Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Parks neglecting street trees
From the Daily News:
The city is taking years to prune trees and remove stumps that pose a hazard to people and houses, state Sen. Tony Avella charged Monday.
And when homeowners take matters into their own hands, they face thousands of dollars in fines, said Avella (D-Queens).
"This tree was last pruned in 2003," Avella said, standing in front of William Voss' home in New Hyde Park. "We called the Parks Department, and they said it would be included in the next seven-year cycle for pruning. That means it would be pruned once in 18 years."
Voss, 84, said he has been after the city to prune the tree since one of its limbs went crashing to the ground near a busy sidewalk several months ago.
21 comments:
This tree was last pruned in 2003," Avella said, standing in front of William Voss' home in New Hyde Park. "We called the Parks Department, and they said it would be included in the next seven-year cycle for pruning. That means it would be pruned once in 18years." Voss, 84, said he has been after the city to prune the tree since one of its limbs went crashing to the ground near a busy sidewalk several months ago.
Hey Tony, call the parks department all you want but they aren't going to trim a tree located in NEW HYDE PARK.
Part of New Hyde Park is in Queens.
Part of New Hyde Park is in Queens.
No kidding. I have a cousin in NHP and she cannot get the city to do anything on her block. The dim wits at 311 tell her to call Nassau county. When she gives them a block and lot number they take the complaint and still do nothing. The same with some areas of Floral Park. Change the neighborhood names or give the operators geography lessons.
This is especially true of the parks department. I've been waiting for over two years for them to trim roots of a tree so I can put in a new sidewalk. Yawn. Keep waiting.
hey now, lets be nice. The union says that crew of four people can only prune three branches per shift, and we have to deal with that.
The city decimated the Parks Department's street tree-trimming division many years ago & then stupidly planted flowering Callery pear trees all over Queens. Though beautiful when flowering in the spring, these trees are low-branched, with branches susceptible to splitting during wind and ice storms. They are constantly being "trimmed" for free by construction & Sanitation trucks, even regular vans & SUVs. Leaving them quite dangerous & ugly.
So this is how Tony expects to be re-elected next year in a conservative district? basing his campaign on tree pruning?
Tony is out of his trees and out of a job the next time around!
Nah....he'll just become Toby Stavisky's "Depends" monitor.
Or he'll hook up with a nice spot at "Parkside".
Anon Nos. 6 and 7:
This is exactly how he gets elected. Just watch. The constituents get the feeling that their elected representatives are keeping an eye on them.
J.LIU was and is the highest published public relations politician in n.y.c. media.
look where he went ?
Tony will copycat him. He accomplished very little as CM ,in N.E.Queens. Much talk and photo op and NO action.
If it is Sunday, look for Chuckie Schumer on Channel 2,4,7, with a meaningless issue, he will fight for.
Which works out very well for him. It's when people ignore his media events that he has a problem.
Bloombergs wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for PLANYC,to convert playground ball fields to tree covered mini-parks , was a bust.
But it gave public unions and Parks Dept .construction workers taxpayer's dollars. who got the money ?Is an audit due, Mr. Comptroller ?
the result is people sitting in gazebos and on benches under a tree, when the teens should be enjoying a full court B/B game or softball game. these spaces were meant for play,not sitting.
"hey now, lets be nice. The union says that crew of four people can only prune three branches per shift, and we have to deal with that."
Actually most of the tree trimming is done by private contractors, so blame them for being lazy not the union guys. Parks only has a small crew of guys to deal with trees posing a hazard, or that are standing dead trees.
I know in the College Point/ Flushing/ Whitestone area the trees need to be pruned. There are so many dead branches in the trees and low branches over the sidewalks, not to mention all the stumps and empty tree pits on many blocks that have been around for years.
Why didn't toby address these issues when he was the councilman? why didn't he run for a third term?, because he ran for mayor. Now he's a one term state senator, the junior member in the minority, with a million dollar press flack putting his name in all of the nyc papers over made up BullScheiss. The tree pruning is a city issue not a state one. If he sticks with his responsibilties and doesn't play avenging angel against all of the targets of the parkside group, then how much more effective would he be in do hid role in government.
"This is especially true of the parks department. I've been waiting for over two years for them to trim roots of a tree so I can put in a new sidewalk. Yawn. Keep waiting."
So do it yourself. It's easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission. Spend a dime already.
Because if you do it wrong and the tree falls you are liable for the damage.
Anon No. 15:
When Toby was the Councilman?
Get used to Tony being the State Senator. He'll be there for a while.
Last September, a tornado came right past my house and ripped up trees up and down our street. The hundreds of trees that were torn apart don't need any pruning right now. Maybe the city is waiting for more tornadoes or "microbursts" to tear apart the trees so they won't need pruning.
Look at all the new trees that have been planted.NO one takes care of them.How as a business owner or landlord could you not want a tree in front of your property? The next few days of heat will do a number on them.BTW all the trees planted aroun ST.Johns cemetery,how about a little water?
"And when homeowners take matters into their own hands, they face thousands of dollars in fines, said Avella (D-Queens)."
Through the Citizen Pruner Program offered by Trees New York, NYC residents can take a course and legally do some limited pruning on city trees.
The course isn't free and requires several sessions as well as a limited amount of field work but if an NYC resident really wants to help the maintain trees in his/her neighborhood, here is a way to do it legally:
http://www.treesny.com/programs.html
Upon passing the course, you get a badge. I understand the next course will be offered some time in September 2011.
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