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Show Bj To Make a City Beautiful. H The city administration is doing much to im- B prove this city, and the citizens could help very much in that work. Some months ago we gave H an outline of the work of the Merchants' club of V Chicago. That club gave the great architect, Mr. H Burnham, a commission to lay out some great H boulevards, parks, etc., to beautify the city, to H make drives through the most attractive portions of it and designate sites for public buildings. H Now the Hamilton club of the same city, a very H strong organization, has put out a civic program, H containing twenty-seven articles for the beauti- fying of the -city. Those include, first, the abate-H abate-H ment of the smoke nuisance, so far as possible, H without lessoning the industrial prosperity and H without working unnecessary hardships on owners of factories, office and apartment buildings. H To promote this the club proposes the diffusian H of knowledge concerning the best practical means H for the consumption of fuel, the use of bettor H grades of coal and the instruction of engineers H and firemen in the management of steam plants; Bj the substitution of electric power for steam in all suburban traffic, and the elimination of the H locomotive within the city limits. Then an of-H of-H fort will be made to abate all unnecessary noises H and, so far as possible, to do away with offensive H odors. Then it wants municipal control of the fronts of all buildings to be erected in the busi-H busi-H ness center, to designate their character and style, with a view of establishing uniform build- ing lines, and this latter feature they will urge H along the boulevards and residence streets. B They want, too, as many aesthetic features as B possible in building. They want all obstructions in the streets removed, re-moved, and on the sidewalks; more artistic gas and lamp and electric light posts; patrol boxes; the regulation of sign-boards with the purpose of their gradual abolition, especially on residence streets; more activity on the part of the Municipal Muni-cipal Art Commission and the diffusion of a bettor bet-tor knowledge of its duties among the citizens, city, officials, builders, publio and private contractors con-tractors and property owners. The . avowed purpose is to make "a city beautiful" beau-tiful" on the shores of Lake Michigan. They claim they have the livost city In the world; that its business is expanding wonderfully; some are modest enough to expect the financial center of the country to soon move to the center of the country's wealth the Mississippi valley, and of course to Chicago, and with the mighty advance as the great trade center they mean to make it a city to be as much sought after because of its beauty as because of its wealth, trade and power. In some respects Salt Lake might emulate what Chicago is doing and what it proposes. Certainly the smoke nuisance here might be much abated; the signs that disfigure the streets might be eliminated or changed; there should be more drinking places for animals, and should be so constructed as not to leak; there should be here and there an iron bench for pedestrians to rest on; there might be more graceful fronts on some of the new houses; as soon as practical the poles ought to disappear from the center of the streets; more trees should be planted in the residence res-idence districts, and those now here should be bettor pruned; there are a groat many things which the citizens by a little concert of action might bring about to make the city more beautiful beau-tiful than it now; is. |
