We are delighted the folks at Brickell, who worked so hard to save their trees, were able to stop the removals of the remaining 30 of the 75 trees originally intended by the City for removal. The difference is that while Brickell tree supporters came out in big numbers, here in the Grove, there seems to be a constant fear to speak up, which we have never understood. 27th Avenue looks good now as a result of a lot of civic involvement to get it to be the way it is now in spite of the "crying and yelling". It just did not happen by letting the City and County do their will. Santiago Villegas tried in vain keep the big Banyans on 27th and Bayshore from being removed. There was absolutely nothing wrong with those trees, and the intended decision and posting was hidden across the street tacked to a palm in a median facing the opposite of traffic. Santiago stood there for hours stalling the chain saw crew while frantically calling our city and county commissioners to do something, they were still destroyed. The reason given for their removal was supposedly they stood in the way of an extension of the dedicated Bike Path that was part of the improvement of 27th Avenue. The bitter irony is that where those trees once stood, there is now a sign that says "Bike Lane Ends Here." So yes, it made us very angry. And anger begets action. The outrage over the needless killing of those large trees and 11 others that day begat meetings with the County and a subsequent dialogue that included County Public Works, Santiago and I from Treewatch, Jim McMaster of Treeman Trust and Treeguru Bob Brennan. Our input greatly reduced the number of trees to be removed in phase 2 of the project, and transplanted 2 mahoganies to a safer greener location. One died but the other is thriving, and as angry a reminder as "Bike Lane Ends Here" is, a short distance away, that mahogany is a reminder of what can be achieved by speaking up. So come on Coconut Grove. Get a voice. Take the opportunity that there is a lull in the Grove tree-swap project, and find a voice to protest the intended decision to remove about 22 Black Olive trees on Fuller. And those are all in good health. TreeWatch has had an appeal in since January. The hearing was set for February and then all of a sudden, it was postponed without further notice. Perhaps we can revisit the removal of the trees on Commodore. It will be a year since we lost that appeal and they are pretty much proving that they are not a hazard, or surely there would be yellow tape barring them from all the street traffic on Commodore.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 02:43:43 +0000
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