Show I DIVIDING THE BLOCKS I It is all very woll to talk about splitting the big city blocks In the business part ftf town tho blocks are too large No one will dispute this There is much valuable land in the interior of the squares which should and could be put to good use Furthermore Fur-thermore tho land is now put to very baa use in that it Is employed for the storage of refuse goods boxes and litter generally That moro fires have not had their origin back of the stores and shops in the interior of the blocks is due moro to good fortune than to tho exercise of reasonable care Admitting all the evil that is charged and conceding all the benefit that will accrue and yet we fail to see that the public or municipality has anything to do with the dividing of the blocks The matter concerns con-cerns tho propertyowners of the respective I I squares and them alone It is not the citys affair If the propertyowners can arrange among themselves for opening a street buying the land by levying assessments assess-ments on the abutters well and good but if they cannot thus agree why should the city step in and compel them to do something I some-thing which they do not want done and from which they and not the public will I derive all tho benefit Some of tho blocks have already been I I divided but in every instance this has been done by the owners of tho hind who have either retained the ownership of the I street or voluntarily decile 1 the thoroughfare I thorough-fare to the city for the use and Occupation i of tho public Another bloc is soon to ba opened not by order ot tho city council I nor at the expense of tic public Thi iov I owners realize that by dividing tho bloAt i with a street they will obtain eighty rods i of valuable frontage on land that is now i i I valuable only for the potatoes that it will produce or the refuse that can be piled on it and they can afford to give away tuo ground for tbo street as they will get in j I return a frontage that will bo worth not I less than lOCO a foot In their case the scheme is one for makinc money just as it I jWAo1o1o has been in every instance where streets have been run through tbe squares We believo it would pay the owners of everyone of the big blocks in tbd business centre of town to open streets at least one way through the centres of the sand s-and that where buildings interfere these could be bought by mutual assessment but if tho landowners cannot be made to seethe see-the thing in this light why should they bo I forced into our way of thinking and why should the municipal government interfere to compel the owners of time land to do something against which their own judy ment ran 3 We are heartily in favorof dividing the blocks of utilizing the vacant land and of doing away with tho rubbish heaps but we are in favor of Mio opening being done b y those who will derive t he greatest benefit and done voluntarily the matter being one which does not concern tho mu I icipality I |