California's Water Fountain Analysis and Results
California's Water Fountain Analysis and Results Berkley, CA citizens voted for a sugar-sweetened beverages tax in February 2014, the first of its kind in the United States.
Contemporary Garden Decoration: Large Outdoor Water Fountains and their Roots

From the onset, outdoor fountains were simply there to serve as functional elements. Residents of cities, townships and small towns utilized them as a source of drinking water and a place to wash up, which meant that fountains needed to be connected to nearby aqueduct or spring. Used until the nineteenth century, in order for fountains to flow or shoot up into the air, their source of water such as reservoirs or aqueducts, had to be higher than the water fountain in order to benefit from gravity. Fountains were not only utilized as a water source for drinking water, but also to adorn homes and celebrate the artist who created it. Animals or heroes made of bronze or stone masks were often times used by Romans to decorate their fountains. During the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden designers included fountains in their designs to mimic the gardens of paradise. King Louis XIV of France wanted to illustrate his superiority over nature by including fountains in the Gardens of Versailles. Seventeen and 18 century Popes sought to extol their positions by including beautiful baroque-style fountains at the point where restored Roman aqueducts arrived into the city.
Since indoor plumbing became the norm of the day for clean, drinking water, by the end of the 19th century urban fountains were no longer needed for this purpose and they became purely ornamental. Gravity was substituted by mechanical pumps in order to permit fountains to bring in clean water and allow for beautiful water displays.
Beautifying city parks, honoring people or events and entertaining, are some of the functions of modern-day fountains.