The Connection Between Trees and Health

Photo courtesy of Cathedral Square Friends, Inc.

Every day at The Overhead Wire we sort through over 1,500 news items about cities and share the best ones with our email list. At the end of the week, we take some of the most popular stories and share them with Urban Milwaukee readers. They are national (or international) links, sometimes entertaining and sometimes absurd, but hopefully useful.

Motor Carrier Act impacts 40 years later: A 44 year old law for trucks caps insurance payouts for collisions at $750,000. Adjusting for inflation it would be $5 million and many advocates believe the roads would be safer as not just anyone could get a license to drive a truck and higher rates would ensure more safety provisions due to more risk assumed by insurers. A bill to change the cap to $5 million has been written by U.S. Reps Chuy Garcia and Hank Johnson. (Kea Wilson | Streetsblog USA)

Moguls against subways: The 80 year old former CEO of Ticketmaster is trying to kill a subway that would run under his toney Bel Air neighborhood just west of Los Angeles. The man who doesn’t like being called a NIMBY has amassed seven figures from local rich people for lawsuits against the project. He and other opponents would rather see a monorail that would cost less but add more than ten minutes to the route’s travel time. (Gary Baum | The Hollywood Reporter)

A neighborhood for people with Alzheimer’s: Care homes are often designed around simple formulas and often confine people to a life lived inside. However, designers and public authorities in Europe have been considering other ways for people with Alzheimer’s to live out their lives without being contained in a room watching tv for the rest of their lives. A new neighborhood in France is designed like a traditional community aiming to give “villagers” as much agency and freedom as possible. (Rowan Moore | The Guardian)

Challenges for suburban office space: While urban downtowns around the United States are still figuring out how to get on their feet as work from home policies continue, commercial spaces in the suburbs are also challenged. Some jurisdictions are considering how they might be able to help with the slowdown as impacts to tax bases take hold while others are starting to rethink single use office parks when housing and other amenities are needed. (Jared Brey | Governing)

A real connection between trees and health: Cardiology researcher Aruni Bhatnagar is seeking to show a real clinical connection between greenness and human health such as reduced stress and less hardening of arteries from transportation pollution. The “Green Heart Louisville” project has planted 8,000 trees and shrubs and has gotten super detailed health data from 500 residents including blood, urine, and hair samples. (Bishop Sand | Washington Post)

Quote of the Week

While at this stop on a rainy and recent morning, I was overwhelmed with the sense that my city had just given up. It was no longer even trying to do anything in the social direction. The dead sign, the long wait for the bus, the endless cars violating the Bus Only lane. Seattle’s public spirit was gone like the soul of a zombie.

–Charles Mudede in The Stranger lamenting leadership in Seattle on questions of transportation.

This week on the podcast, Beth Osborne, Vice President for Transportation and Thriving Communities at Smart Growth America chats about the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Measure Rule that will make State DOTs and MPOs measure emissions on the federal highway system.

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