Trees & Greenstreets
In April 2007 Mayor Bloomberg announced PlaNYC, a blueprint for New York City to attain sustainable growth and improve the quality of life in the face of escalating population projections. The Mayor’s plan—shaped by input from environmental, business, community, and legislative leaders as well as thousands of New Yorkers—details 127 initiatives within five key areas of the city’s environment: land, air, water, energy, and transportation. Components of the plan include increasing access to open space, cleaning up contaminated lands, improving water quality through natural solutions, achieving the cleanest air quality of any big city in America, and reducing global warming emissions by 30%. The plan may be viewed at PlaNYC.
PlaNYC includes a number of groundbreaking greening initiatives, including planting street trees in all possible locations, creating 800 new greenstreets, and reforesting 2,000 acres of parkland. Mayor Bloomberg has dedicated $391 million over ten years for these initiatives, with the first year’s funding becoming available starting July 1, 2007. In addition, the Mayor has funded an additional 156 staff and $4.6 million in new forestry and horticulture maintenance funds to support these greening efforts.