Source:Expense/content
We were called on a few days since by a gentleman from Clinton village, and informed that an impression prevailed to some extent, in that part of the county, that an effort was being made to widen certain streets and alleys in Pittsburgh, and charge the expense upon the county. From the data given we presume the rumor arose out of the late attempt to open Hancock street from the upper end of Wood street to the Allegheny river. Buildings were to be torn down and a large expense incurred in effecting that object; but no attempt was made to saddle the expense upon the county. The damages were assessed, and, under the provisions of an act of Assembly, those damages were charged upon property owners along Wood and other streets, supposed to be benefitted by the opening of the new street. The law has since been repealed, and the project for the present abandoned. But at no time was it sought to make the people in the country bear any portion of the expense.
There are, however, a number of the streets, laid out in the plan of the city district, not yet opened; and many of our citizens contend that the county should bear the expense of opening some of them. Some of them are designed as thoroughfares through which the market wagons the coal teams, and the travel generally from the country reach the markets, warehouses and business portions of the city. It is urged that the people of the county should bear a portion of the cost of opening these streets, on the ground that they are as much for the benefit and accommodation of the people of the country as of the city; and are, in fact, as much county roads as the highways that traverse the townships, and are built at the expense of the county. The city helps to build the county roads; and, in fact, pays more than half the cost. Should the county help to build such of the city roads as equally benefit city and county?
