Collin 🇺🇦

I’m in this picture!

Let me explain exactly why every new subdivision in America looks like the top photo, because the math is wild. A mature tree increases a home's value by 7 to 19 percent. On a $400,000 house, that's $28,000 to $76,000. A single shade tree produces the cooling equivalent of ten room-size air conditioners running 20 hours a day. One tree on the west side of a house cuts energy bills by 12 percent within 15 years. The bottom photo is worth more, costs less to live in, and sells faster. This has been documented by the University of Washington, Clemson, Michigan State, and the USDA. The data is not in dispute. Removing those trees saves the builder roughly $5,000 per lot. Concrete trucks need twice the dripline radius of every standing tree. Utility trenches need flat ground. A bulldozer flattens 200 lots in an afternoon. Preserving trees adds weeks and thousands per home. So the developer pockets $5,000 in savings and the buyer eats $50,000 in lost value for the next two decades. The person making the decision and the person paying for it have never been in the same room. The Woodlands, Texas is the proof of what happens when they are. George Mitchell bought 28,000 acres of Houston timberland in 1974 and preserved 28% as permanent green space. He forced McDonald's to build behind the tree canopy. That McDonald's became one of the highest-volume locations in Texas. The first office building, designed to reflect the surrounding forest so you couldn't see it from the street, leased completely. The Woodlands median home price today: $615,000. Katy, a comparable Houston suburb that clear-cut: $375,000. Named #1 community to live in America two years running. Fifty years of data. The trees are worth more than removing them saves. Developers clear-cut anyway because they sell the house once and leave. You live in it for 30 years.

@HelenFrink All this aside, I think we can agree that the neighborhood deserves much more investment and care than it has gotten and currently gets from those in power. Any attention given to it is a positive thing!

@HelenFrink I’m not sure that’s entirely fair. The neighborhood’s own economic development group (oldsouthbr.org) calls it that. That’s also what the CPEX redevelopment plan calls it.

This is what happens when you gentrify a neighborhood called The Bottom Low income housing was built there for “colored” (Black & Italian) families after slavery ended BECAUSE it flooded It was one of the strongest non white economies in the country until desegregation & I10

@HelenFrink Definitely not pretending to know it all as well, so apologies if that’s how it came across. I speak only as someone who wishes the best for Old South and desperately desires a renaissance for that part of town

@HelenFrink Certainly don’t mean to throw credentials other than to say that from a planning pov, the root causes of Old South’s decline stem more from the interstate and redlining than from flooding. It is a story that needs to be expanded upon, but Dr. Martin’s book is a great resource!

@HelenFrink This is, of course, if you consider Old South as being part of “the bottom.” It’s never really been officially defined. But the area south of LSU never should have been developed, certainly not prior to modern flood mitigation regulations

@HelenFrink Helen, I understand your intentions here (and applaud them), as a city planner and lifelong BR resident, I’d like to clarify where I can. The bottom is actually largely outside of any flood-prone area. The land in the video is in a flood zone, and was historically undeveloped

Family Feud but it’s the Gemstones vs. the Roys

Incredible timeline

THE TIGERS ARE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

GKG

THE VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS ARE YOUR 2022-23 #STANLEYCUP CHAMPIONS!!! 🏆

RT if your team is still undefeated

“I’m too hood”. “I’m too ghetto”. I don’t fit the narrative and I’M OK WITH THAT. I’m from Baltimore where you hoop outside & talk trash. If it was a boy y’all wouldn’t be saying nun at all. Let’s normalize women showing passion for the game instead of it being “embarrassing”. 😃

One game ago, Caitlin Clark's shade was so strong she was doing it *during plays*. And you loved her for it. Best stop and reflect on why you're so mad at Angel Reese for dishing it back.

National Champions - yeah, those National Champions

RT if your team is still undefeated

@BrentfordFC Baton Rouge, LA USA!

All set 🏟 Where will you be supporting us from this afternoon? #BRELEI

The US labor market blows past expectations to add an astonishing 517,000 jobs in January, even as the Fed continues to raise rates cnn.it/3JCkSuE