Julia Cheung, Colin Cunningham, Spencer Wolverton
There is a drastic divide in racial demographics in Milwaukee stemming from redlining. This divide has led to depressed living conditions for Black and Hispanic/Latinx communities. These less favorable redlined zones have developed into areas with less income than white neighborhoods, less tree canopy coverage, and more impervious surfaces, which lead to higher temperatures. These statistics highlight the areas of need in Milwaukee. Milwaukee is lacking in tree canopy across the city, but where there is tree canopy, it is in White neighborhoods. Tree canopy in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods are typically frail, fence-line forests. Unfortunately, the city lacks resources to increase tree canopy with its current budget.
This project addresses these problems by proposing a nursery park system and incentivization program. A nursery network, starting with 9 differently sized nurseries throughout the city, will bridge the gap between public and private funding for urban canopy, reducing the burden on the city for planting trees by creating sustainable park systems that provide revenue in times of need, while providing trees for planting. City bonds would cover nursery project costs. Through incentivizing tree plantings, the hazardous and short-lived trees of the fence-line forest will be replaced with productive ecology, resulting in desirable landscapes in people’s backyards. In all, the city will be grown and interwoven in this network, finding strength in interdependency across the city. The nurseries will provide space for community education, park space, and daycare/aftercare facilities among the green nurseries. The growth and benefit is not only for the privileged few—it focuses on growing a binding network in the Black and Hispanic/Latinx Milwaukee communities to sustain a beneficial and desirable landscape.
