Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1916-07-13

such City Planning Commissions. Ir
other states such as our own, thu
Home Rule provision in state consti
tutions makes such specific law
unnecessary.
Three of the largest universities
have adopted courses in city plan
ling.
The Commission of Conservation
OF Canada, (Which would be more ac-
curately named, The Commission on
General Welfare), has adopted as one
or its main lines of effort a spreading
Ci the city plan idea Some u t'.e
TO eCs of the Dominion have taken
VI tie matter by special legis aciUr.
ST. Louis held, in April '91j, a
Future st. Louis" exhibit, under the
auspices of its City Planning Com
mission.
New York will, this fall, open a
training school for city planning and
community center workers.
Governor Walsh of Massachusetts
called state conference of members
of city planning boards, held in Bos-
ton last December.
A state meeting of the Commercial
and Civic clubs of Texas has started
campaign for the adoption of city
plans by Texas cities, bringing in
trained specialists from New York
to tour the state and lecture on the
subject.
In February last Sacramento as a
result of campaign conducted for
three years by a committee of $50
of its leading business men, adopted
city plan devised for it by an ex-
pert from Boston.
A Metropolitan City Planning ex-
hibit was held in Boston with an at
tendance of over $4,000. November
IA was made City Planning Sunday
with meetings in churches in fur
therance of the idea, just as Temper
ance Sundays have been held over the
country in the cause of Prohibition.
The British government is plan
ming a new capitol for Australia to
be situated 70 miles inland in New
South Wales. The first move was
to call for competitive designs for
a city plan, which will be adopted
before the turning of sod. They
plan to make this one of the most
beautiful cities in the world.
Street Plans
The great waste in capital and
land due to hit and miss system of
plattings with no general street plan
makes this consideration a most i'm
portant phase of city planning.
The three street plans now in use
are, the checkerboard or right angle
plan, the diagonal plan, and the ring
or concentric plan. An ideal ar
rangement would be combination
of these. The checkerboard is the
plan most common in American cities.
1t wastes much land and compels the
going round two sides of right angle
to get from one point to another not
on the same street
Washington, our most beautiful
city, is the best example in America
Of the diagonal plan. indianapolis |
is fair example. This plan T. an
advance over the checkerboard and |
contributes to an economic handling
Of urban traffic.
The circle plan had its beginning
in those European cities formerly
surrounded by walled fortification
which in later days was razed and .
on its site fine boulevard built. |
Vienna is perhaps the best example,
whose Ring Strasse is one of the fin
est streets in the world.
Money Saved
By far the most important feature
Of this street plan phase of city plan
ming is the economic, the strictly dol
lar and cent value of having a city
On right lines. Whole districts have
been razed in Paris. London, Rome
and a score of smaller cities to give
'oom for new streets and plazas, or
20 serve as arteries for vastly in
traffic. The improvements
along this line in Paris under Louis
Napoleon cost S265, 100000.
An engineer estimated that the
'ost of certain improvements made
n San Francisco was $4,000, 900 in
excess of what it would have been
lad the city been planned to con-
orm to topography.
A competent real estate man in a
smaller California city figured what
would have been the value of the lots
If the city had it developed along
he line of city plan then unuer
discussion, and found that the as
essed valuation of the city would
ave been n nnr cent orna tar hnd thn