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It seems what really makes a nice neighborhood, in my opinion, would be that there are trees lining the way to create shade (aside of course the fact that the houses should be pleasant to look at). The street of my childhood had trees, and though it hid the sky it brought beauty and life and shelter when the heat came. Now when I go back it seems as though more and more trees have gone missing. When I ask why I get responses of the aging neighborhood not wanting to maintain the trees, complaints of having to clean up leafs, and the lie that it was dying (the stumps left behind show that that was never the truth).

The whole town that my folks live in seems to be going through this phase of cutting down trees. I think that it might be a new marketing technique for the tree trimming businesses, but that is only an assumption. My father and I have long conversations on how to improve the image of the city, but it seems as though it has already fallen to far into the strip mall problem with rocks and weeds as landscaping. Billboards run rampant.
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