City councils are empowered by Article V of the City and Village Act of 1872 to lay out, establish, open, widen, pave, and otherwise improve streets, alleys, avenues, parks, and public grounds, and to plant trees upon and regulate the use of the same.[43] In the case of _Thompson_ v. _Highland Park_, 187 Ill. 265, the court sustained the power of the city to include parkways and grass plots in the improvement of a street to be paid for by special assessment. The special Act of May 18, 1905,[44] relating to the city of Chicago only, confers upon the council power to acquire, by purchase or otherwise, municipal parks and playgrounds, and declares that the city may exercise the right of eminent domain for the acquirement of property useful, advantageous, or desirable for municipal purposes; and that the procedure in such cases shall be, as nearly as may be, like that provided for in the Act of June 14, 1897, concerning local improvements as amended or to be amended. Land taken for a park is “property useful, advantageous, or desirable for municipal purposes,” and a public park is a “local improvement,” the cost of which may be assessed upon contiguous property to the extent of the special benefits when the legislature authorizes that course to be pursued.[45] The “Act concerning local improvements”[46] directs the city council to provide, in any ordinance for a local improvement, whether it shall be made by special assessment or special taxation, or by general taxation, or otherwise; and, in sections 13 to 33, inclusive, defines the procedure for ascertaining the compensation to be paid for private property taken or damaged, and for assessing the cost on other property to the extent to which it is specially benefited. The city, therefore, already possesses power to acquire public parks within the city limits and to assess the cost, or the greater part thereof, against property in the neighborhood of the improvement. Under the present law all ordinances for local improvements in the city, to be paid for wholly or in part by special assessment or special taxation, must originate with the board of local improvements; but if the park boards were merged in the city government, it might be feasible to grant to an administrative department of parks the initiative with respect to local improvements within their special jurisdiction.[47] The city authorities have now ample power, to the extent of their financial resources, to improve and widen existing streets and to open new streets, parks and public grounds. The city council has adequate discretion to determine how wide any street shall be, and whether it shall be devoted entirely to travel or given up partly to lawns, trees, and parkways.