It’s great to see a strip mall (“shopping center/plaza”) embrace the creation of some greenspace. But it’s disappointing that the artist’s rendering of the space doesn’t include a single tree.
Anyone who’s been to Stuyvesant Plaza in the summer knows how hot the parking lot can get. And with climate change, summers are only going to get hotter. The presence of a healthy tree canopy can decrease temperatures by as much as 3F (or even 8-12C), and trees provide numerous other benefits like helping to clean the air (not to mention their natural majesty and beauty).
Here’s hoping that the management of Stuyvesant Plaza will realize their error before it’s too late.