Featured in Manhattan Week: The Mayor of the Upper West Side Uses Her Green Thumb to Keep the Neighborhood Serene
Podcast: Love Your Street Tree Day -- Spring, 2024
May 14, 2024 - The majestic trees in front of Goddard Riverside on the Upper West Side of Manhattan were blushing brightly as the community gathered to learn about and spruce up the beds of our leafy neighbors for the seventh annual “Love Your Street Tree Day” – May 7th, 2024. Listen now.
Street Tree Movement Grows on the Upper West Side; You Can Join This Tuesday — and Every Day
May 5, 2024 - If the street trees that shade and beautify the Upper West Side could talk, they might thank Melissa Elstein. A co-founder of the West 80s Neighborhood Association, she has become one of their most loyal and active advocates. Read more...
Amsterdam Eco-Arts Festival on Saturday: ‘A Joyful Gathering on Land Usually Occupied by Cars’
October 20, 2022 - “It will be an awesome day celebrating urban nature, community, dance and the movement arts,” Melissa Elstein of West 80s Neighborhood Association & Love Your Street Tree Day told the West Side Rag.” Read more...
Annual Daffodil Bulb Giveaway This Sunday; Plant Them Throughout the Neighborhood!
September 22, 2022 - “The Daffodil Bulb Giveaway is one of three events included in Love Your Street Tree Day, a larger initiative spearheaded by the West 80’s Neighborhood Association. “Love Your Street Tree Day was established as an idea and model for increasing street tree stewardship, not only on the Upper West Side, but throughout New York City,” Melissa Elstein, Secretary and Co-Founder of the association told West Side Rag.“ Read more...
CB7 Preservation Committee Votes to Deny West Park’s Application to De-Landmark the Church
May 6, 2022 - “I’m just feeling extremely sad and disheartened about the current situation,” said Melissa Elstein, of the West 80s Neighborhood Association, capturing the feelings of many who testified. “It’s such a tragedy. I just hope we can preserve it.” Read more...
Bid to spare West Park Presbyterian Church from demolition wins Upper West Side committee’s support
May 6, 2022 - “This is such a tragedy,” said Melissa Elstein, a member of the West 80s Neighborhood Association. “It's sad and it's demonstrating the difference between what's happening in New York City and in Europe. In Europe, these grand churches and synagogues are preserved and cared for.” Read more...
You Can ‘Treecycle’ Your Tree and Help Spread the Chips; 2022 Mulchfest Is Saturday 1/8 and 1/15 in Riverside Park
January 7, 2022 - “Mulching them is an environmentally friendly way to treecycle holiday trees and prevent them from contributing to landfill waste,” the West 80’s Neighborhood Association newsletter explains. Read more...
Ban Tourist Helicopters, Elected Officials Say; 2 Bills Could Force Limits
November 4, 2021 - As the press conference wound down—“we need to stop this now before we turn into Sao Paolo,” railed Ken Coughlin, of Community Board 7—the Rag spotted Melissa Elstein, of both Stop the Chop NY/NJ and the West 80s Neighborhood Association. Stop the Chop has a petition to end nonessential helicopter flights over NYC on Change.org that more than 10,000 people have already signed. “Stop the Chop NY/NJ is an all volunteer organization,” Elstein said. “We’re just community members who are doing this seven days a week because the helicopters are flying seven days a week. I’d rather do other things with my time than fight helicopters,” she laughed.” Read more...
New Coalition “Forest for All NYC” Releases NYC Urban Forest Agenda
Ending Aircraft Noise Is a Priority for Community Board 7
October 20, 2020 - Upper West Side residents, fed up with low-flying aircraft, are speaking out. On a two-hour Zoom call last Tuesday, the transportation committee for Community Board 7 spent most of the time airing their grievances about noise and environmental damage caused by private helicopters. Read more...
Press Release - Reps. Maloney, Nadler, Velazquez Introduce Legislation to Address NYC’s Helicopter Safety Needs via Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney.
October 26, 2019 - Bill comes after years of flight accidents and noise pollution in NYC. Today, Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-12), Jerrold Nadler (NY-10), and Nydia M. Velazquez (NY-07) joined local elected officials and community groups to announce the introduction of their Improving Helicopter Safety Act of 2019. Read more...
