Some folks in Queens did not think they’d ever see anything as annoying as new trees.
Jamaica residents griped yesterday that Mayor Bloomberg’s drive to plant a million trees in the city burdens them with the chores of watering, mulching and raking leaves from new trees plunked in front of their homes.
“I think they’re beautiful — in another place,” said wheelchair-bound Joan Rivers, 68, who recently found five new trees planted in front of her home on 115th Avenue.
The workers hung a flyer from her doorknob with instructions for the trees’ care.
“I’m supposed to water and care for these trees, and make sure no dog-doo is around them?” Rivers asked. “I’m not capable of it.”
“I can hardly take care of the plants in my own home . . . I’m not even capable of cooking in my kitchen. I sit in a wheelchair!”
How workers went about planting the trees is also an issue.
Neighbors of St. Bonaventure Catholic Church on 170th Street are wondering why workers tore out two sidewalk slabs to plant two new trees that block pedestrians’ paths.
“Those two were planted in the wrong place,” said Father Gordon Kusi, the church’s pastor. But he said the Parks Department told him it had “no control” over the trees’ placement.
When neighbor Mark Field asked the workers’ supervisor why they were cutting up the sidewalk for the two trees, the supervisor checked a clipboard and answered: “Those are my orders.”
“Obviously, the people who did that had just had a liquid lunch. It doesn’t make sense,” said City Councilman Leroy Comrie, a Democrat.
The Parks Department says the two trees meet its rules, since there’s enough room on the sidewalk for pedestrians to pass.
But Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said that the city is not forcing them to care for the trees.
“There are no requirements,” Benepe said, explaining that a tree “is part of the city’s infrastructure, like a fire hydrant or light pole.”
Owners of one-, two- and three-family homes bear no responsibility for the damage tree roots can cause to sidewalks, Benepe said. “The homeowner is required to maintain the sidewalk and shovel it [in winter],” he said. “But if the trees’ roots cause damage to the sidewalk, the city will fix the sidewalk at its expense.”