Thursday, June 27, 2013

Stop butchering street trees

From CBS New York:

Residents of certain sections of Queens have said their beautiful, tree-lined streets are being massacred, and the storms of the past year are not to blame.

Rather, as CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez reported, the residents of Auburndale and Bayside blame Con Edison.

Con Edison contractors have been making the rounds trimming trees around power lines. But the odd-looking end results are not aesthetically acceptable for the many neighbors.

Con Ed officials said, “Overgrown and fallen tree limbs are the leading cause of power outages during storms, and their tree maintenance program is critical in keeping the lights on.

But some residents argued there has to be a better option.

“The ultimate solution is to put the wires underground, because this way it’s for safety reasons,” said Henry Euler of the Auburndale Civic Association. “And it’s less likely to lose power during storms and it just looks better in the neighborhood.”


16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, burying the lines IS the better solution.

However, once you do this in one area, all the others will demand it too.

This will cost billions -who do you think will pay for it?: US.

Add to that the inevitable complaints and lawsuits over noise, torn up lawns and if they choose to enter through the foundation, complaints about damage and leaks.

It is not just the wires involved either. Transformer vaults must be constructed along with cuts for the feeders and manhole access for the street tie-ins.

There may also be cable tv and tel-com line on the existing poles. those will now need their own new infrastructure.

This is a LOT more expensive to maintain.

Look, people moved into these neighborhoods knowing that they had above-ground utilities.

Do not expect the rest of us to foot the bill for improving your property values.

Anonymous said...

C'mon, give ConEd a break!
You aren't viewing this in the proper light.

In the present Northeast Queens many homes have exquisite landscaping with front yard bushes formed into swirls, spheres, animals, etc. These are all traditional forms.


ConEd is taking this art form to new heights and you are just too backward to recognize Modern Arbor Street Art.

Step back and appreciate the nouveau ideas of artistic expression. In several years all of Queens will be the canvas of this exploding intense phenomena!

Anonymous said...

As a Flushing resident, I accept and understand that Con Ed needs to prune the trees to clear the lines. But in the past decade they have hired incompetent landscape companies that have over-hacked, disfigured and destabilized most mof the trees in the neighborhood. We would have not had the level of tree damage that we had during Sandy, if the trees were pruned in a more professional manner. Now what were once beautiful tree-lined streets look horrible.

Anonymous said...

They're hiring total fuckups. These guys are pigs who have no appreciation for nature! They've butchered all the trees in my neighborhhod.

With such a shitty economy you would think that the people that do have work would at least try to do a halfway decent job. I guess a gov't job or contract is a license to do hardly any work, and when they do work, they do an extremely shitty job (think DOS, DOB and the totally fucking useless Dept. of Parks!)! I guess that's why every lazy, fucked-up loser, goes into state or city work.

At least the federal employees work hard, just check out our mailmen! And they're nice people, unlike the scumbags that work for city!

Anonymous said...

"just check out our mailmen!"

Thank you Ray Heatherton !

The problem with Federal Employees is that they don't feel any pressure from local people. They are "above" us. Just watch the IRS hearings.

Local control is always preferable, unless of course you are from NYC.

You guys couldn't even keep the Emperor from a third term. And look at who is running for mayor.


Anonymous said...

i do not believe CRAPPY will allow my comment, but for safety of our houses and families, many old trees 40' and above should be pruned down or cut down.

in the past three years too many houses and homeowners have been damaged by the falling trees ,due to high winds and bad weather.

human life is a priority. the trees can be replanted , when one is dead it is forever.....

Anonymous said...

My next door neighbor has a dying tree in front of his house. The bark has peeled off, many branches are de-nuded, leaves on the live branches are dying and carpenter ants are taking hold.

He reported the problem to the city and they sent a forestry agent to inspect. The agent had no experience and no pen or pencil top fill out a report, one had to be borrowed.

The report came back that the tree was healthy and not in need of removal.

Last week during a rain storm a four inch thick branch came down on top of a parked car breaking the rear window and denting the roof and trunk.

Another complaint was filed via 311. An agent will visit in 3 to 6 weeks to re-inspect.

What a joke!

Queens Crapper said...

This is about Con Ed butchering street trees. Parks is another target.

Anonymous said...

As if the parks department doesn't butcher trees.

Queens Crapper said...

I said, "Parks is another target."

Do you have a reading comprehension problem?

willie harrison said...

I've never understood how utility crews can even have permission to do this to our trees! Only a person trained in pruning--I believe by Parks-- is allowed to do this---by LAW. And it isn't just the aesthetic factor...cutting so that the tree's in a V-shape ensures that when, for example, a heavy snow falls, the weight of it will be so distributed as to eventually split the tree or at least cause breakage.

Anonymous said...

Why respond to you when you dictate what is said on this site?
Example: criticism of Avella and Graziano is verboten.

Yeah, I know you don't have the balls to let this be posted.

As I said before, sycophant.

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 12:

Apparently, you don't pay attention to what's printed he. I see a lot of comments posted here that are critical of Tony Avella (and just about everyone else). And kudos to Crapper for doing that.

Funny thing, though. A lot of he critical comments seem to come from the same source - Democratic County Headquarters, possibly. People who have a real incentive for tearing down Tony Avella and Paul Graziano and pumping up someone else. A sycophant, to borrow a phrase.

Anonymous said...

HALLELUJAAH!!

Perhaps we may see more criticism of Avella and Graziano instead of the usual Vallone bashing.

And I do think that Avella is the best choice for borough president considering the other sickening rejects on both sides who are running. It's just that Tony ain't perfect. There are warts there.

Anonymous said...

Typical of what's wrong with Queens. Topic is Con Ed pruning street trees in a harmful way, so of course, we must stray off topic to Graziano and Avella, neither of whom have anything to do with the issue. Great work.

Anonymous said...

This is the first bunch of trees I've ever seen pruned bevcsudse they touch or pull on wires. If they did it on this stretch of 32 Ave in the 160s, then why not everywhere else. Also, I assume Con Ed did this on their own. I submitted a pruning request for a neighbor and Parks said the proper utility was notified to prune tree brsanches and we should contact them to restring the wires. That was over 4 weeks ago. They never showed up. So we took it into our own hands. We hbad no other choice.