This used to be a “hazard tree” in Albany’s Bryant Park, dying or already dead and scheduled for cutting down lest its upper parts snap and fall on unsuspecting visitors below.
On Tuesday afternoon, the branches had been sawed off. What was left of this Oregon ash looked more like the makings of a totem pole.
No such “cultural appropriation” is planned, I’m pretty sure. My guess is the remaining trunk will fall to the chainsaw forthwith.
The park is on one of my bike routes, and last April I had noticed the plastic orange netting around the tree, warning people to stay away.
Rick Barnett, now the acting parks director while the director is on maternity leave, told me then the tree was about 50 years old. Because it was a nesting tree, the parks staff had left it alone even though it was struggling for the last few years. But then a big chunk of the bark came off, revealing decay underneath.
Wanting to wait until after the nesting season was over, the parks crew had planned to take the tree down after Aug. 1. Other maintenance work had priority, but now the tree is going.
On this Wednesday morning, Barnett explained that the tree “was very dead so they had to work cautiously, which is why they didn’t finish yesterday. They are going to take it the rest of the way down today.”
None of this is particularly remarkable as news, obviously — just another reminder that the work of keeping up Albany’s many parks is never done. (hh)
This big branch evidently cracked open when it fell, revealing how decayed the tree was.
(leftist brain engaged)
I’m reminded of a similar situation at Harvard several years ago where an old tree received a death sentence.
I liken Albany’s tree to an elderly family member. Killing the tree was an act of murder.
And given the government provided no opportunity for public expressions of outrage the act was also anti-democratic.
Albany city government exercised its institutional power in a very irresponsible way. Man is the biggest threat to nature.
Every tree in Albany should be free to die, fall down, and decay naturally.
Trees and other voiceless elements of Mother Earth have rights, too.
(leftist brain disengaged)
“””Man is the biggest threat to nature.”””
Not counting million-year time-scale catastrophes, does your non-leftist brain really think otherwise?
The graffiti in Bryant Park and surrounding areas is getting worse. One particular gang autographs their work; I’ve found it on a man-hole cover on Thurston and I believe it is alsoin the Sunrise Park area. My daughter and I call the Parks Department and report it but it seems to be getting harder and harder to keep up with getting rid of it. Also had been on the tables but once they were cleaned they seem to have stayed free of words I didn’t want to explain to my great grand-kids!
(leftist brain engaged)
Graffiti is a sign of resistance to the orderly structure of Albany. Taggers are simply artists looking for visibility—to make a mark—on a society that otherwise ignores them.
The voices expressed through graffiti are oftentimes silenced through censorship, like what Hazel is attempting, so their acts of resistance are opposed.
We must not suppress the socially meaningful messages of the oppressed.
In downtown spaces like Albany that are visually dominated by crony capitalists, graffiti can mobilize solidarity against the establishment.
Local government must celebrate, not erase, graffiti in all of its forms.
(leftist brain disengaged)
You don’t have a left brain to disengage, as far as I can tell. Your ego is very healthy, though, because you seem to think your so-called, disengaged comments are very cute.
(non-leftist brain engaged)
I see that Hasso is still allowing ad hominem attacks.
Given this reality, I’ll celebrate the snark for what it truly is: an admission of defeat.
Cap needs to hone his skills if he really wants to hurt my tender feelings.
(non-leftist brain still engaged)
GS
PIFFLE
There’s no basis for your maunderings. Let it go……………….
Release can be healing