Jack-worth a listen:

http://kunstlercast.com/shows/KunstlerCast_25_Olmsted_Parks.html

More consultants!

Page 20: "Parks should be kept out of politics." Olmsted Brothers

We could make an extensive list of how Portland's Parks are politics: Mt. Tabor Park and the Water Bureau; SoWhat Poodle Park and the cost overruns and payoffs to developers; the future The Fields park in The Pearl and double payments of credits to Homer and Co; the Desert Park west of the Fox Tower; Willamette Park becoming a Water Bureau Pumping Station; ....... all politics.

Note that on page 40-41 they recommended buying the land that we now know as Forest Park, to assure it would be kept as a primitive park within the city and not developed. This was 1903!

The rest of this story is that the city fathers responded by allowing it to be subdivided and a road put in (Leif Erikson Drive) to access the lots that were otherwise landlocked. The first winter, the road failed, and lot owners were assessed a road repair fee that far exceeded what they had into the lots. So they walked, and the city was left holding the bag until 1948, when they finally implemented the Olmstead brothers' plans and formed Forest Park.

Maybe the lesson here is that there could be hope for SoWhat district becoming useful to Portlanders as something other than a money sinkhole.

I'm by no means an expert - hopefully somebody is who can comment - but, it DOES seem odd to me that a document from 1903 has such nice fonts and margins. Did word processing exist back then?

Uh, never mind. My initial comment was silly. I was thinking this was a OTO report prepared for the City (in 1903) when, in fact, it looks to be from a book; so, the crispness of the fonts and margins is perfectly understandable.