Bottcher Celebrates New Trees, Beautifying a Barren Stretch Outside ConEd Substation
Five potted trees, now stationed in front of the Chelsea ConEd substation, were impossible to plant conventionally due to underground infrastructure. Nonetheless, City Council Member Erik Bottcher found a way to beautify the strip, along Seventh Avenue between 18th and 19th streets.
City Council Member Erik Bottcher has continued his mission of bringing as many new trees as possible to his Chelsea district, this time by placing them on an otherwise barren stretch of sidewalk fronting a Con Edison substation.
Bottcher was unfazed by the brutal hot weather at a loose ribbon-cutting for the trees on July 8, held next to one of five baby trees that now line a block of Seventh Avenue, between West 18th and West 19th streets. Leaders of Manhattan block associations, such as Sally Greenspan, who were excited to see the project come to fruition were in attendance.
Notably, the trees are situated in massive planters, as there isn’t any dirt on the block. Bottcher, patiently holding the massive pair of scissors used by various politicos for such events, explained why.
“Government is about solving problems, large and small. An example of a small problem is that, on this stretch of Seventh Avenue, we can’t plant street trees because of the 1 train running underneath,” he said. Indeed, the block-long substation is located right across from the entrance to the 18th Street subway station.
”Yet it is an important problem to solve, as this is a bit of an eyesore in the middle of Chelsea, as important as infrastructure for our electrical grid is,” he added. He thanked the Horticultural Society for helping with the installation, and noted that flowers would soon be planted to complement the trees.
Bottcher also spoke more broadly about why planting trees is so vital. “We know that in the age of climate change, in the age of heat waves, it’s more important than ever to achieve a tree canopy to lower temperatures,” he said. “Trees clean the air, they absorb rainwater and runoff, and they provide a habitat for native species.” He also mentioned studies that have demonstrated how trees can help slow down traffic to safe speeds.
In an interview with Chelsea News after the ribbon-cutting, Bottcher emphasized how much unseen labor goes into tree plantings. “This was particularly complicated because it involved critical infrastructure,” he said. “It’s not just any old sidewalk, where you can cut out space for potted trees. It involved a series of approvals, and a lot of staff work . . . but we felt it was important.”
Bottcher, who is running for reelection and easily cruised to victory in the June 24 Democratic primary, also gave an update on the progress of his goal to plant 1,000 trees during his time in office. “We celebrated planting our 500th tree last summer,” he said. “We’ve already planted several hundred since then, and we’ll be having an updated count soon.”
The Council Member also passed a related bill implementing something called the Urban Forest Master Plan in 2023, which “requires [NYC] to set a goal of 30 percent tree canopy coverage [citywide] by 2035,” as he put it in a recent social media post.
For enterprising NYC residents curious about the state of individual trees in their neighborhood, there’s a map for that—the Parks Department’s NYC Tree Map, which contains 883,373 total trees. Manhattan has 96,246 mapped trees as of press time, the lowest count of all five boroughs. While Bottcher’s efforts might be a drop in the bucket, they could begin to close that gap.
“We celebrated planting our 500th tree last summer. We’ve already planted several hundred since then.” — City Council Member Erik Bottcher, on his pledge to plant 1,000 trees while he’s in office