Teens gone wild? Chop down trees'Green' city pulls out the chainsaw to deal with loitering in park |
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It seems those blooming tree-hugging hypocrites who purport to be running Toronto (into the ground) have quietly reduced 19 healthy, mature Austrian pines and ash trees to ugly, sentry-like stumps in Mossgrove Park, located in the tony York Mills Rd. and Leslie St. area.
This latest City Hall chainsaw massacre occurred on April 15, one week before Earth Day. The deed was sanctioned by the city's tree police and ward councillor Cliff Jenkins, who claims it was done to improve "community safety" at a park where teens have been loitering, dealing drugs and conducting other "undesirable activities" for years.
"This is a community safety issue ... it's not a tree issue," Jenkins told me late last week, noting 30 replacement trees, as yet unspecified, will be planted in the park.
By contrast, on April 29 Coun. Mike Del Grande failed to get the two-thirds vote required from council to reconsider the case of a Grandville Ave. couple who've been told they can't take down an invasive Norway Maple infiltrating their tiny home -- unless they cough up $10,526, which includes the value of the offending tree.
In fact, before the vote, the pompous Tree Emperor Joe Pantalone shouted to his colleagues to register "No." (Jenkins, to his credit, supported the couple.)
While this kind of twisted logic has made it clear -- at least to me -- that Toronto's draconian private tree bylaw is being applied inconsistently and on a most selective basis, I dare say the safety excuse is the best I've heard to date for clear-cutting an entire stand of healthy trees.
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