The Hidden Benefits of Street Trees
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- I'm on Patreon! Consider supporting this channel: / citybeautiful
I live in Sacramento, and when I moved here I learned two things quickly. First, Sacramento summers are hot. Like really hot. Many days are over 100 degrees. The second thing I learned is that Sacramento is livable, even with those high temperatures, thanks to its extensive tree canopy. The trees provide shade that makes me feel about 10-15 degrees cooler, and without them I probably would’ve moved a long time ago. Shade is just one of the many many benefits trees provide in urban areas, and I’m going to count down my favorites, as well talk about what it takes to maintain a verdant urban forest.
Information gathered from these excellent websites:
The Arbor Day Foundation: www.arborday.o...
Friends of the Urban Forest: www.fuf.net/be...
Sources:
A. Wolf, Kathleen L, PhD, University of Washington (2007) City Trees and Property Values. Arborist News. 16, 4:34-36.
B. Donovan, G.H.; Butry, D.T. (2010). Trees in the City: Valuing Street Trees in Portland, Oregon. Landscape and Urban Planning 94:77-83
C. McPherson, Greg, Center for Urban Forest Research via www.arborday.o...
D. U.S. Department of Agriculture via www.arborday.o...
E. Naderi, Jody Rosenblatt, Young Suk Kweon, and Praveen Maghelal (2008). The Street Tree Effect and Driver Safety. ITE Journal on the Web. www.naturewithi...
F. Global Status Report on Road Safety (2015). World Health Organization. (books.google.c...
G. Benefits of Urban Greening. Friends of the Urban Forest. www.fuf.net/be...
H. McPherson, Gregory, James Simpson, Paula Peper, Aaron Crowell, and Qingfu Xiao (2010). Northern California Coast Community Tree Guide: Benefits, Costs, and Strategic Planting. United States Department of Agriculture. www.fs.fed.us/...
I. Wolf, Kathy (1998). Urban Forest Values: Economic Benefits of Trees in Cities. Center for Urban Horticulture. www.naturewith...
J. Benefits of Urban Greening. Friends of the Urban Forest. www.fuf.net/be...
K. Lovasi, Gina, James Quinn, Kathryn Neckerman, Matthew Perzanowski, and Andrew Rundle (2008). Children living in areas with more street trees have lower asthma prevalence. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. jech.bmj.com/co...
L. New Varieties of Elm Raise Hope of Rebirth for Devastated Tree (1989). The New York Times. timesmachine.n...
M. Turner, Rob (2015). Nightmare on Elm Streets. Sactown Magazine. www.sactownmag....
Produced in sunny Sacramento, California.
Yes, I made a five minute video on street trees. What are your thoughts on street trees?
City Beautiful Do you think Los Angeles should get rid of palm tree and plant more regular tree, like oak and ash?
This is the content I crave.
I love a nice tree-lined street. Trees add so much value to a city. As an Atlantan it’s quite sad seeing the sprawl destroy the once ‘city in a forest’.
I also wan to know your opinion on what can be done to mitigate the two largest problems with trees (that I see):
1. Falling trees, at least here in Atlanta after storms it seems there is always a tree related death or damage to property.
2. The roots destroying roads, sidewalks, and even home foundations.
hear hear!
Its a huge economic issue in poor neighborhoods. I love trees but they have to be maintained. I noticed that street trees are synonymous with richer areas. Those in poor neighborhoods do not have the means to pay for tree maintenance which annually can be hundreds to thousands of dollars. Most cities in Utah require the homeowner to maintain the space between the sidewalk and street. This is infuriating as they will charge homeowners for new sidewalks or maintenance for a public use space. This also means that most of our streets end up with rocks or concrete in those spaces.
A street tree literally saved my dad's life last week. He was in the front of his house when someone driving a Suburban way too fast down a residential street had a stroke and slammed into the big 40 year old oak tree in his front yard, 10 feet in front of the window where he was standing. If the tree wasn't there the truck would've crashed into the house right where he was.
