Another tree down

just when it was coming into its own

07/05/2011 8:27 AM

By Bonnie McGrath

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Carting away the tree this morning (photo by Bonnie McGrath)

There have been a lot of trees planted at Roosevelt and State in the last 17 years. It seems that every time one gets bushy and bouncy, someone comes along and knocks it down. Slippery streets, distractions--and probably drunkenness--have caused a new tree to be knocked down every year or two by an errant driver. One year, the City just came and pulled a perfectly good one out and replaced it with another one that wasn't as good. I guess that was a preemptive strike.


Our homeowners' association has lost trees in other ways, too. A beautiful one that was in our alley garden was zapped by a huge storm last year. And half of it had to be removed. And we have also lost some due to disease and death. We are familiar with tree loss and we know how it feels when it happens.

This past 4th of July weekend we lost another tree on my corner. It happened sometime on Sunday. When I returned from a friend's party in the West Loop and then another gathering of friends on the lawn during the July 3rd Americana Concert with all the trimmings in Millennium Park, there it was laying across the sidewalk; not only blocking pedestrians from walking down State Street, but also preventing my next door neighbors from entering or exiting their front gate.

I felt bad--like I have for all the tree casualties that have come before this one. But I knew this tree's time was due. It was just starting to look perfect. Apparently, the knock down was caused by a pretty bad accident involving multiple cars--sending one careening onto our sidewalk. One neighborhood/Facebook friend filled me in with a comment on my Fb posting about the lack of a red light camera on my corner these days; she said maybe if there'd still been one, the accident could have been avoided.

Another neighbor called me yesterday morning and told me she thought the accident had been caused by an illegal U-turn someone made exiting out of the Jewel parking lot on State Street. She also told me one of the cars contained a mother and her three children. But they were OK. However, an ambulance came and took someone from another car away, she said. She also said she called 311 to report the tree down--and they said they'd be here first thing Tuesday morning to remove it from the walkway. And sure enough, they arrived this morning a little after 7 AM with a truck that mulches trees on the spot--and takes them away.


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