The city will plant 20,000 street trees over the next three years, and more than a third of them are coming to Brooklyn, Parks Commissioner Elaine Torruella announced Friday at a shadeless corner of Pitkin Avenue chosen, she said, "on purpose."

Under the $61 million plan, Brooklyn receives 7,400 trees, with priority given to blocks that log the highest summer surface temperatures. East New York, Brownsville, and the industrial edge of Sunset Park top the list. Crews will also replace roughly 900 dead or vandalized saplings from earlier planting rounds, a sore point for residents who watched young oaks wither in unwatered beds.

Council Member Nadia Osei, who has pushed for the replacements since 2024, called the plan overdue but real. "A tree pit with a stump in it is worse than no tree pit," she said. "It's a broken promise you walk past every day."

The first Brooklyn plantings begin in October, when cooler weather improves survival rates. The department is recruiting volunteer "tree stewards" through its website and has promised each new sapling a watering bag, a guard, and, for the first time, a printed card naming the person responsible for it.