Promoting Local Greening Initiatives

On July 24, I held an organizing meeting on adopting and gardening the tree pits in the pedestrian islands adjoining bike lanes (also known as “bike lane tree pits”) at Metro Baptist Church on West 40th Street. The meeting, facilitated by Cultivate Hell’s Kitchen New York horticulturist Shanti Nagel, gave constituents from across my district the opportunity to learn about gardening best practices and the resources available to volunteer gardeners, as well as meet and organize with others in the neighborhood. Attendees heard from a representative of TreesNY, a non-profit organization whose mission is to “plant, preserve, and protect” New York City’s trees, as well as members of Chelsea Garden Club, a coalition of neighbors who plant in the bike lane tree pits along 8th and 9th Avenues between 17th and 39th Streets. You may download the PowerPoint presentation prepared by this pioneering group of bike lane tree pit gardeners below. I invite all who are interested in this and other greening initiatives to contact Jared Chausow in my office at (212) 633-8052 or jared@bradhoylman.com for general information or support.