Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-23

EMROhIOM PLAN run
] linoleums, furniture and the public IL
brary. When I stepped off 1 found the
| linoleums on one side and the public
! library on the other. l supposed that
you had suffered from a fire, but the
| librarian said that the library had
| leased the quarters for a term of years
and was not preparing to move into its
own building. I was certainly aston
ished, for l had heard of Los Angeles
as having been built up by people of
culture, and naturally expected to find
some magnificent evidences of that.
MY hobby is color photography, and
I expected to find in this California
climate a Camera club occupying near
| ly an entire building and materially ad-
vancing this phase of art. Such is not
| the case.
There is much expected Of Los An
geles in the way of Improvement, beau
tification and special advantages that
would naturally go with your climate
The tourist doesn't find them. 1 am
told that you are going to do some of
those things, and I have been shown
copy of Mr.. Robinsons report on the
city beautiful which outlines plan
1 found, however, that this plan was
proposed and submitted as 1t now
stands two years ago, and that you
have done nothing on it.
"In five years Denver has been revo-
lutionized in this regard, and we find
that it pays big. We are keeping Den
yer at the front, and we find that we
are getting people to live there who
have gone on to look at Los Angeles
and come back to Denver. Do not mis-
take me as taking in any way an atti-
tude hostile to Los Angeles, for 1 have
great admiration for your city. 1t
| strikes me, and 1 have heard others
say the same thing, that you are ad-
vertising your city wonderfully, but
| you are not keeping up a commensu-
rate advancement. You will regret this,
I am sure"
Dr. Charles Zueblin. the Boston stu
dent of city Identification, made the
following reference to Los Angeles in
one of his lectures at Denver:
You are meeting these calls for
beauty splendidly in your street light
ing system You have been wise enough
to make the lighting poles serve also
for tramway uses Why, in Los Ange-
les there is one street with fire alarm
poles, the poles of two telephone com
panies, the poles of two telegraph COM
panies, lighting poles, and they call it
the street of the whispering pines But
they are at present putting in two
miles of wire. underground every year,
and they express a particular pride in
the fact that they took the initiative in
street lighting betterment."
DR.. Zueblin also said There isn't
much satisfaction in being satisfied.
You have a beautiful city, but it would
be unfortunate If you had reached the
point of safety. What must have i'm
pressed itself upon you as it has i'm
pressed itself upon other cities is that
1ra- 80
ments. They must be made with a
definite purpose. The old expression
that God made the country and man
made the town is true enough, but as
matter Of fact, man has made a mess
of most of our American towns. We
must realize the functions of a town.
These are business, commercial life,
public life, private life and recreation.
And these functions must go on ration
ally. Business is first, and 1t is well to
realize that nothing that represents
bsuiness need or should be ugly. There
is no excuse for any form of ugliness
in the city. The business man cannot
sell today unless he has an aesthetic
appreciation. He must sell what Is
beautiful as we'll as useful. The bust
ness street today must be a thing of
beauty as well as utility, In fact, if
you want to give the people a square
deal you must do the whole thing we'll
from depot entrance to garbage crema-
tory"
The forty-odd improvement associa-
! tions of Los Angeles promise an active
winter for neighborhood and general
city betterment. Several associations
have already worked out plans which
will keep their officers busy through the
winter. and the Federated Improvement
association is taking up a number of
big things.
Through the cooperation of the fed
Grated association and the Rotary club
the establishment of a weekly paper
the Improvement Association News,
has been made possible by Horace w
Karr, an enthusiastic worker in both
organizations. Plans and details of the
\ individual improvement associations
are being noted by Mr.. Karr's paper,
| in addition to weekly summary Of
civic betterment news.
The lighting system of which Los
Angeles Is so proud and which is fire.
quently referred to in other cities is
still marred by dirty and uneleaned
! standards, despite the fact that the
| lack of interest in this on the part OF
the city authorities might be offset by
small amount of extra work by Jan
| itors of Office buildings.
! -