MillionTreesNYC to Create Million Headaches?
The MillionTreesNYC plan will foster the planting of a million new trees across the five boroughs by 2017. Besides improving air quality and beautifying the city, “Trees increase property value, and encourage neighborhood revitalization,” says the program’s website. However, tree roots can wreak havoc on sidewalks and sewers. The city will repair sidewalks torn up…
The MillionTreesNYC plan will foster the planting of a million new trees across the five boroughs by 2017. Besides improving air quality and beautifying the city, “Trees increase property value, and encourage neighborhood revitalization,” says the program’s website. However, tree roots can wreak havoc on sidewalks and sewers. The city will repair sidewalks torn up by tree roots, but it can take up to a year to get a piece of buckled sidewalk repaired by the city. In the meantime, “The city is responsible for any trip-and-fall cases involving tree roots in front of a three-family home or smaller,” the New York Daily News reports.
The city doesn’t pay for and damage done to sewer pipes by tree roots, though. And in order to replace a root-damaged sewer, a contractor needs a permit from the Parks Department and a hired arborist to oversee the process—which can make the project take twice as long as usual. Has anyone experienced major problems with trees on their property? Is a leafy neighborhood worth the occasional headache?
Mayor’s Plan Leaves Homeowners Up a Tree [NY Daily News]
Photo by MillionTreesNYC.
CMU,
please see my rant about frivolous lawsuits in the “sidewalk snow” thread. Sheldon Silver is in the pocket of Weitz and Luxemberg.
Agree with Frederick Law Homestead,
the parks department is planting trees with shallow root systems, not the giant Maples and Oaks of the past.
the dogwoods do have a problem with falling branches though, that’s another problem.
overall though, trees increase property value,
reduce cooling costs in summer, absorb huge amounts of ground water to prevent basement flooding from high water tables and they produce OXYGEN! while absorbing CO2!
a win for us all around.
We live in a dysfunctional, abusive relationship with a five-story weed silver maple that emerges virtually from beneath our front porch. We have decided that it is an Ent (see: Lord of the Rings) named Rootbeard. It has eaten a sewer pipe ($8,000), renders all underplantings impossible (including container gardens, which it cracks open from beneath and invades), clogs the gutters, and rains down pounds of leaves on the entire block. It harbors a family of starlings who seem afflicted with IBS, which attacks whenever we park our car in the driveway underneath them. It offers endless recreation to the squirrels that infest our attic.
But it also shades us in summer in a green canopy, shields us from the hideous architecture of a school across the street, and presents us with the makings of a mountain of rich compost every fall. It is a sort of insane patron saint of the Crazy Stable. We even found a garden designer (Evelyn Tully Costa) who was able to design a slate and Belgian-block hardscaping around its mighty roots. (The job has lasted at least 6 years with only minor heaving.) We have it regularly inspected by a licensed arborist, since its ill health would be potentially catastrophic, and we figure that its eventual demise and removal will consume our life savings, even if we leave the stump intact. Life with an Ent in the close quarters of a 50 x 100 lot is not for the faint-hearted.
Good lord, now folks are whining about trees. TREES!
Earth-shattering meteor, where art thou?
well, they fought the guy who got put into a coma by a tree in central park, so they don’t always roll over for lawsuits: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/man-hurt-by-falling-tree-limb-in-central-park-files-suit/
The city should just say that they’re not resposible for any idiot tripping on an uneven sidewalk, and fight every case. That’s the level of absurd liability that impoverishes all of us.
Trees absorb the impact of water runoff from major storms that usually overwhelm our already weak sewage system(1). It’s absurd and ignorant to claim that cracked sewage pipes will be significantly increased beyond reasonable wear and tear by 1 million trees NYC. The only thing that would happen is that we will have better air quality, higher property values and cooler ground temps during the summer. Not to mention, a negligible but still significant amount of co2 that will be absorbed out of the world’s atmosphere.
I do not know who edits Brownstoner, but this has to be the most disappointing article I’ve ever read on this site.
(1)http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/us/23sewer.html
seriously? we’re going to gripe about trees now? c’mon folks.
That article is absurdly one-sided. The several species of trees that are being planted by the million trees project were specifically chosen not to buckle pavement/interfere with plumbing. This program has been one of Bloomberg’s finest achievements, and I can’t stand him generally.
IMBy – please share