Quote:
Originally Posted by patriotizzy
Proper care like the lawns and beds that round out every street corner, boulevards, and industrial complexes? It's not out of the ordinary to think that there's plenty of opportunity to make plant care work.
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Look at all the turned off fountains and deteriorating public amenities in SF. My reference point is the state office building on Van Ness--they just let the plantings there die during a recent drought and never replaced them. SF as a city is always chronically short of gardeners for public parks. There are a few reasonably maintained plantings around town such as at Yerba Buena Gardens; all cared for by specific organizations like the board that governs Moscone/Yerba Buena. Salesforce Transit Center's rooftop park is still too new a feature to see how it will fare but there's hope because its care is also an important feature of the building and would embarrass the company whose name adorns it if neglected.
I live in a condo that has considerable plantings and we spend a lot of money on them, but especially when there's mandated water cut-backs due to drought or other issues, there's a constant temptation to cut back that budget item or just neglect it. And it's one of those things where you can't skimp even one year because once all the plantings die (or are not maintained and replaced when necessary), it becomes more and more expensive to restore everything. That will always be a temptation for a budget-minded owner as the building ages.