Houston residents are angry after the city installed futuristic “shade trees” along Texas Avenue, designed to help World Cup tourists deal with the intense Texas heat. The structures were created by local firm Rootlab and are claimed to lower temperatures beneath them by up to 15 degrees. They also light up at night to act as a landmark for visitors heading to the FIFA Fan Festival.
But people online are not impressed. On Reddit, residents quickly pointed out the contradiction between high-tech cooling stations for downtown visitors and the lack of basic shelter at bus stops across the city. “Not that it’s a much better situation but I think these were privately funded rather than leveraging public dollars,” one user wrote in a thread.
According to The Nerd Stash, another commenter wrote, “remember when we at least lied to ourselves that this is a government of the people by the people for the people?” A third user wrote. “Plant a tree. We don’t need metal shade structures.”
Houston’s infrastructure priorities have long failed the people who depend on public transit the most
Others argued the city could have simply planted real trees, which would have been cheaper and better-looking. The debate then shifted to bigger concerns about how Houston spends its money on infrastructure. Several users pointed out that Metro shelters and benches have reportedly been removed in parts of the city over the years, allegedly to stop homeless people from sleeping there…