Everything old is new again

From the Queens Courier:

One thousand new trees would grow in Queens and government rooftops would be painted an energy-saving white should Melinda Katz win her bid to lead the borough.

The former legislator outlined her “Plan for a Green Queens” on Tuesday, September 3 with her newest supporter, the New York League of Conservation Voters.

“With a total absence of federal legislation on environmental issues, there is a real need for local leaders to step in and fill the vacuum,” Katz said.

The candidate said she would use her borough presidency to allocate more park space, make Queens government buildings more energy efficient and lead regular electronic waste drives.

Why does this sound like Bloomberg 2.0?

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Asian Longhorned Beetle appears to be gone from Queens

From the Queens Chronicle:

Although federal officials are not declaring complete victory yet, it looks like those pesky Asian long-horned beetles have been eradicated in Queens.

Joseph Gittleman, regional project manager of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Asian Longhorned Beetle Project, told the Queens Chronicle that the closest infestation was in 2010 in Brooklyn. Because of the lack of the destructive insects, his office is re-evaluating the 10-year quarantine that Queens remains in.

It is illegal to transport wood out of the borough during the quarantine. Fines can run up to $250,000. Queens homeowners can arrange removal of branches and trees through the Sanitation Department by calling 311 and setting up a pickup date.

The wood must be bundled. All tree material must be removed by the city, even if it does not come from one of the susceptible species such as maple or sycamore.

The beetles destroy trees and the federal government fears they will get upstate and damage New York’s hardwood and maple syrup industries.

“We still are inspecting trees in affected neighborhoods,” Gittleman said. “It’s an ongoing process.”

Two inspectors are now working from Douglaston to the Van Wyck Expressway.

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Trees down all over Highland Park!

From Save Ridgewood Reservoir's Facebook page:

These are photos of Highland Park which surrounds the reservoir. Fallen trees everywhere, weed clogged paths, broken lamps and trash everywhere. Why spend millions to destroy a habitat reclaimed by nature and used by birds on a natural migratory path when the parks department can't even maintain the park that exists? Spend that money on fixing up the existing Park!

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Dangerous trees in many parks

We have phony park advocates petitioning for funding for tweeding programs via public private partnerships instead of demanding adequate funding in the city Parks budget, and we're surprised this is happening?

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Pregnant woman killed by falling tree in Kissena Park

From CBS New York:

A giant tree came crashing down at the popular Kissena Park in Flushing, Queens Sunday evening, leaving a pregnant woman dead.

As CBS 2’s Tracee Carrasco reported, another woman was also injured when the tree came down.

Police were notified of the accident at 6:25 p.m. The woman, who was reportedly in her 30s, was sitting on a bench under the tree when part of it fell.

Officials told 1010 WINS the woman was pregnant. She was reported in traumatic cardiac arrest and in critical condition when she was rushed to New York Hospital Queens. She was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

It was not known how many months pregnant the woman was, or what happened to the unborn baby after the woman died.

“The city does not put enough money into tree maintenance, and I’ve been furious with the mayor for his plan to plant a million trees when we don’t take care of the trees we already have now,” said state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens.)

“This is the twelfth injury over the last eight weeks,” added Geoffrey Croft, president of New York City Park Advocates. “We have been calling on the city to properly inspect its trees; maintain its trees, and it is outrageous.”

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Ok, Queens. Can we top this one?

From CBS 2:

One look at the abandoned house in Riverdale and you know exactly why the neighbors are so upset. The shingles have fallen off. You can see holes in the roof. A tree is actually growing out of the house. And garbage and machinery is strewn all over the yard.

Public records show the house was purchased in 2006 for more than $3 million. The property is owned by a real estate company called 620 Blackstone, LLC, run by Josh Neustein.

Neustein owns several rental properties in the area and lives only a few miles away from this home, also in the fancy Riverdale section of the Bronx.

A woman inside the home told Leitner she was at the wrong address, but neighbors and public records confirmed the residence owned by Neustein.

He was named to the city’s worst landlord list in 2012 by Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, with 753 open hazardous violations on five buildings.

