The city planted the ones on my street about twenty years ago, not so distant past. It wasn’t developers or flippers. My husband and I, and all my neighbors at the time objected, it was well known even then that Bradford pears were smelly weak trees but the city crews planted them anyway, then refused to care for or prune them. I remember it well, it wasn’t developers or flippers, this was a nice street full of homeowners back then. Eddie Reisinger was a new councilman, he promised to have the trees removed before the smell got too bad then we never heard from the city tree teams again. The tree in front of my house partially fell, raising up the sidewalk and breaking the plumbing lines. That’s when we had it removed.

The city and a non profit did the same thing across Wilkens Avenue last year. People had the street trees removed just like I did and they put smaller native trees in their backyards, then the city crew came through with the non profit and planted more street trees.

In this area the space between the sidewalk and the street is very narrow, twenty inches, maybe a little more. It’s not big enough for healthy tall trees, anything bigger than a small redbud becomes weak and falls on the cars or people, or damages the plumbing lines. I don’t know why the city won’t develop a better program. It’s sad going to neighborhood meetings and hearing the same complaints twenty years later, no improvement, same excuses. The city doesn’t listen to residents.

I’m glad the city isn’t still planting these Bradford pears this year, the ones on my street were definitely planted by the city.