Tuesday, June 24, 2008

A tree grows in Brooklyn (for now)

In recent weeks...residents who live appreciatively in the mulberry’s shade feared the tree faced a new threat: a city chain saw. In May, a note on green paper appeared in the mailbox of the Melameds, who live in Mr. Greiner’s old house, announcing that a city inspector had determined the tree was facing removal pending review because it was diseased.

A Sapling Grows Into a Giant; The Streets Around It Change, Too

Then, one morning in early June, Mark Melamed saw posted signs explaining that trees on the street were scheduled for trimming or removal. The family feared the worst.

The Melameds’ 16-year-old daughter, Caroline, went to school that day “close to tears,” her mother, Helen Melamed, said. The mulberry’s branches scraped Caroline’s window, providing a leafy prism on the neighborhood. She anxiously called home from school to find out what had happened to the tree.

Was the tree’s success something like the neighborhood’s? Just as the houses are now so expensive — too expensive for some who grew up there — now perhaps the tree had grown too large, damaging the sidewalk, raining mulberries and branches on cars, and even endangering those who walk beneath it.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The city I remember as a child has all but vanished (not that I'm against progress).

But instead of a thriving metropolis that provided for a multi level economic strata, we now have a vast theme park where only the well off can afford the price of admission to walk down its midway and play the two dimensional game of acquiring more wealth and absorbing pre-packaged "culture".

Trees....who needs them. They just litter the sidewalk with droppings of seed and fruit.

Someday we will all be in a museum
(cemetery)!

Bless the worms who are the real kings of the Earth.

They feast on our leavings.

Our bankrolls are useless to them
(and eventually also to us).

Only G-d can make a tree.

Anonymous said...

Get a developer on the block.

The city will mysteriously plant trees, have new sidewalks ..... and give you a bike lane!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous #1, that's the most poetic and concise summary of what's happening to New York that I've ever seen. Bravo.

--NewYorkDave

Anonymous said...

"raining mulberries and branches on cars, and even endangering those who walk beneath it."

Maybe some of you dont remember what happened a few weeks ago, but if sick trees arent cut down... they will fall...and will damage property and people. I recall a picture of a car with a branch on it. People calling 911 because of loose branches. Now, I love trees and wish every block in the city was filled with them, but this one needs to go.

Anonymous said...

You're the on that needs to go....
perhaps to live somewhere far away in a concrete windowless treeless prison last poster!

Anonymous said...

"You're the on that needs to go....
perhaps to live somewhere far away in a concrete windowless treeless prison last poster!"

Why, because I make sense by saying that sick trees need to be cut down before they cause damage to property or worse...people? Everyone was on here last week complaining about how terrible it was that all these trees were coming down and causing problems. This just might do the same if it is sick....if not, then I am 100% fine with keeping it. If you knew how to read you also would have seen that I said I love trees and wish every street was filled with them. Maybe you should stop staring out the window and pick up a book.

Truman Harris said...

" If you knew how to read you also would have seen that I said I love trees and wish every street was filled with them."

If you knew how to read then you would know that the parks department examined the tree and determined that it just needed a trim.

Anonymous said...

Maybe that tree hater
will wind up being buried beneath an arching stately Mulberry tree with its deep roots penetrating his casket to remind him of its wondrous majesty.

I would be honored to have such a
tree grace my final resting place.