Urban Nature in my email box

[urbpan]

My friend Lila sent me (and others, obviously) this email:

Dear Bloggers, Tweeters, and Urban Naturalists,

On behalf of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, I’d like to thank you for your hard work transforming our barren urban landscapes into biodiverse ecological sites and getting other people turned on to them. I’ve been watching and admiring your work through your blogs and tweets and you have inspired the Museum towards completion of our 3½ acre Nature Gardens, Nature Lab and Citizen Science initiatives.

We’ve entered our latest Citizen Science initative, dubbed the NHM Urban Safari, into a competition called LA 2050.

Take a moment to imagine what L.A. could be like in 2050 if everyone in our city helped to study the AMAZING and AWESOME wildlife that lives here! School children would be studying wildlife in their own school yards, which would also be a safe places to play. Families all over the city would have planted habitat and documented the return of all 500 native bees. Hikers would have trekked all over Griffith Park and discovered and documented rare species which we thought were lost. Kayakers would be floating down our beautiful river and snapping pictures of the birds, dragonflies, and frogs they see. Finally, visitors to our fine city won’t just be coming for a Hollywood starlet sighting, they’ll also be coming to experience nature in this biodiversity hotspot. Wow!

Please take a few moments to click the link below, register with the GOOD Maker website, follow the instructions and vote for the NHM Urban Safari. If we win we will receive a $100,000 grant from the Goldhirsch Foundation

Watch our video to learn more about the project and then I hope you are inspired to cast your vote. http://myla2050.maker.good.is/projects/urbansafari

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She's clearly dedicated to helping transform Los Angeles into the kind of city I wish they all could be: vibrant cultural hubs that contain strong biodiverse open spaces. Please click that link and vote for her project!

In related news, my friend Alex drew my attention to a study confirming that the presence of shrubbery in an area of a given city is correlated with a lower crime rate. The most compelling (least provable) theory as to why this is so: "the presence of vegetation reduces mental fatigue and irritability, which can be the precursors to violent crime."

http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/04/urban-planners-may-cry-bring-us-a-shrubbery-to-deter-crime/

Comments

[autumnfox.livejournal.com]

Hmm, that wouldn't have been my first thought at all. I would guess that shrubbery is a luxury that more well-to-do neighbourhoods can afford, while very poor ones are usually more dismal. At least that is what I see in my city (Philadelphia) - the very depressed neighbourhoods have no street trees, very few parks, no "shrubbery" to speak of. Affluent neighbourhoods have trees, shrubberies, parks, flower beds, and other lovely visuals.