Gothamist: City Council Seeks to Deep-Six Concrete Yards

Gotham City Insider Wuz Here

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:50:52 -0500

EXACTLY ! Our precious ecosystem does not depend on the 16-17 lone blades of grass on your next door neighbor’s pathetic dried out patch. Paving the grass will be more GREEN in the long run because you'll spend less time circling around the neighborhood letting out all that exhaust.

Sohojake

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:08:37 -0500

For those who are thinking about the environmental impact, just think how much gas you waste looking for parking. Stop and go driving around and around, when you could just drive up to your home and your done with it. And you don't have to worry about alternate side of the street parking either. It is very convenient. That's why homeowners do it. Plus if anybody wants to bbq or hang out, it would be preferable to do it in the backyard where you don't have to hear and smell traffic passing by the front yard and have passersby looking at what your doing.

emilydickinson

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:56:41 -0500

I have no idea what the larger 'environmental impact' of having a lawn is. I do know that sitting on the lawn, in a chair, possibly with a dollar grill and tofu pups is much more appealing to me than concrete. You can't do anything with concrete but park a car on it. It also gives you a larger 'safe area' to collapse drunk in while stumbling out of taxis. People always bitch and moan about 'neighborhoods disappearing' and that we don't have a stoop culture, or know our neighbors anymore. Yeah, pave your driveway. It's a good way to bring the block together.

JMH

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:27:50 -0500

So when you guys wanna have a picnic you go look for a good front lawn on Nostrand Avenue?Are you even reading what people are saying or are you just making stuff up? Dave H., "hideoufication" is a good word.

Gotham City Insider Wuz Here

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:51:01 -0500

So when you guys wanna have a picnic you go look for a good front lawn on Nostrand Avenue?

JenChungsBra

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:32:58 -0500

This is just another example of why the Buildings Department is the most pathetic excuse for a regulatory agency under the sun. All of this stuff is flat-out illegal. You can't just pave over whatever you want not least because of the effect it has on stormwater management, the city's sewer system, combined sewer overflows and the stormwater that runs off your property onto your neighbors' and into the street. The Building Department should have been cracking down on this for years and did nothing.

Politburo

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:14:07 -0500

I don't think anyone claimed that paving over these areas would result in a lack of oxygen.. but thanks for the clarification. However, there are two real issues which you failed to address in your post: heat island effect and runoff. White concrete is better than asphalt, but still worse than vegetation.

Gotham City Insider Wuz Here

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:54:07 -0500

Who are you all kidding? I love tree and plants, too. I have a front yard full of them and a backyard for my cars but I see nothing wrong with people paving their little front squares of grass to make a parking space for themselves. Sorry guys but Barbara Corcoran is right. I'm not a biologist, a botanist or an ecologist but I don't think your little 8x8 patch of grass in front of your house on Northern Blvd is really contributing to the ecosystem. I think you're exaggerating just a wee bit. We could pave all the backyards and little green front patches in Queens and Brooklyn and I doubt we'd see a change in our oxygen levels. The biochemical pathways of photosynthesis would remain unchanged. Let's be realistic.

Dave Hogarty

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:54:05 -0500

[19] I don't know. Why do people choose to pay extra to live near Prospect and Central Parks, or have river views? If we were all satisfied with a concrete environment, it would probably be cheapest to get locked up in a supermax prison cell on the cheap. New York is a city to be lived in; it's not a gulag to be endured.

Rocknrope

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:51:10 -0500

^^^ Yeah, if you like trees and grass so much why don't you go live in Yellowstone Park? Why let something like asthetics and good taste get in the way of a nice slab of quickcrete for your ride? Can Mother Nature wipe us all out already?

Kojak

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:48:56 -0500

"drench their "lawn" in chemical weed killers and petroleum based fertilizers and then mow it with a gas powered lawn mower" I'm sure this is what most households do in Suburbia. Just take a stroll through the Home Depot and this is what they peddle to the masses. But with smaller lawns your right. One doesn't have to take such harsh measures. Yeah Concrete bad enough as it is, but Grasscrete?? ugh.

Gentrifier

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:37:56 -0500

If you guys like greenery and grass and trees so much, why do you live here?

eyekantspel

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:29:38 -0500

People should not convert their little front yards into parking spots, because it looks ugly and cheapens the neighborhood. Any environmental arguments for/against are secondary. I've seen places that pave the front without parking a car in it... that can look okay. Otherwise, just build your house to the edge of the sidewalk like they do in Manhattan.

