I live on Third Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue and we were so excited when the city posted we'd be getting two new trees on our block. But [last Thursday], our dreams were crushed when someone came and filled in the two freshly dug tree holes with cement again! I tried calling 311 but to no avail. Does anyone have an idea what happened to get our trees canceled?
The reader is curious if any block associations or community gardens have had something similar happen.
Elsewhere, a reader points out that this tree well outside 521 E. Fifth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B has been inexplicably filled in with cement...
22 comments:
Your landlord probably had someone do it. I never heard of the city canceling a planting
Get the cement out of that tree pit ASAP! Maybe FDNY has the tools to do it.
I assume someone living near the tree doesn’t want a rat problem. Rats burrow into the dirt in these tree plantings.
Grand street area downtown got many many new trees last month.
Who in their right does this? I mean seriously. Idiots
Oh dear. The East 5th Street Tree Commmittee has been asking for two trees for over two years. We were excited to see Dept. of Parks trucks with new trees in the neighborhood but alas they were not planted on our blocks. This is alarming. Call the Dept of Parks.
Yikes. I hope someone on that street can call the city and get someone to come immediately to get that concrete out of the tree pit. It's going to kill the tree.
I just walked by two tree wells, with trees, that were dug down about a foot and a half for the entire circumference around the root balls. The trees are obviously in distress with drooping leaves. This is on 4th Street between 2nd and Bowery, 2nd Avenue end of the block, south side. It does not look official since there are no cones or tapes blocking off the pits and plastic buckets are sitting next to them. It is illegal to fill them in unless it is for construction and that needs a permit and cement not flush to the tree trunk, at least according to past EVG articles about trees at construction sites.
@7:22am: Cement is NOT how to prevent a rat problem in a tree pit. If everyone does that, we have zero street trees.
For the tree in front of our building, we dug down & put a piece of SCREENING horizontally in the tree pit (rats can't dig through the screening), and then we re-filled the dirt on top of it & tamped the dirt down. Problem was thereby solved.
That cement is basically entombing the street tree in that photo. HORRIBLE!
Concrete not cement
@12:39 not saying using cement is the right way to prevent the rats problem, but that is most likely the reason this person did it. Just saw another entombed tree at 13th and 3rd ave just west of Soothr southside of street.
@3:36pm: Cement or concrete? It doesn't matter b/c either one *will* kill that tree or any other tree that is similarly entombed.
Someone brawny enough & nervy enough could get out there with a drill or a sledgehammer & start freeing the tree.
Sadly, while people and the city dither, the tree will die soon, b/c it cannot absorb any water through its roots. I'd be reporting this (a) to the Parks Dept. and (b) as deliberate VANDALISM & destruction of public property.
File a 311 complaint on the cement around the tree. It works. I’ve seen relatively quick results in the past. But need to flood them with complaints. You can do so online.
It’s not hard although there are several clicks. On the 311 page, report a problem. Click All by Category, scroll down and choose Sidewalks, Streets & Highways. Choose Sidewalks. Choose Tree Destruction. Choose Report the destruction of a tree on a street or in a park. Fill out the form.
I don't know what the situation is on 5th Street, but on East 3rd the tree-planting crew said they could not plant a tree because there is a hole underneath the sidewalk. The most likely explanation for that is that the corner is being prepared to be an entrance for the future 'T' train, otherwise known as the 2nd Avenue subway. That subway line has to go underneath the 'F' train, and so it requires a separate entrance. How long before that subway line is completed I have no idea.
The cement around the tree base speaks to a stupidity problem, not a rat problem.
Screening doesn't prevent rats from borrowing. It might restrain them to that pit (temporarily since any metal will degrade in the ground at some point). The real issue some landlords have are due to tree roots lifting sidewalks or going through foundations. Since building and house owners are required to maintain the sidewalks in front of their properties, they do not want to incur the costs associated with trees. Some changes in laws might help encourage a change of attitude.
The city excavated a tree pit in front of my building in Brooklyn Heights which was later filed in, when it was determined that oil tank pipes were underneath, and there would be no place for th tree roots to go.
They're about to have a big rotting dead tree problem.
@8:57am: Maybe people don't know how to do screening correctly, b/c it DEFINITELY got rid of our rat problem. It did require an effort & it's not a "do it and walk away thinking you never ever have to look at it again" project, BUT it worked.
Also, one would have to be using pretty shitty screening to have it deteriorate underground - it's ALUMINUM. We used very good quality screening under the dirt, it's several years later, and our tree is still thriving.
As it happens, I know about issues re: the sidewalk, b/c I live in a small co-op building, and we've been dealing with all this stuff for decades. We have spent $$$ to replace our sidewalk as needed over the years.
PS: Where do the rats "borrow" from? A bank or a credit union?
"PS: Where do the rats "borrow" from? A bank or a credit union?"
Could be problematic. More likely they go to a loan shark.
I just made a 311 complaint about the cement filled pit at 521 E 5th st. You can too!
Hope they free the tree soon! And fine the a@%hole.
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