Concrete, asphalt and urban heat islands add to the misery of heat waves

Maintenance costs.

At least here in the UK things like maintenance of trees falls to the most local authority (town/parish councils) that are notoriously underfunded and will cut down a tree is it's cheaper than maintaining it. They are allergic to the risk posed by falling branches too.

Someone needs to pay for the tree and its ongoing maintenance. Thats why many studies note a great temperature and foliage difference between rich and poor areas.

Clearly many places do.

But an ever growing problem is the need for fresh water and infrastructure. And I know this always gets push back, but a lot of desert is great for development principally because before modernity no one could live there. Further, the deserts have been expanding on their own so reclamation is a thing.

Having been to Arcosanti, wish there was as some desire to explore alternatives. I have no love of being completely dependent upon vehicles and their huge footprint and risk exposures.

Because, if you're Comcast/Universal, those trees (publicly-owned, by the way) might provide shade to picketers who are fighting for their jobs: https://deadline.com/2023/07/writers-strike-wga-files-federa...

Because trees need time to grow and take roots. It's possible to plant big trees but it requires heavy machinery as root are large.

Usually there is not room in the soil (pipes etc), and asphalt/concrete prevent a tree to get water.

Also trees evolved to live in an ecosystem. A city is not an ecosystem.

And there also are roofs and walls and roads, so tree will just mitigate the problem.

It's feasible, but the cost is high, and it also implies giving up car space.

I've involved myself in local effort to achieve this. 2 main problems we always encounter.

1. This requires planning and change. Tearing up pathways and streets is expensive, takes planning on administrative side and execution on the physical one. Cities and towns have limited money and don't want go through the effort and cost of it. You'll also encounter NIMBYs who are against any change whatsoever.

2. Tree roots in cities generally grow more horizontal and close to the surface. Reason for this is water and air access. If the surrounding area is paved over with concrete or other solid materials and doesn't allow for drainage and airflow, like some light cobbled pathways would, trees will come up and crack the concrete. Since a lot of the underlying structure is compacted soil to allow stable roads and buildings, water won't drain into it and provide less water for soil.

We wanted to revitalize an open empty market space in our small district. Think 200sqm. Total cost for replacing the old concrete tiles with less compacted cobbles and some wildflower beds and trees was 10m Euros.

Just watched Ice Cube in a video cruising through South Central LA where he grew up. There were no trees along any of the streets. He said the city cut them all down because the Police Helicopters couldn't see through them. I guess FLIR doesn't penetrate trees.

That’s setting up some maintenance nightmares down the road. Tree roots can break into sewage lines and water mains. I would not want to be around when that happens!

the take space that is already taken, cost money to install, and cost money to maintain.

there are other reasons to put the trees there anyway (physical / mental health, heat, etc) but they are not well appreciated by everyone.. and we as a society have to collectively make a choice between those pros and cons.

Another reason is police helicopters can not see suspects hiding under the trees. No joke, look it up.

Civil engineer 7 years in public works and transportation.

1. The local agency having jurisdiction would assume the risk of having installed hazards within a clear zone. That is the area beyond a curb or shoulder that is recommended to be free of anything an errant vehicle could collide with. A city would probably tolerate this. A state DOT would probably not.

2. Who pays for it? Landscaping is more costly than you think and contractors tend to be specialized. For a significant streetscaping project, you would need someone who has an efficient pipeline for mobilizing migrant labor. Cities and states tend to have massive shortfalls in capital improvement budgets versus what is desired. Example: Little Rock infrastructure CAPEX needs are around $1B. Their 3-yr bond is around $35M. Are you really going to blow it all on trees when you have major life safety improvements to make?

3. Who maintains it? Tree litter has to be swept. Roots destroy the adjacent pavement. They can get old and fall on a motorist if left alone. Your city probably doesn’t have the staff to provide every service every resident wants at all times. How many firefighters are you willing to fire to pick up branches?

Have some empathy for your City Manager or Mayor. These are the decisions they make frequently. Their problems are boring to most and don’t usually make it to HN, but they are hard problems.

I feel like 50k is quite large for a “rural” area. The places I’ve lived in or visited with that population felt very (sub)urban.

Small towns and countryside means things are far apart.

Let me tell you about tropical nights. I live where temperatures don't drop below 30 at night in summer with 80% humidity. Thank god it's a big city. During the day buildings shade me from sun and because everything is packed it's rarely more than 5 min walking from AC to AC. I would probably die if I had to walk far distances through spreadout town or god forbid countryside without working public transport. Such weather is OK for bicycling however only if landscape very flat. I can compare because I also lived in small towns with similar weather. No thanks.

I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at but streets are generally convex to direct water to the edges.

I think the simplest thing would be painting as many surfaces white as possible. Not entirely fun in full sun though. (Though maybe there’s room for a combination of white surfaces under a light thick canopy of solar panels?)

Obviously, if you want to build cities that are actually pleasant to be in, the first thing to do is remove cars and make things more comfortable for pedestrians.

To me most of the USA is just a dystopian hellscape where you cannot live without a car, and there is no city centre to speak of as you need to drive between points of interest that are spread around along massive motorways.

I grew up Rural and farmed with my grandfather, eventually had to move to a city and hated it ever since. I dont know how people can live in urban and suburban areas willingly. I miss the greenery, the wild animals and planting random shit in the yard to see what grows. I miss having no HOAs and just doing what I want in my yard. Ironically the only thing I liked about las vegas was going out into the mountians and relaxing/hiking/camping in the forests to remind me of home. Concrete crowds and asphalt for some reason kills my motivation to do anything after work.

At this point, you might get a good deal on buying and demolishing vacant commercial real estate. Plant trees, apply to rezone it to open space. I’d bet you could spin up a non-profit to do this and raise real money.