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Council member Brewer inquires about speeding up tree planting process
2:01:44
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119 sec
Council Member Gale A. Brewer engages in a discussion with Parks Department representatives about the timeline and costs associated with tree planting in New York City. Brewer expresses concern over the long waiting periods for tree planting and seeks information on how to expedite the process.
- The current timeline for tree planting is around 9-10 years, which is causing frustration among constituents.
- Parks Department is currently planting a record number of 18,000 street trees per year.
- Brewer requests an analysis of the costs and resources needed to cut the tree planting timeline in half.
Gale A. Brewer
2:01:44
I do want to thank Tricia Simuora and certainly Steve Simon from Manhattan.
2:01:48
I forgot to do that.
2:01:49
But also, on this tree issue, what would be the price that could cut the time frame in half?
2:01:56
In other words, it's the staff that the chair talked about, plus the cost of, what is it, $3,110 for each tree.
2:02:06
What what would be the amount to cut the time in half?
2:02:09
So in other words, you'd have more
Susan Donoghue
2:02:10
staff So there isn't so it isn't as long of a time period.
Gale A. Brewer
2:02:13
Four years.
2:02:13
So it'd be four years to get Yeah.
Susan Donoghue
2:02:15
The entire I don't know that we have that analysis right now, but we can certainly look at it, council member.
2:02:21
I do just want to note that we are planting a record number of street trees, 18,000 as I said in my testimony in a year.
2:02:31
And there are so many factors with how many we can get in the ground.
2:02:34
It's number of contractors, it's the availability of the trees, all of that.
2:02:39
So we're always looking to spread our tree tree planting as equitably as possible in order to reduce that.
2:02:46
I don't have the exact number of what the dollar value would be to reduce that time frame, but we could something we can take a look at it.
UNKNOWN
2:02:53
Yeah.
2:02:54
I mean, it's it's not really a funding issue per se.
2:02:56
There are a lot of other considerations that would
Gale A. Brewer
2:02:58
take to the It's making people so upset, this notion of nine, ten years.
2:03:04
It's it's getting people I hope that the constituents are not listening.
2:03:09
Street trees are like friends.
2:03:12
Mhmm.
2:03:12
And and they're not hap they're gonna be so I'm just wondering if we could get a number.
2:03:18
I can't believe that it's not possible to speed up the process.
2:03:21
So money helps.
2:03:24
Obviously, it's not the end of the world.
2:03:25
It doesn't help completely.
2:03:27
But staffing and money would help, I would assume.
UNKNOWN
2:03:31
We'll be happy to look into that further, mean, yeah, for sure.
Gale A. Brewer
2:03:34
Give us a number for cutting the process time wise in half.
UNKNOWN
2:03:40
Timeline?
2:03:40
Yeah, absolutely.
2:03:41
We'll take a look at that.
2:03:42
Thank you.
Susan Donoghue
2:03:42
Thank you.