Parks Commissioner calls for 300,000 new trees

Parks and Recreation Commissioner Michael DiBerardinis so believes in the city's effort to plant 300,000 new trees by 2015 that he told city council Monday he would quit his job if he didn't make big strides toward that goal this year.

But not everyone on council buys into the plan, which could make it harder for DiBerardinis to make good.

Councilman Bill Green, who is not sure he agrees with Mayor Nutter's proposal to increase the parks budget by $3.3 million to $49.8 million, questioned whether DiBerardinis could pull it off.

The plan calls for only 5,800 trees to be planted this year, but DiBerardinis told council that's not enough.

"We have to leverage that to 12,000 or 15,000" trees, he said. "If we can't plant more (than 5,800) trees I shouldn't have this job."

He hopes to use the $2.5 million he is asking council to approve to buy and plant trees in fiscal 2011 to attract matching money from corporations and nonprofits.

Green played skeptic and questioned whether funding thousands of new trees was the city's best option given its gaping budget deficit.

"Nobody wants to fire you. We're all glad you're in your position," Green said. "But based on what the department has demonstrated it can achieve, you're not going to plant more than 6,000 trees next year, so I'm not going to take you up on that offer."

The goal was impossible, he said, because the department had planted only 678 trees with $300,000 last year.

DiBerardinis offered to put money on it, and Councilman Frank DiCicco offered to back him, drawing laughs from a large crowd in council chambers to support the parks.

DiBerardinis said the city dollars were crucial to prove to other funders that Philadelphia is serious about increasing acreage covered by trees from 15 percent now to 30 percent in 2028. Many other East Coast cities have similar goals, which aim to improve the environment and residents' health.

DiBerardinis hopes to dramatically expand the number of trees planted by getting residents to plant on their properties and by having large institutions, such as the city's universities, plant hundreds or thousands of trees at once.

"Ultimately, we want to engage citizens," DiBerardinis said, "but the city can't do that without putting money on the table that brings other people to the room."

Green also questioned the wisdom of spending money on trees when the city's recreation centers were in poor shape. DiBerardinis said a $5 million allocation from the city's capital budget, plus several million from council, will allow him to spend between $12 million to $15 million adding lighting and equipment and otherwise improving recreation centers and playgrounds.

Lauren Bornfriend, director of the Philadelphia Parks Alliance, said that even with the proposed increase in funding, the combined budget of the parks department and Fairmount Park Commission was still less than the $53.7 million they were allotted in 2008.

The parks and recreation department and Fairmount Park Commission expect to complete a previously announced merger in 18 months.

"I think the investment that is being asked for is minute, given that it's coming from a $4 billion (city) budget," she said. "In this time when there is so little extra money, our people are struggling and our parks and our recreation centers are more important than ever before. People are taking fewer vacations and going to parks more. This very small investment from the city really reaps a lot of dividends."

The city's recreation commissioner Susan Slawson testified that Robin Hood Dell, the concert venue, would complete its renovations, including new seating, this year and have its first show July 12.