Deming graphic. (Deming, N.M.) 1903-1948, 1913-02-21
HOW DEM|NG MAY
HAVE GOOD PARK
Temke Before Woman's Club
Outlines Work Proposed
by c. Of c.
WILL Be GREAT ASSET TO CITY
Points Out That Commons
Have Financial as Well as
Aesthetic Value.

Al the regular meeting of the
Woman's Club last Tuesday a. A.
Temke read an exhaustive paper on
Municipal Aesthetics. " The fol-
lowing is an excerpt:
There is no one feature of city
life which more greatly adds to its
beauty and attractivencss than a
well ordered park and boulevard
system. Yet it has been said that
Central Park, in New York City,
was the first place deliberately pro-.
vided for the inhabitants Of any
city or town in the United States for
exclusive use as a pleasure ground
for rest and exercise in the open
air. Before that, in many Of the
older cities and towns, there We're
commons or public grounds; but
the purpose of these was not to
furnish places for exercise and rec.
reation, but places where the own.
ers of domestic animals might pas
ture them in common. and they are
generally laid out as a part Of the
original plan of the town or city.
This was the practice in many of
the New England towns and cities,
and in many of them they now form
part Of the more or less elaborate
system of parks and boulevards.
Parks have not only an aesthetic
and health value, but also mate
rial financial value, and the latter is
largely the result of the former.
While there are many cities of its
size that have more elaborate sys-
TENS of parking and boulevards.
yet take FL Paso as an example.
They advertise the fact that their
parks and public grounds have a
financial value of something like
three millions of dollars. 1t has
also been the experience Of cities
that those having the most highly
developed park systems are the most
prosperous, since they attract peo-
pie and hold the most desirable
classes of citizens.
1t is well settled that providing
for public parks and boulevards is a
public purpose for which public
money may be expended. The pro-
motion of the pleasure of the public
is considered a public purpose for
which money may be used and taxes
laid, even if the pleasure is secured
merely by delighting one of the
senses.
Although the city as a whole is
benefited by parks and boulevards
yet the land in the immediate neigh,
borhood is especially benefited anC
enhanced in value, so that a portion
of the necessary cost may be as
sessed upon the land in the imme.
diate vicinity of the parks and boule
wards and especially benefited, ir
proportion to the benefits received
Thus we see that the end may b,
accomplished in several ways: by thC
individual citizens bearing all Of the
burden, by the municipality, usins
the public money and laying taxes
or by both the municipal and the in
dividual bearing the expense jointly
However, the most difficult oh
stacle to overcome in a matter o.
this kind is the beginning breaking
the ice, or the actual breaking q
ground as it were. and here agail
is largely where the citizens of
community; working as individual
comes in. think it can be don,
but it needs the cooperation of al
energetic and progressive citizens
to do It. take it that we are al
progressive and patriotic, that W,
} are proud Of our country, proud o
? our state and proud of our little city
l take it that we all think that Dem