Trees, Birds, Nests & Butt Holes
I spent two days this past week fighting city hall. I live in East Providence, RI. We moved here about seven years ago. For the first couple of years, I loved it. Mudpuppy & I would walk to the dollar store, we walked to the Portugese bakery for fresh, hot, no preservatives added, unsliced bread. We walked to the parks. We walked the streets that were mostly tree lined, past homes with beautiful gardens. Portugese people love gardens.
We live right behind the library, which is between the post office and a beautiful park. It used to be a lot more beautiful, but the city keeps taking bushes and trees down and doesn't replace them. I've asked. I speak to the folks at the department of parks, forestry division so often, they recognize my voice.
I'm usually told that whichever tree they're slaughtering was dying.
Simply put...I'm being lied to.
On Wednesday morning, I was disturbed by the sound I have come to fear, chainsaws.
Next to my house is a a small driveway. Then there's an old chain link fence, so old, the trees are through it and around it. The other side of the fence is the parking lot. Along the edge of the lot, bordering the sidewalk were what I called trees. There was a wall of them on both sides of lot entrance. The trees were on the north side of a small retaining wall.
It was a place for kids to meet, senior citizens to rest and I often just sat and watched either sunrise or sunset. In winter, the trees effectively stopped much of the north wind from blowing up Henry Street, a one block street of mostly senior citizens on fixed incomes.
On Wednesday, the beautiful wall of trees came down.
I asked the fellow doing the actual killing, why? He said it was because the kids hang there.
I couldn't see the sense of killing all these beautiful trees cause kids hang there. I said so.
He said he has to do what his boss says.
I disagreed. But I don't play well with others, so I left.
I went right to the city hall.
I was directed to the head of Parks & Recreation. His name is Joe Crook. Honest. I'm not making any of this up.
He told me that he had nothing to do with it. The trees, which were actually bushes, were on private property. Private property? It was the parking lot that 'belongs' to the East Providence Public Library. If it's private property, why is a city truck, a city employee doing the cutting?
He insisted that he had nothing to do with it. His hands were tied. Joe Crook said he had gotten a request from the director of the library, the head of the department of forestry had looked at these bushes/trees and found that they had to come down. It is policy to try and save trees. That's what he said. He called in the head of the department of forestry,Mike Bartlett.
He said that he had looked at the trees, which were really bushes and yes...they had to come down.
Why, I asked yet again.
Because, he said, "We were getting alot of complaints from the neighbors about the activity there."
I said "That's not true."
I'm the closest neighbor, my desk looks over the parking lot...and there are no kids 'hanging there'.
Well, I spoke to many more people in the next two days. I was told that it was a driving hazard. Also not true.
I was told that at night, any of the employees leaving the library at 8 PM were in danger of being attacked.
In that case, trim the bushes so the high powered lights the city has shining all night long illuminated the whole lot rather than just 95% of it.
The next day, after the trees, sorry, bushes were down, shredded...I was told that a senior citizen had been attacked, mugged by someone jumping out of the bushes.
Forgive me if I say...Bullshit.
If a senior citizen had been attacked, my aunt would have known...she's one of the grande dames of the neighborhood. If my aunt had known, I would have known.
Turns out Joe Crook had the final word. He lied right from the begining.
What I should have done was try and save the nests and eggs. I doubt the parent birds would have come back...but maybe something would have survived.
So today, Mudpuppy & I go down to Escoheag. That's where she stables her pony, Hopi.
She spends Saturdays with Hopi.
I picked her up around 4 PM. There was something wrong.
As we drove away, she told me that Heidi, the owner operator of the stable had ordered all the birds nests that were way up at the top of the old stable to be taken down and destroyed. She said it was messy.
It wasn't. The stable was a great place to be. There were horses, a couple of ponies, a very wayward goat and the birds. The birds chatttered and sang. It was a good place to be.
Now, the birds have been thrown out....all of the beautiful nests are gone. During mating season, during breeding season. Why?
What posseses a person to do this?
