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| Cedars and plums compete for sidewalk space along 2nd Avenue |
BELLTOWN
Belltown sidewalks seem to have become a full-scale laboratory for
SDOT, the city department of transportation engineers and urban planners. Art projects, sidewalk
cafés, bus shelters, bike racks, newspaper vending machines, garbage
cans and trees of various ages and diverse species populate the
right-of-way, buckling the four-inch concrete and turning the simple
business of walking down the block into a hazardous obstacle course.
Fate, as it happens, smiles on the incense cedar (source of pencils
and much prized in our cool, dry climate), to the disadvantage of the
oak, the plum, the tulip and the maple. Especially the maple, which
grows and grows and grows until it's over three feet across and
essentially stops pedestrian traffic. Were it a bicycle or a sleepy drunk, we could request it move along, please, and stop
blocking the sidewalk. The city is no fan of maples planted on
street corners (where they interfere with drivers' sight-lines); they
think we need to suck it up and cut them down.
More: What the City wants to do with the trees
The curbside plums, immersed in the blue clay that underlies
Belltown's concrete, create their own problems, what with leaves and
trash that accumulate in the tree pits, not to mention the muddy barrier
to they create for people getting in and out of parked cars. The oaks
expand at the bottom and outgrow their home within a few years, roots
creating havoc with walkways; the cedars, on the other hand, grow
straight and tall and narrow; they play well with others, even if they
are, in the eyes of some, not all that attractive.
The tree-lined boulevards of Paris do fine with plane trees,
sycamores we'd call them. Or linden trees, the broad-leafed limes. Or
chestnuts. All carefully monitored, carefully pruned, each one embedded
with a computer chip connected to a central computer. Maintenance of the
city's infrastructure (concrete, cobblestone, green) is a civic
responsibility, not an afterthought. Seattle's Department of Transportation (which has responsibility for trees on public rights-of-way) could take a lesson in public
policy from the City of Light, where beautification isn't left to
engineers but is considered one of the primary obligations of elected
officials. Are you listening, Mr. Mayor?
Environmental watchdog and green
architect
Carolyn Geiss is not optimistic either about SDOT's involvement in neighborhood
issues like streetscapes, urban landscaping, parking or community
centers. "They experiment on Belltown, but when it comes time to
actually do it," she tells Curbed, referring to projects in South Lake Union,
Pike-Pine, Magnolia Village, Broadway, Greenwood, "they do it right
somewhere else."
All previous Sidewalk coverage
All previous Belltown coverage
