Zapotlanejo, Mexico is about to become the Belle City's sixth sister city. A delegation from that city will be visiting Racine this week, and municpal Presidente Alvarez Contreras will join Mayor Becker in walking the route of the 4th of July parade. There also will be a signing of the "twinning" agreement at City Hall at noon on Thursday.
Totally unrelated to the story.... Look at their market square. It is beautiful. Why don't we add some trees to Monument Square? It is the flattest, ugliest thing since they "redecorated."
Many people, especially in urban settings, don't look at trees as living things. They think of them more like furniture, to be moved around and rearranged as they please. Of course, the trees don't make it, and they just buy new ones. Large trees are expensive, so they plant younhg ones with little or no regard for the plant's needs, and then they watch them die. In landscape, I was taught to plant trees for the next generation. In downtown Racine, trees are disposable, like the banners on poles or window dressing in stores.
Look at any older part of town and you'll see large, mature trees. What they add to the environment is priceless. Oxygen, sound barriers, warmth in winter and shade in summer, habitat for animals, they literally hold the earth together. The psychological impact is enormous. Then look at any new development. Barren, bright, and white. Tere'll be a few trees planted, that will be ripped out in a few years and replaced with new, "improved" trees. Nothing is allowed to reach maturity.
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Totally unrelated to the story.... Look at their market square. It is beautiful. Why don't we add some trees to Monument Square? It is the flattest, ugliest thing since they "redecorated."
Many people, especially in urban settings, don't look at trees as living things. They think of them more like furniture, to be moved around and rearranged as they please. Of course, the trees don't make it, and they just buy new ones. Large trees are expensive, so they plant younhg ones with little or no regard for the plant's needs, and then they watch them die. In landscape, I was taught to plant trees for the next generation. In downtown Racine, trees are disposable, like the banners on poles or window dressing in stores.
Look at any older part of town and you'll see large, mature trees. What they add to the environment is priceless. Oxygen, sound barriers, warmth in winter and shade in summer, habitat for animals, they literally hold the earth together. The psychological impact is enormous. Then look at any new development. Barren, bright, and white. Tere'll be a few trees planted, that will be ripped out in a few years and replaced with new, "improved" trees. Nothing is allowed to reach maturity.
kk - It's funny that my very first thought when I saw that picture was - that's just how Monument Square used to look!
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