May -- Parking Commission

The City Council established the Parking Commission in May, 1909 with the power "to plant, maintain, protect and care for trees, shrubs and other plants, in all of the public highways of this city." At the end of its first year of operation the superintendent presented an annual report that included eight photographic examples of the task that lay before the Commission as it undertook "the great work of planting a city." In 1949 the Parking Commission was replaced by the Parkway and Park Commission.
http://www.nutrias.org/~nopl/monthly/de ... er2002.htm
with 1910 photos

The embellishment of the city has gone forward apace during the last eighteen years. One important factor in this work is the Parking Commission, which was created in 1909, to take charge of the principal streets, parks and playgrounds. Previously these places had been cared for, if at all, in a haphazard way, mainly through the efforts of private parties. In 1884, for example, the city government practically abandoned its duties of superintendence to commissions which were organized among the residents of many of the most attractive thoroughfares. The Parking Commission regained control over these streets and set to work to adorn them with trees and flowers. By 1913 some 23,840 trees had been set out, and on some of the chief avenues flower beds had been added to the other embellishments with very pleasing results. The commission has established a nursery for young trees on Gentilly Avenue, from which in a few years it will be able to draw liberally for the further adornment of the streets and parks. The growth of the commission's labors may be estimated from the fact that the amount appropriated for it in 1913 was $5,000, where in 1919 it was $33,000. The commission's income from other sources than the city appropriation in that year was $4,365.80, and of the total about $35,000 was expended. In 1920 the city's appropriation was further increased, this time to $42,628. (Kendall)