Want to tackle gun violence? Think about trees.

Stoneleigh Fellow Vincent Reina was featured by The Philadelphia Inquirer for research with his University of Pennsylvania colleagues linking home renovations in low-income neighborhoods to violence prevention.

I was born and raised in the Liberty City section of Miami, a crime-infested section of the city. My neighborhood had no tree coverage and was a mass of cracked concrete. There were no parks, swimming pools, or libraries.

Now I live in Philadelphia, a city with 116 homicides this year as I write this. Our mayoral candidates have proposed to declare a state of emergency, reimagine coordination between government agencies, funnel millions of dollars to gun violence suppression police units, crack down on low-level crimes, or install surveillance cameras in the neighborhoods experiencing the deepest state of crisis.

None of these policies inspires confidence.

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