The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-01-27

Channels of the Common
 Life = City Planning a
 Continuous Job.
 Charles Mulford Robinson. Specialist
 in Town and City Planning
 Exclusive Service The Survey Press
 Bureau.)
 Few persons have been privileged to Iav out whole towns and see them live The popular term in connection with town planting appears, lndeeo' almost prophetic, for of the towns 1andgcape Cheap little markers sometimes small wooden crosses-oeslg- hating the graves of buried hopes, are the only evidence of that which might have been.
 It is not enough to say that usually such towns are plated inexpertly m a real estate office A live town neeos more than a good plan It must nave "a reason These are not new ideas. And go, though the public has learn : ed a great deal on the subject Of city to the subject a person cannot yet, very comfortably, apply the term city : pIanner'' to himself. If he tries It, he is bound to wonder what the other fellow is thinking of him. There is [ ground for the suspicion that ne IS being classified as fool or Vlslon-
 So between the blight of conspicu- . ot1g failures in speculative town pro motions and the handicap or term misunderstood-or too little unoeE- Ter ence of city planning has progressed 50 rapidly and won for itself so large a place in the public confidence The argument that we plan everytnlns else. houses gardens. factories, rail- roads. and should also plan the city is familiar. !. all the time. Week by week new streets are plated, new terr1torles opened and day by day changes are going forward in even the most TX. TX. does not mean that a costly program of remodeling must be undertaken put that as changes are made they snan tend to bring nearer to realization the form which is contemplated in the plan The goal of that final consunl, nation is a union of efficiency ana ma IG not fair to expect where streets are laid out individually or in smaiI groups, without a comprehenslve Scherne which has regard for tnelr re- Iation to all other streets.
 We need to appreciate more than we do the importance. measured on ity, of ven the meanest street. How inc lives of those who live upon. IL TO think of a street only as pas sageway: is to lose ,dfb mncn is or One ' of the factors that determine the cost Of the lots which front upon IL ana the renC of the houses along it. The near @ rnesS lS9 fo inc next parallel thoroughfares set fIes the depth of all the lots on eltner side of a street. The character or us pavement, the cost of its upkeep anu +IonaI economic factors closely attect- ing those who dwell upon It. InS street is the outlook upon the world of those who are in the houses 10 4he smaller children 1t is the world It. self All the currents of life. all grades Of society, are affected by the prob i1 citv or town or village can escape the influence of the street upon Whlch he dwells.
 or hardship of it. it's efficiency or fail ure, are due in surprising measure to the wisdom or thoughtlessness with which streets are Plattede; Pee,,,,,, s+,,diad gains a new dignity and value. No more can It be despised. One does not venture to speak in reproach of tho those e; 3ed with it-as the children of the street" the women of the street for one finds the fortunes of us all are but little less bound up in it. Even as a mere passage way, it is the channel of the common life The study of how best to plan the streets life as it ought to be. Is no mean SUD- feet or dry technical problem.
 'I fancy said pr; Delos F. WiIr @,1E Club of Philadelphia some months ago, that the civic renaissance which must surely come, which indeed has already appeared in it's sporadic be- s,innings, will never get very far un- tiI we have awakened to a realization of the dignity of the street-the com mon street. where the citys children play. through which the milk wagon drives, where the young men are eou- cated. along which the currents of the city's life flow unceasingly.
 The street, then, ought not to be thought of as simply a line in drawing or a mark on a map; or as estate necessary to make the rest of fhe land saIeable- It ought not to be treated as city ordinances so gen. eraTIv do. as an urban element which can be taken care of by general rules, standardizing width and grade and proportions of roadway and sidewalk: nor, on the other hand, as matter of so little consequence that any lana owner should be allowed to please himself in the pIatting of it. In the 1ast anaIysis the purpose of the street is to serve in the best way possible those who live upon 1t and who use It. Unless it makes for their convenience and their comfort, unles it gives them good homes and facilitates the tram saction of their business, 1t is a failure Social enthusiasm falls short of it's full duty if it gives only institutions churches parlia aments, schools. it group these into eFective centers.
 4 greater gift is the Realization of a wholesome life and of personal eff ficiency. The duty of the street to tribution 1t makes to the life of the community at Iarg@these are the great questions which make it's prob la1as vital and social, and which Justf-