About 200 trees are now gone in downtown neighborhoods like Greenwich Village, Soho, and Chinatown, according to the NY Post. Instead, "The missing limbs have left leaf-lorn neighborhoods pocked with muddy, litter-strewn craters and ugly stumps." And it seems like some of the missing trees are the victim of "delivery trucks, contractors, vandals, and people who simply ax them."
While green and beautiful, some institutions view trees as annoyances and others, who may be more troubled, just like attacking them. Accusations are flying in Little Italy, because of three missing trees that used to be outside Da Gennaro restaurant. Residents think they were removed for sidewalk dining—one said, "I'm outraged, but welcome to Little Italy... With the city pushing to plant trees to help improve the quality of air, and just to make it look nice and pretty, the merchants are cutting down trees here." The restaurant's owner claims they were deemed hazardous by the Parks department, but, mysteriously enough, the Parks Department says they only removed two.
NYC Parks Advocates' Geoffrey Croft says the city's mad rush to hit quotas in the Million Trees program hurts neighborhoods, "[The city will] plant where there's a space, and rarely inform the community. Sometimes, people do not like trees, and take matters into their own hands."
