Plan of Evanston
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putting up a level resistance everywhere against the extension of business streets and centers, will avail us nothing. But a thoroughly awakened civic spirit, alert to meet tomorrow's needs, instead of merely today's, willing to make actual sacrifices of time, thought, and money, will avail us everything.
On the purely physical side there are three great problems to be met.
1. Provision for the future of par.k and playground space.
The park was once an aristocratic way of displaying wealth. The prince or nobleman showed his grandeur by the extent of his parks, land which he could afford to devote to a nonproductive use. The public were herded along the pathways and permitted to admire. A trace of this old feeling still lingers in some people's minds and they think of parks as a luxury. Parks are, of course, no more a luxury than a man's lungs are a luxury. They are, in sober, literal truth, the lungs of a city. And any city which allows its lung capacity to become inadequate will stifle.
2. Street circulation. Just as parks and playgrounds are lungs, so streets are veins and arteries. No neighborhood, or district, whose circulatory needs are not provided for by its streets, can have a healthy growth. It should be observed that all streets do not serve the same purpose. There must be streets whose main function is to carry through traffic. If the through traffic exists, and no great arteries are provided for it, it will seize upon for its needs whatever it can findnarrow streets not designed to accomodate more than the traffic of their residents. It will endanger life and limb, and be a cause of endless exasperation. Absolutely the only remedy for this state of things is the provision of great trunk arteries to handle this through traffic ..
3. The proper location and development of business centers: These, to carry our analogy one step further, are the alimentary organs of a city. No residence district can, or