Wow he was lucky! I am “pro tree” myself but a freak accident a few years back killed a driver in my city a few years back. She was stopped at a red light, waiting to take a left hand turn when a large tree in the median fell over and crushed her in her car. It was determined the tree was diseased and the soil was too soft - it wasn’t raining or anything but the tree could not support itself due to the disease. Horrible freak accident. The city responded by removing all the trees on that street. Not sure if I agree but perhaps the others had the disease as well.
@@davids6898 If the trees were all the same species there is a chance they were all diseased. I hope the city plants something else in their place, and not a monoculture
@@davids6898 unfortunately in my area there are many cases per year where during thunderstorms, hurricanes, or cold winters with ice buildup, limbs or entire trees will fall on houses and cars causing tens of thousands in damage. This occurs mostly in more wooded areas, not suburban streets, but still. I love the look and shade of trees, and I'm guilty of always taking the shaded parking space at work, but I'd like trees to be set just a bit further back from residences.
Man nobody who is at risk of stroke should be driving. (Yes I know everybody can have a stroke and any time) Those who have more than a 0.75% chance to have a stroke when doing a high-stress activity should not be allowed to drive. Less than that, you're fine, you're just normal.
@KrucibleKrucible2 There's no good way to determine that risk for most people. However, we can do a lot to reduce strokes while driving by just reducing the need and desire to drive by making cities and suburbs less car-dependent. Lots of people don't like driving or even feel safe doing so, but have to if they want to participate in society. Try going without driving for a month in a car-dependent location and see how crippling it is.
I love trees. Cities don't have to be concrete jungles. They can be plant jungles as well. :)
for example, New York. It's ugly. Specifically Gen Z appear to really embrace eco-brutalism as a sort of effort to embrace "Cities Without Mankind," and while I understand it, building a brutalist-style city is not conducive to carbon emissions, it would make more sense to HALT urban/suburban development for a short while(like a year or two) and work on introducing plants, more specifically native plants, to urban environments to offset the co2 emissions by cars and oil companies and whatnot. I personally don't believe Earth can be saved. It was doomed a long time ago, but we could at least make its last days comfortable, as we would for any human.
"Specifically Gen Z appear to really embrace eco-brutalism" Huh???
Also, 100F = 37.8C. Sorry I forgot the conversion in the video.
City Beautiful Holy fuck, how are you alive.
You're the best human ever
Bram Van Hooydonck you have never been to the middle east or the tropics? 🤣
I want to mention one small detail when doing a conversion from degrees Fahrenheit to degrees Celsius i see in many videos made in US, we (the Metric World - LOL!) use approximations when there is no need for accuracy (like sciences). Nobody uses decimals like 37.8C , we say 38C. Most thermometers won't register 0.1 differences anyway, some show 0.5 increments at most, since it ain't a big difference. Other than that, THANKS for the Extra Effort (i didn't want to sound too judgemental - sorry if i did). You have a Great Channel, with great topics and i always enjoy a new one !
In particular we need shade trees! The other benefit is it gives us more oxygen
Are you aware that "shade" is not the only way trees make the environment cooler, but also the evaporation of moisture from the tree's leaves causes the air below them to be cooler.
I am aware, thanks! I should have mentioned that.
same effect from sweating
In Philadelphia, street trees are becoming an important component in storm water management. Our old sewer system is a combined sewer and general storm water system. This means in heavy rains the system gets overwhelmed and dumps sewage into the river. To help minimize this, the water department has started putting in more street trees, often along with other plants over special cisterns that will hold the rain water rather than dumping it into the sewer.
Yes, that's another great benefit!
In the US storm drains were required to be separated from sewers years back. Our town did just that. Others in the region didn't, and the evidence is clear in storms, of their water-treatment plants being significant point-sources of pollution, even forcing beach closures. There's a big difference IMO between being conservative and cheap, being neither.
