> Rather than making claims based on annecdote, 
> bias and  nostalgic memory,  isn't it better to 
> consult the current research.

But a 2005 paper like the one you cited isn't exactly "current", is it? 

Perhaps I expected too much, but familiarity with the current literature was
assumed, as was a familiarity with the documented consensus that suburban
and agricultural areas are far harder on the bees than either the
non-agricultural rural or urban alternatives.  But ask, and ye shall receive
- here is what is currently on my "re-read" list in my Kindle, as a single
reading rarely is enough to grock a decent paper, except to triage
"interesting" from "not". (titles and DOIs only, just to keep the list
clean) all these are recent enough pubs to be far more worthwhile reading
and discussing  than the cited paper from 2005:

The city as a refuge for insect pollinators
DOI:10.1111/cobi.12840

Food in a row: urban trees offer valuable floral resources to pollinating
insects
DOI:10.1007/s11252-016-0555-z

Urbanization alters communities of flying arthropods in parks and gardens of
a medium-sized city
DOI:10.7717/peerj.3620

Landscape and Local Correlates of Bee Abundance and Species Richness in
Urban Gardens.
DOI: 10.1093/ee/nvw025
	
Wild bee species abundance and richness across an urban-rural gradient
DOI:10.1007/s10841-018-0068-6

Sowing Seeds in the City (Book - Springer-Link Netherlands)
DOI:10.1007/978-94-017-7453-6

The proportion of impervious surfaces at the landscape scale structures wild
bee assemblages in a densely populated region
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.2374

Wild bees along an urban gradient: winners and losers
DOI:10.1007/s10841-011-9419-2

Native plants are the bee's knees: local and landscape predictors of bee
richness and abundance in backyard gardens
DOI:10.1007/s11252-014-0349-0

Bumble Bee Abundance in New York City Community Gardens : Implications for
Urban Agriculture
http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cate/vol2/iss1/5

Are urban parks refuges for bumble bees Bombus spp . ( Hymenoptera : Apidae
) ?
doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2005.11.004

The city as a refuge for insect pollinators.
DOI:10.1111/cobi.12840

Common factors influence bee foraging in urban and wildland landscapes
DOI:10.1007/s11252-011-0211-6

Determinates of inner city butterfly and bee species richness
DOI:10.1007/s11252-010-0122-y

Bee species recorded between 1992 and 2017 from green roofs in Asia, Europe,
and North America, with key characteristics and open research questions
DOI:10.1007/s13592-017-0555-x

Big city Bombus: using natural history and land-use history to find
significant environmental drivers in bumble-bee declines in urban
development
DOI:10.1098/rsos.170156

Buzz in Paris: flower production and plant-pollinator interactions in plants
from contrasted urban and rural origins
DOI:10.1007/s10709-017-9993-7

Buzzing on top: Linking wild bee diversity, abundance and traits with green
roof qualities
DOI:10.1007/s11252-017-0726-6

Changes in the bee fauna of a German botanical garden between 1997 and 2017,
attributable to climate warming, not other parameters
DOI:10.1007/s00442-018-4110-x
	
Urban gardens promote bee foraging over natural habitats and plantations
DOI:10.1002/ece3.1941

Domestic gardens as favorable pollinator habitats in impervious landscapes.
DOI:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.310

Colonization and usage of eight milkweed (Asclepias) species by monarch
butterflies and bees in urban garden settings
DOI:10.1007/s10841-018-0069-5

Reduction by half: the impact on bees of 34 years of urbanization
DOI:10.1007/s11252-018-0773-7

Uptake and dissipation of neonicotinoid residues in nectar and foliage of
systemically treated woody landscape plants.
DOI:10.1002/etc.4021

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html