When I look outside of my window, I see 1000's of square feet of empty roofs.  Why don't building owners put plants on their roofs?  It would clean the air, look better, and help the greenhouse effect by absorbing absorbing light.  Would you find a way to require building owners to do this?  Encourage it?  Maybe get the legal troubles with Citi Apartments dropped if they green all of their roofs?  Secondly, is there a way to encourage buildings to shut off the lights at night.  All I see is waste when so many lights are on in the Financial Read This Posty »

Since the city doesn't seem to care about keeping the trees trimmed & the flowers on the light poles watered, you should remove the trees or just chop off all the low hanging branches up to about 9 feet so I can walk on the sidewalk without feeling like I'm running a gauntlet and take down the hanging flowers. They only really look good near city hall but around my house, they're all brown, dead and smell bad. Name Withheld Read This Posty »

I think it would be wise to post a picture of a grove of trees on every paper towel dispenser in San Francisco and do a pr blitz with it, remind folks that they should use only what they need, usually 1 towel will do. It will decrease need to tear down trees, decrease the transportation costs of taking trees to the cutting, cutting to the factories, factories to the warehouses, warehouses to stores and points of use. Cut use of trees, cut use of fuel for transportation, easy as 1-2-3. Save a tree, save the world. Carol Cullum Read This Posty »

One of our huge problems is limiting green solutions by focusing on the technology end of things.  How much energy do we use to transport water to the City that could be retrieved from the aquifer.  How much energy  do we use repairing flood damage to our streets, hills and such?  We could reduce that immediately by changing zoning regulations to legalize and even require homes and small businesses to allow run-off from roofs to reach the ground and soak into the aquifer.  It could work just like the Friend of the Urban Forest tree planting program.  Have a non Read This Posty »

When Utility Co's upgrade and do sidewalk work - have them move utility to middle of sidewalk to allow for tree planting curbside. Name Withheld Read This Posty »

make sf a safer place for those who wish to bike.  designated biking lanes that are wide and protected from motorized vehicles.  plant more fruit baring trees in sf - a bit like eden. make recycling education mandatory for those seeking residency.  establish a spiritual center in sf - perhaps a large labyrinth - something ecumenical. Name Withheld Read This Posty »

Tree trimming and lowering of light height in some areas would help alleviate this safety issue. Steve Russell Read This Posty »

Certain SOMA streets such as 7th Street between Bryant and Market, and Howard between 4th and 11th, are unneccessarily wide, a waste of valuable land and arguably adding to the "concrete jungle" effect.  We should implement boulevards much like Octavia, with tree-lined medians and greenspace. Chaz Baird Read This Posty »

Santa Clara County was forced to cease pumping fresh water, from it's treatment plant, into the bay.  So, instead, they pipe this water to the greenry alongside the freeways and into the parks.  Saves water. David Nolley, Ph.D. Read This Posty »

In order to encourage tree planting, Mayor Newson should find out if it is feasible when babies are born in SF hospitals for the hospital to give the new parents a letter from him encouraging them to have a tree planted in their babies honor to make their child's future a brighter and healthier one.  The letter should link to FUF and stress that even if they cannot afford a whole tree they can be tree partners with others. Similarly if local mortuaries could hand out a similar letter encouraging people to honor their loved one with a tree, a legacy Read This Posty »

Apple, cherry, pears, peaches, oranges just to mention a few could line our city street and dot our parks.  Most of the country thinks we San Francisian are fruity anyways so let become fruity.  Certain area could be for certain tree.  This could help beautified our city street.  Help the earth. And when fruit is ready to be harvest, it could be picked my volunteer and donated to St Anthony's or Glide Memorial or many other agency.  Name Withheld Read This Posty »

From my review of newspaper articles, it appears that SF only plants about 5000 new trees per year which seems like a small number in the Bay Area. Mayor Newsom has started to donate $ for carbon offsets from his commuting, which is laudible, but this $ likely pays a non-profit to plant trees somewhere else. Here's the idea: Why not have the city promote a carbon offset program for the Bay Area that would allow donations to go directly toward the Friends of the Urban Forest or a similar agency in the city? While I'm mildly interested in donating Read This Posty »

A significant increase in tree planting was published as an initiative by Mayor Bloomberg in NYC in last week's New York Times, and this would be an excellent idea for San Francisco. The article suggested that NYC will plant 1 million more trees which is a significant commitment. In SF, there are many blocks in the Mission and Hunters Point that have no trees or very few despite the excellent weather, and this contributes to a sense of urban blight. Per the Friends of the Urban Forest website, tree plantings improve whole neighborhoods, increase property values, promote civic pride and Read This Posty »

One on going thing that has been a real problem for no reason involves street trees. We have five Italian Cypress trees against the front of our building. As you may know they are not a shade producing tress and are usually used (as in this case)  as ornamentals. Two of the five are now getting a disease which spreads easily among this species and cannot be cured. The trees die.  We hired an arborist to get a permit (which shouldn't even be required for ornamentals) from Urban Forestry to replace all five with Yew trees which are not susceptible Read This Posty »

Hello, Has there been any thought given to incorporating larger landscaped areas at intersections along Castro Street similar to those in Duboce Triangle? Also has there been any thought given to incorporating "green" planted central traffic islands along Castro Street from 19th street through Noe Valley?  The street along this area is wider than necessary to accomodate traffic needs and the neighborhoods and the city in general would benefit with increased areas of green belts and upgraded street scaping. This improves both quality of life for residents and visitors alike.  Beautifying the city as well as helping to improve air quality, reduce Read This Posty »

1) I complain about the rude drivers in the city who run stop signs and don't care if you're in the cross walk or not.  I don't know how to fix this except to perhaps have enforcement campaigns work certain areas of the city.  I jog through the city streets and every single time I encounter a careless driver who makes me fear for my safety.  Also, the heavy traffic is really frustrating, but I don't know what to suggest about that.   2) Parking is obviously a problem in this city, which leads to double parking which is another problem.  Read This Posty »

Remove any street trees causing private and public property damage ie; sidewalk, driveway, water main, sewer, and replant correctly with the right species.  A lot of these trees were planted incorrectly and are of the wrong root type. Plant trees that are deep root trees and use the proven root barrier methods when planting. Healthy trees and happy homeowners make for a beautiful and powerful city. Name Withheld Read This Posty »

The additional greenery (living divider) added on Lombard and the re-landscaped Vanness look great. Please look into more of this for our great city. I also work in Hawaii and all of their major streets have "green" dividers which is aestically very pleasing. I think this would work for our city as well and in the spirit of environment first, it would be a nice welcomed change! Scott Campbell Read This Posty »

In my neighborhood driveways are put in all the time. Trees get cut down when cub cuts are added. If you cut down a tree on your street, you have to plant one. Easy as that. Plant one on your street. Pay for one to be planted when you cut one down. We're losing trees and trying to get more. Name Withheld Read This Posty »