Top 10 Bronx Neighborhoods With Most Street Trees

The folks over at Localize.city sent Welcome2TheBronx their latest report, this time they’ve analyzed street tree density across all New York City neighborhoods in the five boroughs.

Although The Bronx is the greenest borough with the most land dedicated to parks (nearly a full 25% of The Bronx is parkland), we didn’t make it to the top ten list which is pretty ironic.

Woodlawn came in 7th on the list for most street trees. Coverage here is pretty decent especially since most trees are older therefore much bigger providing wider shade coverage.

For decades, street trees weren’t much of a priority and made walking around some neighborhoods during the summer almost unbearable but thanks to former mayor Michael Bloomberg and his million tree initiative across the city, we got some hundreds of thousands of trees planted across our The Bronx alone.

Localize took a look at which neighborhoods had the most and fewest street trees per square mile. Trees in parks, gardens, and private property such as front or backyards were not included for the purpose of this analysis.

The top ten Bronx neighborhoods with the most street trees are:

  1. Tremont
  2. Longwood
  3. Fordham
  4. Westchester Square
  5. Concourse
  6. Melrose
  7. Woodlawn
  8. East Tremont
  9. Morris Park 
  10. Norwood
  • A street in Melrose, which came in 6th on the list, before the Million Tree campaign.
  • Today the same street is quite lush with trees over two dozen planted where there were only a couple before.

The Concourse area, which came in fifth on the list makes sense given that another recent Localize report showed it as one of the “coolest” neighborhoods in NYC where tree coverage provides plenty of space for shade in the summer heat.

On the flip side, and also quite ironic, is that Schuylerville was listed as one of the hottest neighborhoods in that report where they write:

“This residential Bronx enclave is sandwiched between the Bruckner Expressway and the Hutchinson River Parkway and includes Lehman High School. While some of this neighborhood is near Pelham Park, one has to cross a highway to get there, making accessibility limited. And if you do cross the Bruckner you’ll see the leafy streets of Country Club, but long stretches of sidewalk without any tree cover makes it a hot place to walk around this summer. “It’s interesting looking at the aerial view of this part of the Bronx, seeing the lush lawns of Country Club compared to the grey concrete of Schuylerville,”

Anyway, let’s see if we could get at least ONE Bronx neighborhood on that top ten list in the future.

Ed García Conde

Ed García Conde is a life-long Bronxite who spends his time documenting the people, places, and things that make the borough a special place in the hopes of dispelling the negative stereotypes associated with The Bronx. His writings are often cited by mainstream media and is often consulted for his expertise on the borough's rich history.