Green streets will remove some gray in New York City

The bleak appearance results from the medians along Francis Lewis Boulevard, which are barren except for several small trees and overgrown weeds in the cracks of the concrete. That the medians aren’t maintained by any one particular City agency contributes greatly to their dull façade, according to City Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside).

Included in Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s PlaNYC2030 is an environmental reform proposal to create more green streets, which would turn streets and medians like those previously mentioned into lush, grassy, visually pleasing places.

Avella praised the Mayor’s allocation of $2.7 million to the Department of Parks and Recreation, which would be solely responsible for maintaining these streets, and his proposal to create 80 new green streets each year for the next five years.

Avella called for some of those 80 streets to be in his district: the center medians on Francis Lewis and Utopia Parkway in particular.

“One, it would improve the aesthetic quality in the neighborhood to take away all the cement,” Avella said. “Two, it would help improve the environment because all the greenery and the shrubberies would take the carbon dioxide that’s in the air and produce oxygen, especially when we’re…right in the middle of two lanes of traffic on either side.”

Finally, Avella added, it would eliminate what has become an eyesore and a nuisance to the residents and the various agencies that are supposed to maintain it, including the Departments of Sanitation and Transportation. Turning these medians into green streets would save money and clarify who is accountable for any problems. Bloomberg named the Parks Department as the one guardian.

With more than 2,000 green streets already thriving in the City, the initiative is welcomed with open arms in what is becoming a more environmentally conscious City.