What would be better to cover parking lots, trees or solar panels?

My wife and I go on walks down our neighborhood's nice shaded streets and sidewalks. When we get to the area which parallels the massive, shadeless, medical center parking lot, we feel the heat waves produced by the heat island effect. Parking lots absolutely DO make their own weather . . . and they export it downwind.
Sacramento | Heat Island Effect | U.S. EPA

Preparation and selection of the proper tree species for parking lots prevents many of the ills produced by planting the WRONG tree the wrong way.
Trees for Parking Lots and Paved Areas

Give the birds and bugs a break . . . in a city environment, these endangered critters need a place to live too.

 

WORD!

This is a view of Sacramento . . . where I live IS within the shot. This is obviously early Fall colors. The State Capitol Building is the white blob under the round top building.

Sacramento Tree Foundation

 

I win? Egads. I guess that means I've turned into one of you!

 

I'm not sure why you wrote word?
Yes my photo wasn't the best angle unfortunately I didn't race out and take a photo but scrounged about with google to find one. I could have come down lower and taken a picture from within the parklands which ring the city but I didn't. Where I live is more heavily treed than the centre part of Adelaide.

I agree with Sufferin' Prius Envy and was about to write that the external appearance and how a parking area impacts on its surrounds is important. I'd rather a treed car park down the street from me than a series of rows of industrial looking solar carports. It is important to share our world with the little creatures and to allow them some habitat among our suburban mess. Correct selection of trees for the environment will minimise damage to the pavement and will cope with restricted water supply. As John Lennon sang in his hit song which I listened to on a cheap transistor radio, "Give Bees a Chance".

I don't know about where you live dragonfly but here we have carparks at the park and ride so people can drive their car a few kilometres to the bus or train interchange where they can park in a free carpark then ride public transport 20 kilometres into the city (or where ever) to work. I know in your utopic(invented word) paradise people would walk several miles to the bus stop but in the real world secure parking attracts people to public transport. This isn't saying the buses don't travel through the suburbs but they don't go everywhere. There are also people who like to have a big shop once a week or even once a fortnight in which case taking the shopping home on the bus may not be a realistic option.

If this were a poll my vote would be firmly in the trees in the carpark, solar panels on the roof, dot.

Which looks nicer?
Trees

By patsparks at 2008-06-22 I think the grave has an SUV in it.

Or the industrial look?


I know what I prefer and I know what the earth prefers.

 

WORD . . . slang for agreement, etc.
Urban Dictionary: word

Your picture of Adelaide definitely makes it look like an appealing, livable city.

We have a joke here in Sacramento . . .

"Sacramento without trees would be Fresno."

. . . a fairly large city also in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Valley of California.



All of Fresno isn't as bad as the image, but until recently, they just really didn't care about trees. They are now doing a much better job planting shade trees. The ironic part . . . "Fresno" is Spanish for white ash tree.

About your image of the treed carpark: Who was Malone, why does he/she/it have a grave in a parking space, and does that road sign signify that anyone who is buried there will go to heaven?

 

Los Angeles... Ever hear the term "nobody walks in LA"? It's a really spread out city, more typical for people to drive cross town (in any direction) than downtown to work. By themselves in an SUV. I tried taking the bus to work for a while but even though I live and work right next to bus stops there is no direct route so it takes 1 hour for the 6 mile trip.

Here, parking lots are everwhere. I guess you have to see it to understand.

My utopic paradise includes localizing food production. Realistically, I don't think LA is going to survive the post-oil world. (Or Vegas.) Too much has to be transported in. Water is running out. But I'm getting off topic.

 

I have no idea who Malone is, I stole the picture, just like this one of King William Street, Adelaide. This is the main central thoughfare through the centre of Adelaide north to south.

Trees and cars go hand in glove in Adelaide. I don't think it would look as nice with solar panels over the edges of the road. However the solar panels are there, on top of a lot of the public buildings in Adelaide like the Museum, the central bus terminal and the International Airport, only 5km out of the heart of the city.
We also have a solar powered bus Tindo Solar Bus which is used on a free inner city loop service.
Oh you can see the trees in my front yard behind my bike in my signiture. I hate trees

 

Yes, Fresnooooo.


Is this really the Welcome to Fresno sign.

​

What does the back side say, "Congratulations, You are now leaving Fresno"


When thinking up a new TV series, the writers thought, 'now what's the most boring city we can think of?'
Bakersfield?
No, FRESNO!

Fresno is so boring, even the TV show "Fresno" only lasted eight days!
Fresno - TV.com

And wasn't it Fresno that Toyota panned in a Prius commercial with it's brilliantly worded, "Gas stations will become nothing more than low budget tourist stops, like ghost towns . . . or Fresno."ound:

If you live in Fresno, Sorreeeee . . . sometimes the truth hurts. :boink:

J/K . . . sort of.
​

 

Is that the best you can do? An article written in October 2006 about purchasing real estate?
It doesn't say anything about how nice any of these places are to live.

Don't worry about me. I could sell my house, today, for 2.5 times what I bought it for.



I like where I live. I'm not going anywhere, so I really don't care what the day to day value of my house is. But, with these great prices in other areas of Sacramento, I'm considering purchasing another!

You, on the other hand, can go ahead and take your investment cues from advice written in October 2006 - I'll use much more current information for my investment advice . . .

Kiplinger's
2008 BEST CITIES
Best Cities to Live, Work and Play
These ten great places will only get better.

OH, WHAT'S THIS??????
No. 8: Sacramento, Calif.
Best Cities to Live, Work and Play - Kiplinger.com

Now, where is it that you live burritos? And where does it rank? "Rank" . . . yeah, that may be an appropriate word to use.

And what's one of the things that makes Sacramento a "Great" place to live? Oh yeah, TREES! Not solar panels in people areas.

 

Sacramento is very pretty.

They have all the water they want.

Not so in So. Cal.

 

Glad to see you edited out the rest of your post. West Sacramento, a city on the other side of the river, and in another county, is not the East Sacramento neighborhood in any way, shape, or form. -But I'm guessing you figured that one out.

 

I do all my own property management, repairs etc.

Zip codes which are good bets:

95814 = Midtown & Downtown. (all good bets due to close to downtown)
Best: 95816 = East Sacramento & part of Midtown. (All good bets)
Best: 95819 = East Sacramento & River Park. (All good bets)
This article is from December 2007, but still holds true.
The East Sacramento anomaly: Homes in established neighborhoods fly off market - Sacramento Business Journal:

95818 = Land Park & Curtis Park (most areas are good bets)
95825 = Campus Commons (just the southern 1/3 of zip code)
95864 = Sierra Oaks, Arden Park (not all of zip code, but this area has some of the most expensive homes in Sacramento.)

Rent for a 3/2? That's like asking the price of a used Prius. It depends . . . but all these areas have the "HOV sticker" for commute to downtown. The higher up the list the closer to downtown without the need for freeways.
The more Sacramento grows, the more sought after these areas will become. In fact, East Sac has the highest price per square foot in the Sacramento area. Not the biggest houses on average, just the most highly sought.

 

What happened to the solar panels versus trees in carparks debate?

 

You're a day ahead of us there in Australia . . . we'll catch up.

 

and the rest!!

Hey, how about a compromise? How about solar trees?


and at night it looks like this;

 

Speaking of rank, why is it my Californian relatives refer to it as Excremento? And that list of ten best places is restricted to the US. How about a list of ten best places in the world?

edit: You'll be happy to know, Pat, that Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, and Sydney all made the top ten. There isn't a single American city in the top ten.