borne by the community in one way or another, whoever in the first instance provides the land and money. It is therefore equally to the interest of the owner and the public to ensure the best type of development. Let us contrast the growth of Cologne with what has taken place in Chicago where a town of two million people has been developed at such a rapid rate that some still living can remember when there was only a settlement of a few hundred people there. This town has grown on a simple gridiron plan, if such can rightly be called a plan, dividing up the land into rectangular building blocks, of much the same size whether the land is wanted for factories or shops, palaces or cottages. At first no provision was made for open spaces, main wide roads were not then thought of, and the result has been perhaps the greatest aggregation of disorganised units of population that have ever been brought together. Chicago, which contains within itself a wonderful amount of public spirit backed by true American energy, is now seeking at enormous cost to rectify these mistakes and has indeed done great things already. It has secured a number of fine parks, and recovered and preserved long stretches of lake front; it has made and planted miles of magnificent boulevards and avenues, "park ways" as they are called in America. You may ride in a motor hour after hour round Chicago and the whole of the time be travelling along its park-ways and through the parks and hardly leave them. This Green Girdle is indeed, a wonderful creation. They have, too, bought here and there one or more of these building blocks, and have laid them out as playgrounds for the children. Unfor-
Page:Old Towns and New Needs.djvu/66
This page has been validated.
44
THE TOWN EXTENSION PLAN
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Old_Towns_and_New_Needs.djvu/page66-1024px-Old_Towns_and_New_Needs.djvu.jpg)