Gossips received word yesterday that street trees were being cut down in the first block of Columbia Street, in that part of the city re-imagined during Urban Renewal. A visit to the block this morning discovered three stumps--one that seemed to have been a stump for a while, two others that were quite fresh.
Unlike the usual street trees, which are planted on the street side of the sidewalk, these trees had been planted along the inner edge of sidewalk, abutting the fenced front yards of the houses: 11, 17, and 29 Columbia Street. The detail below from a Bing map, which unfortunately for our purpose shows the block in leaf-off season, documents the three trees in place--the only three street trees on the block.
The question is: Who wanted these trees gone? Since property owners are responsible for the sidewalks in front of their buildings, one might assume that the trees were cut down at the homeowners' behest. According to the tax rolls, these three houses--11, 17, and 29 Columbia Street--have three different owners. Is it likely that the three of them got together and decided to eliminate all the trees on their block? If so, for what earthly reason?
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK
Trees get no respect anymore around these here parts.
ReplyDeleteThey'd better have a good PROVEN reason for cutting those large trees.
ReplyDeleteThe trees were in the project area for the planned sewer separation.
But trees are already the cheapest, greenest method city's have to shed street water, the process of evapotranspiration greatly reducing the amount of water that enters urban sewer systems.
The US Forest Service estimates that of the 592,130 trees studied in New York City, a whopping 890.6 million gallons were intercepted by city trees.
http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/green/upload/stormwater2streettrees.pdf