Photo: QueensPost
July 16, 2011 By Christian Murray
Hundreds of trees will be planted in Sunnyside and Woodside within the next two years, according to the neighborhood’s political leaders.
State Sen. Mike Gianaris, who wrote a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg in April insisting that more trees be planted on the south side of Queens Blvd, said that the first wave of tree planting is likely to begin in October.
The trees will come from two programs. Some will come as a result of the “Greening Western Queens” project, where 850 trees will be planted throughout Sunnyside, Woodside, Astoria and LIC over a three year period. The remainder will come from Mayor Bloomberg’s one million trees program.
Gianaris said that councilman Jimmy Van Bramer and Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan are “pushing hard for the barren areas of Sunnyside and Woodside to get trees.”
He said the three of them have had a productive meeting with the Parks Department and the City Parks Foundation and are optimistic that many new trees will planted in those areas soon. Gianaris has been calling for more trees on 48th Ave., 47th Ave., Queens Blvd and 43rd Ave (between 39th and 48th Streets).
“It’s rare to have such long stretches without trees,” Gianaris said in April. “The city has done a good job in planting trees throughout the city, but I think there have been some parts of Sunnyside (and Woodside) that have been overlooked.”
The “Greening Western Queens” program stems from a settlement between Con Edison and the Western Queens Power for the People Campaign, a nonprofit that advocated for reparations from the utility company following the 2006 blackout.
4 Comments
Just wait until winter, they will prune themselves by falling on the cars, damaging homes & windows, and -god forbid- injuring pedestrians. I dread parking under a tree in winter/snowy weather. The trees never get the proper care, and they end up damaging cars or blocking sideways.
It is great that new trees are being planted in our town but we still have the other issue of prumming our older trees that need to be shorterned or removed with thick heavy branches that in the winrter or heavy wind can possibly casue damage to cars , people and property.
generar, brammer and nolan should be looking at both sides of this issue in my opiniion
Where we really need more trees are on all streets between 46th and 43rd that fall between Queens Blvd and 46th – 47th avenues. This area looks like a desert compared to the south side of blvd.
They have to dig more squares off the sidewalks and plan them. I noticed they just dug out 4-5 spots on 46th street between Blvd and 42nd avenue and planted bunch of new trees, like they didn’t have enough.
Great!!!