After Hours with Jamie Rubin: A Vital City Podcast

Making the Shade

Episode Summary

New York City just released its first-ever Urban Forest Plan — a legally mandated, decade-by-decade roadmap to get the city's tree canopy from 23% to 30% by 2040. Jamie talks with Adam Lubinsky, a partner at W X Y architecture + urban design, who helped build the plan from the ground up. They cover why preserving old trees matters as much as planting new ones, why the only property type where canopy has been shrinking is one- and two-family homes, and why one-third of the city's urban forest sits on private land that nobody's currently watching. https://report.urbanforestplan.nyc/NYC-Urban-Forest-Plan-2026.pdf For more solutions-oriented thinking on urban life, visit the Vital City website at https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/

Episode Notes

New York City just released its first-ever Urban Forest Plan — a legally mandated, decade-by-decade roadmap to get the city's tree canopy from 23% to 30% by 2040. Jamie talks with Adam Lubinsky, a partner at W X Y architecture + urban design, who helped build the plan from the ground up. They cover why preserving old trees matters as much as planting new ones, why the only property type where canopy has been shrinking is one- and two-family homes, and why one-third of the city's urban forest sits on private land that nobody's currently watching.

NYC Urban Forest Plan 2026

For more solutions-oriented thinking on urban life, visit the Vital City website at https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/