Belinda the willow seems to be coming down now

[unbelman.livejournal.com]

If you are wanting to pay your respects, it seems the whole tree is on its way down now

Comments

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

So the talk about letting us bring in a non-commercial arborist to evaluate the situation was just a stall tactic.

Once more I'm grateful that I'm a tenant, if that's what landowning requires/produces in a person.

[ellf.livejournal.com]

Amen.

[spacehawk.livejournal.com]

It is precisely because our system of "ownership" grants absolute rights in some folks and no rights in other folks that this framework could use some very careful reconsidering.

If one starts from the assumption that the earth, nature, etc. belongs to all people equally, and though resources need a structure for division, the right to enjoyment of nature belongs to each and every one of us, one comes to some very different conclusions about what the structure of property law should consist of.

This is, of course, not the structure of property law recognized by the American government. One must always remember, however, that our current way of thinking about property rights is not absolute- it is simply the way we agree to do things in this time and place. Not everyone feels this is the best way to do things.

Please give redcolumbine more credit than to say he/she "doesn't seem to realize" his/her lack of legal rights re: our system of property rights. On the contrary, he/she does realize very deeply the "all or nothing" nature of the system of property rights in our society, and is making a statement that he/she would rather choose to be on the "nothing" side as a matter of principle than own property and participate actively in the system that would condone what has happened here.

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

That's really annoying of your landlord. :(

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

I don't live on the property in question. My own landlord is actually ethical, so perhaps there's hope for the breed yet! What the heck, when I hit the lottery, I might go for some real estate, and see how long I can hang onto my honesty and cognizance of community responsibility. It'd certainly be a fascinating experiment.

[firepail.livejournal.com]

what has you so convinced that an arborist was not consulted? or that the tree is not a hazard? it has been established that willows are not good urban trees. I don't think it is fair to villianize the landlord for not consulting YOU on your opinion about HIS tree. he is going through great cost to be responsible and remove a hazard from his property.

[righteousness-1.livejournal.com]

Glasshouses, stones, etc. Being a tenant is piss easy.

[ron_newman]

Thorndike St. willow 'Belinda' comes down (Somerville Journal)

Al Bermani, watching the willow’s branches being cut down by chainsaw, noted there is a spring that starts near the willow, and in colonial times, he said, a brook ran from Thorndike to Alewife Brook.

“They’ll need three trees to suck all that water,” Bermani said, saying the water will be up to his chest in some basements if there isn’t another way found to absorb the water.

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

That'd be Tannery Brook. I live in a basement, off Tannery Brook Row.

All gone.

[first-clark.livejournal.com]

Pro or con, the deed is done.

160+ People Dead in Mumbai...

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

...and the Davis Square Community is naming willow trees.

Good for us.

Could we be anymore self adsorbed?

Re: 160+ People Dead in Mumbai...

[ron_newman]

I'm going to throw that one back at you. What should the Davis Square community (or the davis_square community, for that matter) have done about the events in Mumbai?

[n.b. I'm in Columbus, Ohio with my family for the weekend, and therefore have not directly seen or heard anything going on in Somerville for the last two days]

Re: 160+ People Dead in Mumbai...

[maelithil.livejournal.com]

Oh, baaaaw.

Re: 160+ People Dead in Mumbai...

[infinitemorning.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure there's much that Davis Square can do about Mumbai, but I tend to agree that the focus on the tree over other, somewhat more pressing issues has been really damn annoying lately.

Re: 160+ People Dead in Mumbai...

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

The bloody tree was named YEARS ago.

This is a blog for discussing local issues. Should we drop them every time some tragedy happens elsewhere on the planet, so we can have a big ol' online group hug and commiseration session? That'll certainly help the dead people.

[ron_newman]

On Boston.com: With chainsaw's whir, a neighborhood's hopes fall.

I don't know if this article is only online, or if it's also in today's or tomorrow's printed Globe.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Printed, in the City Weekly section.

Pretty much every time there's a major issue in davis_square, it ends up in the print edition. I assume the Globe's Somerville reporter is continuously gleeful that we make the job of covering Somerville (at least, part of it) so much easier ;).

[elizethesleaze.livejournal.com]

haha would anyone here care if it wasn't a willow tree? ugly trees get cut down every day!

[fuffer.livejournal.com]

That was one ugly tree. The branches were short on top and long on the sides. It looked like a giant mullet.

Get over it....

[jokabri.livejournal.com]

The tree needed to come down. It came down. End of story.

Though who ever posted that youtube video of the earth first people wailing and crying - that is an instant classic. I'm still laughing.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Look, nothing is forever, including trees. Obviously, it posed a threat and in this day and age when you can sue someone because they wear a perfume that makes you sneeze, the owner had no choice but to take the bloody thing down. Heck, my neighbor had this gloriously old tree that was huge and provided wonderful shade in the summer, but he had to have it taken down because it was weakening and in a big storm, could have taken out a couple of triple deckers and 8 or 10 cars.


So down it came, and thus, the circle of life continues.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

For all of the posters who are of the opinion that 'property rights' should not be absolute, but should be somehow shared......
When can I expect your portion of my property tax bill, water bill, maintenance and upkeep costs, cost of smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector, legal costs, installation and maintenance of heating system, not to mention your portion of the time it takes me to keep the property looking presentable (mowing the lawn, raking the leaves, gardening, painting, etc., etc., etc.), since I certainly cannot afford to pay someone to do most of these chores.

[ron_newman]

Some of the neighbors involved are tenants of Mr. Benoit's building, which means they are already paying a 'portion' of his expenses.