N.Y. and S.F. street tree progress

MillionTreesNYC has the goal of planting, well, one million trees. Here is a unique planter in the city. (Maisel/News)
MillionTreesNYC has the goal of planting, well, one million trees by 2017. Here is a unique planter in the city. (Maisel/News)
  • The New York Daily News offered this update yesterday on the MillionTreesNYC project, including space to relay the benefits street trees provide:

Since October of 2007, MillionTreesNYC has planted over 300,000 trees of which 165,000 have been located in New York City’s forests – the result of a partnership with Natural Resources Group. NRG is the non-profit organization founded by Bette Midler that is committed to reclaiming and restoring City parks, community gardens and open space.

Strips in S.F. are being created and expanded for street trees. (Design Ingenuity)
  • Two nonprofits in San Francisco are working to expand greenery in the city by creating open plazas and generally providing more space for street trees.

Pavement to Parks and Friends of the Urban Forest are collaborating with several city agencies to initiate public laboratory projects where the potential of selected locations is tested as permanently reclaimed open space, according to the Pavement to Parks Web site.

San Francisco ’s streets and public rights-of-way make up fully 25% of the city’s land area, more space even than is found in all of the city’s parks. Many of our streets are excessively wide and contain large zones of wasted space, especially at intersections.

In the last two weeks, residents in one S.F. neighborhood were able to mark their desired locations for tree planter expansions, or more often, completely new street tree sites.

Here are some examples of built projects from Pavement to Parks.

Any proposals for similar projects in Portland? Site suggestions?

–Toshio Suzuki