EastRiver

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:03:27 -0500

It does have an impact, albeit a small one, just to make it look 'nice'. It's all in how you maintain it. You seem to be assuming a homeowner is going to drench their "lawn" in chemical weed killers and petroleum based fertilizers and then mow it with a gas powered lawn mower. But when you talking about a yard that small you could just weed by hand which is a nuisance the first time if your yard is overgrown but then only requires some vigilance to maintain. As for fertilizer, use compost. Some company makes a home composter that can be used indoors and has carbon filters to eliminate odor. And a yard that small can be mowed with a push mower or an electric one. My uncle has been doing this for years. And concrete is one of the worst CO2 emitting industries in the world.

Think twice

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:02:39 -0500

Keep the grass. Just lay concrete or paving stone runners for only the wheels. Or how about Grasscrete

Ronkonkoma Ondinnonk

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:52:16 -0500

Barbara Corcoran is betting she is old enough to be safe and dead when the real environmental consequences start to run rampant.

Kojak

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:47:01 -0500

Yeah, its small potatos comparied to driving your SUV down the highway getting 10 mpg, but a lot of effort that goes into maintaining one's lawn, not just with a gas powered lawn mower, but water, fertilizer, seeds , etc. This has to be done constantly to keep it from turning into a jungle. It does have an impact, albeit a small one, just to make it look 'nice'. However, if you grow vegetables or fruits in your yard that you consume, that maybe worth it.

Art Stewel

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:43:29 -0500

The city should begin to regulate automobile ownership. My block is filled with cars bearing tags from other states. Damn transplant yuppies take up all the street parking and then homeowners clear nice green front yards with pavement. Pass the law - the city needs more greenery.

petebfd

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:41:15 -0500

more concrete! more glass! more cars! this is progress people!!! it waits for no hippie grass lovers!

Steven

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:36:59 -0500

The new owners of my old house in Queens chopped a tree and removed the small lawn in front of the house for a driveway.

Kevin Walsh

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:36:36 -0500

Sorry Barbara Corcoran and #5, but the city is getting uglier by the minute. I purchased a co op in Little Neck and if they started paving over the garden and common area for parking I'd take a look at selling. The neighborhood I moved from, Flushing, is becoming Concrete City with owners paving over lawns and developers constructing multi-family housing with concrete lawns. Corcoran believes lawns are a waste of money; but I don't want to live in a city without trees, lawns and plants. I don't want to have to walk to the park for them, either. Hopefully, this legislation is step one in creating a minimum level of esthetic standards for NYC housing. --some green space in front instead of a paved sidewalk extension --place meters on the sides instead of in front If parking is a problem, that speaks to a larger problem of additional public transportation, which we have to find some way to pay for. I imagine, though, that you could charge 10 cents a ride with free transfers and some folks would still drive. It's nuts. www.forgotten-ny.com

hewins

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:33:41 -0500

@Kojak, I'm not sure I understand how getting out in one's yard and weeding and planting with a shovel, trowel, and one's hands can be detrimental to the environment. How does that contribute to global warming? And if you're talking about a gas-powered lawn mover, I hardly think that will make much of an impact compared to so many other things out there.

spiritross

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:31:08 -0500

Goddamn Lawn Nazis

sonyactivision

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:30:38 -0500

Barbara Corcoran is like the Queen Of Paved Yards.

Politburo

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:26:11 -0500

More impervious surfaces is the complete opposite of what is needed...

Gotham City Insider Wuz Here

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:21:49 -0500

I'm sorry but Barbara Corcoran is being realistic. We have parks if we want to enjoy greenery. Better Homes and Gardens isn't rushing to Queens or Brooklyn to photograph anyones front lawn. Its YOUR house, you can do whatever you want to it. Paving a 9x9 front lawn isn't going to increase your stupid carbon footprint. I drove by my old house yesterday and saw my landlord had actually paved his frontlawn and I wished he'd done that when I was there!

Dave Hogarty

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:15:38 -0500

Some enterprising Queens kid will manage to charge $5 for 5 minutes of work mowing a postage-stamp lawn every week or every other week. The environmental benefit of reducing the city's heat reflection effect and absorption of rainwater could offset the carbon spewing effect of a lawnmower. Plus, some neighborhoods won't look like crap.

solidago

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:15:08 -0500

"but the space in front of your house is worth a hell of a lot more as a driveway" Why doesn't the city just assign some crazy assessed value to paved outdoor space so that it gets factored into the property taxes. If folks want to pay more to have a parking lot in front of their house, let them, but make them pay.

dev

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:12:06 -0500

it's not a problem to maintain tiny lawns. especially if you hire mexicans from 65th street.

Kojak

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:05:01 -0500

Not to be a hippie, but the energy that goes into maintaining a 'lawn' and making it look all nice and cute contributes to global warming. Same goes for backyards. If you don't take care of the lawn, will revert back to its NATURAL state, cluttered with weeds and plants that are unsightly and disgusting to us humans. You'd actually be fined for not maintaining it. Theres a difference between being Green and being 'Green'.