Growing New Roots

Reports that creating an attractive environment can turn alienated urban dwellers into a supportive community. Comments from Frances Kuo, an assistant professor of cognition and environment; Members of society who could most profit from social support and shared resources.

By Camille Chatterjee, published on November 01, 1999

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Inner city neighborhoods may be cramped and crowded, but their residents tend to keep to themselves--depriving them of social resources that would make their lives easier. The simple addition of some grass and trees, however, can turn alienated urban dwellers into a supportive community.

Frances Kuo, Ph.D., an assistant professor of cognition and environment at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, surveyed residents at the Robert Taylor Homes, a public housing development in Chicago, to see how the attractiveness of their living space influenced their social network. The more greenery people had around their apartments, Kuo found, the stronger their social ties--and the safer they felt. The more inviting the outdoor space, the more likely inhabitants were to spend time there and meet informally with their neighbors.

Most city housing units lack common spaces that aren't crime-ridden or deserted, Kuo reports in the American Journal of Community Psychology. Ironically, the very people who tend to live in these units--the poor and disenfranchised--are the members of society who could most profit from social support and shared resources, she notes.

Kuo believes that community-based efforts to plant greenery would unite residents. Creating an attractive environment, she says, is an inexpensive way for urban planners to help them grow more than just pretty flowers.