Exposition is really a city-planning exposition of the first order. Any
city-builder, by the respectful use of the great fundamental principles
of balance, harmony, and unity, cannot help but do on a large scale what
the Exposition presents in a more condensed fashion. I admit that we
have made tremendous strides in the remodeling of many of our large
cities, particularly in the East, but we are still constantly starting
new cities in the old planless way.

Our only practical and lasting effort in San Francisco along the lines
of civic progress has been made in the civic center, where a
far-reaching plan has been adopted and partly put into existence, and in
some of our very charming newer restricted residence districts in the
western end of the city, like St. Francis Wood, or in Northbrae and
Claremont, in Berkeley, and elsewhere around the bay.

There is no doubt that we must better capitalize our own artistic
assets, which we often allow to lie idle before we ever utilize them
properly. The water front, Telegraph hill, the ocean shore, Sutro
Heights, and Lincoln Park are all waiting to be developed in such a way
as the Exposition suggests. The talk of cost is idle twaddle. If the
Exposition, as an artistic investment, pays - and I see no reason
whatever why it should not pay for itself - then we cannot do anything
better than to invest our money wisely in other artistic improvements of
a permanent character.

San Francisco is known all the world over for its unique location,
rivaled only by that of Marseilles, and we have now the responsibility
to use this natural asset, for which many envy us. The Exposition will
start an avalanche of improvements along artistic lines which will be
given increasing momentum by the development of long periods of