Shame on Phoenix home builders (Scottsdale, Guadalupe: subdivision, quality of life, live)

[DougStark]

Originally Posted by R_Cowgirl

I know for a fact that one of the trees you mention is a nightmare. My neighbors have two eucalyptus that essentially killed my orange tree. Their trees sucked all thEucalyptus: The Sycamore is in the Ficus (aka Banyan) family and the roots can destroy sidewalks and streets. Never plant one near your foundation or you may pull up your rugs to discover you have roots poking through.

With so many drought conversations in all the C-D Forums for the southwestern US, I'm surprised that you would make these accusations. Most people are asking the other question: "Why haven't the builders and landscapers here put more Xeriscaping in all the neighborhoods?" I love my front yard - red rocks, Mexican Bird of Paradise, Sage and Totem Cacti. The border is bouganvillea and aloe. Looks good to me. Bees and hummingbirds love it too!

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. They Sycamore is NOT in the Ficus family. It's in the Platanaceae family and the species is native to Arizona. You must be a beginning gardener.

So how much shade do your red rocks, Bird of Paradise, Sage and bouganvillea provide you when it's
115 degrees out?

I'll take my Tif bermuda lawn and my live oak trees any day over your sun-baked yard.

[new2colo]

It's unsustainable. We live in a desert with about 8 inches of rain a year. We don't need to plant more trees that suck up our already fragile water supply. Those green communities in Gilbert and Verrado in Buckeye look ridiculous. They are full of non-native, water slurping trees just to allow people to pretend that they live in Southern California or somewhere in the Midwest. Lawns look ridiculous here. I just have dirt in the front and back on my home with some nice NATIVE trees. Palo Verde, Acacia, and Mesquite are the trees that are native here and should be planted. If you don't like the fact that the desert isn't full of trees, there are plenty of other places you can live.

If you like the landscaping in Sacramento, go there. Phoenix and Sacramento are in VERY different natural environments. Sacramento is in a river delta region that is susceptible to major flooding. Phoenix is not. Sacramento has much wetter and more humid winters than Phoenix that enable that area to be more lush than Phoenix. Summers days are usually not nearly as hot and summer nights there are usually at least 20 degrees cooler than Phoenix. If it was up to me every cottonwood, ficus, oak, olive, citrus, ash, pine, eucalyptus, palm and other non native tree would be sawed down. We need to stop wasting water so people can landscape with trees to pretend that they live somewhere else. If you can't accept the Sonoran Desert for what it is, why are you here?

[CodyW]

Originally Posted by DougStark

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. They Sycamore is NOT in the Ficus family. It's in the Platanaceae family and the species is native to Arizona. You must be a beginning gardener.

So how much shade do your red rocks, Bird of Paradise, Sage and bouganvillea provide you when it's
115 degrees out?

I'll take my Tif bermuda lawn and my live oak trees any day over your sun-baked yard.

What's the point of even starting a thread if all you're going to do is be argumentative?

Come back when you're done being a ****ing *******.

[pbenjamin]

Phoenix is historically an oasis. The thing unsustainable about trees and lawns is that far too many people have moved here.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by new2colo

Those green communities in Gilbert and Verrado in Buckeye look ridiculous. They are full of non-native, water slurping trees just to allow people to pretend that they live in Southern California or somewhere in the Midwest. Lawns look ridiculous here. If you can't accept the Sonoran Desert for what it is, why are you here?

I LOVE my green "ridiculous" looking neighborhood! I really do love it.

Originally Posted by new2colo

If you can't accept the Sonoran Desert for what it is, why are you here?

Because I want the sun and green. Green grass in a desert can be had because of water engineering and management. Using your logic, people should not heat their homes in the north or turn on air conditioning in PHX. We use technology to make our lives easier. Every time we engage technology,there is a trade-off. Within reason, I'm o.k. with that. IMHO, a green grass is within reason. The day you arrived in PHX you put pressure on the ecosystem. Be consistent with your logic and leave. Because you use your air, you take showers, you put plastic in the dumps etc. You are "ruining" the earth.

[DougStark]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

I LOVE my green "ridiculous" looking neighborhood! I really do love it.


Because I want the sun and green. Green grass in a desert can be had because of water engineering and management. Using your logic, people should not heat their homes in the north or turn on air conditioning in PHX. We use technology to make our lives easier. Every time we engage technology,there is a trade-off. Within reason, I'm o.k. with that. IMHO, a green grass is within reason. The day you arrived in PHX you put pressure on the ecosystem. Be consistent with your logic and leave. Because you use your air, you take showers, you put plastic in the dumps etc. You are "ruining" the earth.

THANK YOU. Well said!

And contrary to what someone said earlier, our surface water supply IS sustainable. Well water is not.

Every winter it snows heavily in the Colorado rockies. That's where most of our irrigation water comes from. Get educated, people.

[DougStark]

Originally Posted by Bungle

These communities exist. OP is probably just angry that his community doesn't have them. I just drove home for lunch and noticed multiple communities like the one in this street view image.

I'm not necessarily jealous, but don't these trees totally add to the livability and beauty of the neighborhood? (see his original photo of the neighborhood.)

[DougStark]

r

Originally Posted by LBTRS

It is the desert, this isn't the place to live if you want to see trees and water everywhere.

I miss the trees and water of the Pacific Northwest but understand that those things are not possible in a desert like there were up there.

Don't live in the desert if you want to live in a lush green area.

a

My yard is green and lush, thank you. Lots of water guzzling trees and bermuda grass.

[MotleyCrew]

Originally Posted by DougStark

ra

My yard is green and lush, thank you. Lots of water guzzling trees and bermuda grass.

Well lots of folks that have like minded thinking are watching their water being turned off in CA. Go ahead, live it up. Plant more water guzzling plants and lawns...put in a pool and enjoy.

I do agree that AZ could do better with shade trees in parking lots and adopt a "shade ordinance" but only to bring down the heat index a tad. I think our newer master planned communities are lovely with the natural plantings. You do live in the desert so try and enjoy and embrace your ecology here. Or go to CA.

[ScottsdaleMark]

I don't want to complain, but I do feel that if I as a consumer want to use water to grow grass or flowers/plants/etc, which are not harmful and indeed provide various benefits to me and my neighborhood, well, I just don't see anything wrong with that compared to all the things all of us do every day that are more harmful such as driving a car, using electricity made from coal, producing waste, etc. I am not wasteful of water by any means, I promise you, but I do think it's okay to use it and I do think it's okay if people want to have a pool or plants or a yard for their kids to play in at this point in Arizona history.

I pay my water bill without complaint and I can assure all Americans that if there was a water crisis and water rates were doubled or tripled ... a lot of people would stop growing grass, flowers, low-yield/high-water crops, etc., and change would be effected quite quickly in statewide water usage. California has shown numerous times the ability to cut water usage more voluntarily state-wide by double-digit percentages in a matter of months.

The real question is what will the situation look like in 25 or 50 years because in the near term everyone is well prepared and there is a ton of excess capacity that can be cut off at any time in an emergency. If no one had a pool, grass, crops, etc., and we still didn't have excess capacity...now THAT would be a truly frightening situation. So we can argue if it will be like that in 50 years or not but for the time being the best thing Arizona can do is be very groundwater-conscious and think about more and more water-reclamation measures. Using water to grow plants and trees that help keep our communities liveable and pleasant is in my mind a worthwhile endeavor at this point in history based on current water supplies and water usage patterns in Arizona, but obviously some do disagree.