An Ode to Street Trees
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Date: 2019-09-12
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Comments and reviews: 10
B. Kanishka Guluwita
Great job again for putting up a useful and fascinating video. Can't fault much about trees in urban spaces, however, having a good canopy over a street may not be simple as it sounds. Where I come from, we certainly experience the benefits of trees, at the same time, they are causing significant issues in attracting a lot of unwanted wildlife in the middle of cities. bird poo or what we used to call 'airforce attacks' is such a common problem that get in the way of daily urban life. Another issue is the high maintenance cost incurred by tree growth disrupting overhead power lines. Unless you have cities that have been planned from the scratch to have underground utility networks, unwanted growth can be such a pain for councils. Must say, nothing tops the need to have trees in cities; but, it must be the right type of tree. One lesson I remember from the class is that, when it comes to landscape design, you can plan and do everything right to achieve the desired outcome. But, that outcome will not remain simply because trees grow
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Great job again for putting up a useful and fascinating video. Can't fault much about trees in urban spaces, however, having a good canopy over a street may not be simple as it sounds. Where I come from, we certainly experience the benefits of trees, at the same time, they are causing significant issues in attracting a lot of unwanted wildlife in the middle of cities. bird poo or what we used to call 'airforce attacks' is such a common problem that get in the way of daily urban life. Another issue is the high maintenance cost incurred by tree growth disrupting overhead power lines. Unless you have cities that have been planned from the scratch to have underground utility networks, unwanted growth can be such a pain for councils. Must say, nothing tops the need to have trees in cities; but, it must be the right type of tree. One lesson I remember from the class is that, when it comes to landscape design, you can plan and do everything right to achieve the desired outcome. But, that outcome will not remain simply because trees grow
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William Astle
One thing I've noticed is that the common street design of having no gap between the sidewalk and the carriage way so as to pack more lots into the same area drastically reduces the number of city-owned trees since it means there is literally nowhere to plant them. That one example you showed is one such street. Maybe the road allowance goes beyond where the curb is, but based on the fences, it probably doesn't, at least in any practical sense. Of course, in places where the streets are simply far too wide, one could just reclaim space from the excessive width of the carriage way and use that for boulevards and trees. At least in Calgary, there's a policy about having to replace any tree removed from public land with at least one new tree and judging by the number of trees planted on streets with boulevards, there has to be some sort of policy about requiring a tree every so many metres. Too bad trees that create that nice canopy effect take so long to grow.
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One thing I've noticed is that the common street design of having no gap between the sidewalk and the carriage way so as to pack more lots into the same area drastically reduces the number of city-owned trees since it means there is literally nowhere to plant them. That one example you showed is one such street. Maybe the road allowance goes beyond where the curb is, but based on the fences, it probably doesn't, at least in any practical sense. Of course, in places where the streets are simply far too wide, one could just reclaim space from the excessive width of the carriage way and use that for boulevards and trees. At least in Calgary, there's a policy about having to replace any tree removed from public land with at least one new tree and judging by the number of trees planted on streets with boulevards, there has to be some sort of policy about requiring a tree every so many metres. Too bad trees that create that nice canopy effect take so long to grow.
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Emil Sørensen
I know you probably meant for beauty to be a bit of a catch-all term, but you could go into psychological factors. Flat concrete is alienating and eerie. You feel exposed. Not just to wind and sun, but to anything, including other people. Which may not be a good feeling if you live in a neighbourhood with a lot of problems. Like the kind usually get too little funding to put up street trees. And I think it triggers a primal instinct. Makes you look over your shoulder, since anything could be watching. Speaking of, plants are good for local wildlife. Birds, rodents, bugs. Sure, some critters are unwanted, but think about it. If you only have the kind of bug that eats the wood in your house, or the food, they won't have enough competition. The hawk that eats the rat needs some place to rest. Same with the pigeon that eats the woodlice. Or whatever eats the pigeon.
