By Serena Solomon
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — Manhattanites looking for a green patch in the asphalt jungle need look no further than their roof, concrete yard or empty building planters.
Sustainable Yards is an organization that runs seminars to inspire and teach New Yorkers to take whatever outdoor space available — row-house yards, roofs, alleyways, planters — and make it green with plant life. Not only can they spruce up a block, but plants clean the city's air and can help beat the heat in the summer.
"More people have access to space, more then you think," said Evan Mason, the Upper West Side woman who developed Sustainable Yards. "It's just that we overlook it."
The amount of residential yard space alone in Manhattan, at more than 2000 acres, is equivalent to two Central Parks, according to a CUNY study. On the Upper West Side, there's 108 acres.
At the next Sustainable Yards seminar on May 14, Mason will take New Yorkers through every step of the greening process, from design to implementation to the importance of using plants native to the area.
Greening a space not only breathes fresh air into the atmosphere, it can help solve "urban heat islands," where areas heavy with concrete, like cities, are hotter then the outlying suburbs.
"New York City is about seven degrees hotter because the dark surfaces hold the heat," said Mason. "At night, it doesn't cool off."
If heat is absorbed by vegetation first, concrete can no longer trap it.
When it comes to the city air, Mason points out that it is neither public nor private and its care is the responsibility of the entire community.
"[Plants] clean our air, filter our water and provide environment benefits to the entire city," she said.
Sustainable Yards is running its next seminar, "Overlooked Assets: Sustainable Urban Yards," on May 14. Contact Evan Mason for more information: sustainableyards@earthlink.net
