I look out my window this morning and what do I see? City workers digging up my front lawn to plant a tree. Now don’t get me wrong I like trees, and the oxygen they give off keeps me alive. But to plant a tree directly over the water main connection in the lawn, and directly under a power line is stupid, just plain old garden variety stupid. As a property owner one would think the city would have to notify us in advance, even as a small sign of respect… but no. And the city owns the lawn according to them they can do as they please. Now when the roots surround the water main, freeze and break it, I have to pay for it. When the tree reaches the power lines, I have to call them. Does anyone at the brain trust in city hall remember Hurricane Juan? I do, six trees in my bedroom is hard to forget. There are so many beautiful areas that could benefit from this beautiful little charlie brown tree… my lawn is not one of them. Maybe city hall should pay the taxes on the front lawn footage as I have no say in it. I wonder what this is costing us? Unbelievable… —Ticked Off Taxpayer with No Property Rights
This article appears in May 17-23, 2012.
That’s funny, the city does absolutely nothing about the abandoned buildings, vacant lots and the gaping hole that was the herald building, and they spend money to further beautify an already manicured lawn. Makes perfect sense to me.
o.p., and anyone else wanting to be a home owner. be advised that you do not own the land, just the building on it. the city, county or whatever own land rights to all property in this province. when you buy here, you get 1 fucking inch deep land, and building. nothing else.
if you buy water property, you do not own the water on it, just the 1 inch land under it. and you really don’t own that either. they can take it as fast as possible, if you don’t pay your taxes(rent) on it.
so, in retrospect, you never really own fuck all,the bank, gubment, or loan agency owns it, and you will pay on it forever, not a good investment now, is it? i found out the hard way people, don’t let it happen to you. that’s why i will live, and continue to live in an apartment.
That’s right they’re HRM and they’ll do whatever they like! What are you going to do about it? I thought so.
OP, show up at 2am and cut it down. The city does not care.
I’m pretty sure there’s a bylaw against planting trees near overhead lines. 4-5 years ago it went through? Might want to look into that, OP.
the streets surrounding us lost many trees to juan. when the city laid new sidewalks they cut the roots on old growth trees and they came down like dominoes
2 words OB: Lawn Mower
You’ll probably have croaked by the time this tree becomes a problem so let it go already.
we have a really old big tree right in front of our house on the city side, it sometimes gets tangled up with the power lines. we also have a water main on our lawn, we had to get rotorooted because of the tree roots invading the pipes. i love trees so i plant them in the backyard and i would not like to see the old tree come down, so no complaints from me
Happened to us after we bought our old house. The water main broke and even though it belonged to the city, we had to pay the repair (then the excavator put the topsoil in first, then the sand on top!) The break was caused by a 60 foot dying maple, also owned by the city. It kept dropping limbs when it was windy and the meanoldman next door used to walk up and down the street, picking up branches and dropping them on our lawn. Since it was the city’s tree, and I was still chuffed over the whole water break thing, I wasn’t going to pay to have it cut down, just got it on record that I called them to point out the danger.
Well, when they finally came to take care of my street they cut the top and the limbs and left a ‘stump’ that is almost as tall as the house! (The rest of the tree didn’t pose a danger, so the city wouldn’t pay the contractor to chop down the whole tree!)
While we were splitting and chopping what they did saw, neighbors wandered over with suggestions on what to do with the ‘stump’. (Wood sculpture was first, totem pole second, either of the above with our faces carved in third). what I ended up doing was nailing wooden eyes, nose and lips at child-eye level and planting wisteria at the base. (all about the sustainable gardening) This was about 10 years ago and it is the third year that it has borne blossoms. It looks kind of cool. Neighbors say, I thought you were out of you mind, but I really like it now!
I’m off to a Cinco do Mayo/Derby day party (juleps and mojitos!) have a goody!
Your water service is insulated and sleeved from the main to the property line and at least 5.5′ deep. The tree planted is only half that deep. 90% of the root structure of a tree is only found within the top 18″ of the soil. Fact!
Thank you Bill Nye, but, can you answer the REAL question that’s been on everyone’s mind?…like, why is it, that if you blow in a dog’s face, they go batshit crazy but yet, when you’re driving down the highway at 110+ km/h, they can’t wait to get their head out of the window and into the breeze? Huh? Huh? Where’s your science NOW??
Look, OB, don’t worry about. By the time this sapling has grown to the point of posing a serious problem to your property, the city will have just about decided on a new stadium/arena for future sporting events and concerts and have appropriated your property through shady, back-door real estate deals and unchecked zoning changes and marked it for demolision to start construction. Yay! Problem solved.
If you can’t beat em, join em. I read about guerrilla gardeners on the west coast who have grafted fruit tree limbs to the non bearing fruit trees planted by the city.
Just rip the tree out, what are they going to do about it?
Chill, OB, just uproot the tree and plant it in another location.
Simple.
Can’t kick about getting a free tree. 🙂
Morning Kitty. How are your folks doing?
I know a guy who knows this other guy – I can’t name names – but if you give him $500, he’ll take the tree out and make it look like an accident.
can you say….
http://www.cheapbats.com/uploads/commerce/…
Top o’ da mornin’ to ya too, Uncle Ivan!
Parents are doing well. Mom’s no longer toofless and no longer has a sad little lisp. She does, however, still have a hole in face (though that is stitched up).
The dentist literally glued her toofs back in. I told her I coulda done that with a $2 tube of krazy glue ffs.
I also told her to tell everyone that she got into a girl-gang fight and won. 😀
AHAHA MEL. Does it rhyme with “schlommy”? 😛
PS: I may or may not miss getting my lispy ma to say “pizza” at ample opportunity. 😉
LOLz – great to hear PK. Get your Mom to say something like “Samson, the Sadducee Strangler” or “Several Seditious Scribes From Caesarea”
When I filleted my thumb with an X-acto knife the ER folks opted for something very much like Crazee Glue rather than stitches. I appreciated it.
That tree will provide you with shade on a hot day, protect you from wind on a cold day (both of these things will save you on energy costs for your home). It will also capture carbon from the atmosphere which we all know is important, and it will look great! How nice are the streets of Halifax that are lined with nice large old trees, how would they look if there were no trees at all?
I can’t name names PK! When I saw what you wrote about what happened to your mom on FB, it sounded to me like she was in a fight or something!
to your question vastie, i have noticed that cats and dogs looooove morning breath
OP ….you could always follow this advice
http://forestry.about.com/od/silviculture/…