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19 Duke Envtl. L. & Pol'y F. 81 (2008-2009)
"Everybody Loves Trees": Policing American Cities through Street Trees

handle is hein.journals/delp19 and id is 83 raw text is: EVERYBODY LOVES TREES: POLICING AMERICAN CITIES THROUGH STREET TREES IRUS BRAVERMANt ABSTRACT Recently, municipalities have been investing large sums of money, as well as much bureaucratic and professional effort, into making their cities not only more treefull places, but also places that survey, measure, regulate, and manage their trees. This article explores the transformation of the utilitarian discourse on trees, which focuses on the benefits of trees and greenery, into a normative discourse whereby trees are not only considered good but are also represented as if they are, or should be, loved by everybody. This transformation is not only the result of top-down governmental policies. It is also a consequence of longstanding romantic views of nature in the city-especially in the American city-facilitated by environmental organizations, local communities, and individual activists. Importantly, the attribution of morality to tree practices masks the clandestine project of governing the urban population, and the governmental control of urban crime in particular. t Irus Braverman is Associate Professor of Law at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. She is the author of Powers of Illegality: House Demolitions and Resistance in East Jerusalem (Tel Aviv: The Tami Steinmetz Ctr. for Peace 2004) and PLANTED FLAGS: TREES, LAND, AND LAW IN ISRAEL/PALESTINE (Cambridge Univ. Press forthcoming 2009), as well as various articles, such as Planting the Promised Landscape, NATURAL RES. J. (forthcoming 2009); Loo Law: The Public Washroom as a Hyper-Regulated Space, 20 HASTINGS WOMEN'S L.J. 45 (2008); and The Tree is the Enemy Soldier: A Sociolegal Making of War Landscapes in the Occupied West Bank, 42 LAW & Soc'Y REV. 449 (2008). She was previously affiliated with the Humanities Center at Harvard University, the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, the Center of Criminology at the University of Toronto, and the Geography Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research focuses on the interdisciplinary study of law, geography, and anthropology.

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