Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-04-17
CITY PLANNING
/. IS URGED TODAY
Engineers Talk Follows Trip
of Inspection in Different
Parts of City y

Get a plan, know what you want to
do, then carry it out intelligently, was
the message given to the city, by Perry
r. MacNeille, engineer and town plan
ner of the Mann & MacNeilie, archi-
tects and construction engineers Of
New York, at the members forum OF
the Board of Trade, held in the Elk S
building at noon today.
The forum was opened with the
singing of America by the audience,
under the direction of L. w. Ballou
of Camp Raritan, following which
luncheon was served. Following the
luncheon, Peter c. Olsen, introduced
the speaker of the forum Mr.. Mac
Nellie.
Before the forum. Mr.. MacNeille.
accompanied by, Mayor Frank Dor
sey, President of the Board of Erade,
l. T. Madsen, Peter c. Olsen, ]. Logan
Clevenger and DIR. NJ. ]. Brown, made
an automobile trip about the city, visi-
ting the water front. the cemetery and
covering the territory in the vicinity
of the Convery Place bridge in an ef-
fort to see in just what way city
plan would benefit this city.
Mr.. MacNei1le told of his work with
the governmento-how he had worked
for the various branches in the inter-
est of the winning of the war and has
finally been appointed to aid the Ord
nance Department In it's housing
question and how he had advocated
houses to relieve the housing situa-
ton in this city. He informed the
people present that the housing ques-
tion was not only serious here, but
throughout the country, and that the
ending of the war had left many
things undone by the government
which would have been completed had
the battles continued to rage.
Impressed Wiih City.
He told of his trip about the city
in the morning and said that he was
impressed with the wide streets and
good paving and that this was a good
basis on which to build a town. To
many people city plan looks like a
beautiful picture, said the speaker,
primarily it is picture. but the plan
itself is in the mans brain. He told
how dressmaker must have a plan
before she can begin work on a beau
tful dress, or a salesman must know
what he is going to sell before he
starts out to sell his article, or how
a company building factory must see
the plant or else they will build one
down and rebuild 1t.
He told of a man who he met on a
train, who had four toy factories, six
banks and a number of other things,
and has taken over a hotel and made
a success of it after the hotel had
been run at 6, loss to the bond hold
ers. In order to make the hotel pay
he put in an accountant to see where
the leaks were. He likened this to a
city and said the first thing to find out
is If there are any leaks. and IL the
moneys are being expended in the
right way.
The expert can find these facts out,
because If the plan was successful
with one hotel or city 1t will be sue
cessful with another and in this man.
ner the worth of the expert to work
on the plan is proven.
The problem that looms up here is
parks. said the>speaker, where they
are need. Some want them on the
water front property. others claim
that this property should be used for
docks, others want parks on the hill
tops, others think there should be
more than one park. Some want
more trolley lines. others think that
trolley lines won't pay. These are
questions which must be answered,
said Mr.. MacNielle.
In closing Mr.. MacNeille urged the
people of the city to support the city
planning commission and hold up
their hands. No one can. carry it
through unless it is backed by the
people of the city, said the speaker.
The forum today was one of the
most largely attended so far. There
were fourteen representatives from
the Woman's Club present.