Friday, November 9, 2012

DOB fines homeowner for fallen street tree


From NBC 4:

A Queens man says he was being slapped with fines after a tree fell on his home during Sandy.

From the Queens Chronicle:

Jaqueline Califano greeted Tuesday morning sans electricity with a mammoth, century-old tree sitting atop her Auburndale home. She called 311, reported the problem and got assurances from the Parks Department that the issue will be addressed — eventually.
Ditto Con Edison, which knew the downed tree took power lines with it, leaving several poles precariously leaning at three homes on Jordan Street between 33rd and 34th avenues.

Califano found herself among many residents of Northeast Queens, hundreds of whom still lacked power a week after Hurricane Sandy tore through the borough. The end, according to Con Ed, may be in sight.

On Halloween, another city agency greeted her: the Department of Buildings. The damage caused by the tree on top of her house? It’s a violation. The agency also cited the owners of two other homes the tree is currently using as an ottoman.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

More info?

Anonymous said...

Like Mao hitting you with a thousand years of retroactive taxes.

Anonymous said...

Government of the people, by the people, for the people.

Anonymous said...


Does Helen Marshal know about this?

Anonymous said...

Califano and her neighbor's misfortune to be hurricane/storm damage victims , by fallen mature city trees. must be a wake up call for the city legislators to legally permit the homeowner (with city aid)to rid their risk of future death. These tall ,older trees must be replaced with newer ,less dangerous ones.

my neighbor homeowners like the tall trees near us, but we also do not want to die during strong winds.

keep us alive TONY,most of us are dems and former dems.

Anonymous said...

For the most part, these mature trees are a tremendous benefit for our part of Queens, besides being visually beautiful and actually increasing real estate values.

They help to keep our area several degrees cooler in the summer and actually protect our houses and streets from bad weather...most of the time! New "small" trees are not as effective...until they become BIG trees.

The key to keeping these beneficial tall, mature street trees healthy is simple:

1) Make sure that they have enough open curb apron (the area between the sidewalk and the curb) to allow the roots to grow, or they will ultimately either uproot or fall over. For a mature tree, that's going to be at least 4 to 6 feet. If you don't have that much of an apron, I would advise planting species that don't grow very big.

2) Make sure they are pruned REGULARLY. The biggest problem is the lack of regular pruning which creates overhanging and dangerous conditions. You can thank Bloomberg for that...even under both Giuliani and Dinkins, tree pruning was more regularly done.

Paul Graziano

Anonymous said...

will you monitor how many mature trees 60'to 120' have 4'to 6' aprons ,and do the right thing, before we are crushed during the next 50 to 80 MPH windstorm ?

and replace them with new trees.

Anonymous said...

The simple answer is yes.

It's not hard to check out how wide a curb is and whether the wrong type of tree is planted in a deficient apron and doesn't have enough room for stable root systems to develop.

Paul Graziano

Anonymous said...

one wonders why many of the mature trees in Kissena Park, Bowne Park , Crocheron Park,Prospect Park and Central Park are on the ground ,after the storms with 50-80 mph winds ,in the last three years.

they have more than 4'-6' aprons.

Anonymous said...

As I mentioned before: tree maintenance and pruning will help to minimize damage, not prevent every single tree from coming down.

Sometimes there's nothing you can do to prevent a catastrophe - it's called Nature. We can sometimes minimize the effects of storms and other natural disasters, but more often than not exacerbate the problems with the way we develop property in areas prone to danger.

Cutting down every mature tree in Queens - or on your property - is not going to solve the problem. Most of the time, it only makes things worse.

Paul Graziano

Anonymous said...

As bad as drainage is right now, killing those trees and, in effect, their roots system will make it worse. A lot of people will wind up with flooded basements - cand more in heavy rain storms. Why kill healthy trees?