I love urban trees. Comparing tree lined streets to treeless streets, you can easily see that tree lined streets are much more appealing. Especially when wide streets have tall, mature trees. A great tree lined street is the South Mall in Cork, Ireland. The South Link City Road, also in Cork, has a tree lined median
Wow, I have so much more respect for trees now. Even if the tree on my block dropped a limb on my old car and damaged it.
Oh man, that's not good. The tree in front of my house is dropping seeds and pollen seemingly year round, which can be a pain. But it's so nice to look at! :D
Exactly a month after the tree hit the car some lady drove into the back of our car on a trip in Vermont and totaled our car, so we have a new one now. And yeah the same tree is now covering my car in pollen and stuff, but as long as it's not dry and dropping tree limbs I'm o.k. with it! It does give some shade to our apartment, which is nice considering we don't have an A/C.
I was going to mention the same thing. A tree fell on my bedroom once during a heavy wind storm. Thank Higgs I wasn't actually in bed at the time. But that tree was probably already dead, it was pretty old. And I think the risk of an occasional wind storm is small price to pay for the awesomeness of trees.
@@FutureNow This creates a new industry, and jobs. Lol. Urban arborists!
Enjoyed this video! I especially enjoyed it since I live in a city almost blanketed by them, Charlotte, NC (search Myers Park neighborhood). I think a good follow-up topic might be how cities should plan for maintaining the urban tree canopy. A few years ago, Charlotte had to hire a team of pilots to spray the entire city for cankerworms. I remember hearing those planes buzz overhead back and forth for about a week. We also have a lot older trees fall when it rains or we get storms.
My street has a lot maples. People hate those seeds but I've always loved the little helicopters everywhere. They are worth it for the beautiful colors in the fall.
Obama's EPA started going after fireplaces and wood stoves.
I love this channel. It’s nice to finally find a channel that explains how cities actually work.
Thanks!
It feels wrong to love the things of the world , thus it would be wrong.
Yes!!! I love Street Trees!!! Really hate new subdivisions without trees
I find it depressing to live in a place without street trees.
If only all city authorities realisied trees, and their roots, grow! The number of trees I see surrounded by a small patch of earth and a wide expanse of cracked and broken paving is ludicrous!
Almost every streets in Barcelona (Cat) have trees. The only part of the city that doesnt have them is the old town because the streets are too narrow. If it wasn't for the trees we would melt in summer (we already do) and we'd be dead by pollution.
They were my savior when I visited
Madrid also has lots of trees. In recent years, they keep planting Pyrus calleryana trees which is a shame as they smell like cum.
I thanked a tree like you asked and now my neighbours think I'm CRAZY...THANKS FOR THAT, MAN!!!!
Just go full crazy and tell them they had better thank a tree too... or else!
That's why I love Berlin: here we have trees everywhere. That's why I was pretty shocked by NYC cause there aren't any trees on the sidewalk at all. Trees really make a difference and I like cities with a lot of green
Depends on the neighborhood
I've been so happy being in Sacramento because of all the trees! I love trees, and am glad we picked the City of Trees to move to (bring back the old slogan!!!)
I do wish you'd talked about the concerns I've heard many people bring up with trees near homes: roots. I know roots can be problematic, breaking up concrete, fencing, walls, and even building foundations. Hopefully you'll be able to address these issues in a later video or something.
Also: it's KILLING me that we can't afford to live in Downtown/Midtown =(
I understand this video is promoting trees but a drawback seems to be the risk to property and people when branches or a whole tree falls during storms.
As somebody who lives in phoenix, well placed and well taken care of trees can truly make a difference in the beauty and relative coolness of a street, especially in june when its really hot out. :) great vid
Another benefit: their leaves make good garden compost!
That's a good point. Thanks
First! Always happy to see your video in my recommendations!)
It's amazing how having more trees can create a more urban feeling in a city. Quite the opposite of what you would expect. People just like to be around them, so plant trees if you want high quality open spaces.
