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Greenwich Street Gardens & Promenade
The Greening of Greenwich Street Promenade was built in 2000, and it’s hard to remember what it was like to live with the intimidating width of the old Greenwich Street. Some of us remember running across the street to avoid the cars as they sped side-by-side down the street, and the lack of any safe crossing points between Chambers Street and Hubert Street. More safety improvements are still needed, especially at Duane Street, but the change has been dramatic.
Few neighborhoods in the City can boast the generous 50 feet width of our pedestrian promenade. Parents have a place to help their child learn to ride a bike, anyone can sniff the lilac blooms, find some space away from traffic to sit and read, and to stop and chat with neighbors without being in anyone’s way.
In late 2006 we advanced the idea of continuing the Greenwich Street Promenade southward from Chambers Street. This would convert the uninviting, pedestrian-hostile section of Greenwich Street just north of Barclay Street into a people-friendly link between our community and the World Trade Center, and would help greatly to welcome the world to our home.
Tribeca Street Trees
In 2003, we surveyed all of Tribeca’s street trees to record their health, location, size, and species. It wasn’t “pretty”. Based on what we learned about our 492 street trees, in 2005 we began Tribeca Street Trees to help all of Tribeca become a greener place. So, we decided to work toward achieving two long term goals:
First: add 408 or more new street trees by 2015
Second: organize neighborhood volunteers to provide care for each one of our street trees
We got the project off to a good start with the help of a matching grant from NYSDEC, and achieved solid progress on our interim goals as of November 2007, as we raised the total street tree count by over 100.
Better still, we were able to line up and train tree care givers so that by November 2007 over 40% - 270 trees - of our growing total street trees have a committed care giver. Many more of trees are growing instead of dying!
Looking ahead, we seek to have at least 20 street trees planted each fall and spring, continue to match up trees with care givers, and monitor the trees. By working together, by 2015 we can achieve five percent shade (street tree canopy cover) for Tribeca as a whole –over eight times the proportion in 2003 – over 10 Washington Market Park sized areas!
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