Evening star., 1940-01-08
Cleveland Uses Parks to Make
Healthier and Better Citizens
Mdde-Western City Gets More for Money
Spent on Recreation Areas Than Washington

dump to completion without ever
having a contractor called in to do
skilled work 1t is surprising to the
observer to see w. P. Adult field
houses and facilities in other cities,
while the same type of improvement
is done extensively under contract
in Warrington.
Both parks and recreation, with
the exception of recreation work
under the Board of Education, are
under one Office in Cleveland. Mr..
Varga, as director of parks and pub
lie property, has under him divi-
sion of parks. division of recrea-
ton and a division of horticulture.
He is directly responsible to the
Mayor and the City Council and the
department is powerful and inde-
pendent.
The grouping of these three re-
lated governmental divisions under
one head gives them an. enviable
unanimity Of purpose. The parks
division concentrates on malnte-
nance and other purely park mat
tiers, while the recreation division
takes care of practically all recrea-
ton in the city. supervised (play-
grounO activities and unsupervised
fadult) activities. The division OF
horticulture concentrates on grow
ing things, particularly trees. both
street and park trees.
Shade Tree Survey.
A step in proper tree maintenance
in Cleveland hailed by park men
and horticulturists all over the coun-
try, is a voluminous survey of all
shade trees in the city. This has
given officials the knowledge of just
what to do in the way of planting
and disease control and is expected
to make Cleveland unequaled for its
trees by any other city in the coun-
try.
Such has been the success of the
tree survey that the recreation di-
vision is about to complete compre-
hensive three-volume survey of the
recreation needs of the city. some
thing few cities have to such a de-
tailed extent and something which
will serve as guide for future de-
velopment.
Each division, under Mr. Varga,
seems to do its work efficiently and
to have the fullest cooperation OF
civic groups in the city For instance,
there is a large advisory board on
recreation which has aided in the
preparation of the recreation sur
vey.
Already the park and Fairgrounds
systems development for human use
far surpasses Washington's and more
land and more facilities are being
sought as the public becomes more
and more of a mind that money
spent in this way is money well
spent.
Board of EducatiOn's Part.
Cleveland's Board of Education,
which shares with the Department
of Parks and Public Property the
burden of providing supervised play
ground activities for the city, main
tains about 60 small summer play
grounds and a number of community
centers. The grounds are very small
compared to park areas and their de-
velopment cannot be compared with
that OF the park properties.
Cleveland has, in addition to its
city park and playground system, a
large metropolitan park system. 1t
is administered in much the same
way as H. S. Wagners system in
nearby Akron. w. A. Stinchcomb,
director secretary of the Cleveland
Metropolitan Park System, super
vises a system of 1900 acres which
stretches at distances up to 20 miles
from the heart of the city, from
the Lake Erie shore on the east to
the Lake Erie shore on the west, in
rough semi-circle.
Herein. is etery conceivable type
of facility from sitting to football
and baseball, from golf to mumblety-
pegs, at the same time in setting
as beautiful as anything in Rock
Greek Park. Development here, as
in the Akron metropolitan parks,
is the salient feature. w. p. A..
c. c. c. and other forms of relief
labor have. built bridges, shelters,
bathhouses-a host of facilities
which are done under contract in
Washington at direct expense to
District taxpayers, and for this rea-
son usually not done at all.
Picture series of parks surround
ing the city of Washington from
Seneca, Md, to Fort Washington,
Md. and from Mount Vernon to the
Potomac shore opposite Seneca. Md
That's what some of these Middle
Western cities are getting.