The Luxury Of Trees

So at this rate, it will only take $545 million more to reach the lofty goal of 1 million new trees:

David Rockefeller and Mayor Michael Bloomberg — two of the city’s biggest philanthropists — spent yesterday afternoon in front of East Harlem’s Thomas Jefferson public housing complex, where they planted a rosebud tree. They hope it is just one of many.

Rockefeller gave $5 million to help fund the mayor’s initiative to plant 1 million trees as part of PlaNYC, his sustainability agenda for the city. Bloomberg matched Rockefeller’s gift with his own $5 million.

“We’re all in this together,” Bloomberg said. “We shouldn’t wait for others to do it.” Not only do the trees provide shade and clean the air, he said, they “also improve property values.”

The $10 million announced yesterday will cover the cost of 18,000 new trees, “nearly three-quarters of all the trees in Central Park,” Bloomberg said.

. . .

He expects to have 250,000 of the 1 million trees in the ground before he leaves office. But then what? The initiative is funded by charitable donations and has no legal mandate.

“They should plant jobs,” added Olga Bernabi, who works at the Jefferson Houses library. “I know a lot of people getting pink slips.”

Central Park has 26,000 trees in 840 acres (31 trees an acre). New York City (at 322 square miles) has 206,080 total acres — 1 million new trees means adding 4.8 trees to each acre of land in the city. A city block is 2.5 acres. That’s 12 new trees on each city block . . . in addition to the 592,130 street trees, which have stocked city streets to 73% capacity, with room for 220,000 more trees. So then there are 780,000 left to be accounted for . . . um, has anyone figured out where all the new trees will go? And don’t tell us that this will simply replace old trees because that’s just cooking the books . . .

Desperate Last Pitch For Congestion Pricing

Let’s hope this is just irresponsible hyperbole unbecoming of an executive and not a statement of the city’s priorities*:

Sounding like he already knew that defeat would be imminent, Bloomberg challenged the Legislature to vote up or down on the issue today so that individual lawmakers could be held accountable.

“The one thing they can’t do is walk away without a vote,” Bloomberg said. “That would be unconscionable.

“If they’re going to vote it down, then they’re going to be responsible to their constituents to why they don’t have buses — faster, better buses, new buses — don’t have all the technology for all of the improvements to the subway line.

“When we stop work on the Second Avenue subway, they are the ones that are going to have to answer to their constituents.”

*Because apparently we’re already on the hook for a useless 7 train extension.

Every Mayor Needs A Big Project To Hang His Name On

Census numbers are showing 23,960 more residents between 2006 and 2007:

New York City’s population is nudging upward, according to Census Bureau estimates released yesterday.

The Census numbers show that the five boroughs gained 23,960 people between July 2006 and July 2007, a rise of 0.29%. The growth is consistent with the city’s population trends in recent years: The city gained about 40,000 people during the same period between 2005 and 2006. New York City’s population now stands at a record high, 8.275 million people, according to the Census numbers.

PlaNYC is premised on an additional one million people in New York by 2030. It uses census data and additional factors developed by the Department of City Planning, including an expectation that people will live longer and rezoning (maybe you noticed all the middle-income housing being built in newly rezoned areas?). But census estimates are tricky, and it’s unclear that the population will always continue to grow, or that there may be a built-in pressure valve regardless of how much infrastructure is created.

If the city’s population grew by 40,000 people every year for the next 22 years, we would have 880,000, and then congestion pricing would be absolutely necessary. But if the city’s population only grows by 23,960 for the next 22 years, there will only be 527,120 more people. And if these numbers actually portend a slowing of growth, then all numbers are suspect. What’s more, 2005-2006 was the highest growth in some time — if things get poopy, like they did after 2001, when the population grew by only 14,000 between 2002 and 2003, New York City will only have an additional 308,000 people. Population continually rises and falls, and unless PlaNYC can show definitively that New York will grow like it grew in 2005-2006 (and I wouldn’t trust any demographer who claims to know anything for sure), it seems foolish to move so aggressively . . .

Hmm . . . I Don’t Really Use That Phonebook Much Anymore . . .

A ticker tape parade is not an excuse to clean out your desk, you slob:

The crowd was good-natured and was filled with teenagers, many of whom were in diapers when the Giants last won the Super Bowl, in 1991, although the police did report a dozen or so arrests, mostly for disorderly conduct. The fans were in such a good mood that they even chanted, “Clean those streets,” as sanitation trucks drove up Broadway (with their snowplows down to collect garbage).

. . .

At 11 a.m., as the parade was set to begin, James H. Cooper, the rector of Trinity Church, emerged in a white robe and yellow cape. He climbed a ladder, hoisted a Giants sign and waved incense to bless the crowd.

The bells of the church rang out. Confetti poured from the highest floors, shredded paper that looked like flaming white meteors. Random sheets of paper in different sizes and colors — white, pink, green, lined and unlined, legal, notebook, post-it notes — were mixed in.

Bagels: Dough That Has Been Boiled And Baked; Pizza: Dough With Cheese; And Cupcakes Are Just Dough With A Stick Of Butter For Frosting

How stupid are New Yorkers? Not only can a cupcake store clear more than enough to pay its $30,000-plus rent but it can open a second Manhattan location, too:

There are few small businesses that can comfortably afford a $400,000-per-year lease in Manhattan.

There are even fewer ones that can do so selling cupcakes.

Magnolia Bakery, the West Village destination well-known for its butter cream-frosted baked goods, celeb appeal and its cameo in SNL’s “Lazy Sunday” digital short, has recently opened a second domain on 200 Columbus Ave. at West 69th Street. Owner Steve Abrams, who is a 20-year Upper West Side veteran, always believed the neighborhood could embrace the business, but didn’t quite anticipate the orders when it opened its doors on Jan. 19.

“It’s been beyond expectations. Opening day, we ran out of product,” Abrams said. “I think the volumes are going to be very similar [to downtown]. Just the way they manifest will be different. Downtown is touristy. . . . . They’re not buying a dozen cupcakes. Here it’s all families. People buy in bulk.”