I think it's really cool that a lot of cities around the world are starting to plant street trees. Even China, which was infamous for their lack of green spaces has begun planting street trees in many cities, and it's a very welcome change seeing as their summers can get very brutal regardless of where you are.
The Chinese have been making a big effort at reforestation!
Can't spell street without tree!
r-o-a-d
@@zacharyhenderson2902 a road and a street are different, roads are for transporting people and streets connect buildings to roads
@@Lunavii_Cellest no
Another great video as always! Didn't realize you live in Sacramento, maybe I'll see ya around sometime ;)
Cool! Feel free to say hi if you see me.
I love trees but in my city, their roots destroy the pavements/sidewalks. How could we solve that problem?
Don't tree roots go down? It could be that in your city bad species where planted. In my city we have no such problems
pijuskri I've never seen a city where this problem doesn't exist. Huge issue in many places
Maybe if the tree was planted deeper when first placed, so the root ball is much lower, they wouldnt interfere with the pavement squares.
Something that ive seen happen is that roots will lap over the sidewalk, like a woody muffin-top. Maybe simply cutting those roots would stop them from growing there, and the tree can grow roots elsewhere.
Try root pruning, or the old fashion highway department treatment (salt).
roots grow to absorb water and nutriants. If all a tree gets is rain water from above, it will try to catch as much of that as possible, and its roots will be near the surface. If you have cisterns or other sources of water -- for example, more green spaces so that more rain water can be absorbed by soil -- then roots will tend to grow downwards.
Of course, it also depends on whether a tree by its nature has more vertical or horizontal roots.
Trees are great, I mean I live in the worlds largest man made forest, Johannesburg, but I was nearly crushed by a tree in a storm on Friday when driving home.
trees can also provide that "I'm home!" - feeling if they are of a characteristic type. In Rome, it's the beautiful Stone Pines. In Singapore, it's the large-canopy tropical trees. In many parts of France, it's Sycamores that remind you where you are.
Don't forget gumtrees in australia
I had wished you'd gone into a little more detail about bad trees. Sure, you touched on the Elm issue, but the 'worst' culprit, based on how cities have gone about it, is the Callery Pear. The tree is an absolute menace.
Planners probably chose them because they grow REALLY FAST and have pretty flowers in the spring.
The biggest issue is that they grow so fast and the branches fall all the time in high winds/storms. It's dangerous. Ours has caused thousands of dollars in damage over the years. We have to regularly have urban forestry come around to trim the branches that just got too big.
The secondary issue is that they really stink in the spring.
I was actually just telling a friend yesterday how I wished my neighborhood in Boston had more street trees. The heat island effect is pretty bad. It would certainly help with the air quality and beautification as well. I wish the city would plant more trees there!
This video was beautiful, just wanted to appreciate the existence of this content :-)
Thanks!
This sounds like a good idea until about 35 years down the line when the trees roots rip up sidewalks (several times), work their way into water and sewer pipes and start causing problems with overhead electrical lines. Oh and when they fall down as well, then they can hit the home run and cause issues with all of the above.
None of these problems on their own is that bad, but when you're desperately poor and find out you need to pay a contractor $5,000-$15,000 to run a new sewer line to your house because tree roots worked their way into the old one you'll curse trees pretty quick.
Wait, no talk about how trees contain water, helping prevent local floods?
I'm in Sacramento in the Natomas area, and the shade trees in my yard (not exactly street trees, but required by statute, so similar) were cracking the porch and driveway because they were poorly planted and the roots just ran shallowly near the surface. We just paid big bucks to have them both removed and start over with a tiny new tree, so I'm not exactly on speaking terms right now with trees. Sure was a lovely day today, though.
I always feel like I'm on a desert when I have to walk a few meters in the full sun without any shade available
It was funny watching this video and seeing location, I kept saying,"Oh yeah that's just down the street."
I loved this video. Thanks for stressing the importance of continually planting trees. My friend is in an area of Phoenix that had mostly mature trees and now they are dying off.... if only everyone was planting trees years ago to help with this - instead its a blend of no trees, dead trees and super young, the neighborhood looks nothing like it did when she bought her home. Extra bonus for the cute cat at the end of the video, that made the video extra awesome!
