Annual Report Author:Boston Board of Trade Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: provide for the collection of betterments, and it probably will not lead to an increase in taxable values on adjacent property It is estimated that the first pla... more »n would cost at the end of twenty-five years about $225,000 or less, as against $375,000 or more under the revised plan. While the advantage of the larger area of playground to the neighborhood will be very great, and the need for it is evident, the question may well be asked whether ultimately it would not have been better to extend the improvement over a larger number of blocks, and to provide for housing a much larger number of persons under improved conditions, than to provide a single playground at a cost that is not likely soon to be repeated in many of the other blocks that sorely need public attention. High Pressure Pumping Station. With regard to the location of the High Pressure Pumping Station, two sites have been favorably considered by the City Planning Board. The first, which provided for its erection in the Charles river, between the Cambridge Bridge and the viaduct, recommended by the Board in June, 1914, met with the approval of your Honor, the Law Department and the Boston Chamber of Commerce. Circumstances rendering it necessary to abandon the original plans in connection with this location, a new site became necessary. At the same time the City Planning Board had been carefully weighing the advantages and possibilities of the various features entering into the North End section of the city, and in its study of the Copp's Hill terraces it became impressed with the fact that, since the Elevated structure has greatly reduced the value of frontages on Commercial street at the lower level and the lower terrace portions, greater value could doubtless be obtained by filling the lower area up to the ma...« less