Redbud Trees Fall (Cornell Clears Trees for SUV's)

[sintax]

Redbudbud Trees Fall

Ithaca- Contractors knocked down most of a two-acre patch of woods at Cornell University on Wednesday as the school started work on a controversial parking lot.

For students, faculty and community members who have protested the razing of the area, called Redbud Woods- after some of the trees that grew there- the arrival of the heavy machinery brought tears, disappointment and fresh frustration with the administration that decided to proceed with a handful of objectors still in the trees.

www.ithacajournal.com

Please read letters section in todays edition of above linked paper for a deeper understanding of this story.

[mbperrin]

1. Congratulations, Cornell! You have now progressed to where

Frank Erwin and the University of Texas at Austin were in 1969 when they filled in a creek and ripped up large oaks to make more parking at Memorial-Darrell Royal-Football is All-Hysteria Stadium!

How does that make ya feel?

Oughta make you feel

STOOPID!

[Double T]

2. Intelligence sometimes has nothing to do with how smart you are!!!!

[Gregorian]

3. If people only knew.

Lumber is a tree. Buy lumber, cut a tree. Build a house, cut a tree. Paper= tree.

Two acres? You should see my front yard. This just a picture of them burning, after the cutting. It's only about ten acres. Trust me, you don't want to see it up close. And that's NOTHING. There are miles and miles of treeless areas that will take decades to become trees again. We don't have decades anymore. When there were a billion people, and no cars, we could cut. Not anymore.

[Lorien]

23. That's awful

;(

No-I don't think we have decades anymore. If the human race has fifty years, I'll be amazed.

[Ambrose]

4. Don't worry...

If there is one red bud tree left it will reseed itself into every imaginable location anyway. I have one redbud and I spend all summer pulling out volunteer trees it has seeded.

[sintax]

5. There isn't one Redbud or any trees left

It has been decimated, the entire area including an Oak that was older than the University. also it was more than two acres. Also this area was sacred to many in the community for years and years and the City of Ithaca said no to the project, the Town Board said no the students and faculty said no, the townspepole said no but Cornell Admin just LITERALLY bulldozed over everyone and everything for 176 parking spots for the Range Rover elites!

[RockThrower]

17. students said no????

I don't know about the rest of your assertions, but the students were generally apathetic about the Redbud issue, with the exception of a hardcore few (ie the ones who locked themselves up in Day Hall).

[WhiteTara]

16. but you must admit it's very difficult

for a tree to grow in concrete. BTW, welcome to DU :hi:

[theHandpuppet]

20. They don't reseed in a parking lot

That's called Forestry lesson 101.

[boddhi]

6. another place...

...where the Lorax and all of his friends have to leave


sigh....

[leftchick]

7. This really makes me want to cry

15 years ago I worked in Ithaca and every lunch hour I walked up the hill and all around the Cornell campus. This makes me sick.

:(

[Benhurst]

8. There is no place for such sentiments in BushAmerica. NT

[sintax]

9. Tree sits-Fasts-Lockdowns

Negotiations-Diplomacy-protests- everything was tried.

Cornell Lied and lied and Lied and I just came from the exact site as I watched them bulldoze and cut EVERY F**KING thing down- ALL OF IT.

We meet next week to get a mass march and further actions are pending.

They refused to allow support groups in to the tree sitters-just starved them out.

And Cornell is touting its pledge for 'sustainability'.

Oh but wait there was a PACT signed. Yea read the freakin' thing and all its insidious legalese.

Enraged and Outraged!!!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

10. The Culture of Life

dismisses yet another species. :cry:

[GoSolar]

11. This seems to be happening all over.

My townhouse association recently chopped down 6 lovely trees because one of them blew down in a storm. They replaced those trees with bushes.
One neighbor chopped down her gorgeous tree, which shaded my house and yard and brought a lot of pleasure. She replaced it with a bbq grill.
Another neighbor chopped down his tree which also was visible from my house and was a beautiful screen between houses.

These idiots are more concerned about micromanaging the shade of paint you use on your house, than the loss (monetary, practical and aesthetic) of destroying trees.

