There's various reasons they don't do this, which iirc include things like:
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-Fruit trees don't actually grow super well in most city conditions (particularly in countries that experience winter). The land is usually not big or fertile enough for them, there's often less water, there's salt from the roads, etc etc etc. They require a LOT more maintenance overall as well
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-The fruit would be city property More or less. Which means iirc that anyone that eats the fruit and gets sick could potentially sue the city. Same with fruit that falls on the sidewalk. If someone trips on it, or slips on it, there's the potential for a lawsuit
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-They attract animals, and usually not the kind most people want around. Wasps, raccoons, rats, squirrels, potentially even bears depending on the parts of the world
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There were some other reasons but I can't remember them off the top of my head atm
Not to mention it gives the city basically a 100% chance if having rotten fruit smell anywhere they do that during part of the year since there will basically always be missed fruit, misshapen fruit no one grabs, etc and no one is going to willingly clear it out before they rot.
Community gardens on the roof is still a good idea for where you can do it though. Things like tomatoes, peppers, maybe even a small peach tree.... then can put a little vendor on the sidewalk, maybe rotate maintenance. Plus a makeshift greenhouse can protect from most winter conditions unless there is a very large blizzard and there are no heaters.
Plus, even if you did manage to get some actual fruit, what would stop someone from loading up their car and selling it at the local farmer's market? (Don't say that it wouldn't happen, because it absolutely would.)
That still costs money, and then you run into the accessibility issue where now you either have to provide ramps or elevators to get to the top of the building I'd think, and that would open up more lawsuits
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People can't even handle bus shelters existing in peace, they'd have a field day with a bunch of public greenhouses
@Xvarnah I believe I have been made redundant. I shall fade into the background and disappear for a thousand years. You'll all wonder if I ever existed at all.
Your little info dump about why cities don't plant fruit trees covered everything I was going to say about why cities don't plant fruit trees.
The other half of that was a reference that you would have got if @famousone would calm his ADD down and finish a series.
One thing I would add to your list is the potential of nefarious people hoarding the fruit for monetary gain. It would be hard to police people from mass picking the fruit to sell later at a farmers market or just right off the corner.
I'm wondering if the effort is worth it. I've attended to two fruit tree gardens my company planted and they're actually quite unused. It's rather disappointing.
I would wager in most places this would occur would be "larger cities" here in the US. In those cities you already have homeless or otherwise destitute people doing whatever they can to make a living. Having been to time square in NYC the effort people put into trying to strong arm money out of you is nuts. I had a man attempt to slip a cd into my coworkers pocket and refuse to take it back to guilt him into paying for it. I imagine it could be similar to that of someone handing you a rose then asking for payment or someone "cleaning your windshield" with water and towels at a stop light then asking for money.
It could hypothetically go:
"Hey you want an orange?" *proceeds to peel orange*
"No thanks I don't want an orange."
"Come on man I already started peeling it. If you don't take it it's gonna go bad. I just wanted to share my orange with ya."
"Fine I'll take the orange."
"Awesome, hey by the way can you spot me some cash? I gave you my last orange so you think you could help me out?"
Ah, I see. Homeless individuals here don't do that kind of thing oddly enough. They usually just dig through garbage cans or steal from your shed. I'd prefer a situation like the orange.
@xvarnah I mean for people in the building mainly, the vendor on the street, you just need a permit, and you can sell any surplus there on the cheap, If growing with hydroponics, you can collect rainwater when you can and filter it, or just use sink water and filter it. The money from the surplus sales would go to the nutrient solution. NYC, in particular, has them on tons of roofs.
And I said communal, not public.
.
-Fruit trees don't actually grow super well in most city conditions (particularly in countries that experience winter). The land is usually not big or fertile enough for them, there's often less water, there's salt from the roads, etc etc etc. They require a LOT more maintenance overall as well
.
-The fruit would be city property More or less. Which means iirc that anyone that eats the fruit and gets sick could potentially sue the city. Same with fruit that falls on the sidewalk. If someone trips on it, or slips on it, there's the potential for a lawsuit
.
-They attract animals, and usually not the kind most people want around. Wasps, raccoons, rats, squirrels, potentially even bears depending on the parts of the world
.
There were some other reasons but I can't remember them off the top of my head atm
.
People can't even handle bus shelters existing in peace, they'd have a field day with a bunch of public greenhouses
The other half of that was a reference that you would have got if @famousone would calm his ADD down and finish a series.
"Hey you want an orange?" *proceeds to peel orange*
"No thanks I don't want an orange."
"Come on man I already started peeling it. If you don't take it it's gonna go bad. I just wanted to share my orange with ya."
"Fine I'll take the orange."
"Awesome, hey by the way can you spot me some cash? I gave you my last orange so you think you could help me out?"
And I said communal, not public.