Sunday, January 13, 2008

Crap in Astoria extends to street trees

Here's what's left of a large-beautiful tree (it's over 100 years old) that the owner/builder decided to cut down in late December because the tree was in the way of his two driveways. Yes, he owns both lots on the corner of 25th Road and 18th Street. He calls those carriage doors a garage (hence the curb cut out front) but is clearly using the space as an office. The other curb cut (black gate) is for the the 14 unit/4 floor apartment building being constructed.

I called 311 and lodged a complaint about them cutting down the tree, and they said the Parks Dept. handles street trees and will take 12-15 days to look into. It's now 3-weeks and no disposition on my complaint. According the Parks Dept. website, the owner must have a permit to cut down the tree (doubtful he had one) and a hefty fine is possible.

It seemed the tree got in the way of his free street parking, since he uses his curb cuts as his personal parking spaces.

Anyway, I love the site, keep the crap flowing.

Cheers,
Dan

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Community board 1, the community board from hell.

Anonymous said...

Too bad......
a cardboard cutout effigy of C.M. Vallone
would have looked nice dangling from that tree !

Anonymous said...

I also noted this travesty, as did one of my neighbors who also called the parks department. I have the misfortune to live in one of the buildings that this man is developing and it has several dozen life-threatening violations. I have not had cooking gas for one year because of his illegal gas work. If Keith Hernandez, Michael Marrs or Globe Plumbing look at your propery--run.

Anonymous said...

If you all like trees so much, move to the suburbs. If the tree belonged to the property owner and he is willing to cut the tree down and pay the fine than that is his choice.

Queens Crapper said...

"If the tree belonged to the property owner and he is willing to cut the tree down and pay the fine than that is his choice."

If the tree belonged to the property owner, there would not have been a fine. This was a NYC street tree, which belongs to the taxpayers of NYC. Therefore, OUR property was vandalized and destroyed.

Anonymous said...

If you all like trees so much, move to the suburbs. If the tree belonged to the property owner and he is willing to cut the tree down and pay the fine than that is his choice.

------------------

Spoken like a typical backward thinking Astorian.

In that community the yoyos actually kill trees because they are too lazy to pick up the leaves in the fall.

Real losers.

Anonymous said...

That's "arborcide." Totally illegal since it was a street tree. They would not be able to get away with it under former Park Commission Henry Stern's watch.

Many similar incidents occured in Astoria in the 1990s including this well-publicized case of arborcide:

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/ny_local/1995/07/13/1995-07-13_tree-axing_mystery_seven_cho.html

Anonymous said...

Actually speaking as a third-generation Astoria resident who has resided here for nearly 50 years, mowing down trees is not the norm.

Particularly on the side of the neighborhood north of the Triborough Bridge there would be h*ll to pay.

Mature landscaping trees can have a value of tens of thousands of dollars. Furthermore, every removed tree can send the neighbors summer air conditioning bills skyrocketing due to lost shade--not a pretty picture in an area that has a history of summer blackouts.

Anonymous said...

listen losers, when a tree is deem unsafe by an expert, not a loser with an ax to grin,it must be cut down to protect us tax payers.how would you feel if that 100 year old tree fell on your car or worse on a kid playing.
The parks Dept does a fine job protecting trees and our kids

louie

Anonymous said...

I live down the block from this tree and I have lived here for 37 years. That tree has been dead for years and I have called the parks department about it to have it cut down. I did not like walking by it because it looked like a strong wind and it was going to fall down. It is about time it is gone.

Jack M