A few examples are the
following, and there is need only to tbirE
ow great an Improvement the beautifica.
lion of these would make to realize no a
important part they may play in a
more beautiful Los Angeles: The inter.
section of Pasadena avenue, Twenty.
eighth and Workman streets, passed every
day by thousands of people and by nearly
all tourists, where the junction ds very
awkward; Boyle avenue and First street
Vermont avenue and McClintock, to go &c
the other side of town; West Washington
and La Sale streets, Lake Shore avenue
ac First aud Beaudry, Main street where
1T Thirty-seventh it makes the bend, OF
Ftgueroa and California.
Every one OF these and many more such
sDaces should be beautified, and to do this
would be so well worth while that this
n.-ighbors should undertake 1t themselves
sc ho rff xryfn