Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-05-15

WHAT EVERY CITY SHOULD HAVE

OF a city plan for civic development. AT the present tme ID city Is
working in the dark and at cross purposes. Some citizens want one
thing and some another; some insist that one idea is the best for the
city, development while others declare that only their plan will work
to the advantage of the municipality. It is safe to say that not one has
any real idea as to how their respective propositions will work out in
connection with the city as a whole and what the effect will be twenty
five years hence.
Any farsighted person in South Amboy must have known that
sooner or later that holein-thewall problem would have to be met.
II, after the previous agitation, South Amboy had engaged an expert
to work out a city plan providing for the hole wal in connec-
ton with the growth of the city as a whole, including Mechanics
vile, laying out an extensive waterfront development and solving
other municipal problems, including water works and sewers, South
Amboy, today, would be in a position to meet the county and state
with a proposition of her own designed to solve the hole-in-the-wal
problem and at the same time work in with a whole scheme of munich
pal development that would provide for the future growth of the
city along well laid plans. @
Not for an instant would a great industry covering thousands Of
ceres be without a comprehensive plan setting forth every feature Of
the plant and providing for the enlargement for the next twenty-five
years No business man would think of establishing a great factory
without a plan and every step taken after the plant was once estab-
ished would be in accordance with that plan thereby making all de-
partments of the plant work in harmony and with the greatest saw
ing of expense and labor.
But a city is a large industry. 1t has its factories. its homes
schools, churches, libraries and recreation centers. 1t has its parks
and cemeteries. 1t has its harbor and rail facilities. its street trans
portatlon, sewers and water works. 1t has all the problems of a great
Industry spending hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in the
operation OF the plant. 1t has its Board of Aldermen to take the nlace
OF a Board of Directors, the taxpayers representing the Stockholders
VI course, under our cumbersome and complicated method of
municipal government with so many boards in charge Of various do
partments' each one working Independent of the other. it is pretty
nard TO get good results. This is where the commission form of GOV.
ernment comes Ia FOR cities. Under such a government a commission
oihVe or seven m n arr elected to handiethe whole city, the commis-I
non sitFng together a a whole, but each commissioner having charge
:. q oerlah department covering every phase of muniGpa work In
n way all branches of the city government r operate> FROM. II
u : O0ay and there is the proper cooperation that goes to make up
u successful administration.
Still better is tho ideao ado,+od / .- - |
having a general manager engaged by the city commission . n .
pert IN municipal work, to operate the whole citv and mt - ~
paying DasiS' just a a general manager of a private industry would
AaVe full charge of the operation of the industry. The MANAGER ofI
tue industry would operate the plant. as efficiently and IS econoni-j
,y as possible for the benefit of the stockholders; Just 50 would
NE city manager operate the city in a n efficient and economical
manner % TN benefit OF the taxpayers. Under such a system poli-
tis has no more to do with the running of the city than it. has 70 10
WIN the running of a factory. With such a method of government
the carrying out of a city plan that has met with the approval of!
ire taxpayers is a comparatively simple matter.
But no matter what the system of government nay be. the CITY
pan Is necessary II the city is to grow and develop along lines that
will work to the greatest advantage in the future as we'll a at the
present time. South Amboy is having brought home to Il forc;bIv
the deslrabllty OF having an adequate city plan right now in solving
the holein-the- wall problem.
Perth Amboy is facing a great harbor development; there must.
be street railway expansion and the building up of new residential
sections. All this requires the extension of sewers. water mains. the
establishment of parks and other municipal features. They should
all work together and combine to make one great metropolis. The
harbor development should have its proper relation to the parks and
recreation centers; the extension of the street railways should CO.
ordinate with the building up of residential sections and these resi-
'""0h onOm oe projected nuuStf1al encrOachment |
but no mistake should be made in getting the residences where the
future growth of the city may show that factories should be. Some
streets should have trunk sewers and large water mains to take care
OF branch streets when they are developed. These things should be
attended &c when first laid instead of laying mains suitable for pres
ent needs only to tear them up a few years hence to put down larger
ones to take care of new development.
The only way to meet this situation and develop the city along
comprehensive lines is to have a plan, and to get a plan an expert
should be engaged, just as a corporation would engage an expert
architect to lay out its plant. By the expenditure of a few thousand
dollars now for a city plan to work by, hundreds of thousands of
dollars will be saved the taxpayers of the future and we will have 4
city built along practical lines that will make it the great metropolisI
that it ought to be, all parts working for the advancement of the
whole. |