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Show STREET ORNAMENTATION, Some Views by Property Owners Upon the Resolution. Tho romarks in Sunday's Hekjlu on tho city council "resolution in relation re-lation to ornamenting the streets" has called forth the following communications, communi-cations, all of which were written by property owners in this city: Salt Lake City, March 29th, 1S75. Editors Salt Lake Herald; Whatever motive impelled the city council to pass tho "Resolution in relation to ornamenting the streets" on tho li;id instant, the subject, in the manner proposed, is of such a novel charactor that it cannot fail to excite much comment among tho people; and it must strike- every reflecting mind, at first sight at least, as being impracticable. That a city liko ours, with very few exceptions, does not need streets one hundred and thirty-two feet in width for actual travel and trallic, is Loo plain to need refutation; and the original design must be considered to have been mado with a view to sanitary more than to commercial purposes. Our present Bystem of sidewalks leaves a apace olsay fivo rods for the street uroner. Dwllirt frnm thin Hip now proposed space of twenty-lour feet in the centre, and it leaves a street on each side of twenty-nine feet in width. But to make such "ornamentation'os now proposed, of any practical avail and enjoyment; it will be necessary to make a sidewalk side-walk on each side of the enclosure of say ten feet for it should bo made wide enough to allow two couples to pass each other without inconvenience inconveni-ence thus leaving a street only nineteen nine-teen feet wide on each side, a apace entirely insufficient for practical purposes. pur-poses. It may bo suggested that our present sidewalks are too wide, aud that even their present wdth is not one and one-half rods, as above calculated. cal-culated. To this I answer that it would be a great hardship to require the people to cut down or otherwise remove their shade trees; and that the width, including the water ditch, if not in most, at least in many localities, local-ities, dois not fall far short of one and one-half roils. As a sanitary measure, the plan, systematically carried through, could not fail to be of much practical benefit. ben-efit. With the increase of population and diversified industries, there is a proportionate increase of noxious substances which have a tendency to surcharge the surrounding atmosphere atmos-phere with carbon and other chemical ingredients detrimental to animal life, but which, in the economy of nature, are consumed by, and servo1 to advance the growth of the veget-i j able creation, such as trees, flowers, I etc. But situated as we are, the precaution in the now proposed; direction, is not of so much ! importance as a less favored locality ! would render necessary. For not only have we a"garden city "pen- excel- Uncet but we have hygienic advantages advan-tages such as few other cities can claim. Not only are we situated in an open country, and on the shores' of a lake, the watersof which have such a chemical composition as to be inimical to miasmatic animalculte, but we are surrounded with innumer. able canons and mountain gorges which serve as so many immense lungs, or bellows, to keep the air in constant agitation, nd thus they carry on a never ceasing purification: process of the atmosphere. It is Tery doubtful whether the proposed pro-posed plan would serve as an orna- j ment to the city. In the first place, I in order to be appreciable, the plan must be adopted on a large scale. Ann Deing exposeu io me puunc gaze, it will naturally be subject to a proportionately pro-portionately severe criticism, and it ! should be arranged and kept up with care and taste. To accomplish the main object of ornamentation it requires re-quires taste, means, leisure. Taste presupposes a culture ot the mind such as few have acquired on account of their limited opportunities, and in some instances because ot want ol inclination. in-clination. In the majority of instances the people have not means enough to warrant an extra outlay for planting and gardening, and the leisure of the different individual owners is not sufficient suf-ficient for personal attention even were such personal attention practicable, practic-able, which it is not, for if attempted it would soon lapse into that chaotic state which always characterizes "e very bodys-business is-nobodya- business." bus-iness." The city council amid not grant suon a privilege for a les distance than the length of an entire block for it certainly can not be the intention to have patches of three, five or ten rods scattered here and there throughout through-out the city, with the streets cut up with water ditcher and overflowing with waste water, which would not only bo an inconvenience and nuisance, nuis-ance, but would bo anything but an ornament. But even granting that whole blocks for a considerable distance dis-tance were planted, and even well taken care of, it is questionable whether it were possible to keep it up, especially flowers, lawns, etc., in a state that would suggest beauty; for it must bo remembered that the enclosure enclo-sure would be subjected to clouds of dust on both sides which would fill the leaves and flowers, and atop their natural breathing apparatus, and make them look diny and faded. One great obstacle in the way of the Dlan is, that it would have to be made m the middle of the road-bod where many of the streets are ballasted with debris, chips of stone, and coarse gravel, and material unfit lor the growth of flowers and shrubbery, and it would require an extra outlay and labor to niako it a success. If the object of the proposed plan be to beautify and increase the sanitary sani-tary condition of tho city, it could be accomplished in a diflerent manner, and with less in convenience. Why not improve our public squares? and if those we have already are not sufli- 3 cieut, why not provide for additional parks in the suburbs of the city? , Again, if the object be to lessen tho expense of keeping the Btreets in , repair, on account of their great width, why not grant to the inhabi- , tants the right to occupy the present , sidewalks, and make new sidewalks on the street proper. Most persons would not be likely to object to get the privilege of increasing their present pre-sent grounds by an additional twenty feet. Sioubd RirpE. STREET ORNAMENTATION. Editors Herald: An editorial article, headed as above, appeared in the Hekald ot Sunday, seeming to invito opinions from correspond en ta on tho subject named, affords an opportunity to express, ex-press, briefly, my views. Reference being had to