What's with the zoning here?

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Ugly arboricide

"Why is it that every time an Asian moves into the neighborhood (North Flushing) the first thing they do is KILL ALL OF THE TREES?????? Today’s unnecessary butcher job is taking place on 163rd St between 29th Ave and Bayside Lane – right across the street from Marino’s.

Why move to a once-lovely tree-lined neighborhood and DESTROY IT?????"

Regards,

Flooshing Rezident

This raises an important question. Why does it seem that immigrants of all stripes move into new homes and immediately cut down all the trees? I thought that living with nature was considered ideal and admired and respected worldwide.

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Part of Evergreen Cemetery may be developed

From the Daily News:

Dozens of trees, some more than a century old, were cut down in the Evergreens Cemetery, a case of arborcide that leaves only an unsightly bald patch on the rolling hills of the celebrated boneyard.

One worker, who asked not to be identified, estimated close to 70 stately maples, elms, sassafras and oaks were slaughtered in the past two months.

“This is murder,” said the worker. “These trees withstood all the wind and the rain from Hurricane Sandy, and they remained undamaged, and now they're cutting them down?”

The cemetery worker said some people speculated the land - located on the edge of the cemetery near Highland Blvd. not far from the Broadway Junction subway station — would be used for commercial development.

Grassi didn’t deny it, but said such plans are up in the air.

“We haven't made a final decision yet,” he said. “But we are hoping to replant trees over there.”

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When developers request street tree removal

From Crain's:

Since a 2010 law was passed requiring builders to pay the city for chopping down healthy trees planted on the public sidewalk, Staten Island homebuilders have claimed examples like Mr. Molino's — where the contractor is charged tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars by the city for tree removal — are becoming more frequent and detrimental to their business.

"I'm a second-generation builder, and this has never been an issue until the past four years," said Frank Naso, president of the Naso Organization, which specializes in commercial and residential land development. "What's really happening is the Parks Department is devaluing [the future homes] on vacant land. The builder is eating the cost."

It seems counterintuitive that trees would have a negative effect on property values. But Mr. Naso sees little incentive in planting trees on vacant lots if a developer later must pay big sums to remove them to build on the land.

He is currently building two houses on Staten Island's North Shore that he hopes to sell for about $300,000 each. The city is asking him to pay $15,000 in restitution for trees that he says he needs to cut down to build. "If you pass that onto the homebuyer," Mr. Naso said, "you'd price them out."

But the flip side of debilitating costs carried by builders is that the Parks Department is attempting to put a monetary value on something as invaluable as a big, old tree. Mr. Molino's stately pin oak on Rudyard Street measured in with a diameter of 42 inches at "breast height," according to the city, which suggests an age of between 80 and 100 years. That made it rare: Less than 1% of the city's 592,130 street trees were that size or larger, according to a 2006 municipal tree census.

"Our No. 1 goal is to preserve and protect the urban forest of New York City," said Jeremy Barrick, deputy chief of forestry, horticulture and natural resources for the Parks Department. "Trees provide a benefit to the entire community. The way we protect those trees is by putting a replacement value on them that ultimately deters or makes it difficult to justify the removal of a tree. One three-inch [diameter] tree does not provide the same benefits in the here and now as a 42-inch tree."

Once a healthy tree has been deemed by Parks Department inspectors as an "unavoidable obstruction with construction," the city employs something called the trunk-formula method for calculating the value of the tree that must be removed and how to replace it. Factors scored on a scale include the tree's species and the condition of its trunk and foliage. Location is also a part of the math.

"We come up with a number of three-inch trees that are necessary to make up for that loss," Mr. Barrick said.

The city averages between 30 to 40 healthy-tree removals a year, Mr. Barrick said, and a handful of those cases have been challenged in court.

And this is why the developers just cut the trees down without permission. If Parks doesn't know ahead of time and can't measure the trees, there's no way they can adequately estimate the cost or the number of trees to replace them with. It probably costs less to pay a fine after the fact than to go through the permit process.

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