And now I read about a progressive place like Cornell doing this. Disgusting.

[thegreatwildebeest]

12. Progressive?

Cornell? Cornell, like many other of the Ivy League institutions, has always been firmly in the pocket of the status quo, from its upper class students, to its millions of dollars in DoD and government funding.

As for the house issue, I too dislike when people cut down trees in their yard. But at the same time I also realize that many people in suburban homes contribute far more to deforestation by buying their homes where forests once were than removing trees from their yard could ever do. Add in the amount of gas they probably use to get anywhere and you have a recipe for disaster.

[GoSolar]

14. I suppose

that is the impression I have always had of Cornell. It appears I am wrong.

I don't live in the suburbs. I live in an urban area, within walking distance to very good mass transit. The subway station was the main reason for buying my house where I did. Other reasons include the destruction of wild areas, increase in sprawl and increased use of gas to commute in suburbia. In the area I live, I rarely use my car. I can walk to almost any place I need to go. So, you see, I realize those things about suburban living as well. I additionally hate what is happening in my townhouse community, which is pretty much a separate issue from the suburbia issue.

[Lorien]

22. In hotter climates, trees can give one an energy savings (cooling)

of up to 45%. Before the hurricanes last year, my home wouldn't get warm before 4pm. Now, with so many branches stripped from the trees that overhang my home, It heats up by noon.Who gives a damn about a few leaves in the gutters or the condition of the lawn when you're saving at least $100 a month on air conditioning? Plus; they're far, far more attractive than a toxic Chemlawn!

[Earth_First]

32. Yes, Progresive...

Ithaca is one of the bastions of progressive communities in the entire NATION. Please do not be so "status quo" as to directly associate Ithaca, NY with the ivy league status of Cornell that Ithaca has so infamously been associated with. Between the primaries and general elections of 2000/2004, Ithaca (Tompkins County) has voted in favor of a progressive candidate (Nader & Kucinich respectively) by an average margin of 30% well beyond what most progressive counties in America are voting. With a 13% registered Certified Organic farming community, I'd be willing to bet that this county surpasses well beyond what most rural communities in America produce in terms of certified organic farming. Add to that the fact that Ithaca is leading the WORLDWIDE community by offering complementary currency with Ithaca Dollars. The world renowned Eco-village, and overall quality of life index for Ithaca, NY, YES, Ithaca is QUITE the progressive "city" in America.

I am PROUD of Ithaca, NY and wish that Cornell University and IC were not the ONLY associations that drawn when Ithaca is spoken of...

[LibertyLover]

15. Our homeowners' association

requires that you get their permission first before you take down a tree with greater than a 2 inch diameter. And they are very careful about giving that permission. Some owners just go ahead and cut and don't bother. One even got fined by the HOA. We did have an occassion where we had to cut without approval. A tree from the land in back of ours fell over, took out part of my our fence (which was lots of fun since I had 3 dogs in the yard when this happened and 2 took off running, although one came back soon afterwards. The third came to the back door crying. Then I had to go out looking for a greyhound with no sense of direction. Luckily I found her fairly quickly none the worse for wear.) and split one of my trees almost in half. We had to cut it down that evening so that it didn't fall over too and take out part of the house. We took photos for the HOA and they were fine with our decision. I've never understood why people want to take the trees in their yards down.

[GoSolar]

18. I wish our homeowners' association was that progressive

From what I have heard, trees contribute to property value of a home.
If nothing else, that fact alone should make people more interested in keeping trees.

[Lorien]

21. Same where I live

I tree lost a large limb at the apartment complex behind my home-so the owner took down SIX massive 100 year old live oaks. Then my neighbor cut down three trees that were giving me my last sliver of privacy from the massive, hideous apartment complex (which I didn't even know was there when I moved in). Now a fat naked man watches me from his apartment window at night as blinding security lights flood through my bedroom window! The neighbor across the street cut down three live oaks in his front yard because he wanted a perfect Chemlawn. The neighborhood is NOTHING like the place I moved into seven years ago-and I moved here because the apartment complex I had been living at cut down all their live oaks and pine trees and replaced them with palms-for a more "Floridian" flavor. :grr:

My theories; people have both too much money and too many control issues. They feel the overwhelming need to "dominate" nature in whatever what they can. It's all an illusion.