Had to add the cat. It was so friendly!
This is one reason I really liked living in a small Central Illinois city called Champaign. They had tons of street trees.If you looked out of a window of the 15th floor of a building (one of the highest points in the city) it would almost look like a forest.
champaign isn't even a small city for illinois lol it has uiuc and is close to chicago, but yeah it does have a lot of trees lol
I saw that the forecasted low for Champaign today was -38F! No thanks!
I live in TX where it's around 100 degrees most of the summer, and I love that my apartment complex is surrounded by trees because my building stays relatively cool, I rarely need to turn on my A/C so my electric bill is pretty low. Of course, I frequently have to wash my car because of all the pollen that falls on it, but I'll take it.
Although I'm not an outdoors person I love seeing trees in town. When I moved to the city I was afraid it'll be nothing but concrete and although there's allot less trees than I'm use to I'm happly surprised to see as many of them as I do.
Since we are talking about trees, please do a video on Atlanta, GA urban planning. Pros, cons, opportunities, missed opportunities, etc. I'm curious what a trained urban planner thinks about the capital of the south.
Technically Richmond is the capital of the South.
Live in Portland. Love our street trees! If I'm not mistaken, Portland is the 2nd most "tree-d" city in the world.
I used to live in Portland. Such a great city. I think I'm the only person who moved FROM Portland TO California. It's usually the other way around.
Denmark: My parents hollow road is amazing. In the summer there are passages where the road is total enveloped in the leaves.
The unpaved road, has century's of wear and tear which has sunk the road into the ground. This gives the feeling of being in a green tunnel of leaves.
Drinking game: For every use of the word "tree" take a shot.
Street trees are cool and all, especially when you live in a tropical country where it's hot all year round. But it's annoying when trees and its roots are blocking the whole sidewalk, it's a problem where I live, well it's better than non-existent sidewalks (which is a MORE common problem here)
I was hoping "An Ode to Street Trees" was a parody of "Montage" from Team America World Police.
My city council keeps cutting the trees down just as they get big enough to pprovide the benefits you list. The only reason i can see for them doing this, is that their roots are pushing the pavement up. Which I don't know how to prevent.
Give the roots enough soil space, and this won't be a problem. Like a strip of grass you can see in the video.
Pontus Eriksson yeah, most of the trees have hard gravel like stuff around them. With no real space to grow.
That's a shame. The city used to do the same thing where I live. Now they know: either give the tree root space or don't plant a tree at all!
Much love from Sonoma county and great video as always.
Beautiful area!
It amuses me that you start to talk about trees slowing traffic while walking along a street wide enough for highway speeds.
It would be even worse without the trees. Luckily the city installed lots of traffic diverters in this area so it's not easy to go fast for blocks and blocks.
