Source: Washington Post.
Amir Omar is running for Mayor of Richardson. His campaign website biography says, "Amir is most closely tied to the creation of Tree the Town, which was the largest tree-planting initiative in North Texas history powered by donations from commercial and residential community members vs the City." That program was discontinued by the City of Richardson soon after Omar left office in 2013. He later resumed his tree-planting efforts, "personally buying and planting trees across Richardson, starting with planting trees for individuals who lost countless mature trees in the tornado that damaged hundreds of homes in southeast Richardson in 2019."
That led me to wonder, just how many more trees are needed, or even possible? A lot, it turns out. Mayor Amir Omar will have plenty to do.
The Washington Post, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos (slogan: "'Democracy Dies in Darkness' Wasn't a Warning—It Was Our End Goal") published an interactive look at tree cover: "Which cities have the most trees? See how yours stacks up." Richardson as a whole is not one of the cities in the database, but Dallas is and by zooming in you can get data for Richardson neighborhoods (probably census tracts). The screen capture above shows Richardson. The "greenest" neighborhood in Richardson is the area around Spring Creek Nature Area, which leads Richardson in tree cover at 48.8% (Read the article to see how that number is calculated). It's no surprise that a "nature area" would have lots of trees. The residential leader appears to have tree cover at 46.3%. It's the area bounded by Belt Line, Waterview, Arapaho, and Floyd. I'll let Arapaho Heights and Heights Park neighborhoods fight over bragging rights.
With Richardson neighborhoods topping out at less than 50%, the map shows that there's a lot more opportunity to plant trees. The article explains some of the benefits of doing just that, which I won't list here. If you don't already know the benefits, me telling you one more time won't make a difference.
What can you do to make it happen? Richardson needs to recommit itself to treeing the town, to coin a phrase. A good first step in doing that is voting for Amir Omar for Mayor. Election Day is May 3. Early voting is underway.
"In each sidewalk crack,
life reminds us what can grow.
Green finds clever ways."
—h/t ChatGPT
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