Why are these trees gone?
Why are the nests gone?
I am sick about it.
We're going to try and get an ordinance passed requiring the city to notify the neighbors of any removal of trees and give the neighbors a chance to respond.
We're looking for another stable.
We live right behind the library, which is between the post office and a beautiful park. It used to be a lot more beautiful, but the city keeps taking bushes and trees down and doesn't replace them. I've asked. I speak to the folks at the department of parks, forestry division so often, they recognize my voice.
I'm usually told that whichever tree they're slaughtering was dying.
Simply put...I'm being lied to.
On Wednesday morning, I was disturbed by the sound I have come to fear, chainsaws.
Next to my house is a a small driveway. Then there's an old chain link fence, so old, the trees are through it and around it. The other side of the fence is the parking lot. Along the edge of the lot, bordering the sidewalk were what I called trees. There was a wall of them on both sides of lot entrance. The trees were on the north side of a small retaining wall.
It was a place for kids to meet, senior citizens to rest and I often just sat and watched either sunrise or sunset. In winter, the trees effectively stopped much of the north wind from blowing up Henry Street, a one block street of mostly senior citizens on fixed incomes.
On Wednesday, the beautiful wall of trees came down.
I asked the fellow doing the actual killing, why? He said it was because the kids hang there.
I couldn't see the sense of killing all these beautiful trees cause kids hang there. I said so.
He said he has to do what his boss says.
I disagreed. But I don't play well with others, so I left.
I went right to the city hall.
I was directed to the head of Parks & Recreation. His name is Joe Crook. Honest. I'm not making any of this up.
He told me that he had nothing to do with it. The trees, which were actually bushes, were on private property. Private property? It was the parking lot that 'belongs' to the East Providence Public Library. If it's private property, why is a city truck, a city employee doing the cutting?
He insisted that he had nothing to do with it. His hands were tied. Joe Crook said he had gotten a request from the director of the library, the head of the department of forestry had looked at these bushes/trees and found that they had to come down. It is policy to try and save trees. That's what he said. He called in the head of the department of forestry,Mike Bartlett.
He said that he had looked at the trees, which were really bushes and yes...they had to come down.
Why, I asked yet again.
Because, he said, "We were getting alot of complaints from the neighbors about the activity there."
I said "That's not true."
I'm the closest neighbor, my desk looks over the parking lot...and there are no kids 'hanging there'.
Well, I spoke to many more people in the next two days. I was told that it was a driving hazard. Also not true.
I was told that at night, any of the employees leaving the library at 8 PM were in danger of being attacked.
In that case, trim the bushes so the high powered lights the city has shining all night long illuminated the whole lot rather than just 95% of it.
The next day, after the trees, sorry, bushes were down, shredded...I was told that a senior citizen had been attacked, mugged by someone jumping out of the bushes.
Forgive me if I say...Bullshit.
If a senior citizen had been attacked, my aunt would have known...she's one of the grande dames of the neighborhood. If my aunt had known, I would have known.
Turns out Joe Crook had the final word. He lied right from the begining.
What I should have done was try and save the nests and eggs. I doubt the parent birds would have come back...but maybe something would have survived.
So today, Mudpuppy & I go down to Escoheag. That's where she stables her pony, Hopi.
She spends Saturdays with Hopi.
I picked her up around 4 PM. There was something wrong.
As we drove away, she told me that Heidi, the owner operator of the stable had ordered all the birds nests that were way up at the top of the old stable to be taken down and destroyed. She said it was messy.
It wasn't. The stable was a great place to be. There were horses, a couple of ponies, a very wayward goat and the birds. The birds chatttered and sang. It was a good place to be.
Now, the birds have been thrown out....all of the beautiful nests are gone. During mating season, during breeding season. Why?
What posseses a person to do this?
Why are these trees gone?
Why are the nests gone?
I am sick about it.
We're going to try and get an ordinance passed requiring the city to notify the neighbors of any removal of trees and give the neighbors a chance to respond.
We're looking for another stable.
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