* Since this project was first published in 2021, the City of New York has cancelled the new tree request program
The evidence that trees are essential for improving the quality of life in urban areas is incontrovertible, especially as the effects of climate change produce increasingly deadly heatwaves. Tree canopies improve air quality, reduce heat, and lower energy use, especially in large urban areas like New York City. Although New Yorkers can request a tree be placed on their block or property for free through the Tree Service Request portal of New York City’s Department of Parks & Recreation, the disparity in tree coverage between city neighborhoods remains stark. Where one neighborhood resembles a concrete island with no foliage, a few blocks away, the tree canopy is thick enough that residents complain about fall leaves on their sidewalks.
By visualizing and analyzing ten years of new tree request data, this project offers insight into the causes of the disparity in tree cover across New York City. When and where are new trees requested? What patterns can visualizations reveal over time and across different neighborhoods? Finally, how do demographic and economic changes, urban growth, or political and community-based initiatives impact a community’s request for new trees? The patterns that emerge from the visualizations below offer a bird’s-eye view of the distribution of new tree requests across specific zip codes, highlighting areas where the program was most successful. These findings can guide deeper research into the conditions that inspired particular communities to take advantage of the tree request program. They uncover successful local engagement programs that can help NYC Parks and community leaders direct resources toward the underserved neighborhoods that benefit most from these services, while providing insight into why inequalities in city services persist.
Data: The following visualizations were built from the New Tree Request database within 311 Service Request data, which lists all street tree planting requests (formally categorized as “complaints”) from 2010 to the present across all NYC boroughs. This dataset includes information on whether requests were made for an individual address or an entire block, as well as details regarding the location and timing of each request.
NYC New Tree Requests by Year is a bar chart that displays the total number of requests for each year and trends over time, to highlight the volume of each specific year as well as the citywide trajectory. The graph shows a sudden spike in requests in 2013 following several steady years, and significant highs and lows thereafter, particularly in 2015 and 2020.
Yearly New Tree Requests by NYC Borough is a line chart that displays requests at the borough level over the last decade, highlighting trends and differences over time. Each of the five boroughs shows a unique pattern, which is not usually in line with citywide trends.
Trends at a city and borough level bring up important questions about what drives the above noted increases, but our goal is to also display patterns in community organizing; which calls for visualizations at a neighborhood level. The 311 Complaint Data lists zip code information for each request. While looking at zip codes might not represent an entire neighborhood, community, or political district, it can easily direct us to them. NYC New Tree Requests by Zip Code is a bar chart that displays total city requests for each year, in color-coded columns that highlight the zip codes with most new tree requests. The most striking highlight in the chart is the large portion that zip code 11220 – which covers much of the Sunset Park neighborhood in Brooklyn – represents in 2013. Another prominent pattern is the continued presence of certain zip codes, including 11229 and 11230, which consistently represent a large number of requests each year starting 2013. For the scope of this project, I focus on the year 2013 and requests from zip code 11220.
The 2013 New Tree Requests by Zip Code pie chart represents a closer look at year 2013 requests by zip code, showing the percentage of requests out of citywide total. I chose a pie chart both as an ideal display of percentages (which can be seen by hovering over the pie slices) and the large number of zip codes in the city. Zip code 11220 represents 14.5% of the total requests for the year, out of all 1,794 NYC Zip Codes. It must be noted that the pie chart includes only zip codes that submitted new tree requests. A simple Google search guides us directly to The NYC Parks website, which reveals that in 2013, the 400 45th Street Block Association, Sunset Park, Brooklyn received a MillionTreesNYC Mini-Grant “to empower committed community groups to organize and strengthen street tree stewardship efforts in their neighborhoods”.
This is not to suggest that the award itself is the only reason for this increase, but it is an example of how these visualizations have already directed us to a community organization and a program; it has also given us more questions to investigate. What went right in this area? This award continued to be awarded to other community organizations after 2013, yet these numbers were never replicated. This example highlights the many different ways in which visualizations of 311 Complaint Data can be explored further, together with other city data. It is important to consider other variables when looking at these patterns, which are not included in the 311 New Tree Request dataset. Population density, surface area, zoning and other demographic information must be brought into these visualizations to help point us to what might help or hinder improved tree coverage.
