Grenoble's famous boulles
The city of Grenoble, France, has a plan. They’re removing the city’s prime advertising space — about 326 advertising billboards that line the downtown avenues — and replacing each sign with a planted tree.
The city's new mayor, Eric Piole, is a member of the Green Party. According to a recent article published in the Telegraph, he made a promise during his campaign: that he would end the city’s contract with the advertising company involved with the ads, and he would replace the signs with trees.
Grenoble is on to something. Studies show that reforestation of urban spaces can improve the quality of life for its residents by improving air quality, reducing heat from concrete, and producing oxygen.
The city will be the first in France to implement the change and ban street advertising, but it’s joined by other cities around the world that have made urban reforestation a priority. The city of Washington, D.C., has a goal of increasing its street canopy to 40 percent within the next twenty years, and New York City pioneered the Million Tree Initiative before it was joined by LA, Denver, Shanghai and London, Ontario.
Grenoble plans to remove the first of its billboards in 2015, and the trees should follow soon after.