SHADY SIDE OF LIVABILITY ?

[Greg Simmons]

Oh yeah we could really claim back a lot of potential shade and potential oasis spots if we could get folks interested in closing alleys and we could plant palm trees in  those alleys Wayne.....
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Greg Simmons 
  To: central-city-discuss at gcna.info 
  Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 10:11 PM
  Subject: SHADY SIDE OF LIVABILITY ?


  This is interesting article (and thanks to Dennis for posting it) and undeniably true that the city does not have enough shade and that cooling landscapes are needed. But I also found it interesting there is only indirect mention of exceeding our precious water resources in the desert south west. We are rapidly running out of water in the state. Too much growth and not enough water (Agriculture is a heavy user and so are the big cities)  The very same newspaper (AZ-Republic) just published a 7 part series about six threatened river systems in the state  and yesterday's news reports that the year's unusually heavy summer rains are not expected to ease the 11th year of a drought.


  This journalist's  notion of what the history of this landscape is interesting as well, the history of this area is native sonaran desert with desert adapted trees and shrubs, perennial rivers (e.g.,  Gila, Salt) not dry river beds and people (Anasazi, O'odham) that were well adapted to the environment, planting crops in time with the summer rains.   So I agree with much of this but I'm partly left with the feeling that this author has something against desert plant materials. They are good for Scottsdale xeriscapes and for central Phoenix, drought adapted trees like Palo Verde are needed along with all the other shade trees we can plant desert or other wise, common sense suggests we should try and pick trees adapted to this environment for the shade they provide and the evapotranspiration through the leaves (Arizona ash anyone? that is a native species that has moderate water needs and is a great shade tree).  

  Greg
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