The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-21
Ciuic Problems Compared : By Real Estate eExecutiue
Starke Declares Disposition Should Be Guided
 By Study Of Future

Stressing the importance of develop ments here Sam c. Starke. executive secretary of the Birmingham Real Estate Board declared Saturday that never before have there been so many projects of immediate prospect and teneative nature looking to the welfare of the citizens.
 "Without assuming to take a definite stand one way or the other" Starke said, Zone. may say it is certainly en- tirely in line with civic duty for our citizens to think very carefully of the Birmingham of the future in which the heritage of the present is to play such a large part, It would seem the part of wisdom to watch our step at this time and not be led off in the wrong direc- tion by the appealing speciousness of this or that plan. which speciousness is entirely founded upon the tempting prospect of immediate or partial relief for present purposes.
 "The situation calls for large view and long look into>the future, to the Birmingham of half of million or a mil lion inhabitants. Fortunately it is also probably true that more of our citizens are thinking about and taking an in- terest in our large public projects than ever before. Under these conditions it is impossible to escape much divergence of views and resultant criticism when any project of great magnitude is finally decided upon. This is not only perfectly natural, but it is not with out actual value, for anticipation of adverse criticism is a challenge to think harder and act more carefully ....... Has Problem
 Birmingham is face to face today with the problem of separating the grade crossing in the downtown district, the location and erection of q public library with $650, ,000, the possible erec- tion of new county court house on a site that has already been bought for that purpose, the possible removal later on of the city hall from it's present location. The city has just completed a creditable auditorium. In this critical situation, the present is certainly the time fore our newspapers and all of our civic organizations, and our citizens to think largely and carefully of the Birm- ingham of the comparatively near fu- ture. Would it not be a pity if at this time we are induced to take even one false step in the program now before us, a step that, however expensive to retrace after q few years, still might have to be retraced regardless of ex- pense?
 "Take the matter of grade separa- tion. If all the interests of Birmingham could and would shut their eyes to the spacious and seductive allurement of some immediate and partial relief of a distressing situation, q partial relief that may be utterly subversiye of any proper and ultimate solution, if we could shut our eyes to such an allure ment and unite on the big and right thing for the future Birmingham, it is altogether possible that all of the con ficting interests could be brought to- gether to agree .on this plan and work to. that end, obtaining now a partial relief that would not imperil the ulti- mate and larger plan.
 Location Of Library
 Now comes the location and erec- tien of public library. Again there Is danger of a grave mistake. There are those who argue that with $650, ,000 It is impossible to secure a site by purchase and then erect an adequate building. To these there naturally comes the suggestion of utilizing a portion of public property, namely, Will son park, which they argue will leave practically all of the money for the reconstruction of a very handsome library that might indeed be more than ade- quate to meet the library demands of