Downtown outdoor spaces

[ijmorlan]

I think there is a place for both...but what would be a problem is overgrowing the bench and trail...

I would strongly disagree that plants encroaching on our trails is more of a problem than the absence of habitats, leading to insect population collapse. Obviously this few meters of plants is minuscule in the bigger picture, but 1) our city should lead by example and 2) every bit truly counts.

It’s not just trails, it’s roads and everything else we do.

At a certain point, plants encroaching on a trail reduce and eventually eliminate the usefulness of the trail.

In this case we’re nowhere near that but to single out trails alone as not being more important than habitat is still counterproductive. You would see a much bigger increase in habitat from cutting back unnecessarily wide roads than from anything involving trails.

That being said, I wish we would have a lot more wild or semi wild areas and a lot less random grass. Of course in parks a certain amount of grass space is useful for many park uses such as walking, having a picnic, or playing games, but a lot of the grass in the city really isn’t used. I’m thinking especially of boulevards and medians among other areas.