My office window overlooks an intersection in Pleasanton CA [1] that looks like many in the city - wide streets, big grassy areas around the street, and careful

My office window overlooks an intersection in Pleasanton CA [1] that looks like many in the city - wide streets, big grassy areas around the street, and carefully curated shrubs and trees past that. It's all very artificial. I can count maybe 10 plant species within view. Very few birds. And it requires constant maintenance. Crews are here almost every day, driving mowers around, blowing and removing leaves and clippings, watering, spraying herbicide, etc. It strikes me as obscenely wasteful. And for what? Nobody is picnicking on this grass. It's just an aesthetic choice that it seems like all of America has embraced - and no wonder everything is dying off. We're actively killing everything on this land that isn't the exact species of grass that was planted. [1] https://www.google.com/maps/@37.6914552,-121.8947521,3a,75y,38.53h,77.77t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sDaeRtPSe6JYXRoFpCarw6w!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DDaeRtPSe6JYXRoFpCarw6w%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D257.49185%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100 https://www.google.com/maps/@37.6914552,-121.8947521,3a,75y,...