Public Trees: The Plan for Street Trees | Chapter 9
Public Trees:
The Plan for Street Trees
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Street trees principally shelter sidewalks, where they reduce urban heat islands and protect pedestrians from vehicles. Streets comprise the vast majority of Cedar Rapids’ public spaces, and their trees play a large role in making them hospitable places where the bonds of community can form.
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eLeaf Cedar Rapids is a plan for everyone in Cedar Rapids.
It advocates that all parties, public and private, work to replenish their tree cover, and provides tools for them to do so well. On the private side, the plan is necessarily a collection of suggestions, requests, and perhaps even exhortations. But it can’t be any more than that because private land is private, and people have the right to plant the way they want, except, of course, where City ordinances require minimal plantings. Public trees are a different matter.
