Quote:
Originally Posted by shivtim
This adds housing and density to the site. The height is irrelevant, but this is a way better land usage than a couple of former single family homes. If we don't build stuff like this here, even more trees are lost out in the suburbs where the housing would be built instead.
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You make a good point; however, there's another factor to consider. Paradoxically, some of the oldest growth trees in the area are located in the city limits. 70-80 years ago, much of the area that is now forested in the suburbs were cotton fields. This is why it's more common to see pine-dominant monoculture forest in the suburbs; the forest there has not been around long enough to develop old growth trees. It takes a lot longer to replace trees like those at Joe's and Einstein's than it does a few acres of scrubby pines.
I do get what you're saying and am glad the massive clearcutting that used to be super common before the housing crash in '08 has given way to smarter development, that is progress. But the age of trees and the ecological diversity they provide needs to be scrutinized more closely than it has been in recent years. Midtown has lost a lot of old trees recently, and it shows.