The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-11-17
MAKE PARKS OUT
 OF BACK YARDS Great Waste Space Could Easily Be Made Very
 Attractive
From the Insurance News.

From the Insurance News.
 Why was the back yard ever in- vented? Why need there be a rear and a front to house? And why have most homes in New York two rears and no front? The rear of house was originally designed as a place where coal was delivered, where waste was
 removed and where deliveries from tradesmen were made But in Manhat-
 tan homes the garbage and the ashes go out the front basement door and deliveries are made there. In fact 1t by necessity has become the back door.
 And what Is the backyard in Manhat- tan? Usually place for weeds to lsrow, a place for rubbish to accumulate,
 place to hang out the wash, breed Ing place for mosquitoes and flies. and an eyesore to about half the popula-
 ton of tenants, who day by day. month after month, have to look out upon 1t. If ever any one pays the penalty for a sin it is the owner of real estate, res ldential property, who is carrying the burden of the backyard. How does the
 owner of such property pay the penal ty, and can he escape? Rear rooms bring less Income than street rooms because of existing conditions. Yet why not make rear rooms front rooms and cor lrespondingly increase the income from residential property?
 1 Take for example a block of houses l in the Nineties, running from Amster- dam to Columbus avenue. Backing up 1 to each other there are about 94 houses, 20 feet in width. There Is a stretch of open land between the two rows of houses about TOO feet long and approx l imately 100 feet wide.
 | Let us imagine, If we can, that the
 owners of these TO pieces of property got their heads together and decided | that they would place this vacant space 1 In the hands of two or three or five of their number as trustees for a pe- riod of five years, each contributing alike to the cost, and that fences be torn down, rubbish cleared up and the plot turned into a miniature park and lplayground--in short, that the rear of these houses become the front. What
 would happen? Counting the number of
 rooms facing the back yard as about
 the same as those facing the street, and | that there Is a difference in the rental lincomes of about 20 DOT cent 1t would
 be safe to assume that by making a
 change the Income of the rear roomy
 facing our imagined miniature park
 
 | of 20 per cent. in excess of their us- ual rental value. which on the entire property would show an increase of pos | sibly from to 10 per cent
 | Not taking into consideration the in- creased income, would not such prop
 critics always find occupants ih pref
 erence to others that covld not offer
 this attractive feature. Would we not
 be providing an ideal playground fer
 the children, taking them from the
 streets with it's dangers? Would nor
 such retreats afford comfort, after
 moons and evenings, to the occupants of
 the room--men and women who must
 pass the greater part of their summers
 in the city?
 | The average summer population in | the 70 houses does not fall far short
 of 1000 persons By renting a portion
 of the spaNc for the privilege of serving
 ice cream and soda fountain drinks there would be sufficient income from
 the privileges to more than pay for the up-keep of the plot.
 Any step that will help make the city life more attractive will help to main
 tain values. Does not this suggestion offer a remedy for one of the causes
 of decreasing income from rooming
 properties in certain sections of the city,