City to seek damages after restaurant cuts down trees (Houston: city hall, violent crime)

[cheryjohns]

Originally Posted by crone

What I don't get is the mind set that says trees are less important than sidewalks. That whole story about sidewalks is BS.

I'd bet the rent money that had a call been made, the problem with the sidewalk explained, the city and/or the neighborhood and customers would have gladly kicked in to replace the sidewalks. Trees for Houston certainly would have.

They could have root pruned, or put down a root barrier. This neighborhood we are in planted 2 or 3 live oaks on each tiny lot. At about age 25, there will be sidewalk, driveway and foundation stories from every homeowner. We are putting down root barriers. They could have,too.

Yeah, builders fell in love - apparently all at the same time - with live oaks. Now I am finally seeing some magnolias, crepe myrtles, and pines being planted by builders, along with the live oaks.

[vwgto]

Originally Posted by cheryjohns

Yeah, builders fell in love - apparently all at the same time - with live oaks. Now I am finally seeing some magnolias, crepe myrtles, and pines being planted by builders, along with the live oaks.

Finally seeing crepe myrtles and pines????

[elnina]

Interesting that the city feel outrage after few trees has been cut down (I am not minimizing their importance, of course), but look another way when developers tear down historic houses. Those could not be replaced.

[cheryjohns]

Originally Posted by vwgto

Finally seeing crepe myrtles and pines????

As in builder planted - people have been adding them forever on their own. If you are north, the pines were already there. Builders are even adding pines Cinco way, now. Please note the bolded parts. I didn't say that crepe myrtles, magnolias and pines were new to Houston.

[Stockyman]

Some trees do cost a lot of damage to the pavement and their roots do encroach on private properties causing more damage. In my city I see a few sidewalks where it's so uprooted by the roots of trees but there is no money/staff to fix them. Most cities think about today when they plant trees, and forget about the future when they cause damage. There should be size limits when planting trees in the city to avoid future problems.

[wintersbone]

well and another thing that looks bad is a huge live oak planted to close to the street and its pruned ugly so large trucks can drive under it. why people plant trees close to the street and under power lines just shows how shortsighted they are.

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by elnina

Interesting that the city feel outrage after few trees has been cut down (I am not minimizing their importance, of course), but look another way when developers tear down historic houses. Those could not be replaced.

We need stronger historical preservation ordinances but in most cases those are buildings that are in the private sector, the COH ownership of those trees, however is not in question

Originally Posted by Stockyman

Some trees do cost a lot of damage to the pavement and their roots do encroach on private properties causing more damage. In my city I see a few sidewalks where it's so uprooted by the roots of trees but there is no money/staff to fix them. Most cities think about today when they plant trees, and forget about the future when they cause damage. There should be size limits when planting trees in the city to avoid future problems.

Those trees were planted 10 years ago and this guy knew what condition that property was in when he acquired it. Its not like they planted the trees after he bought the property. Even if they had planted them after his acquisition there are channels to pursue instead of arbitrarily cutting them down under cover of the night.

Originally Posted by wintersbone

well and another thing that looks bad is a huge live oak planted to close to the street and its pruned ugly so large trucks can drive under it. why people plant trees close to the street and under power lines just shows how shortsighted they are.

The city definitely should keep any trees on their right of ways trimmed away from power lines and traffic. These considerations should play into where these trees are planted, but once planted, circumstances sometimes change, and over the years become a problem nobody could foresee. There are remedies for this, You don't just cut them down if you do not own the property they are located on. Otherwise neighbors will be cutting down each others tress right and left all over the city and that will lead to chaos.

[Stockyman]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

Those trees were planted 10 years ago and this guy knew what condition that property was in when he acquired it. Its not like they planted the trees after he bought the property. Even if they had planted them after his acquisition there are channels to pursue instead of arbitrarily cutting them down under cover of the night.

What he did was wrong, but with city cutbacks everywhere there is less money to go around and take care of these trees on a regular basis. In my city there used to be a huge leaf collection on the sidewalks twice or three times a year. Now it's scaled to once a year. The city should stop planting new trees because realistically most cities do not have the budget to take care of them, especially when they grow and destroy sidewalks and private property.

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by Stockyman

What he did was wrong, but with city cutbacks everywhere there is less money to go around and take care of these trees on a regular basis. In my city there used to be a huge leaf collection on the sidewalks twice or three times a year. Now it's scaled to once a year. The city should stop planting new trees because realistically most cities do not have the budget to take care of them, especially when they grow and destroy sidewalks and private property.

Sidewalks and parking lots are going to crack with or without trees, I consider this peripheral damage and well worth the esthetics of having green trees and the shade they provide. If trees are interfering with drainage , electrical or sewage infrastructure, then by all means the COH should take whatever steps necessary to alleviate the problem.

[dendrotriton]

One solution is for the government to actually regulate the big developers when they're initially bulldozing all the native trees that are already there. If you build around some of the large mature trees already there the ground will be leveled and built on with the full grown roots already there. Hence no foundation/sidwalk/street/parkinglot damage exacerbated by roots from ugly oak trees as they reach maturity.