Street-Scaping

Mentor Avenue's beautiful Tree Section is bookended - where there are far fewer mature trees – by areas known as the Nontree Sections, or the Strip Center Sections or the ugly-as-heck sections.

There are so many strip centers along Mentor Avenue that a few years ago Cleveland Magazine said Mentor is a city best known for its strip centers. Quite a distinction.

When I had the (brief) honor of serving as Chairman of Mentor's Tree Commission, the Tree Commission prepared a Street Improvement Plan for Mentor Avenue from Maple Street to Little Mountain Road. This section was suggested by the current chairperson of the Tree Commission as an example of how the rest of the highway could be improved.

We proposed planting trees and installing landscaping and other improvements.  Many cities have done this street-scaping as a way to improve the livability, appearance and commercial success of their commercial districts.

As a professional landscape architect, working with the city's professional arborist, we knew technical problems with road salt could be overcome.         

(Click here to see how one Ohio City improved its streetscape.)

We presented our little proposal to the City Council in a special meeting that was received by most Council Members as if we had suggested bringing the black plague to town.

One long-serving councilman who shall remain nameless (unless you ask me for his name in private) spent the entire meeting playing with his cell phone like any 13-year-old girl might do. Other council members thought long and hard about all the reasons why our proposals were impossible.  

It was a quick lesson in Mentor City Council's priorities, even though our plan would have cost much less than the $370,000 that was appropriated for golf carts for the city golf course.

Somebody much smarter than me or the people who waste their time reading this blog once said that we plant trees for the Next generation. It's an unselfish act of faith in the future. The reason Mentor's Tree Section is so pleasant is because people who came before us planted trees that their grandchildren would enjoy.

What does it say about a City government that is unwilling to improve Mentor Avenue for their grandchildren?