Below you'll find the evidence that an ACTUAL meeting took place between the Parkside Project crew (nee the Parkside Prize), our winning architect In Cho (and partner Tim Shields) plus Nick from DOT and Annie from City Parks' Forestry department. Oh yeah, and that's Hector in the pic, from Pioneer Grocery, and Sonya from Parkside Project, who lives on Ocean.
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| In Cho and Annie from Forestry get serious |
And this is the kicker (for me anyway), Nick did a time lapse of people coming from the train at rush hour. You KNOW I'm going to get my hands on that and post it. Maybe with a Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack?
Dang that felt good to be out there for the power meeting. Next up, the big dig?
3 comments:
This is certainly good news. Kudos to all who made this happen.
Now how do we keep these trees from becoming nine new garbage magnets a la the trees on Flatbush Ave?
Q, I am a bigger advocate of street trees than anybody, but if these go in we have to have a serious, dedicated stewardship program, and we *absolutely* have to have a source of water available on that block. I've watched over the last several years as two tulip poplars in front of 225 parkside died, replaced by a sweet gum that died and another that is struggling mightily to survive. I've tried to water them, and have lugged water from my place three blocks away, but it's difficult to do that regularly (especially with a lot of young trees on my own block to look after.) In situations like last week's heat wave, young trees need at least 5 gallons of water a day to survive. And they need to be protected from soil compaction. Parkside is high traffic, high exposure to pollutants and reflected sunlight. It's great that these trees are going in, but if we can't coordinate a serious tree stewardship program than they are all going to die. I've tried to get the super at 225 to water, no avail. Popeyes has a spigot on the side of the building; maybe we could prevail upon the owner to let us use their water for the street trees. If there were a source of water on that block, I'd happily volunteer to be part of a steward program.
One step ahead of you, Anon. The reason Hector and Pioneer have been invited to participate is so we either gain access to their water or, better yet, have them do the watering for us. Forestry isn't interested in this failing either, nor DOT. The placement of the trees, while technically none of Pioneer's business, is something we've sought their approval and input, particularly because so much loading comes in along Parkside. We hope that the friendliness of this approach will lead to a collaboration. It will definitely beautify the area around their store.
225 - we've asked for a replant this fall. Once that happens, I strongly suggest that you, or someone from the Parkside Project, work with Pioneer and 225 to steward the tree. 225 has been open to talking about their dumping problem at the back of the building along Flatbush. Maybe they're ready, or Popeyes.
Believe me, water and maintenance have been a serious part of the discussion from the get-go, including finding money to pay landscaper. Please come to the next Parkside Project meeting and be our Healthy Trees Leader!
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