Dinner and a City Council Meeting

I'm enjoying some homemade bread and split pea soup while watching a relatively spirited Cambridge City Council meeting. Since beginning our program, I've been watching more local access cable to better acquaint myself with city politics. It requires some discipline to remain patient through the tedious procedural discourse. For example, if this blog post were conducted at the pace of this ongoing meeting, it would read: I will now proceed with paragraph two. All in favor say "Aye" all opposed "No" - the decision to move onto paragraph two is adopted.

The ongoing "Item Six" of tonight's meeting is addressing the important urban environmental subject of street trees (see Cambridge Urban Forest Canopy Assessment). While watching the meeting thus far, I have noted the following interesting facts:

1) Over the duration of an 18 month period, January 2009 through June 2010, the city has committed to plant 550 street trees. There are approximately 20,000 existing street trees within the bounds of the City of Cambridge.

2) If a resident requests a replacement street tree (at an existing tree box) the city typically replaces the tree within a fiscal year. 

3) If a resident requests a tree at a location without a tree box, and that site is deemed suitable, the resident is required to pay $400 to prepare the sidewalk for the new tree.

4) Street trees are also available free of charge at the "back of sidewalk" which extends fifteen feet from the public right of way.

5) The cost of a typical street tree is $550.

6) The cost of a typical memorial plaque is $550.

Upon recognizing the cost parity of 5 and 6, Councilor Kelley interjected "Let's plant more trees and put up less plaques!"

*Chuckle*

Also discussed was leveraging "public volunteers" to survey the condition of existing trees. Councilor Seidel made this recommendation, without the foggiest idea of how to gather the data or source the volunteers. I thought this was particularly relevant to our encounter with citizen science. If a member of our class was a city council appointee, I think he/she would have introduced citizen scientists as a feasible resolution.

Now back to dinner, and Cambridge budget appropriations.  This meeting is adjourned.