History The nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw the creation of vast regions of concrete and asphalt , with minimal space set aside for living things beyond humans and their pets . Jacob Riis and other reformers fought for parks in urban areas, but the resulting parks, while a vast improvement, were formalized, rectilinear arrangements of artificially orderly lawns, bushes, and walkways. While many societies had traditions of intense urban plantings, such as the famously lush rooftops of pre-conqistadore Mexico City, such traditions did not reemerge on a larger scale in the industrialized world until the creation  by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted and others of naturalistic urban parks . The rise of the City Beautiful Movement enhanced this trend as American, European, and other cities worked to bring natural settings back into urban areas. In recent decades activists have sometimes seized the lead from architects, social planners, and horticulturalists as groups like squatters and Reclaim The Streets have engaged in guerrilla plantings, from work done in or on abandoned buildings to more symbolic acts like tearing holes in highway asphalt and then filling the holes with soil and flowers. These actions have been particularly effective in creating new planted zones in economically decimated areas like urban eastern Germany  where abandoned buildings are occasionally reverting to forest . However, this trend can carry its own doom as beautified areas can work so well that they become targets for gentrification, with thirty foot (ten meter) trees grown over building foundations being torn down for yet more high density development.
History The nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw the urbanization of cities , with minimal space set aside for living things . Jacob Riis and other reformers fought for parks in urban areas, but the resulting parks, while a vast improvement, were formalized, rectilinear arrangements of artificially orderly lawns, bushes, and walkways. While many societies had traditions of intense urban plantings, such as the rooftops of pre-conquistador Mexico City, such traditions did not reemerge on a larger scale in the industrialized world until the creation of naturalistic urban parks, such as the ones by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted . The rise of the City Beautiful Movement enhanced this trend as American, European, and other cities worked to bring natural settings back into urban areas. Actions done by activists from groups such as squatters and Reclaim The Streets are engaged in guerrilla plantings, from work done in or on abandoned buildings to tearing holes in highway asphalt and then filling the holes with soil and flowers. These actions have been particularly effective in creating new planted zones in economically decimated areas like urban eastern Germany , where abandoned buildings are occasionally reverted back to forest-like conditions . However, this trend can work so well that they become targets for gentrification, with thirty-foot (ten meter) trees grown over building foundations being torn down for yet more high density development.
R
creation of vast regions of concrete and asphalt
urbanization of cities
D
beyond humans and their pets
R
famously lush rooftops of pre-conqistadore
rooftops of pre-conquistador
A
of naturalistic urban parks, such as the ones
D
and others of naturalistic urban parks
R
In recent decades activists have sometimes seized the lead from architects, social planners, and horticulturalists as groups like
Actions done by activists from groups such as
R
have
are
D
more symbolic acts like
A
,
R
reverting to forest
reverted back to forest-like conditions
D
carry its own doom as beautified areas can
R
thirty foot
thirty-foot