The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-03-23
OBJECTIONS MADE
/. TO NEW BOULEVARD
Property Owners Claim
Assessment Is Unjust
BURDEN is UNEQUAL
Woodlawn Man Says First Avenue Is
in Good Shape and That They
Have Just Finished Paying
for Improvements
BURDEN is UNEQUAL

Some of the first open protests against
the proposed east and west boulevard
through Jones valley are now being heard.
George S. Earnest of 52Os First avenue
has written a letter to the commissioners
giving his objections, and Joseph T. Col
Inns, Jr, has submitted a communication
to The Age-Herald similar in tenor. Mr..
Earnest's letter is as follows:
THE Honorable Board of Commission
ers. City of Birmingham:
| "Gentlemen-I desire to make a public
protest against the construction along
| First avenue of the paved boulevard 62
feet wide. I also speak for a large major
| ity of my neghbors who own small homes
along this section of First avenue In q
leading editorial in The Age-Herald,
March 10, appeared this double state
ment: "All small property owners on
the line of this thoroughfare are naturally
eager to see the work begin, and 1t is un-
derstood that practically all the owners
of large abutting property are now fav-
| orably inclined" We protest that TINS
| statement is inaccurate and misleading.
About the same date another Birmingham
daily said the boulevard may be balked
| by injunction or other legaI process by
! the owners of large abutting property
since their share of the cost of the boule-
ward would be about s25.0OO We allege
the following as some of the reasons why
We are not eager for the work to begin:
In Excellent Condition
First avenue Is in excellent condition.
We have recently finished paying for re-
grading, reslagging and recherting the
street, for putting down substantial curb
stones and cement sidewalks as nice as
any in the city. We have nice shade trees
to screen us from the dust and sun. Not
only must all these new improvements be
destroyed, but If the avenue is widened
into 81 foot boulevard, about IL feet
OF the front yards on each side of the
avenue must be condemned. thus bringing
the line of the new pavement within three
or four feet of our front porches. More
over, the paved boulevard would attract
hundreds of automobiles, motorcycles and
other vehicles, thus increasing the dust
and noise besides multiplying a hundred
| fold the danger to the public getting on
and off the cars. 1t is absurd to say
these changes would greatly enhance
values hereabouts.' On the contrary they
would greatly depreciate the value of the
small homes.
electricity and telephone system: the best
double tracked street car line entering
| the city: all of which would have to be
rearranged at the cost of the small own
| er, OF course. Add together the cost of
| betterments destroyed, depreciation of
values and cost OF new Improvements and
the sum will not be less than $500 to each
| small owner.
| Gentlemen, we beg you do not confis-
cate our small homes.
| ALLOW us to make a few suggestions to
you. Build the boulevard along q street
or streets that have not already been
| improved and put in excellent condition
| Do the work with conyicts and pay the
| cost out of the general taxation or bonds
Or perhaps better still, begin at both ends
| of Highland avenue and extend the boule-
ward both ways. The topography OF the
country along the edge of the valley and
| spurs OF Red mountain is such that the
boulevard could be made to wind in and
out through coyes, glsns, canons and bar
rancas in long sweeping reversed curves,
circles and loops. with now and then
graded ascents and descents that would
be the hearts delight of autosts and
cyclists. What If II should make it IS or
20 miles from Twentieth street to Roebuck
Springs? Autoists and cyclists have an
initiated distance, anyway, and besides it
would create a thousand ideal sites for
das and elegant country homes. You have
a landscape engineer at your command; ;
make beginning. What IL it does take
100000 and so years to complete the
boulevard from Gadsden TO Tuscaloosa? :?
1t would settle the convict question that
long, give the state millions of taxable
values and hurt nobody. One more sug-
gestion: While the city engineer is re-
naming Streets let him name the boule-
yard Avenida del Delcia.
GEORGE S. EARNEST.
Birmingham, March q, 1918. 5203 First
avenue
Collins Gives Objections
To the Editor of The Age Herald:
To pave a street q should say road)
from East Lake to Ensley and charge
the same, against abutting property
owners would be great wrong to a
large majority of such property owners
and be. in violation of section 323 of the
state constitution. which provides that
mo city . shall make any assess
ments for the cost of street paving
l. in excess OF the increased value
OF such property by reason of the spe-
cial benefits derived from such i'm
provements" 1t is estimated that this
pavement will cost about 5000 for each
50-foot lot. We all know that after
leaving the city proper the lots on
which there are modest cottages along
this route. as we'll as the many vacant
| lots and fields, would not be enhanced
in value 81 and could not be sold or
| rented for 81 more by reason of this
pavement. The man of small means who
| lives along this route has absolutely
no need for asphalt pavement and does
not want 1T; the cherted street is all
that the others in his community have
or will ever have and is all that he
needs or should be required to pay for
| If you will observe these homes now
you will find that most of them are
badly in need of paint and repairs.
and that the owners are struggling
by the hardest means to pay off mort
gage and 10-year debt for street i'm
provements. such as sidewalks, sewer,
etc. Along this route are fields of va