I believe the city should mandate shade-tree lined streets. For example between the street and the sidewalk, a tree every twelve feet where possible. All yards front and back capable of growing trees should be given tax incentives per shade-tree grown. I would like to see as many tall shade-trees as possible living in New York City, not only are tree lined streets pleasant to look upon but the shade provided to the street multiplied by the NYC’s 120K blocks will lower the temperature of the city in summer.

NYC Parks is currently understaffed (morale is abysmal) and the Adams'administration doesn't give a shit about these goals or the NYC Parks budget. Parks are not his priority. He's wholly focused on 1. crime (real or percieved) and 2. Enriching private companies in "public private partnerships." Unless the park is managed by EDC next to a billion dollar development, he could care less.

>But the mayor, who did not meet a campaign promise to double funding for the parks department, has so far resisted those goals, which could see the city plant another 1 million trees by the end of the decade. Instead, he has budgeted for approximately 20,000 trees annually, a slight dip from prior years.

“Others have pointed to the ballooning costs of basic garden work, after agency leaders testified last year that the cost of planting a single tree had grown to $3,600. By comparison, Jersey City paid around $500 per tree in 2018.

The problem stems in part from the limited number of contractors available to perform tree work. After landscaping firm Dragonetti Brothers was indicted in a massive insurance fraud scam, the city was forced to suspend pruning services in Brooklyn and Queens for most of last year, Brooklyn Paper first reported.

Despite the legal problems, the city went back to the scandal-scarred contractor, awarding them several multimillion-dollar pruning contracts. Dragonetti Brothers' work in Brooklyn resumed earlier this month.”

———- MTA levels of corruption there.

I was going to copy those exact paragraphs into here too... what the act fuck

The kicker is Parks does have a lot of in-house designers, engineers and gardeners. There's no reason any city money should be given to private contractors when we could just increase the budget and fulfill projects with in-house staff. The real issue (outside of city staff fleeing and not being rehired) is procurement. Supplies are increasingly expensive and the city has pretty strict rules when it comes to who they can buy from.

That's very nice and all, but the city can't do that without the staff to plant, maintain and inspect the trees. This administration doesn't care about Parks, so it's unlikely we'll see any significant budget pushes for Parks this term. De Blasio had many faults, but under him the Parks department was thriving and really pushing to revive, rebuild and construct new Parks all cover the city. I'm not seeing that same energy in the last year.

Procurement is definitely an issue that needs addressing.

DOT is having the same issues with gathering supplies to do repairs. It's hard enough to get what they need in a timely manner, but they're also being asked to use the cheapest materials and solutions possible (hence why we almost never have fully protected bike lanes when they know we should).

The NYC Parks department maintains a detailed map of trees they are planting each year. They do keep a steady pace of planting:

https://www.nycgovparks.org/trees/street-tree-planting/locations

Disappointing. If I was the mayor, I'd go big on tree plantings. It actually helps much more than people think. I'd even argue you can sacrifice a few parking spots here and there to have a few trees planted.

When was the last time we had anyone who did prioritize parks? Green spaces are so underrated.

Tress help cool temperatures of the streets in summers and help with better air quality and I’m sure they give a nice feel to a neighborhood. To bad if it doesn’t help one of Adams donors he could care less.

This city depressing as fuck. All grey and no greenery.

De Blasio prioritized parks. Parks without Borders and the Community Parks Initiative were both under him and, at least in my opinion, it was a Renaissance for improvements to existing parks and construction of new parks.

The city also seems to only plant wimpy little trees like locusts that offer little shade compared to say the sycamores (much less elms) of yesteryear. There are streets in Brooklyn and the Upper West and East sides that should be models for relatively treeless places. Each neighborhood should get a 'street czar' with power to plant trees, get things moving on vacant lots and old scaffolds, remove graffiti and otherwise improve the streetscapes.

Bloomberg. Everyone hates on him but he gave us tons of new green space.

Bruh you could get literally high school volunteers to plant trees, I cannot believe the ONLY option in the REGION is a scandal scarred suslord company to do this work...?

