The Ellensburg dawn. [volume] (Ellensburg, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1909-11-18
PLANNING OF TOWNS
Some of the Needs That Must Be
Considered.
STYLE OF STREET IMPORTANT
No Curved Thoroughfares In Business
Centers and No Straight Ones In
Residential Sections-How Germans
Plan Cities.


In an address at Washington Fred
prick Law Oimstcd, Jr.. IL son OF Amer
ica's greatest landscape architect. Sald
that our city and town planning ordi-
narily aims at making new streets
connect with older ones SO as to form
continuous lines of travel and TO make
them wide enough to avoid congestion
of traffic. He said this led to Il me
chanically standardized arrangement
of streets and blocks with uniform.
straight streets covering the whole or
most of the town. This leads to the
concentration of street traffic upon
limited number of streets. causing dan
ger of serious congestion and incon-
venencc" unless such traffic is provid
ed for.
Many will take issue with Mr.. Ohm
>ted in his general statements. for all
that he first said goes for naught in
face of unless provided for" In resi-
dence sections we need and should
have streets laid out on anything but
straight lines but there are more than
the residence parts in every city and
town that have 10 be "providcd for
and not the least of these is caring tor
business traffic in an economic manner
a conSidcra ion hat necessarily excludes
the aesthetic. What we must have
in business centcrs are new streets
connecting with older ones to afford
continuous lines of travel. We also
need uniform straight streets ana
mechanically standardized arrangement
Of streets and blocks" business de
mands it. We further need "concen-
tration Of street traffic upon limited
number of lhoroughtarcs. but we
should provide these OF sufficient width
and OF such substantial surface that
they would fully satisfy all demands
upon them.
No one more fully believes in the
city beautiful movement than the
writer; no one dislikes straight lines
and square corners more. but we must
not have curved streets in business
centers. The plans for the improve
ment OF the business portion Of Los
Angeles by Charles Milford Robinson
provided for straight streets only and
aimed to have all beautiful by reason
Of simplicity and fully meeting all
the requirements of traffic. The prop
or planning of the business sections
and the proper planning Of the resi-
dence portions of any city or town are
two distinct though not necessarily
separate problems.
Now that nearly all Of our cities
and towns in southern California have
effectively tackled the plantin" Of
street trees those most To The fore will
be looking to the next step toward tn"
ideal. As to what this step will be j.
briefly outlined in II letter lately re-
ceived from j. H. Reed Of Riverside.
Cal. He writes: "\ow that the prob
lem of we'll planted streets is nearing,
solution We must look To further i'm
provemeut of our city II your city
beautiful experts did not cost So much
we could get you to plan or suggest
block beauiful' system Of landscape
improvement or. better still. provide
for carrying out Il scheme of cmbel-
ishmcnt and improvement for Il whole
street.
Even II we have to pay fat fees
the cost would fall so lightly on each
individual owner that every one could
find out how best to improve his yard
SO that it would be attractive in IT.
self and harmonize with the whole
scheme
rho city n p1npt tbiS
method OF making the city beautiful
both as a whole and in every detail
will not be able to hide her light I'M
der IA bushel." but would soon become
famous for her unusual beauty both at
home and abroad.
The five most important points OBJ
tanned by the German system of city
or town planning are thus summed up
by Mr.. Olmsted, who last year visited
Europe for the purpose of studying
city planning:
First.-A reasonably good provision
Of main thoroughfaresf well planned
and well equipped.
Second. An increasingly liberal and
equitable distribution of small parks
and Fairgrounds as well as numerous
small interesting squares.
Third.-A good distribution of excel
lent public building sites. and on many
Of them some very interesting public
buildings.
Fourth. Every notable facilities for
commercial and manufacturing dis
tricts in connection with water fronts
and railways. When the city plan
lays cut a district with II special view
to manufacture. it does not just cut it
up into the standard streets and blocks
and then leave the railways. the man
ufacturers and transfers to struggle
with the transportation problem. but
begins by laying out the necessary
rights of way for the railroad fncili-
ties and provides long rows of fac
tory sites with railroad sidings on one
side and streets on the other.