Ruth Ryals

rryals@comcast.net

From: livablecambridge@googlegroups.com <livablecambridge@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Heather Hoffman <heather.m.hoffman.1957@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, October 9, 2020 10:52:46 PM
To: Heather Hoffman <heather.m.hoffman.1957@gmail.com>
Subject: [livablecambridgeopen] The Atlantic defends our urban trees

The Atlantic has a new article about how important and how endangered urban trees are. Here's a taste:

American cities are host to 3.8 billion trees—on sidewalks, in parks, in our front yards and backyards, outside houses of worship and office complexes. They’re crucial for urban life: Most notably, trees cool down cities by creating shade and engaging in transpiration, the process by which they return water vapor into the atmosphere. Together, these effects can lower the temperature of a city street a few degrees (and as much as 10 degrees, as one recent study found). Studies have also found that well-placed trees can reduce air-conditioning costs by about one-third. Trees also remove up to 24 percent of dust; studies show that kids who live near urban trees have lower rates of asthma. Trees can even make pavement last a decade longer.

And yet Cambridge is not protecting our canopy, much less expanding it, especially in places where the non-wealthy live.

We will soon be launching a search for a new City Manager and talking about whether we should make changes in our city charter. Two commercial upzonings in East Cambridge and one in Alewife, totalling well over a million square feet, are currently on the table. Next November we'll be voting for City Councillors and School Committee members. Maybe the trees need to be an important part of all of these decisions.

Heather Hoffman

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