UPDATE….BY MY COUNT FOUR LARGE TREES HAVE BEEN CUT DOWN…MANY OTHERS DAMAGED.
I am glad the online newspaper, The Capital Times, picked up on this story (and my blog) as this is a very important issue to the residents of Spaight Street. I also appreciate the headline to the story, as it hits the mark, and sums up how many feel. Given how much angst there is on the street one must ask why there is not a more visible sign of leadership of any kind from City Alderperson Marsha Rummel. (As of this writing my email correspondence to her from a week ago has not been answered. T0 be honest, I have never found her overly eager to respond on any issue unless I have called several times. Frankly my time is as valuable as hers, and one call or email should suffice. While I like her personally, I find her not the most adept at constituent relations.) Telling residents that there needs to be more study of the street construction issue so Willy Street, and future street construction projects, do not meet the same fate is the same old routine we hear from politicians all the time. There seems to be a lack of willingness to say what needs to be said. Perhaps Rummel and Mayor Dave can walk down the street and view the damage. Surely they can find the time. They also might talk with folks on the street that are impacted and better understand the frustration. Someone dropped the ball on Spaight Street! Question is who will pick it up and show some leadership.
Marsha??
The irreplaceable, lofty trees are the finishing touch on the fashionable neighborhood, a hip and comfortable enclave of older, mostly lovingly tended homes and two-flats.
One resident, whose usual curb-side terrace garden was supplanted by construction this season, was tying strings to her front porch roof to support green bean vines on Tuesday. The improvements to the street were nice, she mused, but she’d take the trees, and turned a worried eye toward the towering oaks rimming nearby Orton Park.
Several trees on Spaight already were felled and the chopped and exposed roots of many others easy to spot on a walk down what is temporarily a dirt road. Was it carelessness that caused the loss of trees, a cavalier disregard for “collateral damage,” or an unavoidable loss when a new curb is carved in past trees that long ago nudged their roots under the old pavement?