In an effort to increase their green policies, Jet Blue is embarking on their seventh annual One Thing That’s Green initiative—and is inviting its “Blue Cities,” including Long Beach, to compete in their Add Greenery to Your Scenery competition.
The competition is simple: vote for your city and whichever city wins, Jet Blue will come to greenify spaces in that city. Jet Blue, one of the Long Beach Airport’s most significant partners, has already heavily done this in its hometown, New York, where 3,000 trees have been planted and 35,000 tons of trash have been picked up.
As of the posting of this article, Long Beach sits in the 5th spot, sitting behind Orlando, FL; New York, NY; Worcester, MA; and Boston, MA, which sits in the top spot.
As Longbeachize notes, Long Beach could use the free greens in one particular sense: West Long Beach is deeply deprived of park space, marking “Long Beach as a tale of two cities.”
A Federally-deemed “Healthy City” has about 10 acres of park or green space for every 1,000 of its residents. While the East Side has a staggering 16.7 acres/1,000 residents—thanks in large part due to the 650 acres of green space that is El Dorado Park—the West Side falls far short with about an acre for every 1,000 of its residents. That’s about a football field.