Residents of the Astoria neighborhood in New York’s Queens borough are stunned by the sudden appearance of trees planted in the middle of sidewalks in recent days.
Following the discovery of these trees the day after Christmas, people quickly took to social media to survey the community, criticize this new obstruction or share their happiness at receiving this unusual gift from the city. Some have even done all three at the same time.
“This is my building. I am the manager. We were not warned. It just happened,” said Eric Elias under the pseudonym THISISDAM in the comments of a post on Reddit.
“I fixed the problem (and I) hung two Christmas baubles on the tree,” he added, finding a touch of humor in the situation.
Other Internet users are rather worried, even furious, about the location of these trees.
A neighborhood resident, Maria Dourmas Hriso Mallis, even claims, on Astoria’s Facebook page, that such a project would merit a civil suit due to “Endangering the public and obstructing the sidewalk reserved for pedestrians to begin with.” Endangerment of people in wheelchairs and disabled people. I’m sure there are many violation codes that the city imposes on property owners that can be reported to the city. »
Although trees have been successfully planted in similar locations before, city parks department spokesman Gregg McQueen acknowledged it may have been a mistake in this neighborhood and says that the trees will be moved, as stated in an interview with the New York Post.
