That’s right, add stuff, and it usually doesn’t matter exactly what kind of stuff you add. A bare downtown always looks like a dead downtown. Stuff can be park benches, poster boards, kiosks, planters, hanging baskets, or as we did…two old English London phone booths. The next time you visit Disney Land or World take a good look at a perfect Main Street and notice all the stuff. Plenty of trees, benches, and planters. Actually, it’s difficult to add to much to a downtown. The Swiss have been doing it for years and they are the experts in lively downtowns…which draw shoppers and tourists.
Let me put in a plug for a new hybrid tree that has recently come on the market. It’s the Autumn Blaze Maple, a perfect street tree. In the south we have a tough time with Red Maple trees, but the new Autumn Blaze Maple fit the south perfectly. The bright red color is the best of any of the fall trees that I have ever seen. I planted over 1000 downtown trees and I’m sold on this tree.
Let me leave you with a don’t plant tree…the Bradford Pear. It will grow fast, look good quickly, but will either split and die or just die from the top down in a relative short period of time. It’s not a good street tree in my opinon.