Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1913-03-08
THE CITY PARK
WHAT SHALL Be DONE I?
With a Place That is More or
Less An Ugly Scar to City's
Beauty.
TRESPASSERS THOUGHTLESS.
Wanted-A Solution of KuOttv Question
Now Puzzling Civic League And
Others.

In the spirit of absolute fairnei il
is the intention of this article to dis.
cuss with the view to solving in the
most practical manner a matter of
civic interest to Annapolis. Ii wjuld
be useless to enumerate the many
praisewoI thy attributes of our city,
for praise is too self-satisfying and
we do no want to be too we'll salts
fed-it stagnates. 1t would be equal
ly useless to resort to uni air criticism
even for the sake of a lively story.
for this embitters, and we are all
bitter enough-even in psace ful An
napOils.
The problem in point is what
shall we do with the City Park?" In
the mind of the writer one of two So
lutions should be followed out and
there is no better time than the i'm
mediate present to decide che mat
ter, and to follow up the decision
with prompt action. 1t is action that
counts. The two methods in question
are First, to eliminate the park al
together; cutting down the trees,
taking away of the curbing, and the
destroying of the foundation already
laid for the erection of a memorial.
The second is the maintaining of the
space as a park, but to make the
improvements necessary to entitle it
to its ambitious name. And further.
and the important thing, to look
after its up-keep after the required
improvements have been made.
AS to the first solution, the elimi-
nation of the park. it might be well
to consider some pertinent points.
Is che space occupied by the park
required by our market in order to
have adequate room for the carrying
on of brsiness ION market days?
And, further, if the space could be
utilized to advantage by our market
interests, could we. after laying the
foundation of a city memorial here,
take the backward step of undoIng a
work of this nature? But consider
ing that all thugs yield to necessity,
such a step would probably be justi-
fed were the necessity urging it
stI ong enough.
Then as to the second solution of
the questionable reten, ion of the
place as park but impro wing it so
that it might lend sttraci iveness and
possible beauty to our city, instea
of being an ugly scar, as it most as
suredly is in it's present Itate of ne :
glect. In this connection, the wis
dom of the expenditure of funds for
this purpose is questioned by some
pc rsons perhaps, on the ground that
the public would not be sufficiently
appreciative Of the improved park to
preserve it. The sounduess of this
view is questioned by the writer, for
| it i natural to assume that the peo-
pie of Annapolis are so lacking in
| aesthetic taste as net to appreciate
| a public betterment of this sort?
And should some of our wavward boys
or theughtless transient element
| (who are inclined to misuse this spsce)
fe Il disposed to trespass or destroy,
we surely have the same legal means
of preserving public property in our
city as are had in other cities. And
the maintenance of a public square in
the heart of a city is not an altogeth-
er unheard cf procedure. Such ar
argument, it seems, is just as appli
cable to the parked space around the
State House as it is to the space at the
end of Main street.
Che State House lawn is neither
fenced nor patrolled by special off.
Ger, yet the cases of trespassing here
/ are by no means appalling. Agair
it is argued that all attempts TO main.
tain a parked space here have be-
futile, and hence why try? We must
remember that we are now in an age
| of progression--an age of doing, an
that the results attained by this do
ing are limited only by the effort put
forth and it seems that the incen
tive in this case, the elimination of
city-wide eyesore. should most Ger
tainly be worthy enough to beget 1
good average effort, and this averag,
effort is all that ought to be neces
sary to keep few boys or trampi
from destroying a piece of the pub
lies property.
Good people of Annapolis, let this
be an appeal to you to interest your
selves in this matter of civic pride
and show that you eau do something
that has been a little hard for th'
other fellow 70 do heretofore. Th'
Unprecedented, you must remember
is now the order of the day since
schoolmaster has jumped from tn
professors chair to the presidency o
this nation in the short space of
couple of years.
OTTTzEN