Dubai Debt Issues Push Stocks Down
GMA: Adam Lambert, No; Chris Brown, Yes
Family Gets Early Christmas Gift From Ellen DeGeneres
Mayor: Sex Trafficking Victims, Please Speak Up
Street Artist Proposes on Subway Signage
Last Tuesday, a sudden storm which downed hundreds of trees in city parks, creating what the Parks Department called the worst damage in 30 years. Our own Joe Schumacher visited Central Park and said the devastation was "heartbreaking" and took note of a raccoon who was confused: "The raccoon was disoriented. It went up and down the tree, looking around. It seemed like it didn't know what to do."
The Central Park Conservancy, which maintains the the park, started clean-up last week and estimates the cost will be in the hundreds of thousands: "Tree canopies were simply wiped away. The most severe damage occurred between 90th and 100th Streets, including a 40" London Plane tree which fell across the East Drive. The Central Park Conservancy deployed 60 operations staff and 17 contractor crews to remove debris and secure affected tree limbs." CPC VP of Operations Neil Calvanese said, "We had a wonderful chestnut tree at 100th Street and Central Park West. Records indicate the tree was planted by the Park's designer, Frederick Law Olmsted, more than 150 years ago." The tree will be removed, but Calvanese also noted the park evolves, "That's the nature of this place. We'll replant and we'll redevelop these beloved landscapes."
You can donate to the Conservancy's post-storm clean-up fund.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Great photo! That raccoon is definitely thinking "What the fuck...?"
"I can has my broker fee back?"
Looks to me like every one of those trees was rotting from the inside.
Far throw from healthy.
The "wonderful chestnut tree" that Olmsted planted.
That transplant raccoon is spoiled by the gentrification of central park.
Old New York is back!!! The weak better beware!
The wood chippers were indeed out in force in the park this morning.
It is sad, but that's nature no? It's not like someone went around the park with a chainsaw. Summer thunderstorms do damage, open the ground to sunlight, and new trees have a chance to sprout up...
That's so sad. Central Park is fantastically beautiful. I am always struck by the almost painterly composition of the view from anywhere in the park you may stand and look. I hope they can make it look good again.
Trust me, it will look great in no time. The CPC elves will have it looking spiffy in a jiffy.
a 40 inch London Plane Tree...was it a bonsai????
I was out on my bike in the park yesterday. A lot of trees down, but most already had rot, or were large branches or, since the park is very rocky, were tall with shallow roots. As sad as it looks, this is nature and nature is a bitch. Also, I thought raccoons out in the daytime were bad news crazed animals.
True, nature culls the weak (though one could argue that little in Central Park is natural). It was just sad to see all the beautiful old trees knocked down. Some were rotten inside while others were perfectly healthy. I saw one healthy stump that was about three feet in diameter.
Sad, but it's life. You can love things the way they are -- but change is the nature of life. Even the people you love will eventually change, age, etc. That's why (I think) we cling to nostalgia -- it would be nice to fight against the change and remember things the way they were.
So it's sad to think of this part of Central Park as an open space with grass rather than a wooded spot with majestic trees -- but it is just what it is. Life changes -- sometimes it changes slowly over decades, and sometimes it changes instantly in a storm. But it changes.
"The raccoon was disoriented. It went up and down the tree, looking around. It seemed like it didn't know what to do."
ROFL! Project much?
BFD-a bunch of trees were knocked down. Just plant some new ones. CP is not exactly an "old growth" forest. Every inch of that place has been scraped and re landscaped several times.