Page:Report of the Park Board 1903.djvu/70

 it seems likely to trouble the minds of the individuals interested in the sale of the lands in small lots, but at any rate it is unquestionably a serious matter, and one which ought to be considered by the city government and by the citizens at large as one of the strongest possible reasons in support of the idea of taking these steep hillsides for public pleasure grounds.

It should not be assumed that the improvement of these lands, if taken by the city, need necessarily involve any very great expense. There is no reason why they should be improved in the smooth and semi-formal fashion adopted in the City Park. Until the city has greatly increased in wealth, all that will be necessary would be a comparatively narrow mountain drive and a few narrow trails. In some places, trestles or bridges might be required to carry the drive across gullies or canyons, but for a generation or two, these might be chiefly built of wood. For some years, at any rate, the drive would answer quite well enough if surfaced with earth. Being intended for light pleasure vehicles only, a hard, heavy macadam surface is not essential, especially if the drive is closed to use during and shortly after wet weather.

It seems reasonable to suppose that after a thorough examination and discussion of the matter, many of the large land owners would be willing to give these steep hillsides to the city for park purposes, or, at any rate, to sell them at comparatively low rates. There will remain, doubtless, numbers of owners of small pieces of land needed to complete the system, who will have purchased it at relatively high prices in times past, and without much thought as to the cost of improving it for occupation by dwellings, and who will decline to sell their holdings at prices considerably less than they have paid for them. Unlike many business men, especially the more successful ones, who very frequently have to make up their minds to sell their goods at a loss in order to avoid the expense of carrying them longer, with the probability of increased loss in the future, or who can use the money at a greater profit in new purchases, these owners of small tracts generally seem to have the idea that there is practically never any loss in holding land if it is held long enough. Times of depression in the prices of land they know are generally followed by times when prices rise again, but there are unquestionably many exceptions; indeed when one comes to estimate carefully the sums paid out for taxes and assessments and other expenses incident to the ownership and management of land, there are a vast number of cases in and about every city in which the ownership of lands has not proved profitable, especially to those who, like the majority of owners of small tracts, have been tempted by the general prevalence of a feeling of hopefulness during