Ohhhh, your concrete is sooo beautiful!

Are the building owners doing this or the city itself (which wouldn't exactly surprise me)? If the building owners are doing this, I believe it is illegal to tamper with city property in this way. They do not own the sidewalks or anything on the street side of the walk.

Unbelievable. This would be destructive in any city, but in a city that's as low density as Buffalo the magnatude is even greater. Make the streets look even more devoid of life - great idea.

Wait, I just reread the article. They actually *removed* the trees and filled in the planters with concrete? Isn't that theft of public property? (Again, assuming the city streets department didn't do this themselves.)

Maybe some calls to the code enforcement department are in order?

It was only a couple of years ago that the mayor brought legal action upon the property owner of several houses on Cottage Street for cutting down city trees:

http://www.ci.buffalo.ny.us/Home/Mayor/Archive_Press_Releases/Leadership/2008Archives/May2008/MayorCallsForLegalActionForIllegallyCutTrees

The same standards should surely apply everywhere in the city (if not *especially* on Main Street).

Whatever happened to Jeff Brett, the City Forester mentioned in the above press release as being hired in 2008? Cut from the budget the next year?

The DEC complex is owned by Ellicott Development. Are you really surprised that the place was un-greened?

Maybe they were putting those miserable little Charlie Brown style trees out of their misery.

This is absolutely ridiculous. Planting decent sized trees of an appropriate type is the cheapest way to make a major improvement to a street.

Get the local TV News Media invovled, how about some talk shows such as Sandy Beach and Tom Bauerle addressing this issue. All of this would help apply some pressure to City Hall to acknowledge this is a serious issue. With all do respect I honestly feel as of late that City Hall could give a s--- what Buffalo looks like..

Now don't get me wrong, I love and want trees all over the place, but ....

1. The DEC sidewalk looks very narrow both to the building and to the curb. Not the best situation for a tree or the assets around it.

2. Won't the entire Main St. streetscape change when the next phase(s) of that street's beautification moves south, now that Hertel down to Humboldt is done? I would imagine trees will get put back to many of these concrete cover-ups and/or the center median plantings will be installed.

With the above said, I would support criminal prosecution if bldg owners...and not the City...were doing the concrete cover-ups.

Sounds about right for NYS. I think the "barren wasteland" look is exactly what city leaders are going for.

The streets really look empty without trees. I guess this is the Mayor's idea of improving the city's image? LMAO

Does anyone remember Makowski bricking up McKinley Circle and being forced to tear it down?

The polish eastside is devoid of trees.

What friend of the environment was Masiello? The guy was as tall as a tree, he was as dense as a tree but his administration showed no concern for trees.

The italian westside and northside is devoid of trees.

Brown administration only gives lip service.

The african american eastside is absolutely awful with regards to trees of any kind.

Its admirable that there are groups out there willing to invest volunteer sweat equity in raising property values and greening out city but the message is not getting heard by corporate Buffalo, governments of Buffalo and the average Joe and Jane Buffalo.

Nothing will change unless the people bring the pride of their city and educate why trees are important to the city and to neighborhoods.

Why the insinuation against Delta Sonic? It doesn't look like the missing trees were in front of their property.

Just an fyi: those wells had been empty of trees for quite a while (months?), and what had been there ceased to resemble vegetation quite some time ago. Regardless, they should have been replanted and, most importantly, cared for.

Evans Bank on Elmwood did something similar several weeks ago but didn't remove the tree. They just cemented RIGHT UP TO THE STUMP.

On Exchange street down past the Laking building, they did just the opposite, I think it was last year, they cut the side walk and planted the tress.
So I'm guessing it has a lot to do with the mind set of the property owners.

* So we're pontificating here without knowing the story behind each situation. That's par for the course, I guess.

* Business owners don't like street trees. To them, impediments to line of sight, or anything getting in the way of potential customers has got to go.

* Without a forester paying attention to what's being planted... what's being planted? Monoculture? Trees that can't handle road salt? A bunch of silly chinese pears?

* What is the nature of the soil in the tree pit, and what access does the pit have to surrounding soil? If it's just a box with a bunch of crappy stone, with no root access out under the rest of the sidewalk, what's the point? The tree's root system just gets constrained unnaturally and the first strong breeze in October can take 'em down (not to mention a little nudge from a car).

* Trees are assets - studies demonstrate their commercial value! - and should be treated as such. It's a shame most people just seem to see them as nuisances that drop crap all over the sidewalk come fall.

The National Arbor Day Foundation conducted research that found that trees improve the quality of life in urban environments in several ways, including the reduction of crime rates. More information about the benefits of trees in cities can be found in New Jersey:
http://www.hobokennj.org/boards/shade-tree-commission/13-reasons/
and in British Columbia:
http://www.kelowna.ca/CM/page940.aspx

From the point of view of a business owner, I disagree with the line of sight argument.

A few years ago driving in the suburbs would be lined with 50 foot poles with brand logos, billboards and signs. People eventually rose up and said it looked ugly and banned them for the most part.

Many business owners like a street level sign and a high value landscaped building...versus the 50' pole and billboard. Welcome to the modern age...we are not cave dwellers...we dont need to be assaulted visually to know where things are!!!

This just makes absolutely no sense to me...DeltaSonic puts so much into their building, their product and services, then do something anti-social against the community by removing their trees and landscaping as though...they are so desperate to stay in business that a tree is going to effect their profit margins. If anyting, treeless frontage detracts from their customer experience!!!

ok so who do we call to have charges filed? noted absentee landlord Catherine George has done this to two of her properties in the last year. I need to know who to call to get charges filed. This gets me so heated, and the fact that there is no way to stop or reverse this makes me even more mad.

One more thing: Mark Goldman, saint that he is, laid bricks in the tree well in front of Hardware, and that tree was looking really sad as of a few days ago. Maybe someone could say something to him? I'm sure he doesn't want anything obstructing the view of that hideous wrought iron "sculpture" decorated with christmas lights that adorns the entryway, but we in Allentown prefer the tree.

Same thing happened on Chippewa. See all the tree wells filled in with asphalt. Tax money went into planting trees and preparing those wells. What a waste.

I spoke about this with my District councilman a few weeks ago after the Delta Sonic piece was published. He told me that trees can be removed by the owner or the city in cases where they were causing damage to sewer, water, utility, or subway lines; where the presence of the tree interfered with handicapped / senior access to the business from the street, or narrowed the sidewalk to limit passage of wheelchairs, scooters, or other mobility aids. He also said that the city will allow the removal of trees that fail to thrive in the designated tree wells, in those cases they feel that the extension of the sidewalk is safer than a missing piece of sidewalk.

That is just plain sad on the part of the NYSDEC. Nice job noticing and calling them out!

http://newvilleny.blogspot.com/

i think that i shall never eat a poem as tasty as concrete.

i think that i shall never eat a poem as tasty as concrete.

I think that I shall never eat
A poem as tasty as concrete

Concrete whose hardened mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;

Concrete that looks at Tires all day,
And chips her rocky arms aspray;

A tree that may in summer wear
An egg it boils upon his face;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Whence shoveled off it causes pain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only sicilians should mix concrete.

I think that I shall never eat
A poem as tasty as concrete

Concrete whose hardened mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;

Concrete that looks at Tires all day,
And chips her rocky arms aspray;

A tree that may in summer wear
An egg it boils upon his face;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Whence shoveled off it causes pain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only sicilians should mix concrete.