Astorians Suffer Poor Park Access, Few Trees, New Maps Show

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Astoria is an enviable place to live in many respects, but the neighborhood has its drawbacks: namely, some of the worst tree coverage and park access in New York City.

That data comes from a new online tool released this week by the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives and the Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, designed to reveal the environmental, public health and mobility disparities in different New York neighborhoods.

Titled "Spatial Equity NYC," the website is based on public data from the city and the U.S. Census, allowing users to see the standout qualities — for better or worse — in each of the city's Community Districts and City Council districts.

In Community District 1, covering all of Astoria and parts of Long Island City and Dutch Kills, the Spatial Equity site highlights a few categories as especially worrisome.

Among them is park access: just 59.4 percent of District 1 residents live within walking distance of a park, ranking Astoria second-to-last among the city's 59 community districts. (Only Queens District 13, on the borough's far east end, ranks lower.)

By contrast, 99.5 percent of residents are walking distance from a park in the city's top-ranked neighborhood for park access: CD3 in Lower Manhattan.

That poses a serious equity issue, according to the Spatial Equity site, which notes that parks "mitigate air pollution and flooding, reduce air and surface temperatures, and improve the mental and physical health of people who live in their proximity."

Astoria ranks nearly as low in a similar category: tree canopy cover. Just 13.8 of the district's land is covered by tree canopy, ranking it 49th out of 59 districts. (The top-ranked district, Bronx CD8, enjoys 39.5 percent coverage.)

The neighboring community district covering Long Island City, Sunnyside and Woodside suffers from many of the same problems, ranking 48th in park access and 56th in tree canopy coverage.

The data itself is not new — much of it is already available through the city's Open Data portal — but the Spatial Equity tool combines it in map form for the first time.

"Spatial equity is one of our most vital objectives toward making this city as safe and healthy as it can be," said Astoria City Council Member Tiffany Cabán in a statement accompanying the website's release.

"We know that with streets that are safer for pedestrians and cyclists, more reliable and comprehensive mass transit coverage, and abundant clean air to breathe, we will achieve public safety and public health outcomes that are impossible under such dramatic spatial inequity," she added.

Transportation Alternatives also used the website's release to renew attention to its infrastructure plan, NYC 25x25.

The plan — endorsed in 2021 by then-Mayor-elect Eric Adams — calls on the city to move away from car-focused designs of New York streets.

Coral Murphy contributed reporting.