I was delivering leaflets for the Scottish Greens today in a rather posh part of Edinburgh - full of bungalows, small yappy dogs and 2.4 cars in the driveway.
And it's the driveways that I noticed most, because there's a phenomenon prevalent there that I've noticed elsewhere.
My parents have done it too - instead of having a small garden at the front of your house, it now seems to be the norm to concrete over the greenery in order to get your car off the street.
In fact, coming across some lush foliage in a front garden became quite rare as I progressed through the streets this morning.
I don't keep up with house prices, but I started to wonder whether having concrete instead of grass outside your house was seen as a selling point.
There is a problem of course, well illustrated by my parent's front garden. Their house is slightly lower than the street pathway, so what used to be the front garden and is now a monoblock driveway slopes downwards towards the house.
So every time it rains, a huge puddle/loch appears right outside their front door.
The same will be seen throughout these areas with concrete front gardens - rainwater has nowhere to drain away any more. Surely this will see flooding in some areas of the city, as well as the groundwater not being replenished at the rate it once was.
On the other hand, I'm no geologist so I could be leading you up the wrong path.
2 comments:
its a bad thing from lots of perspectives, but hopefully the drive to growing your own will start to at least counteract the drive to concrete.
It'll no be too long afore aw thae driveways are dug up tae graw tatties an' neeps, an' the cars will be great for grawin' tomatos.
It'll look nicer than concrete.
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