By Danielle Muoio Dunn| POLITICO

A coalition of 28 City Council members are calling on Adams to increase the number of trees throughout the city, particularly in neighborhoods that have little green space.

There are more than 7 million trees in the five boroughs, with the canopy covering 22 percent of the entire city, according to the NYC Urban Forest Agenda. Lawmakers want the city to commit to achieving 30 percent tree canopy coverage by 2035.

“If we are to be a fully renewable city on the forefront of combating climate change, then our tree canopy has got to play a central role in that,” Council Member Shekar Krishnan, chair of the parks committee, said in an interview about the new policy push.

Krishnan said a “key way” to meet that target is to increase funding for the parks department, which currently only gets 0.6 percent of the entire city operating budget. Parks advocates have called for 1 percent of the city budget to go toward parks — a target Adams had committed to on the campaign trail.

A spokesperson for the Parks Department previously told POLITICO it’s “committed to working towards the goal of 1% for parks.”

Original story here.