The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1926-03-18
CITY PLANNING
MEETING MARCH 20
(Continued from Page d

NCOHIinueu ITOm rage
of medium and small size have in
creased even more rapidly.
Planning a town or city be-
fore settlement is made has great
advantages. Of this type, Wash
ington is the most notable illus
tration. But it is seldom possible
to foresee with accuracy the
future of a town or a city, or to
plan for it from the beginning.
when however small popu-
lation has been attracted to town
by natural causes and there are
indications that because of situ-
alton, climate, the trend of trade
and commerce an important city
is to be established, then If ac-
ton is taken soon enough il is en-
tirely practicable to replan so as
to provide satisfactorilya for its
future.
"The gravest neglect is the
failure to replan and replan to
meet increased demands, to use
art and skill and foresight to re-
model existing conditions, and also
to mould and fit for use the new
outlying territory about to be
occupied. The emphasis, it would
seem, needs to be placed less or
the original plan, and more on re-
planning.
Throughout the United States
there are cities with comparative
ly easy opportunities to improve
their water frontages, to group
their public buildings, to widen
their main. streets, to provide for
transportation, and to set aside
the areas necessary for recreation.
Yet, until recently the people of
most of these cities have stood
listless, without the business
sense, skill, or courage to begin
a work that must sooner or later
be done.
''The small cities of the United
States have not made many of the
improvements that are so essen
tial to modern life. Their streets
are still INSTRUCTED and rendered
dangerous as well by unsightly
poles and wires; their school
grounds are usually too small;
their Fairgrounds inadequate and
undeveloped; their water fronts
unattractive, wastefully admins
tered; their parks detached tracts
of land unrelated one to the other.
The small cities have not yet solv-
ed the serious problems related to
railroad grade crossings. They
have not acted comprehensively
with regard to main streets or
pleasure driving or street extern
sions in general. In brief they
have not applied the business-like
and economical methods of the
city-making. The American city
still suffers in many ways from
haphazard, piecemeal, and short
sighted procedure.
Fortunately a change is appar-
ent. In all sections of our broad
land they are beginning to throw
aside the outgrown and discredit-
ed methods of an era that it would
be pleasant to forget. This wide
spread civic awakening is no
vague movement with vague and
indefinite aims. II seeks to pro-
vide convenience in streets and
buildings, to meet the demands of
public health, to recognize the
true, function and place of art, TO
regard obligations to future gen.
erations, to supply the imperative
needs of children, to satisfy the
love of nature and the desire for
outdoor life.
"But the form of this civic
that is most significant
is the recognition of the need of
comprehensive planning and re-
planning of the smaller cities,
where so much is practicable.
This is not movement to make
towns beautiful in a superficial
sense. Its purposes are funda-
mental. It aims consciously to
provide those facilities that are
for the common good, that con-
Germ everybody.
at seeks to save waste, the al
most incalculable waste due to
unskilful and planless procedure,
for by doing these things at the
right time and in the right way
comprehensive city planning saves
far more than its cost. 1t en-
beavers also to establish the in
dividnality of city,-to catch its
peculiar spirit, to preserve its