I hope that the renewed interest in urban gardens and the appreciation for plant life in urban landscapes persists. The benefits can be wild in terms of improve

I hope that the renewed interest in urban gardens and the appreciation for plant life in urban landscapes persists. The benefits can be wild in terms of improved quality of life for those living in the city. I live very near an urban core that is undergoing rapid development and densification. That core is part of a larger planned area that includes apartments, condos, town houses, and suburban style homes going back more than 50 years. The nearby suburban areas are walkable, and almost entirely embedded in so much greenery it's virtually a wildlife preserve. A local association owns some significant percentage of the land and has strict rules about development on their property which keeps it out of the hands of developers and well forested. My understanding was that all of these thousands of acres were virtually tree free farmland when it was selected for development. Now the entire area is absolutely filled with 30-70 foot (10-20 meter or so) trees planted when development started, dense undergrowth, and absolutely chock full of various kinds of wildlife like deer, foxes, raptors, and so on. Yards are allowed, but not really required, so many people have just let them go fallow and return to nature, or keep minimal outdoor areas for lawn furniture or play areas for their kids. The urban area needs a place for rainwater runoff to go, so the runoff areas dump into artificial streams which have been designated as parks, and provided with paved trails, and bridges and so on. They too have become heavily forested, the only sign that they're part of the local urban infrastructure is the occasional manhole cover. The runoff condenses into a selection of local artificial lakes that open up opportunities for waterfront property and parks, and personal watercraft and recreation areas. I live in a suburban home, 3 miles from the middle of the urban core which features an Apple store and other big named retailers, as well as offices, restaurants, recreation etc. It's a nice walk on weekends or evenings. The core is connected into the nearby major city and other nearby urban areas and the local airport via light rail. In the summer, we're about 5-10 deg F cooler than all of the surrounding areas, and much more humid in general. Because of the trees, we get very little wind. It can sometimes be difficult to predict how to dress when going out as our house sits even cooler than that, and stepping outside is still not representative of the way it feels in other nearby areas. It can be cold in our home in the early fall and late spring when the outside sits at around 20 deg C or 70 deg F. In some parts of the world this may sound absolutely normal, but here in the U.S. it's absolutely bonkers that it exists. My understanding was that it was explicitly patterned on a "more European" style of land development.