One interesting and anecdotal thing about where (one set of) my parents live in inner-suburban Calgary, in a 1970s vintage suburb that's generally of decent design, save the teardowns being replaced with mcmansions. Most people don't seem to care that much about the exterior of their house as viewed from the street and much more care is given to backyards in general. If anything trees are used to screen original houses as much as possible.
However, people seem to get positively irate if someone parks in front of their house - heard this from my parents as well as others in the area during neighbourhood parties. Living in the central city where street parking is a necessity for many it just seems bizarre. They were particularly angry when an LRT station opened nearby due to the thought of the area being "invaded" by parking cars and ruining property values. My suggestion was implementing permit parking near the station ("ridiculous!!!"), which is of course what happened shortly after it opened...
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Originally Posted by Acajack
The aridity and other generally difficult growing conditions for most trees and shrubs out there also doesn't help dull the austere character.
From Ontario to Nova Scotia things tend to be much more lush and within even a few years this tends to make even the most mundane suburban street feel a lot more inviting.
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It is more difficult in Southern Alberta, but still very possible to accomplish. Older areas do have an impressive tree coverage as well as plenty of smaller, resilient shrubs, bushes, etc. Newer areas on the other hand almost make this impossible by design - the extremely narrow lots often don't allow for enough frontage for any significant trees. As has been discussed many people aren't planting much in their backyards either. Not sure what the current situation is with public frontages, but areas of equivalent age in the suburban GTA or Ottawa do seem to have a lot more public trees and the difference can't be fully accounted for by our better growing conditions.
My other set of parents live outside Calgary and built a house in an acreage subdivision that was essentially bare prairie 25 years ago. For all intents and purposes it is completely screened in by larger trees (a mixture heavy on coniferous and larch trees) with gardens within the interior. This was a particularly difficult property as wind was funneled around a hill and made it difficult for new transplants to take root. Most people (myself included!) wouldn't have the effort to do this though.
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