New trees are beginning to dot the median along Queens Blvd. after the city recently removed and replaced dozens of stumps - some of which had been there for as long as 20 years.New trees along Queens blvd.
Throughout Forest Hills and Rego Park, starting at 78th Ave., 48 tree stumps lined the roadway, said Stephen Melnick, founder of the Queens Blvd. Restoration Group.
"It was becoming an eyesore," said Melnick, a Forest Hills resident and self-proclaimed tree lover. "People were calling them the 'Boulevard Stumps.' "
Since the inception four years ago of his organization, which monitors issues concerning Queens Blvd., Melnick has been urging City Hall and the Parks Department Forestry Division to remove the stumps.
But because there were so many of them and the cost of removal and replacement was large - up to $2,000 per tree - a plan was not implemented until last November. The replacement project began in earnest about two weeks ago.
As part of his PlaNYC initiative, Mayor Bloomberg has set a goal of planting one million trees in the city by 2017. This new project along Queens Blvd. is part of that initiative, Parks Department officials said.
"Queens is our borough of trees," said agency spokeswoman Trish Bertuccio, who also commended Melnick's group for identifying the problem.
Queens is our borough of trees?? More like the borough of concrete and crap.
Photo from Streetsblog
4 comments:
The Boulevard Stumps--didn't they open for Iron Butterfly at the Fillmore in '69?
$2,000 per tree... why, exactly?
Should be interesting to see what percentage of the new trees are going to Queens.
Big deal,
a handful of saplings gets planted!
Queens Blv'd. is also getting a lot of over development.
Maybe little twee window boxes
can be furnished
for all the new buildings
that Melinda Katz approves of!
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