City Won’t Take Damaged Trees Until After Wednesday’s Storm

Damaged and dangerous trees line the streets of Ditmas Park in the wake of Sandy, hanging precariously over neighbors walking and driving past. City workers won’t be in the neighborhood in earnest to handle most of the trees until Thursday, said District Manager Shawn Campbell at last night’s Community Board 14 meeting. In between now and then is a storm that will bring over 50 mile per hour winds to the neighborhood peaking tomorrow night.

The city has dealt with over 638,000 311 calls, according to Shawn, 28% of which were from Brooklyn, 29% of which were from Community District 14. “85% of work orders have been addressed,” said Shawn. City employees have inspected numerous dangerous trees in the neighborhood but even when the trees have been declared hazardous (as pictured above), they remained standing and waiting for tomorrow’s nor’easter.

“The trees are hollow,” said Inspector Eric Rodriguez at last night’s meeting. “Everyone knows the best way to get a pole out of the ground is to shake it back and forth. That’s what happens to these trees. Branches are loose. Be smart. When this storm comes on Wednesday, stay inside.”

Remember we are mapping all the dangerous trees in the neighborhood. You can continue to send us info and photos of the trees at ditmasparkcorner@gmail.com or you can enter the information directly on the map, located here.