The Goodness of Trees on City Streets
As a follow up to my recent post on the current greenery of Broad Street (versus it’s concrete-jungle grayness from decades past), I thought I’d take some photos of the trees on this street before the leaves start to fall.
Looking at these photos, I’m reminded of a post this year from one of my favorite writers, Kain Benfield at the Natural Rsources Defense Council. Writing about the benefit of city trees, he points to a study giving evidence that trees on city streets, among all their other good qualities, reduce crime.
A quote:
“According to the study, a 10 percent increase in trees roughly equaled a 12 percent decrease in crime. ‘It’s really pretty striking how strong this relationship is.’”
Another recent study points out that street trees can “create slower and more appropriate urban traffic speeds” and also “increase customer traffic to businesses” nearby. As a downtown resident who lives among a lot of street trees on Broad and elsewhere, I’ve seen evidence of all these positives.
We’re lucky to have this greenery downtown — greenery that didn’t exist a few decades ago when sidewalks were tree-less and Woodfruff Park wasn’t yet built.
