Widow threatened with arrest over tree?!

[K-Mac]

First of all, I thought New York City was in an economic crisis? Second, they don't have anything better to do than to make this disabled, old lady's life more difficult? And finally, why would they plant such an awful tree when there are probably hundreds of other types to choose from? WTF?!

http://www.850koa.com/pages/breaking.html?...article=5478081

An elderly New York woman was threatened with arrest for objecting to a tree being planted in front of her Brooklyn home, her friend says.

Widow Marion Smith, 79, asked city workers to not plant a tree in front her home because she was disabled and wouldn't be able to rake the leaves. In fact, she had had the spot paved over five years earlier when a tree that used to be there died, The New York Post reported Sunday.

But when city workers came to break the pavement and plant a new tree as part of the city's Million Trees program, her friend and neighbor, Nancy Cardozo, took up her cause, asking the work crew to stop, the newspaper said. When they wouldn't, Cardozo was put on the phone was city forestry department official who allegedly threatened them with jail.

The newspaper said the new tree was a ginkgo, the females of which require the clean-up of fallen fruit whose smell has been compared to vomit and rancid butter.

"We're hoping it's not a female," Cardozo said.

[Chris.S]

The environment, and more importantly a single tree, is way too important to worry about silly things like olfactory aesthetics, old ladies' handicaps and especially economic crises. D'uh.

[softwareNerd]

Elsewhere, a pest-control company called in to get rid of squirrels is facing charges because a squirrel died in its trap.

[Steve D'Ippolito]

Software Nerd, I didn't understand your post. Does that word "squirrel" refer to what is correctly known as "tree vermin"?

The little buggers are incredibly destructive.