West 80s Neighborhood Association’s “Love Your Street Tree Day” initiative in America Adapts Podcast:
This summer’s NYC Parks Department’s Super Tree Stewards Social Networking event at the Arsenal included Doug Parsons from the America Adapts Climate Change podcast. His interviews include several Super Stewards, including Melissa Elstein of West 80s Neighborhood Association’s “Love Your Street Tree Day” Coalition at 1:40:45 - 46:27. Listen here.
New York City removed 110 trash cans. Now garbage is overflowing and the rats are 'running wild'
By Mogan Hines on July 17, 2019 via USA Today
According to the New York Times, rat complaints have risen from 12,617 in 2014 to 17,353 last year. That's a 38% jump citywide — and comes even after Mayor Bill de Blasio allocated $32 million in 2017 to reduce the number of the rodents. Read more...
Three Unique Events This Weekend
May 16, 2019
This weekend is packed with events, and we wanted to highlight three unique ones. Read more.
Fifth Annual NYC “Love Your Street Tree Day”
May 12, 2019
The fifth Annual NYC “Love Your Street Tree Day” will be held on the Upper West Side on Saturday, May 18th from 12-2pm. Read more.
Love Your Street Tree Day' To Hit Upper West Side This Weekend
May 19, 2017 via Patch
Volunteers can help restore tree beds with mulch and compost and sweep the neighborhood during a "trash audit." Read more.
Sunday: Love Your Street Tree Day
May 18, 2017 via West Side Rag
Learn how important urban trees are to our health, environment and economy, and how properly cared for permeable soil slows down stormwater runoff into our waterways preventing combined sewage overflows. Read more.
Manhattan Week: The Mayor of the Upper West Side Uses Her Green Thumb to Keep the Neighborhood Serene
By Michael Scotto on October 15, 2016 via NY1
As our series "One City, Many Mayors" continues, we move to the Upper West Side, where a local resident is working to beautify the neighborhood, one tree at a time. Read more.
Greening New York
By Melissa Elstein (West Side Spirit) on June 15, 2016
New York City recently planted its millionth new tree after a roughly decade-long environmental initiative started under Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration and continued by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s. Of these, more than 625,000 are street trees. Read more.
The Bag Bill
By Ian Frazier (The New Yorker) on May 2, 2016
"... One morning, I met Romer at Eighty-fifth and Broadway, where she had come to talk to a group from the West 80s Neighborhood Association. Members of that group, led by Melissa Elstein, a yoga teacher and former attorney for the N.Y.P.D., had gathered to learn how to take bags out of trees. Skilled professional bag snaggers from the New York Restoration Project, or N.Y.R.P., the environmental organization founded by Bette Midler, were there to provide instruction. In the lobby of Elstein’s building, we stood in a circle and introduced ourselves—fifteen of us in all..." Read more.
The West 80s: An Aesthetic of Its Own
By Aileen Jacobson (NY Times) on January 13, 2016
The [West 80s] association’s Recycling and Zero Waste Forum in November drew about 100 people, she said, and the inaugural Love Your Tree Day last May is scheduled for a reprise this spring. Read more.
How and Why to Get to Zero Waste
By Lisa DiCaprio and Melissa Elstein (West Side Spirit) on November 24, 2015
To confront the enormous societal and economic costs of our waste problem, we need a cultural shift to acknowledge and reduce our trash footprint.
While supporting new recycling policy measures, we must also reduce waste and consumption. It really is true that when we throw things away, there is no away. Read more (PDF).
More News Links
- Historic NYC Buildings Renovated to Their Bones via The Wall Street Journal
- Get Free Daffodil Bulbs On Sunday For Fall Planting via West Side Rag
- UWS Trees Get TLC via the West Side Spirit
- Scrapbook: Loving Trees on the U.W.S. via the West Side Spirit
- Block Symposium Brings Community Leaders Together via the West Side Spirit
- Pint-Sized Building on West 86th Street Should Be Saved, West Side Residents Say via DNA Info
- How To Fight a Rat Infestation on Your Block via DNA Info
- Block Symposium Brings Community Leaders Together via the West Side Spirit
- Coalition of Block & Community Leaders Gather to Find Common Ground via The Westsider
- Uniting Communities on the Western Front via the West Side Spirit
- Symposium Focuses on Building 'Blocks' of Stronger West Side via The Westsider
- Super Block Association Tackles West Side Issues via the West Side Spirit