The Greening of the Concrete Wasteland

"Big Yellow Taxi" is a song written, composed, and originally recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in 1970, and originally released on her album Ladies of the Canyon. The first verse begins; “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot…” That could easily be an indictment of the way suburban retail developments have turned so much of the county into concrete and asphalt wastelands. There is a small movement to reclaim some of that with green spaces that has been going on for a while.

Hillcrest Village Retail Center Park

Although current examples are limited this “greening of suburban retail" can’t stop if we want to make any progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It’s not just an aesthetic design phase. We need to increase the amount of plants to absorb carbon dioxide and we need to provide rehabilitated water courses to clean the runoff water. Click here to read more about it.

Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel in Northgate Mall Site