4 ms·

Colombia is equatorial. It rains a lot; the green spaces probably don't need irrigation. It might not be so easy or cheap to pull this off in places like Los An

Colombia is equatorial. It rains a lot; the green spaces probably don't need irrigation. It might not be so easy or cheap to pull this off in places like Los Angeles, Los Vegas, or Phoenix.

danlugo92 3y ago
> the green spaces probably don't need irrigation Truly they don't, but even inside Medellin the precipitation rates are not as great as the lands around... ...because of the deforestation that /already/ happened, say, 50 years ago... Ain't no commercial high rise neighborhood (semi-common in Medellin) that can "pull in" as much precipitation as a virgin forest no way, and you can see this if you visit there and then you visit an actual virgin rain-forest... ...but of course, this is what they are trying to alleviate and if the outskirts of the city are super-green it can help... Btw all of the outskirts aren't super green but a lot of them are...
apercu 3y ago
Those places (all places) should be primarily using local flora.
- TaylorAlexander 3y ago
  Yep exactly. I decided to look up the local flora for Los Angeles and found this nice article. It notes that Los Angeles has a Mediterranean style climate, and there certainly are plenty of local flora options to choose from: https://la.curbed.com/2018/8/23/17720768/los-angeles-plants-trees-glossary-guide-jasmine-palm https://la.curbed.com/2018/8/23/17720768/los-angeles-plants-...
  - apercu 3y ago
    I'm in year two of turning the front yard (half-acre) in to prairie. I'm _mostly_ using local flora but the climate is changing so there are more options. More challenging is that I had started with drought resistant indigenous stuff but the predictions are that anticipating the coming years weather is "unpossible" and that even the local stuff is going to fail half the time.
- stickfigure 3y ago
  I grew up in LA and still spend a lot of time camping in the southwest. I think I'm pretty familiar with what the natural environment would look like without cities. It's not green. It's mostly dirt, peppered with scrub plants. You can get a pretty good idea what "LA or Vegas with natural green belts" would look like just by going outside the metro areas. I'm not saying it's bad - I love southwest desert - but natural desert "greenbelts" are probably not what you're picturing if you think "why don't we do Medellín here?"
KaiserPro 3y ago
To pull off a rain forest yes, but to get green is not impossible. The problem for LA is that most of the drainage is there to move storm water away as quick as possible, which means that local water is hard to come by.

Colombia is equatorial. It rains a lot; the green spaces probably don't need irrigation. It might not be so easy or cheap to pull this off in places like Los Angeles, Los Vegas, or Phoenix.

danlugo92 3y ago

> the green spaces probably don't need irrigation Truly they don't, but even inside Medellin the precipitation rates are not as great as the lands around... ...because of the deforestation that /already/ happened, say, 50 years ago... Ain't no commercial high rise neighborhood (semi-common in Medellin) that can "pull in" as much precipitation as a virgin forest no way, and you can see this if you visit there and then you visit an actual virgin rain-forest... ...but of course, this is what they are trying to alleviate and if the outskirts of the city are super-green it can help... Btw all of the outskirts aren't super green but a lot of them are...

apercu 3y ago

Those places (all places) should be primarily using local flora.

TaylorAlexander 3y ago
Yep exactly. I decided to look up the local flora for Los Angeles and found this nice article. It notes that Los Angeles has a Mediterranean style climate, and there certainly are plenty of local flora options to choose from: https://la.curbed.com/2018/8/23/17720768/los-angeles-plants-trees-glossary-guide-jasmine-palm https://la.curbed.com/2018/8/23/17720768/los-angeles-plants-...
- apercu 3y ago
  I'm in year two of turning the front yard (half-acre) in to prairie. I'm _mostly_ using local flora but the climate is changing so there are more options. More challenging is that I had started with drought resistant indigenous stuff but the predictions are that anticipating the coming years weather is "unpossible" and that even the local stuff is going to fail half the time.
stickfigure 3y ago
I grew up in LA and still spend a lot of time camping in the southwest. I think I'm pretty familiar with what the natural environment would look like without cities. It's not green. It's mostly dirt, peppered with scrub plants. You can get a pretty good idea what "LA or Vegas with natural green belts" would look like just by going outside the metro areas. I'm not saying it's bad - I love southwest desert - but natural desert "greenbelts" are probably not what you're picturing if you think "why don't we do Medellín here?"

KaiserPro 3y ago

To pull off a rain forest yes, but to get green is not impossible. The problem for LA is that most of the drainage is there to move storm water away as quick as possible, which means that local water is hard to come by.