I would debate this one in a certain light. Of course i agree street trees are beautiful and necessary, but what i would debate is the variety and its precise uses. I do not think that large species of dense forest trees belong directly along urban corridors, but instead feel that Small Shrub and fruit tree species should be the choice for areas with limited space around buildings. Large tree species should only be planted where there will be enough space around them to accommodate their full apical height both above and below the ground. The reason why i think this, is because of the side effects that trees have on human structures and utilities, the difficulty removing them and the type of ecosystem they encourage in the human centric urban environment. Roots, branches and annual foliage deposits are another financial cost to an urban environment that are unnecessary and smaller species of shrubs and trees avoid those issues. The ecosystem that large species of trees attracts is meant for forest dwelling animals, but these are animals that cannot all inhabit human urban areas, which guarantees an unbalanced ecology. in North America this means squirrels, rabbits, woodchucks, and chipmunks can become majorly overpopulated in cities and there are no predators to effect that population. Rats and Mice would also have fewer available predators in a city filled with large canopy trees. what few predator's can colonize urban areas, are small predator species like occasional foxes or minks and weasels but due to the intensive presence of humans these animals are almost never spotted in urban areas and the prey populations show that. Most of the time the apex and only predator is feral cats. however, the most important predator we could try to foster to occupy the cities, are birds of prey. Theses predators require sight to spot prey and canopy forests disable this. There are plenty of places within cities that can allow for large trees, like in parks and in the random various spaces that occur throughout cities that have perfect gaps between buildings like road medians, around tall central down town structures, in business districts or surrounding and blocking out industrial complexes and buildings. The correct ecosystem to recreate in most of the urban environment is the "shrubland" model. These species of shrubs and trees are short and compact and often naturally tend to provide fruit and seeds of the correct varieties for small songbird and upland bird populations as well as appropriate nesting sights. Many species of evergreen shrubs are very well suited for the particular type of environment in cities as they often occur in similar environments in nature, like White cedars growing on rocky cliffs or junipers occupying dry, well aerated soils in both very hot and very cold windy zones. with this landscaping, there are never issue with trees blocking yard spaces for gardeners and these species are the perfect type for engineering green roofs for buildings. Where large trees do occur, they provide perfect nesting sights for birds of prey, which would eventually learn to occupy the area in similar ways to how they live alongside highways. As for the loss of shade, i would say a few things. First, in dense urban areas that have larger multiuse buildings, we should in the long term be planning roadways and public spaces to be more pedestrian friendly which means limitation of cars, this also creates new perfectly spaced areas of sidewalk and medians for larger trees that aren't there now. In areas with shorter buildings and more residential structures, this will leave more sunlight directly on the structures, but everything in the urban environment is man made, so this can provide stimulus for strategic use of new engineering and energy strategies. Geothermal, both passive and active need to eventually become the standard for all structures and would keep sunlit structures cool. even easier is well placed window overhangs on windows that face open sunlight, these could even have solar panels installed on them someday.
A counterargument to the pollution-absorbing benefits is research that has shown trees reduce wind at street level, and therefore pollutants don't blow away as quickly. I heard it on BBC news, can't remember the source.
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 aren’t 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.
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.
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!
your point on oxygen is one of the few things I think Jane Jacobs missed the mark on in 'the death and life of great american cities' - ("the oceans of air circulating about us, not parks, keep cities from suffocating.... Air knows nothing of grass fetishes and fails to pick and choose for itself in accordance with them"), I guess it was a relic of the time before a lot of push to address environmental issues though
I’ve been to SG, it’s a great example of the integration of city and nature.
It’s so clean that my nouse hurts when I breath.
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.
I love street trees! The only gripe I have is that it’s hard to say 5 times fast!
What is your favourite street tree?
I really like elms and maples. I hate palm trees -- they don't provide any real shade.
I should add that we have orange trees as street trees here. If I had one in front of my house it would get annoying because the oranges drop and leave a mess. But it's just cool to see a tree full of oranges in the middle of a city!
Tabebuia rosea It's pretty common where I live, I just love to see my city full of pink trees.
The best tree for all situations is the Honey Locust. Sweetgum is pretty awesome too.
@@MilwaukeeF40C sweetgums stretch out in weird ways and leave those annoying seed balls everywhere. In the spring they litter the ground with the brocoli looking things. Very messy trees haha
How would you recommend getting street trees introduced to a neighborhood that has none? It seems like an expensive operation to convert part of the road into green area. Since you have to rip up the old asphalt instead of just paving over it
As a man who climbs telephone poles for a living street trees growing on the lines are among the dumber ideas for cities. When you have to spend 4 hours hacking a tree to bits to run a line and have to deal with the pissed neighbors your opinion will change real quick
As a Sacramento Native, I agree with this 100%
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.
Hey you live in sacramento? Dang I never knew wonder of you've ever heard of my town winters it's a small town about 30 minutes away you should visit it's a nice little town
Sure, I've been to Winters. I had a co-worker who grew up there and talked it up.