an advertisement in your paper, I find a certified copy of a " Resolution passed by the City Council" ol Salt Lake City, March 23d, 1&75, which was evidently the basis of your remarks alluded to above. Thero is no questioning the fact that trees and shrubbery and flowers 1 aud lawns add very much to the beauty and health fulness of a town or city, and to my viow the chief attraction at-traction in and about Salt Lake City is to be found in her fruit and shade trees, as well, perhaps, as her streams of water, and thero is no doubt of the fact that her attractions will increase in the same ratio as these increase. I have, more than once, pointed out (by your courtesy), in tho columns of the Herald, tho advantage to be obtained by improving, beautifying and ornamenting the various public blocks in tho city, but '.his, though really within the control of the city council, seems not to have been carried car-ried on to any great extent. There is also abundant Bcope for the dieplay ol taste, and the expenditure expendi-ture of monoy in tho improvement, ornamonUtion and embellishment of the country. This, too, would be withm the jurisdiction of the municipality, muni-cipality, but hitherto ettms to have been partially overlooked or noglect-ed. noglect-ed. One reason for such neglect, I presume, grows out of the limited water supply in that portion of the city. Should the citizens who may happen to own lots or blocks in that part of the city where the streets are " eight rods in width " (other parts of the city, bo it observed, are deprived de-prived of the privilege), desire to avail themselves of the privilego of increasing their possessions by " gobbling" gob-bling" the 24 feet of ground tendered ten-dered by the city council, they could not get their trees and flowers, shrubbery shrub-bery and lawns to grow' without n . -r ,i. ..,, .i iB not now enough water to keep alive the trees already standing. Where, then, is tho supply of water to come from with which to irrigate these private pleasure grounds. On tho bench in the 20th ward, hundreds of families are living without with-out water except what they haul in wagons and ' soul cart " in buckets. These families are and have been forj years, knocking at the door of the city council and begging lor water water to drink, to cook and wash their linen. I believe they are uniformly uni-formly told that there iB no water to spare to them. If this be true, how will the owners of property on the wido streets obtain water to irrigate their lawns ? But there is another view of this question which, perhaps, it would be wise for the city council and citizens who may wish to fence up the public streets, to observe: I suppose there is a city attorney whose duty it is (when called on) to advise the city fathers as to the legality of their acts. If bo, perhaps it would be well to inquire what control the council bos over the streets of the city? I take it for granted ttiat the streets and alleys belong to the public, and cannot by a "resolution" be appropriated to private uses. Thoy are public highways high-ways and must, when needed, bo kept open for tho benefit of the people. Let me supposo, for the purpose of illustrating my idea, that the Walker Brothers (who, I think, own the ground occupied by their store at the corner of East Temple and Second I South streets, and who also own the ground oppesite the Elephant store,) should decide to avail themselves of the "privilege" granted in the resolution resolu-tion referred to, and that they should proceed to fence in twenty-four feet in width of the street in front of these stores. How ornamental wouli such an enclosure appear in that locality ? or how long would the public who own, and who use, and have a right to use, that street, submit to be barred from the privilege of passing over the ground? There are many objections that might be urged to the' proposed plan of ornamentation, bul I think enough has been pointed out to show the impracticability im-practicability of the scheme. If there existed no other, the doubt as to the right of the council to enlarge the possessions of a private individual by subtracting from that of the public, ought, in my opinion, to induce the cuy council to rescina mat resolution" resolu-tion" at once, and encourage by some other means the ornamentation of the city. Lawtib. ANOTHER OPPOSING EXPRMilON. Editors Herald: In Sunday's issue you invited correspondence cor-respondence on the resolution adopted by the city council permitting the use of twenty-four feet of the centre of streets for ornamentation. When I first saw the ordinance I thought it was intended for an April joke, but when you wrote upon the subject I looked at it seriously. I do not agree with any man who says our streets are too wide. Narrow them, and travel winter and summer in the same track or ruts, and it will at once necessitate paving, with an expense ex-pense of millions of dollars. As it now is, if duBty or muddy on one side, we can change to the other; and where is the man who can say that we have any too much room on Main street now? Then look ahead if you please twenty years, and see this great centre of the west with one hundred thousand inhabitants, and say we have too much room. We had better spend our means (if we have any surplus) in making more good crossings, planting out I shade trees where there are none, fill up a few holes with the extra cobble lying around loose on our streets, making a short carriage drive, laying out a small park or improving im-proving those public squares no w ly i n g id le. B uild water works so that wo can sprinkle out fires aud wot the streets. Has it ever occurred to anybody wha tha rat will h tn aimnlv funra thpfift streets on both sides? and this would have to be done to preserve the shrubs and trees. and who ever could keep th boys out? The expense of trees, grass, and plants, say nothing of the water required, and which we cannot spare, would be something huge. And then how beautiful will all this look covered over with dust? No' gentlemen, gentle-men, if you must "go back on" the wise plans and founders of this beautiful beau-tiful city do it in such a way that it will pay. Let us move out to the edce ol the street, cut off a side-walk twelve or fifteen feet, plant another row of shade trees, then we will have beauty aud improvement. Then per-' per-' mit us to cut these long blocks in two, 1 with a fifty foot street in the centre, 1 and thus enhance the value of our property. But, above all, let us not spoil these broad and commodious ' streets, which the wise founders of this1 j city gave, and for which future gen-i gen-i orations will ever be grateful, t H. J. |