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I know you probably meant for beauty to be a bit of a catch-all term, but you could go into psychological factors. Flat concrete is alienating and eerie. You feel exposed. Not just to wind and sun, but to anything, including other people. Which may not be a good feeling if you live in a neighbourhood with a lot of problems. Like the kind usually get too little funding to put up street trees. And I think it triggers a primal instinct. Makes you look over your shoulder, since anything could be watching. Speaking of, plants are good for local wildlife. Birds, rodents, bugs. Sure, some critters are unwanted, but think about it. If you only have the kind of bug that eats the wood in your house, or the food, they won't have enough competition. The hawk that eats the rat needs some place to rest. Same with the pigeon that eats the woodlice. Or whatever eats the pigeon.
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dip1955
I live in Orange County and one of my frustrations in much of Southern California is the lack of large trees lining the streets. But in all fairness Orange County was agricultural up until the establishment of Disneyland in 1955 so any trees that were added while developing its cities have not had that much time to mature. And something that frustrates me is they arent allowed to get big. The city is always trimming trees that do not need it. They need to be allowed to grow and create a canopy. My friend lives in Pasadena and this city is an exception in that it and many nearby cities do have beautifully tree lined streets. I love going there. Many movies like Halloween and Back to the Future were filmed there because it is close to Hollywood but it has the look and feel of a traditional tree-lined American city.
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I live in Orange County and one of my frustrations in much of Southern California is the lack of large trees lining the streets. But in all fairness Orange County was agricultural up until the establishment of Disneyland in 1955 so any trees that were added while developing its cities have not had that much time to mature. And something that frustrates me is they arent allowed to get big. The city is always trimming trees that do not need it. They need to be allowed to grow and create a canopy. My friend lives in Pasadena and this city is an exception in that it and many nearby cities do have beautifully tree lined streets. I love going there. Many movies like Halloween and Back to the Future were filmed there because it is close to Hollywood but it has the look and feel of a traditional tree-lined American city.
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George
Greater Phoenix, AZ has a severely bad house-building culture now where everyone builds and buys huge boxy houses with tiny outside yards. These houses are far too large for their inhabitants, and the reasoning behind their existence is that since summers are so hot here, they just want to live in an exceeding large, air-conditioned safe space all summer long. The thing is, people don't realize how much they are contributing to the urban heat island with all that air-conditioning in their giant boxy houses and as a result, a huge heat feedback loop has formed here. Smaller houses with big, lush trees all over the city would make a DRAMATIC difference in making the whole city cooler, prettier, and would actually increase land values by a large margin.
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Greater Phoenix, AZ has a severely bad house-building culture now where everyone builds and buys huge boxy houses with tiny outside yards. These houses are far too large for their inhabitants, and the reasoning behind their existence is that since summers are so hot here, they just want to live in an exceeding large, air-conditioned safe space all summer long. The thing is, people don't realize how much they are contributing to the urban heat island with all that air-conditioning in their giant boxy houses and as a result, a huge heat feedback loop has formed here. Smaller houses with big, lush trees all over the city would make a DRAMATIC difference in making the whole city cooler, prettier, and would actually increase land values by a large margin.
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some man who ate a puerto rican leg
One problem with newer neighborhoods, especially in Canada, is when residential streets are being built with either no separation between the sidewalk and the roadway, most of the time streets having only one sidewalk, or they are built with no sidewalks at all (I live in a neighborhood built in the 70s however with sidewalks only on major streets. This basically makes them unwalkable and makes street trees impossible to exist in these areas, simply because of that (just walking on Riverside Dr is a pain for my feet, simply because there's no separation between the sidewalk and the road pavement, making the sidewalk always curving and leaning towards the roadway so cars can still easily go in the driveway)
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One problem with newer neighborhoods, especially in Canada, is when residential streets are being built with either no separation between the sidewalk and the roadway, most of the time streets having only one sidewalk, or they are built with no sidewalks at all (I live in a neighborhood built in the 70s however with sidewalks only on major streets. This basically makes them unwalkable and makes street trees impossible to exist in these areas, simply because of that (just walking on Riverside Dr is a pain for my feet, simply because there's no separation between the sidewalk and the road pavement, making the sidewalk always curving and leaning towards the roadway so cars can still easily go in the driveway)
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silverkobo
Since I have a huge tree in front of my window, I would like to add some cons: - Sometimes it makes your house too cold. At winter my room would not heat during the day, although I would agree that at summer it does cool very nicely. -Bugs and birds - though they're not really a con, I do have many bugs, spiders, and birds that the tree houses, and sometimes this may be annoying. -Also, sometimes it's too shady. My room gets really dark sometimes because the tree blocks the sun. It could be depressing. So basically, I'm all for trees, I'm also pale so I get burnt easily and trees are literaly a life saver. Trees are great, but sometimes in specific cases, they do more harm than good.