City Beautiful oh nice! Yeah winters people like to talk up our town😂 it's not all that special but I like it.
Its all fun and beauty until one of the branches of the tree broke and fall on the car or roof of your house.
Yes! Exactly! My car has a large dent in the roof, and my insurance company will not pay to have it repaired.
@@howtubeable Yes, it happens to my family once too. The tree branch falls into the rooftop of our house and car. The insurance company refuse to pay for it because it happens within our private property and said it is because of our own negligence.
It also reduces noise pollution. Cities Skylines taught me that :D
Over here in Amsterdam, the streets with trees are by far the most loved to live in. Lomanstraat for instance, just beautiful
Thanks for this amazing treeppreciation!!
There should always be at least a tree or three within the backdrop of every human person’s daily existence; they make us calmer, healthier and saner. (science says)
The Great Cities of Planet Earth are without a doubt our enormous achievement and the leading edge of our world.
But the true human habitat is an amalgam of nature and society. Detached from either one of those we can never fully thrive!
imagine if you do a city skylines twitch stream!
I've been meaning to do a "City Planner plays Sim City" or "City Planner plays Cities Skylines" video. It would be fun! My current problem now is that my computer isn't good enough to play, let alone stream, Cities Skylines.
City Beautiful it would be wonderful to see what creativity you can put in the game.
City Beautiful I've been DREAMING of you doing something like that! I hoped you'd do something like explaining how to organize a city and work in themes from other videos: transit, walkability/Savannah Georgia, and building a vibrant community space, or even a focus on what makes people happy(and demonstrate it by changing things in the game and watch the happy and angry faces appear).
If/when you make that video, stick to cities skylines. I've heard it's more flexible than Sims. And I wouldnt expect or want a streaming video. There are plenty of those out there. They aren't well put together and tend to ramble. I think hearing your stream of consciousness would be interesting, but not enough to justify overloading your computer. Besides, I like your more focused style with an emphasis on quality over quantity [of minutes speaking].
City Beautiful you sure? I got the game a few days ago and it runs fine in mid level settings on my 2013 iMac with base level options
Great video! Here in Chicago, I also feel like trees cut back on noise pollution as well.
As someone who lives on a street with no trees (really none of the streets in this dense part of South Philly have trees), I never really realized how much nicer things would look if the city put more effort into planting trees
When making this video, did you just find out how hard it is to say "street trees" several times?
One more important thing is plant native trees, they might have better chance to survive in longer run
I guess the only issue with trees is that in my town the trees destroyed the sidewalks and some of the roads.
That's because they don't have enough soil space for the root system. If you plant the trees in a narrow grass strip as you can see in the video most trees won't destroy the sidewalks.
Pontus Eriksson that's just not true. Even in this video, you can see areas by trees where the sidewalks had to be replaced, most likely due to the expanding trunk and roots.
@@zacharyhenderson2902 More positives than negatives.
@@Minecraftizawsom that's debatable. But at the end of the day neighborhoods just have to decide for themselves
Zachary Henderson So then what are the negatives?
Still Europeans trees are built better. They have a nicer architecture.
How do power lines affect the trees in Sacramento? I'm from a medium sized midwestern town and the city's always cutting branches because of lines. The tree we have in the front yard is actually bowing towards our house because there are no branches on the other side to counter the weight.
The central part of Sacramento does not have many above-ground power lines. This allows for the trees to really take over the street. Power lines make for some weird-looking trees. Unfortunately it is really expensive to bury power lines now.
This is an interesting topic which I had never given much thought to. Would've been good to cover some of the disadvantages though, even if they don't outweigh the benefits. For example, the roots of large trees can grow under paths and roads causing the tarmac to crack, and can damage the foundations of houses. Also, falling trees can do a lot of damage, especially during a storm. I suppose autumn leaf fall also causes problems, such as blocked trains.
Tell this to any housing or city developers in Arizona! Our streets have almost zero shade and hardly any street trees.
I like everything he is saying, but he totally ignored the negatives of trees, especially curb-side trees.
