Dear Neighbors,
I want to thank you for your hard work and commitment to your neighborhood and community by cleaning up and beautifying the region in preparation of the G-20 Summit. Having a clean neighborhood shows others that we care and take pride in where we live. With your help, we had more than 1,000 volunteers out cleaning up our neighborhoods and parks. You have made an incredible impact across the region.
On October 17th, 2009, we will continue to clean our neighborhoods during the Annual City Fall Redd Up. We are expecting to have clean ups in each of our ninety neighborhoods. I want to encourage you to get involved and make a difference in your community, whether by participating in your community clean up, or taking the time to pick up litter on your block. If you would like to help, please contact my Office of Neighborhood Initiatives at 412-255-8680.
We are not only cleaning, but we are also greening our City. This October, the City is gearing up for our fall city-wide tree plantings. Through TreeVitalize, we will be planting more than 800 trees city-wide, with several business districts receiving additional trees as part of the Taking Care of Business Districts Program. The City has also received a grant from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST) to plant more than 3,000 trees in major corridors. We will begin planting more than 500 trees on Liberty Avenue and Penn Avenue corridors and will continue in other major corridors across the city.
In other tree planting news, the Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest has just wrapped up its most recent set of tree tender classes, teaching residents how to plant and take care of trees. We now have more than 600 certified tree tenders in the City. The more tree tenders we have, the more trees we can plant in your neighborhood. If you are interested in being trained to be a tree tender, please visit the Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest website at www.PittsburghForest.org. With your help, we can reach our goal of 20,000 by 2012.
For more information on these initiatives, please contact my Office of Neighborhood Initiatives at 412-255-8680.
Sincerely,
Luke Ravenstahl
Mayor, City of Pittsburgh