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Since I have a huge tree in front of my window, I would like to add some cons: - Sometimes it makes your house too cold. At winter my room would not heat during the day, although I would agree that at summer it does cool very nicely. -Bugs and birds - though they're not really a con, I do have many bugs, spiders, and birds that the tree houses, and sometimes this may be annoying. -Also, sometimes it's too shady. My room gets really dark sometimes because the tree blocks the sun. It could be depressing. So basically, I'm all for trees, I'm also pale so I get burnt easily and trees are literaly a life saver. Trees are great, but sometimes in specific cases, they do more harm than good.
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Nebs
I like trees, but they have to be appropriate for being planted next to the street. At my old house there were at least one gum tree (aka eucalyptus tree) in every persons yard. Some properties had up to 3 or 4 gum trees. I had a large gum tree in my back yard and would always worry it was going to fall on my house during a large storm. I had a few large branches fall into my backyard, one which missed falling on me by about 60 seconds. A house in a nearby street was cut in half by a falling gum tree. Luckily everyone survived but the house had to be completely demolished because there was no fix for that much damage. I never want to see a gum tree anywhere near my house now.
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I like trees, but they have to be appropriate for being planted next to the street. At my old house there were at least one gum tree (aka eucalyptus tree) in every persons yard. Some properties had up to 3 or 4 gum trees. I had a large gum tree in my back yard and would always worry it was going to fall on my house during a large storm. I had a few large branches fall into my backyard, one which missed falling on me by about 60 seconds. A house in a nearby street was cut in half by a falling gum tree. Luckily everyone survived but the house had to be completely demolished because there was no fix for that much damage. I never want to see a gum tree anywhere near my house now.
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Call Me Swivel Hips
When it comes to energy bills, we should honestly have the goal of designing homes that don require outside energy to keep their inside environments stable and comfortable in the first place. Cooling and heating is a HUGE CHUNK of our society's energy expenditure, and it's technically 100% unnecessary. Also, we should be putting just as much energy into creating building materials that don't take the release of green house gases to create in the first place. Plywood, for example, is absolutely necessary for modern building techniques whose production of which relases a lot of green house gas into the atmosphere.
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When it comes to energy bills, we should honestly have the goal of designing homes that don require outside energy to keep their inside environments stable and comfortable in the first place. Cooling and heating is a HUGE CHUNK of our society's energy expenditure, and it's technically 100% unnecessary. Also, we should be putting just as much energy into creating building materials that don't take the release of green house gases to create in the first place. Plywood, for example, is absolutely necessary for modern building techniques whose production of which relases a lot of green house gas into the atmosphere.
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Eric Wright
Unfortunately most people prefer new, small, cute ornamental trees to old growth trees that are already present. It's what they've gotten used to thanks to clear cutting development practices. There's zero incentive for developers to leave large shade trees versus squeezing in 20 more houses or 10% more commercial space or more parking spaces or whatever the case may be. There are zero trees left in place by developers here in Texas. And if they do plant trees it's ornamental palms spaced very sparsely that provide no shade. The heat island effect from a lack of trees is unbearable.
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Unfortunately most people prefer new, small, cute ornamental trees to old growth trees that are already present. It's what they've gotten used to thanks to clear cutting development practices. There's zero incentive for developers to leave large shade trees versus squeezing in 20 more houses or 10% more commercial space or more parking spaces or whatever the case may be. There are zero trees left in place by developers here in Texas. And if they do plant trees it's ornamental palms spaced very sparsely that provide no shade. The heat island effect from a lack of trees is unbearable.
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