Curb-side trees destroy the sidewalk. Throughout Memphis, trees have destroyed countless sidewalks. And the city will no longer pay to repair the sidewalk. The homeowner is 100% responsible for replacing the sidewalk.
Also, it is very expensive to fell a dead tree. And no one helps the homeowner with the expense. Not the city, and not the insurance company.
Thats a different problem, in the netherlands they repair sidewalks and replace dead trees and when a tree falls it gets replaced and damages gets payed by the city
Greetings from Winnipeg. We have many beautiful elm lined streets in Winnipeg. We still have over 250,000 elm trees in Winnipeg.
That's awesome!
Davis is only bearable in the summer because of the trees!
You should do an episode on Orlando, Florida and all changes they've made to the downtown area to make it more lively.
Excellent information sir, love from India
I miss trees in Brazil streets, is so goddamn ugly here
Great vid. Love the citations and editing too.
I live in Phoenix, I wish we had street trees.
3:42 - 4:02 is D street around 25th and 26th
I hate new subdivisions that have zero trees. Like developers cut down all the trees so now you just have a neighborhood full of boxes out in the open baking in the sun
th-cam.com/video/W6kd2FF9x4g/w-d-xo.html
A few years ago, a tree in front of my house wrapped its main root around a water main and crushed it, flooding my entire front yard. The city removed the tree, and never planted a new one, saying it would just break the water main again. But they never removed that tree's twin, which will inevitably do the same thing. Hopefully they replace the pipe with stronger materials and plant new trees.
Kian Leiner its so important to consider piped infrastructure while planting but when local government organisations are fragmented and landscape architects don’t talk to engineers then you get floods.
I really enjoyed this video and this new format!
Thanks!
City Beautiful Are you working towards a PhD? I work in remote sensing, and my research focuses on trying to meet urban mapping applications using polarimetic radar. It would be wonderful to see your formal work, if it's available somewhere online!
I am working on a PhD, but I'm still in the early stages of my dissertation work. I'll definitely adapt anything I publish to a video with a link to my actual research when the time comes.
City Beautiful That's amazing. All the best with work! I might be in Sacramento in December. I'll definitely contact you and perhaps we can chat!
Send me a message if you're in town!
I live in New York City, and we are severely under-treed. My favorite street tree here though is the ginko.
1: It's a really fun name.
2: I like juxtaposition of a species of tree millions of years old living in a modern metropolis.
Nyc started planting trees since Bloomberg where do you live that doesnt have public trees.
Mrbrain bob There are trees, I'm saying there aren't enough trees. I live in Jamaica Queens.
The Ginko tree is the most smelly tree ever, but it does have it benefit such as surviving in the most polluted of area. Good thing I live in the South where pecan tree can be found everywhere in my area.
Here in Toronto there are plenty of trees in most places, especially the ravines.
@@littlebylitttle5866 There are male and female gingko trees, and only the female trees produce seeds / fruit, and that is the horribly smelly aspect. Male trees don't do this, so they're desirable for streets.
What about watering the trees? I can't imagine trees in SoCal are a great idea environmentally
Trees have deep roots and can usually find water well under ground level. Prolonged droughts can make it tough on trees in SoCal, though.
Coming to choice to trees, some trees have very strong roots and can damage the street or the footpath, not to mention be an inconvenience to pedestrians and cyclists. Examples are Banyan and Jackfruit.
Jackfruits are delicious!
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.
I live in a little city in Brazil, and there are many, many trees. Around the neighbourhood, in the streets, along the river. And they really make the city more cooler (in the 2 meanings ^.^), the air here is really fresh, and we have some beautiful landscapes ^_~
Can you make a video about the diffrenece between urban planning and urban design?
I like that idea!
Trees are our Lifelines!!
great street complete street.
Sometimes I forget Milwaukee is a fairly large city so when someone mentions it I'm like " *I LIVE IN THE SAME STATE AS MILWAUKEE* "
say street trees ten times fast