Wilkes-Barre City Hall, 40 E. Market St.
Times Leader File Photo
It’s certainly understandable if Wilkes-Barre residents and visitors saw a short Tuesday story as a negative rather than a positive. The report started with the bad news.
“Street parking in downtown Wilkes-Barre will be limited on Tuesday as the city begins work on its South Main Street Streetscape Improvement project.”
The story gave an overview of the enforcement of temporary parking restrictions on the northbound side of South Main Street from Ross to South Street.
An inconvenience? Clearly. But the “streetscape” part speaks volumes to the value of this project.
The parking pain will allow some valuable, long-term improvements: The replacement of deteriorated sidewalks and curbs; new crosswalks and pavement markings; the installation of stamped concrete pavers along the curbs; and the installation of trees, signage, benches, and garbage receptacles. South Main will also get some much-needed re-paving.
The project cost of $860,000 will be covered by the Multi-modal Transportation Fund Program managed by the Commonwealth Financing Authority and PennDOT. There are legitimate questions about the evolution of the “multi-modal” fund and just how much it lives up to its name, but that’s for another editorial. As the saying goes, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth — at least not this time.
Others may question the value of spending so much money on “streetscaping,” arguing that much money could buy a good bit of cop-protection, or more vital infrastructure repairs (like, say, sewer and water line replacements following a series of debilitating sinkholes from the collapse of ancient underground pipes in the Diamond City).
But aside from the fact that such grant money typically comes with restrictions on city use, it has long been the case that many people do not appreciate the value of good “streetscaping.”
Studies have repeatedly shown that proper design and maintenance of things as simple as sidewalks, curbs, signage and particularly trees and other greenery can improve a sense of community, set the cultural identity of a public space, and spur economic development.
Trees in particular bring many proven benefits, the least visible of which is cleaner air. If your high school (or even grade school) biology eludes you, it is trees and other plants that scrub our air of the carbon dioxide we humans exhale with every breath, replenishing the oxygen we need to live.
But tree-lined streets do much more. Blossoming trees such as cherry can provide a burst of cheerful color in the spring, while deciduous trees offer reds, oranges and yellows in the fall. During the summer, tree shade helps cool streets and sidewalks.
As trees age and develop larger canopies, they can enhance the accompanying architecture, substantially changing the feel of a neighborhood from stone-hard and man-made to something more natural and serene.
Trees can reduce water run-off of heavily paved urban areas, cutting down the amount of chemicals and pollutants washing into waterways. And they have been proven to calm traffic. Most of us seem hard-wired to slow down amid a row of trees.
We applaud the city’s efforts on this project, and hope Wilkes-Barre and other municipalities can find the resources to do more in the realm of good streetscaping.
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