Greening New York City
From concrete jungle to solarpunk jungle
Lately I’ve been inspired by two re-greening projects from the 70s and 80s, that still benefit millions of people today.
In the 80s, the Central Park Conservancy was formed to fix up the crumbling and dangerous Central Park. Today, Central Park is the crown jewel of New York City, serving 42 million visitors per year.
More photos here. (I would have preferred to embed Daniel’s tweets in this post, but alas, the Twitter-Substack War of 2023 still rages).
In 1967, Singapore embarked on a similar project, at a much wider scale. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew dreamed of turning Singapore, which at the time was polluted and drab, into a beautiful, clean “garden city.” He thought this would boost Singapore's tourism and morale.
He hired botanists to travel to countries with similar climates and bring back plant and tree species that might be able to thrive in Singapore. 8000 species were brought back, 2000 of which ended up being able to survive in Singapore's climate.
His government planted millions of trees, palms, and shrubs.
He hired an Australian plant expert and a New Zealand soil expert to evaluate Singapore's soil and give suggestions for how to better treat the soil.
Today, Singapore is famous for jungly parks, buildings covered in plants, and their iconic airport.
What New York City Can Learn From Central Park and Singapore
1. Greening is possible.
In Singapore, some people opposed cleaning up the Singapore River:
When I first proposed it in February 1977, many, especially industrialists, asked, “Why clean up? The Rochore Canal {which flows into Kallang Basin], and the Singapore River have always been filthy; part of Singapore’s heritage!”
If an individual or group sets out to green New York City, some people will say it can’t be done. They'll mistakenly think that because the city is concrete and trashed now, it must always be so. Unfortunately, opposition is almost universal in the face of any new enterprise. But it's worth pressing on.
2. Greening requires human intervention.
Although parts of Central Park feel “wild,” every part of the park was carefully crafted:
“It is hard to envision the amount of sheer backbreaking labor that went into what [observers] saw at the outset of the construction of Central Park, and few today realize that it is almost entirely a man-made creation. Think about it: sculpting the park’s surface by moving hundreds of tons of rocks and earth, enriching poor soil with sufficient organic matter, procuring and installing the myriad plants necessary to revegetate it [more than five million]. Consider the channeling of artificial streams spilling over piled rocks to create waterfalls that flow into naturalistic ponds and lakes.1
Greening a city as large and domesticated as New York City is hard work. It requires a sizable investment of time and money. But it can be done…
3. Greening is a complex science.
LKY hired an Australian plant expert and a New Zealand soil expert to evaluate Singapore’s soil:
“An Australian plant expert and a New Zealand soil expert came in 1978 at my request to study our soil conditions. Their report caught my interest and I asked to see them. They explained that Singapore was part of the equatorial rainforest belt, with strong sunshine and heavy rainfall throughout the year. When trees were cut down, heavy rainfall would wash off the topsoil and leach the nutrients. To have grass green and lush, we had to apply fertilizers regularly, preferably compost, which would not be so easily washed away, and lime, because our soil was too acid.
The Istana curator tested this on our lawns. Suddenly the grass became greener. We had all school and other sports fields and stadiums similarly treated.”
The Singaporean government also sent research teams to countries across the world, to seek plant species that could thrive in Singapore’s environment.
Our botanists brought back 8,000 different varieties and got some 2,000 to grow in Singapore.
Greening New York City requires expertise and experimentation. Just as the Apollo program hired our best scientists, an ambitious project to green New York City would hire world-class botanists and soil experts from all over the world. The project would need a long-range timeline that allows for experimenting with many species until we determine what works.
4. Greening is worth it.
Lee Kuan Yew:
Greening raised the morale of people and gave them pride in their surrounding.
And:
Every time I return to Singapore after a few weeks’ absence, and see the trees, palms, green grass, and free-flowering shrubs as I drive along East Coast Parkway from the airport into the city, my spirits rise. Greening is the most cost-effective project I have launched.
Imagine New York City covered in vines and trees, and shrubs. A beautiful, solarpunk city, that boosts 8 million people’s moods.
5. Greening is a positive-sum game.
Lee Kuan Yew:
Our biggest dividend was when ASEAN leaders decided to compete in the greening of their cities…No other project has brought richer rewards to the region. Our neighbors have tried to out-green and out-bloom each other. Greening was positive competition that benefitted everyone - it was good for morale, for tourism, and for investors.
If New York City greened2, it would inspire cities across the U.S. to green as well. What if U.S. cities competed, playfully, to be the most beautiful and awe-inspiring?
Saving Central Park by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, p. 75.
Great book — but if you’re not gonna read it, I’d recommend this book summary.
New York City already has a few greening initiatives underway! In 2016, New York City planted it’s millionth tree from the million-tree initiative started by Bloomberg. Some politicians are now calling for another million-tree initiative. Currently, 22% of the city is covered in tree canopy, and a city councilor proposed legislation to increase tree canopy coverage to 30% of the city.
Between empress trees and tree of heaven NYC’s during into a rainforest :)