would have been the primary consideration.) Mr. Lazarus also stated, “... that even with the profit derived from the parking meters, the debt service has been tied in too closely to the financing of on-street parking issues, and that there should be more flexibility."

In a recent publication . . . "A Decade of Building in Central Areas of American Cities", a pilot research project prepared by Mr. Lloyd N. Braff, Executive Director of the Dallas, Texas, Central Business Association, for the International Downtown Executives Association, which covered 36 cities, it was proved conclusively that in cities operating under private enterprise, parking facilties were being provided at a much faster rate than in cities where municipal parking is in existence, or where there is a threat of subsidized municipal parking.

What has been happening in the convention and visitors industry is every bit as exciting and dramatic as the report in last month's NEWSLETTER (Vol. 10 No. 8) on the phenomenal over-all population and economic gains in the Metro area...Some of the figures in this report will be equally startling to the uninitiated... The tremendous growth of the convention and visitors business is dramatically highlighted in the following table compiled by the Convention and Visitors Bureau:

(1) Figures from Smithsonian Institution (Calendar years)

(2) Figures from Washington Convention and Visitors Bureau (Calendar years)
(3) Figures from the District of Columbia Govemment (Fiscal years)
NOTE: All figures are for the metropolitan area except for column 6 which is
for the District of Columbia only.

400,000,000

Naturally the growth portrayed above could not have taken place without a tremendous building program...New Hotel and motel construction has run into many, many millions of dollars... The end of 1964 will find a 28% increase in room availability over and above which existed at the close of 1961... The Convention and Visitors Bureau reports that at the end of the year, or very shortly after, there will be a total of more than 24,500 hotel and motel rooms available in the Metro area... This will make Washington the sixth largest hotel city in the entire United States...

It would appear that Washington has reached a plateau insofar as major construction of large properties is concerned...While this condition could prevail for a while

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