Why Aren't We Paved?
A look at the clean, brick-paved streets of Victoria, British Columbia, leaves locals wondering why Walla Walla still lacks a single block of pavement.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
American cities could learn a great deal from Canadian cities regarding honest and efficient municipal government. There is an air of solidity and permanency about most Canadian cities that is almost entirely lacking in cities of equal population in the United States. In Victoria, a city of twenty-five thousand people, all the business buildings are of brick or stone, the business streets are all well paved and kept scrupulously clean, and in the residence districts the streets are paved or macadamized. Yet the rate of taxation in Victoria is only twenty-two mills. In Walla Walla, the rate of taxation last year was 14.2 mills; yet there is not a single block of pavement in the city. Walla Walla has been very slow in making a move to get this much-needed improvement either by general or by special taxation.
“There is an air of solidity and permanency about most Canadian cities that is almost entirely lacking in cities of equal population in the United States.”
Walla Walla's historical struggle with infrastructure and tax-averse governance remains a persistent theme in local civic discourse. The contrast between Canadian urban planning and the American 'small-town' ethos of the early 20th century highlights a long-standing debate over whether to prioritize low taxes or public utility investments.
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