The Antidote to Powerlessness? Try Planting Street Trees.
Want to better your community but don’t know where to start? Enter It’s the Little Things: a weekly Strong Towns podcast that gives you the wisdom and encouragement you need to take the small yet powerful actions that can make your city or town stronger.
It’s the Little Things features Strong Towns Community Builder Jacob Moses in conversation with various guests who have taken action in their own places and in their own ways.
Genevieve Barber
There’s a pervasive feeling of powerlessness that’s widespread in our country’s population right now—and this small bet [planting street trees] has been a direct antidote to that for me.
- Strong Towns member Genevieve Barber
Ask your neighbors how, together, you all can address an issue in the neighborhood and you’ll likely hear something like this: It’s just too complicated. Or it’s too big of issue.
We empathize with this response. With seemingly insurmountable issues, such as an auto-oriented development pattern that kills thousands and bankrupts municipalities, you may feel like no intervention you brainstorm will solve it.
That’s how Strong Towns member Genevieve Barber once felt as she witnessed her block transform into a speedy thoroughfare, where drivers, as Genevieve describes it, treat the sidewalk as a third lane (with the tire marks to prove it). Picture that scenario on your own block and you’d likely feel powerless, as well.
That changed, however, when Genevieve embraced the power of small bets: low-cost, low-lift interventions to immediately address a struggle. As Genevieve shared in the Strong Towns Community, inspired by Strong Towns, she and her neighbors planted 15 street trees (Trident Maples, for our curious dendrophiles), along the block—a proven way to discourage speeding.
Genevieve and her neighbors know that street trees alone won’t suddenly resolve the issue of the speedy thoroughfare. They understand that the design of the road—think narrow sidewalks and winding, racetrack-like travel lanes—contribute, too. But, as you’ll learn from Genevieve, it’s exactly the response every neighborhood needs to turn the too big and too complicated into action
Have you made a small bet to address a struggle in your neighborhood? Share your story with the Strong Towns Community to inspire others to take action.