[GoSolar]

26. Hi Lorien

sorry to read about your situation. It sounds much worse than mine.
But we feel the same way, that the neighborhood is nothing like when we bought it because of the loss of trees.

I try to figure why people go out of their way to do this stuff and I agree with your theories. I fear there is no remedy for that.

[Ilsa]

13. Oh how thoughtful! Isn't that thoughtful, sintax? :sarcasm:

[Gloria]

19. Boo, Cornell!! No money from me, Class of '72

Back then, Cornell was a HOTBED of activism....

[ovidsen]

24. Yeah. Class of '73 here...

Those were the days....

[newswolf56]

25. In addition to all the other good points people have made, trees are...

living beings and should be respected as such. Remember the Native American Gary Snyder talks about in Earth Household -- or perhaps it is in Myths and Texts -- the man who gave up logging because he could not bear to hear the trees scream as his chainsaw ripped into their trunks.

Alas, the eradication of nature is the essence of patriarchy:

"But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves" (Exodus 34:13).

In this case, merely so the children of the plutocracy may flaunt their wealth by squandering ever-more-scarce resources on ever-more-ostentatious machines.

[Xithras]

27. Why couldn't they build around them?

Building in an environmentally concious manner doesn't mean that every stretch of dirt has to be left pristine, it simply means that you have to work WITH the existing natural environment.

Three years ago my college needed to expand a small parking lot into a neighboring 1 acre field (maybe 1.5, I'm not good with field sizes). When the plan was initially floated, several people raised concerns about the fields current residents...eleven 70 year old oak trees. Rather than blow them off, the architect came up with a plan that only removed two trees, and built the parking lot around the rest of the trees. The trees are connected by wide 10 foot medians and are doing quite well today.

The result was win-win. The birds and squirrels that lived in the trees are still there. The trees will live to see another 70 years. Our new parking lot is very attractive. And our cars are MUCH cooler in the summer thanks to the shade cast by the huge trees.

[Rainscents]

28. I get sick to my stomach whenever construction companies start bull

dosing trees... I know that, plants and trees detox the environment and gives more oxygen into air.

[Massachusetts]

29. Cercis Canadensis

[SmokingJacket]

30. This is about more than trees.

This parking lot had almost no support. The small patch of redbud trees acted as a buffer between the campus (and its endless construction projects) and residential areas. It acted as a place for water to soak into the ground rather than run downhill into the neighborhood.

Cornell doesn't want to hamper a single rich, spoiled, Hummer-driving student from easy parking. Why? Because then that full-tuition paying student might go to another school. My own pretty prestigious college way back in the 80s didn't even allow freshmen to have cars... but a policy like that would lose Cornell many, many rich students.

Nevertheless, 176 parking places could be found elsewhere very easily. They could have turned an existing parking lot into a garage, no problem, and added hundreds of places.

What this came down to is that Cornell felt it could NOT cave into a bunch of protesters -- even when that bunch of protesters turned into a huge movement of students, faculty, and community members. It was about maintaining power (and the appearance of power, which is the same thing) at all costs -- even though that meant fencing in protesters without access to a toilet and forcing them to crap in their pants or give in to Cornell.

What happened here was UGLY and VICIOUS. It was an example of a big, powerful institution forcing its agenda on people who had no power except their voices.

[DS1]

31. Where does the link you posted say anything about this?

The most recent article I could find on the matter says that an agreement was reached that didn't involve bringing all the trees down.

[sintax]

33. the article and the "agreement"

are misleading. The truth is in being there. As an eyewitness I assure you the trees are gone. If you doubt this go take a look. Gone, demolished,razed etc...

Cornell sold the students on lies and already they have witnessed the dirty reality of how meaningless such "pacts" are to those in power.