Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 34(1): January 2008 Table 3. The following questions asked how residents might value the following characteristics of trees on their street.z Abbreviated characteristics Strong branches The size of the trees as they mature The way the trees stretch across the street Color of the leaves in the fall Various shades of green of different trees Flowers or blooms Dense foliage (leaves) Texture of the leaves Large leaves Small leaves Showy bark for winter Small or unimportant fruit Large or showy fruit Meany 6.00 5.78 5.73 5.62 5.05 4.87 4.78 4.11 4.05 3.80 3.65 2.70 2.69 Standard deviation Median Mode 1.48 1.47 1.48 1.45 1.76 1.58 1.64 1.84 1.72 1.70 1.75 1.63 1.60 7 6 6 6 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 3 3 as well as the standard deviation of the mean are given for each answer. y 7 7 7 6 6 5 6 5 4 4 4 1 1 zAnswers were ranked from highest mean to the lowest. Mean, median, and mode Ratings ranged from 1 not at all important to 7 completely. therefore identify response rate. The city estimated that there were 384 addresses in the area surveyed, but this includes ad- dresses for vacant lots, properties using cross streets as mailing addresses, and additional addresses for properties with more than one lot. The city received 89 questionnaires as undeliverable, whereas 113 usable survey instruments were returned. This would then account for at least 50% of the estimated 384 initial mailings by the city. Fully 100% of the respondents owned their homes, so that variable was removed from further analysis. The median years living in the home was 11 and the mean was 16.4. This suggests that a resident’s average time in their home was similar to the 15-year national,16-year Ohio, and 18-year Toledo area averages for owner-occupied residences (J. Butler, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, pers. comm.). A minority of the families (38%) have children under 18 years of age living at home. There were no statistically significant correlations be- tween length of time in residence with any of the concerns about trees. Concerns are thus felt to be valid across ages and stages of life. Furthermore, the t test did not reveal any differences in tree concerns for households with children under 18 years of age. Neighborhood Characteristics Residents were asked what they liked about their street (Table 1). Respondents identified safety, cleanliness, attractiveness, and value of the houses as the things most important to liking their neighborhood. All items in the scale (with a reliability of 0.79), however, were rated highly with a summated mean for “liking the neighborhood” at 5.91. Table 1 is a chart identifying the responses to the various elements. Not surprisingly, there was a significant relationship (using an ANOVA) between households with children under 18 and the amount of traffic (P 0.0080) and a good area for children to play (P0.000). Feeling safe was also significantly correlated to the amount of traffic (r 0.478) and being a good area for children to play (r0.232). Low traffic density reduces risk to children at play. Trees have been shown to be associated with Table 4. Residents were questioned regarding their attitudes toward maintenance concerns associated with trees on their street.z Street tree concerns the way the tree roots (damage to sidewalks) Seeds and seedlings from the tree Maintenance of the trees on my tree lawn Raking leaves in the fall Summated mean Meany 5.11 3.94 3.68 3.32 4.01 Standard deviation Median Mode 1.71 2.11 2.02 1.86 1.53 5 4 4 4 4 as well as the standard deviation of the mean are given for each answer. y 7 1 4 1 zAnswers were ranked from highest mean to the lowest. Mean, median, and mode Ratings ranged from 1 not at all important to 7 serious concern. reduced crime in some low-income communities (Kuo 2001). It was interesting but not surprising to see this concern expressed in this neighborhood as well. Running a Cramers’ V, there were several items within the scales that did correlate significantly. The item of “knowing my neighbors” was slightly to moderately strongly correlated to all the variables related to street or neighborhood appreciation with the exceptions of value of the houses and attractiveness of the street. This was the item that had the lowest mean, median, and mode scores. Still, knowing neighbors is important in determin- ing an individual’s feeling toward his or her neighborhood and interrelates with most other elements in determining how people view their neighborhood. Overall, correlations among variables ranged from 0.014 (neg- ligible) to 0.651 (strong). Style of homes was weakly to moder- ately correlated to proximity to necessities (r 0.203, P 0.031), value of the houses (r 0.421, P 0.000), attractive- ness of the street (r 0.262, P 0.005), mature trees on the street (r 0.264, P 0.005), landscaping (r 0.363, P 0.000), and cleanliness of the street (r 0.298, P 0.001). A separate item asked specifically “Overall, do you like the street you live on?” Responses ranged from 1 not at all to 7 very much. The mean was very strong at 6.19 with a deviation of 0.967. This item, however, was only significantly correlated with the summated mean of the above scale, “the neighbors” (r 0.323. P 0.001), and “knowing the neigh- bors” (r0.224, P0.019). These findings would suggest that when asked about specifics, individuals view different elements of why they like their streets as discreet elements and respond differently. Yet, overall, there is consistency in the composite response but no correlation in the individual score. Interestingly, landscaping people have in front of their houses was more uniformly related to characteristics of street trees (Table 2): helping to make a neighborhood feel safe (0.187, P 0.000), cooling the street/homes (0.386, P 0.000), reducing wind (0.324, P 0.000), tree canopies over the street (0.320, P 0.000), larger-sized trees (0.410, P 0.000), increased property values (0.483, P 0.000), lower utility bills (0.331, P0.000), make the street prettier (0.503, P0.000), the same size (0.312, P 0.000), and color in the fall (0.358, P 0.000) were considered as being related to front yard landscaping. Street Tree Characteristics Respondents then were asked what they value about the trees on their street on a 13-item, 7-point Likert-type scale with a reli- ©2008 International Society of Arboriculture 49
January 2008
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