How do you define hypocrisy, Mayor Bloomberg? 14 Union Square Trees Scheduled to Come Down



This photo of a “MillionTreesNYC” very green promotional set-up was taken on April 28th on Union Square Plaza at the South End. “MillionTreesNYC” is part of Mayor Bloomberg’s environmental plans to add a million trees in New York City by year 2030. I view it as mostly p.r.

Time Magazine was so taken by Mayor Bloomberg‘s efforts that they named him one of the most influential people in the world in their last issue and took a picture of our CEO Mayor outside City Hall – in a tree!

However, in a matter of days, at the North end of Union Square Park, fourteen mature trees will be chopped down under the direction of Mayor Bloomberg and NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe.

My belief was that the trees had been spared by the latest court decision but unfortunately I was incorrect.

According to Parks Commissioner Benepe and the Union Square Partnership(the business improvement district which has tremendous influence over Union Square Park), in order to construct an expanded playground and possibly a restaurant, the City — rather than save the mature trees and incorporate them into the design plan — has decided to level them. If you ask Parks Commissioner Benepe, as I have, he will undoubtedly say … we’re planting more. (Saplings – baby trees, by the way.) But that is not the answer.

At Washington Square Park, eleven mature trees have been felled thus far under the City’s redesign “plans” which aim to “align” the famous Fountain with the historic Arch. At Randall’s Island, thousands have been slaughtered in the interest of privatizing that space. Mulally and Macombs Parks in the Bronx were sacrificed by the Parks Department and the City to make way for a new Yankee Stadium: 400 trees were axed in the process. East River Park‘s “reconstruction” included the destruction of 105 trees. At Highland Park/Ridgewood Reservoir on the Brooklyn-Queens border, Parks Commissioner Benepe hopes to chop down thousands of trees to put in artificial turf.

The protection of our urban environment should be coming FROM the Parks Department.

The Union Square Trees are next on the Bloomberg Administration’s chopping block. How do we stop these trees from being unnecessarily destroyed?

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hy*poc*ri*sy: n 1: a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not

(Source: Webster’s Dictionary)

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