The correlation they saw was after controlling for potentially confounding variables, like income level, housing stock, density, and demographics, as explained in this article: https://caseytrees.org/2023/09/mythbusting-trees-and-crime/.
So of course it's not proof of causation, but reverse causation(nice neighborhoods lead to more trees planted) seems unlikely to explain the effect.
So of course it's not proof of causation, but reverse causation(nice neighborhoods lead to more trees planted) seems unlikely to explain the effect.