Tuesday, July 10, 2007

NY1: Queens Lawmaker Wants District To Have Green Streets

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Friday, one Queens lawmaker asked the mayor to consider his district for a part of the PlaNYC initiative.


City Councilman Tony Avella says the medians along Francis Lewis Boulevard and Utopia Parkway are both ideal spots for green streets, landscaped plots maintained by the Parks Department.

Under PlaNYC, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s environmental reform proposal, $2.7 million a year would go to build 80 new green streets over the next ten years.

Avella says Whitestone is a good place to start.

"Making it a green street will take away the cement, make it is a nice aesthetic area, and improve the environment, because the greenery will take out the carbon dioxide that the cars produce and produce oxygen,” said Avella. “It will also save the city money in the long run, because it will be the Parks Department maintaining it."

So far there is no word from the mayor's office where the new green streets will be built.