knizer
#CambridgeMA residents: get a tree planted on your property for free by this #GreenCambridge program:
https://www.greencambridge.org/canopycrew
The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago, the second best time is now. #Climate #trees #UrbanCanopy #ClimateChange #Solarpunk #Massachusetts #Cambridge #Camberville
Canopy Crew — Green Cambridge

Free tree-planting service conducted by Cambridge youth with the goal of restoring tree canopy throughout the city.

Green Cambridge
May 31, 2024 at 1:52pmWeb
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEMay 31, 2024
@knizer The other #Cambridge (the real one) also gives out free trees, but you have to be a baby. https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/free-trees-for-babies
Free trees for babies

We’ll give you a free tree to plant in your garden to mark your baby’s birth. You can also apply if you want to celebrate an adoption or commemorate a lost child.

Cambridge City Council
Show threadknizerMay 31, 2024

@TimWardCam That is great - thanks!

Future human generations will need more trees, hopefully that program will grow, every little bit helps, even if it is limited to ages 4 and under for some reason. :)

Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEMay 31, 2024
@knizer The idea is that you collect a tree when you have a new baby. But people with new babies might be a bit distracted, by things like looking after the baby, which is why you've got four years to get around to claiming your tree!
Show threadknizerMay 31, 2024

@TimWardCam What does a 'starter' home, with a yard to plant a tree in, cost in your Cambridge?

Affordability is a big problem in ours, being able to have a kid and own a single family property - where you've got rights to plant a tree - is quite difficult here...

Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEMay 31, 2024

@knizer A boring suburban semi is upwards of half a million, up to multiple millions depending on location. There are smaller older (Victorian) houses in Romsey Town and the like where you might get a 100+ year old two bed house with garden for ... maybe a hundred grand less. If you want much cheaper than that then it has to be flats many of which won't come with anywhere you can plant a tree.

So yeah, house prices round here are a problem for many people.

We (the city council) once tried to come up with a definition of "key worker" who might have some sort of priority in housing policy. We tried "someone who wouldn't be able to buy the house they're now living in". But the research showed that

* 20% would be able to afford to buy the house they're living in at current prices

* 20% would never be able to afford to buy anything (that's what social housing is supposed to be for)

leaving

* 60% who would count as "key workers"

so we dropped that attempt at a definition as being useless for practical purposes.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/cambridge.html?soldIn=2&page=1

House Prices in Cambridge

The average price for a property in Cambridge is £608,654 over the last year. Explore Rightmove house prices to find out how much properties sold for in Cambridge.

Show threadknizerMay 31, 2024

@TimWardCam

Fascinating.

Ah. While the pricing is probably comparable (1 USD ~ .79 GBP) for any housing, so a not-great condo in Cambridge MA for 700k USD is possible (see 205 Appleton St), but I think a big reason why that constraint of the tree program limiting to young kids wouldn't work here is overall population density.

Our Cambridge has mostly multi-family, small lot houses, and many larger apartment buildings. We've less population but about 7,147 people per km^2, which is I think at least twice as dense as your fair city. Every bit of land is put to work, though not as tightly as my city, abutting Somerville, MA which has the highest population density among the northeastern states, with the exception of New York.

The least expensive single family home I could find on the market in Cambridge today, where you'd have absolute right to plant a tree on your land, without negotiating with one's condo association, is comically well over a million USD.

In other words, most families can't afford to plant trees to mark their new kids in Cambridge MA if they're buying property here today.

Apologies, I didn't intend to go down this rabbit hole, but here we are.

https://www.redfin.com/city/2833/MA/Cambridge/filter/sort=lo-price,viewport=42.39116:42.35368:-71.09137:-71.15059

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