CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A new study suggests that the widely held belief that cutting down trees in urban public housing offers increased safety overlooks an important element in the equation: the perceptions of the people who live there.
When 100 adult residents of Chicago's Robert Taylor Homes were surveyed by peers who had been specially trained in data collection by University of Illinois researchers, they gave a clear message that green grass and trees were highly desirable.
In the study -- detailed in the January-February issue of the journal Environment and Behavior -- the residents viewed 40 different pictures of the three 16-story buildings and a courtyard in the complex, located in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the nation. The photos showed the area as it is, and, with computer simulations, how the area would look with varying amounts of grass and trees.
"The residents were asked how they felt about the spaces, and how safe they would feel in them," said William C. Sullivan, a professor of landscape architecture in the U. of I. department of natural resources and environmental sciences. "The more trees, the more they liked the space. But most surprisingly, the more trees, the safer they would feel.
"This is really contrary to the opinions given us by police and housing administrators, who said, 'You can't do that,'" he said. "It looks like the residents envision what the area would be like with grass and trees, and they see it as a place someone cares about and is willing to invest in."
The study, funded by the USDA Forest Service North Central Forest Experiment Station in Chicago, was conducted by Sullivan and Frances E. Kuo, co-directors of the U. of I. Human-Environment Research Laboratory, and Magdalena Bacaicoa, a landscape architect now working in France.
The researchers also interviewed police and housing administrators, and they reviewed previous literature on law enforcement concerns that trees heighten fears of attack and on administrators' worries about the cost of installing and maintaining landscaping around public-housing units.
When residents were shown computer simulations of their courtyard with trees, their reactions were strongly positive: 84 percent said they would like it very much if trees were planted; 86 percent said that views would improve with trees; and 96 percent considered it quite important to very important that the courtyard look more natural.
Of three tree densities shown, residents preferred the highest rate of 22 trees per acre. Only 5 percent said they would feel less safe with trees, and one of three said they would be more likely to use the spaces if trees were there. More than half of the residents said they would help plant the trees.
Planting trees and maintaining lawns could be a cost-effective way to address some of the ills plaguing inner-city neighborhoods, Kuo said.
Journal
Environment and Behavior