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One Upper West Side tree says it’s been standing in the same spot since before Mayor Mamdani was born. Now it, and dozens of its neighbors, can tell you all about it, and a few of them have some pointed requests for the humans walking by.
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The project, called The Talking Trees of West 75th Street, gives a voice to the street trees on West 75th Street from Central Park West to Riverside Drive. It’s the work of the Manhattan 75 Block Association. Each tree has a laminated sign with a QR code, and scanning it pulls up a short audio story told from the tree’s point of view, covering its species, its history, how it’s doing, and what it needs to thrive. More than 90 tree stories are already on the project’s website, and some signs speak for several trees at once.The self-appointed star of the block is a London planetree in front of 152 West 75th Street that calls itself “The Mayor.” It’s the oldest tree on the block at more than 50 years, according to the project’s directory, and it’s been nominated for Great Tree status. “Yep, I’ve been here since Mayor Mamdani was in diapers,” its introduction reads. “Heck, I was here before he was born!”
The Mayor has plenty of colorful company. A row of thornless honeylocusts near Broadway are named Tina, Mick, Bruce, David, Sarah, and Miles, after Tina Turner, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Sarah Vaughan, and Miles Davis, a nod the directory calls a Beacon Theatre tie-in. A pair of dawn redwoods named Doug and Dawn stand side by side as “twins.” A Lavalle hawthorn nicknamed “The Only One” is the only one of its kind on the street. And one ginkgo proudly notes that the block association’s president lives in its building.
The stories are meant to be fun, but they double as care guides, and some of the trees aren’t holding back. “Overly planted, which means I get less water,” grumbles Birdie, a littleleaf linden, in its directory entry. Rosalyn, a thornless honeylocust, pleads, “Soil is a bit too high, please don’t add more!” A Callery pear named Prudence gripes about a white mulberry “horning in” on its tree bed. Several others are listed as living in a “tree coffin,” with soil piled too deep around them, while one, nicknamed “Tree ICU,” is recovering after the block association removed many of the terra cotta pavers smothering its bed. A purple leaf plum asks neighbors to curb their dogs, noting that dog waste can kill it. The website says the stories are written in the first person to sound “proud, warm, and a little cheeky,” with a few written by hand and the rest produced with what the site calls a careful, reviewed assist from AI.
The project was dreamed up by Manhattan 75 co-vice president Jim Lyles, a former copywriter who, according to the website, spent the past year cataloging every tree on the block, taking tree-care classes, and training as a Citizen Pruner. He wrote the trees’ first personas and care guides and developed the project with president Bethany Crystal and secretary Aaron Vince.
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The official launch is Sunday, October 4 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., when West 75th Street will be closed between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. City Council Member Gale Brewer will preside over a ribbon cutting at noon. Organizers are also planning tree talks, street games, chalk for drawing on the open roadway, art by local schoolchildren, food from neighbors, and a scavenger hunt for kids, with a prize for anyone who finds 10.
You don’t have to be there on October 4 to meet the trees, though. The signs will stay up indefinitely, one of the organizers told I Love the Upper West Side, so neighbors can stop and scan whenever they’re passing by. Anyone who can’t make it to the block can browse every tree and play its story on the Talking Trees website.
Individuals and businesses can also sponsor, or “adopt,” one or more of the trees. Sponsorships start at $250 per year, with a $1,000 lifetime stewardship option. Sponsors get recognition on their tree’s webpage and the chance to share a story that becomes part of the tree’s voice. According to the block association, the money helps fund its tree care, neighborhood beautification, and rat mitigation work.
Manhattan 75 was founded in the 1960s as the West 75th Street Block Association and is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
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