I have no idea why shade isn’t a primary design concern for every park. It is almost always left to “there’s a tiny tree over there that will produce shade in 25 years”. It is shocking.
I think the concern is the maintenance. Trees lose leaves in autumn increasing labor costs. They may also fall or have large branches break off in storms causing damage. I think its lazy and anti-environmental but less expenses ftw.
This is as good an explanation as I’ve ever heard. Seems silly though given the maintenance that already takes place with respect to lawn mowing. If trees are the concern then why not large fabric sails? The park equipment is super pricey to begin with so I can’t imagine we are taking huge extras.
It also means no one uses the park when it’s hot, so less maintenance in that regards. I could definitely design an unusable park that had zero maintenance fees :)