Not surprising. I am an account executive in New Jersey. Not saying what industry, but I will not bother quoting the city, or the schools, or anything NYC government related because of the red tape and how difficult they make it to secure a contract. I no bid. I have enough work at this time. Not surprising the people who do bid these projects mark them up incredibly to cover all the extra bullshit it takes to do business with the city.

Spring is coming. Cheer up.

The city planted three trees across from my house last year and they all died…

I know can't wait 🌞

This is what happens when you go with the "tough on crime" candidate.

Remember, the biggest job of a mayor is setting budgets. So when budget season comes, you get to see what they actually care about.

Tough on crime is just code odd "I will defund everything but the police". And we know that the police does not prevent crime, just punishes it. What prevents crime? Everything else, including greenery.

You need to water them! I mean, the city is supposed to water them but that doesn't ever happen. So water them in the summer time...or, yeah, they'll die.

If you call them the park's department will also come by and bring a truck load of mulch (free!) so you can add mulch around the tree bed which helps keep moisture in and dog pee out.

He was the best mayor this city ever had. He got hate because people reeling from the financial crisis misdirected their anger at him because he was a billionaire.

Until what age? Obviously at some point they don't need watering. Curious as I've requested a tree years ago so hoping we get one sometimes in 23 and I'd like to see it survive!

Put in a massive amount of tree requests in to 311

Exactly.

Even at pre-pandemic-staffing-cut levels Parks had nowhere near enough staff to pick up all the tree work that is cintracted out. The backlog on tree inspections, for example, was enormous when I left. That's not a knock on Forestry, there's just too few of them for the whole city... just like the rest of the Parks department.

I wouldn't agree with that. De Blasio's admin was just as interested in cutting Parks' operating budget in exchange for more police OT as Adams' is. Parks has consistently been the agency that is just cut to the bone on operations money every cycle and then cut some more. Even those programs were accompanied by drops in staffing.

That website is a deep dive rabbit hole of information. Especially the PDF’s.

Thanks for posting.

Agreed. He wasn’t trying to be popular (Koch). Wasn’t trying to be a tough guy (Gulliani). Didn’t need to be a celebrity (Adams). And he actually was a no nonsense effective executive (unlike Dinkins and D’Blasio) that got shit done. Now not everyone agreed with him, but he took the job seriously and actually had the skills to do it.

I believe first 1 -1.5 yrs though I would refer to Treesny.org for more info. They run Citizen Pruner courses for NYC trees and the main guy there, Sam Bishop, was a great resource for me. From their website: What can I do to help take care of a newly planted street tree?

WATCH SAM’S TREE TIPS VIDEO

For newly planted trees that most important thing you can do is to water them. Form a ring of soil about 2 feet wide, with the tree in the middle, and fill it with water. That keeps the water near the tree’s roots. Water the tree with 15-20 Gallons once a week. It is much better to give the tree more water less often, then to give it a little bit every day.

You can also cultivate the soil. Cultivating breaks up soil compaction, so water and air can get to the tree’s roots. Soil becomes compacted when people walk on the soil, or when heavy objects like garbage bags are placed on the soil. Dig 2-3 inches down into the soil, and work around any large roots you find.

You can also add wood chip mulch to the tree bed. Mulch is chipped or shredded trees and branches. Mulch protects and improve the soil, and reduces water loss, so there is more water for the tree. Use 2-3 inches of mulch on the soil, but don’t let it touch the trunk of the tree. If it touches the trunk for too long, it can cause disease.

From: https://treesny.org/community-resources/treesny.org

Can you get high school volunteers to select an optimal species, procure it, excavate the tree pits, pour the concrete, load up the truck, strap it, transport it, unload it, inspect it, and then do citywide maintenance calls for the first three years?

On one hand it's actually not that hard, but on the other it's not that easy. There's a lot of logistics.

He created PlaNYC 2030, an enormous environmental initiative. Nothing was done, except the million tree program which was huge and effective. Great times.

Aside from the concrete it actually seems very simple.

How much money did he spend on attack ads for trump even when he knew he wasn't going to win. Just because he didnt like trump and he had the money.

Thank you!