Oh, this craze is so crazy that we Portuguese have to give “foreign” names to things, to make them seem more… cute…
Comes this about the news that Faro will create a «Living Street», for socializing and outdoor activities…and who even won an award for this project.
In this case, I find it curious that Faro, which has dedicated itself to destroying the trees that the city has, some of which are decades old (see amputation of trees in the secular Jardim da Alameda, the start of poor orange trees in Largo da Sé, the radical pruning of others trees in the streets. squares and avenues (example: off the Station and surroundings), now decide to do a very fashion “living street”…
I emphasize, so that you do not read any partisan intention in this review, that to treat badly your trees and gardens, more or less historical, is a sport that all Algarve Chambers (and beyond), (almost) without exception, whether they are majority PS, PSD or CDU (see the case of Silves and his garden…), have been dedicated in recent years.
If you ask local authorities what is the reason for this hatred of trees (that landscape architect Fernando S. Pessoa, in a article published in Sul Informação, I've already said it's called dendroclast or dendrophobia), everyone will answer that the technicians are to blame, that the technicians know and that the trees deserved this bleak death because they were sick...
Yes, gentlemen: but trees are also treated. Has anyone constantly treated those who were thus sentenced to death?
And there are technicians and technicians...
Furthermore, there is common sense…which should always prevail, especially when it comes to the quality of life in our urban areas.
To cut down a tree, to cut off its top and prevent it from growing and living, the most varied reasons are presented, but which have above all to do with a bad habit that trees have: letting their roots grow, deforming pavements, dropping their leaves and sometimes sap and fruit (imagine!!!), dirtying cars and streets, dropping branches on windy days. parked cars, and, top of all, let themselves fall on cars, streets, roads… In short: trees are specimens of bad habits, which must be contained! And shoot down!
In this case of the "living street" that the Chamber of Faro, so proudly, announced, I just hope that the trees that already exist in this space and that you see in the photo are not sacrificed…
But look, you could do worse than what is done in the Algarve. It could be done as is happening in Lisbon, where a lot of trees have also been sacrificed (although creating new green spaces, baptized with proper and politically correct names…), but where, after, the "city trees" are created, which are «wood structures, equipped with different types of moss, which produce oxygen»…In addition, each “City Tree” purifies the air of “seven thousand people per hour”. And a true tree that lived for tens or (let's be crazy!) hundreds of years, how much air does it purify???
In relation to "Living Street" of Faro, I just hope it's the harbinger of a new attitude of the Municipality towards its trees… It's not that I have much hope for that, since, as the Glocal movement pointed out a short time ago Faro, the project for the requalification of the High School's Forest goes through the felling of 168 trees...
Author: Elisabete Rodrigues is a journalist and director of Sul Informação
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