To move beyond bricks and mortar towards a more livable city we can search our habitat with new glasses to imagine how we can makeover our micro-environments within our budgets.

Reclaim Urban Open Spaces

The 53,000 acres of NYC residential yard space pack a powerful punch cleaning and enhancing our urban environment every day. While this treasured resource is often overlooked, it can be sustainably greened to enhance our quality of life while we do your part to help the environment. Simple, affordable steps can be taken to reclaim these underappreciated assets. Look around your apartment building and you might find a small pocket of open space that can accommodate some large planters or an in-ground garden bed, some chairs and a table. You might be surprised to find a slice of nature close to your own front door.

Enhance your Personal Space While Benefitting the Environment—Residential urban oases supply light and air while summer shading and soil mitigates the urban heat island effect. NYC’s aging water treatment system would be overwhelmed more often without the benefit of unpaved, water-absorbing yard space which also supports flora and flora. In short, residential yard space and sustainability are intrinsically linked.

Historic Preservation—NYC’s grid, planned in 1811, established a delicate balance of buildings, streetscape and open space which is worthy of preservation. Look at Google-Earth—you’ll see the swaths of adjoining yards behind each rowhouse block or the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities map which shows residential yard space in each borough of the city. This block and lot configuration was designed specifically to encourage a healthier, more livable environment and should be treasured.

Small Affordable Steps Can Pay Off Big—Quality of life is enhanced in tandem with the City’s environment. Sensitive landscape design introduces water-absorbing materials—permeable surfaces such as decking made out of recycled materials and planting beds. The vegetation sequesters carbon dioxide and improves the quality of air, while it provides greenery, herbs and, sun permitting, flowers, herbs and other edible plants.