I believe that Mike Collins, our Forester, actually went to a few houseds where thre are no trees and offered free trees and they didn't want them. Too many messy leaves to clean up, grass doesn't grow well beneath them, etc. Amazing. You should have seen this place fifty years ago. You could walk to places when it was raining and hardly get wet, the tree cover on most streets was so dense. It was really "The Village in a Forest" then. I think the two Mikes would have us back to that if they were given the budget and help they need, instead of wasting it on these paper pushers.
Riverside Info » About Riverside
Come On Riversiders - Save This Tree!!!
(60 posts)-
Posted Tuesday Mar 20, 2007 14:03 #
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Couldn't the Village summarily plant trees on the parkway, the non-private property on the properties without the two tree per property specification of Olmsted? I am saying this in response to the properties where the Village was offering free trees.
Posted Tuesday Mar 20, 2007 14:12 # -
I have 5 side by side neighbors that have a total of 4 trees (instead of 10 minimum by the FLO plan). It reminds me of one of those "new neighborhood subdivisions" that get built on farmland. Ugh.
I've offered to donate/plant trees for them and they've responded with that exact annoyance Spatny wrote about...how disheartening~
Posted Tuesday Mar 20, 2007 15:07 # -
I think they sometimes do that, but in some cases I think the owners have said they don't want trees there. They may have planted them anyway - but I think the Forester tries to comply with resident's expressed wishes because then who will water them during their first years, etc. As you can see from the Workshop turnout, not every one in Riverside cares about trees. Strange, but true.
Posted Tuesday Mar 20, 2007 15:07 # -
I hope that this late summer or fall we can launch a Village-wide tree planting day that will involve the RBHS ecology club, people like John Kolar, the Olmsted Society and the Village Forester and that we can support this program to get more trees in. What w really need to do - as per the opinions of those that attended the workshops - is support the DPW/Forestry Department so they can accomplish what they want to do - take better care of what we have and add new stock. If the money squandered on these consultants had been spent like that Mike Collins could have the help he needs. I was just looking at some of the consultant bills and it seems that every time these hired hands are asked a question we could have another tree. Instead of tormenting people like Mike T and threatening him with ED we coud have a much more beautiful environment. Instead of wasting money on plans for "boutique hotels" and pitching inane deals to lure traffic into town and trying to change Riverside into something it was never intended to be we could teach the children of "the new Riversiders" to respect nature and treasure our precious little island of tranquility. I hope the voters will show their total disdain for the Trustees that bet our money on these convoluted schemes that will enrich the hit-and-run developers and destroy our peaceful ambiance. More trees will help to clear the noxious gases that Trustee Smith wants to eliminate from our parks far more than plastering no smoking signs on trees and buildings. When will they learn what is tryly valuable and what makes this community so desireable? Like the sign says, "It's the trees, stupid."
Posted Tuesday Mar 20, 2007 15:25 # -
They spent so much money on the "CBD" zoning, why don't we have an ordinance that there must be 2 trees between your building and the street? After all, there are banned species. That's one in front, and one on the parkway. This must be part of the "new demographic" who thought they were moving to Naperville.
Well, keep it up. The property values will go down, and property taxes with them. And, oh, forget about those tourists. And maybe our national historic landscape architect district status too. After all, that does actually require the presence of trees.
Posted Tuesday Mar 20, 2007 15:53 # -
We could rename Burlington...
"The Street of the Lifted Lorax"
...that probably wouldn't even cost that much...
Posted Tuesday Mar 20, 2007 19:15 # -
I'm waiting for these "Master Builders" to start an Honorary Names program for the streets. Wait - I think we already have one on DesPlaines, don't we. Burlington will be one of the first to be renamed, because it's where the monument is.
Posted Tuesday Mar 20, 2007 19:30 # -
Tim, good name. I was not familiar with that tale. I will read it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lorax
Synopsis
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
A boy comes to a dark, desolate corner of town called "the Street of the Lifted Lorax," to learn who the Lorax was and how he got "lifted and taken away." Through a "whisper-ma-phone," the Once-ler tells the boy what happened. When the Once-ler first arrived at this place, it was a beautiful, sunny forest where the Swomee-Swans sang, the Humming-Fish hummed, and the Brown Bar-ba-loots played in the shade while eating the fruit of the Truffula Trees, colorful woolly trees spread throughout the area. Enchanted by these gorgeous trees, the Once-ler built a small shop, where he chopped down a tree and knitted a Thneed, an odd-looking but versatile garment that he insisted "everyone needs." Out of the stump popped a strange little man called the Lorax, who claimed to "speak for the trees."The Lorax first pooh-poohed the Once-ler's creation, until someone came along and bought it. Spurred by greed, the Once-ler invited all his relatives to town where they started a huge Thneed-making business, chopping down Truffula Trees left and right, much to the Lorax's distress. The skies gradually got darker and more polluted, forcing the Lorax to send the Bar-ba-loots, the swans, and the fish off in search of a better place to live. The Once-ler, while upset to see the animals go, dismissed the Lorax's pleadings until the last Truffula Tree got chopped down, leaving the Once-ler alone with the Lorax and a failed business in a desolate place under a dark smoggy sky. With a "sad backward glance," the Lorax picked himself up by the "seat of his pants" and floated away through a hole in the smog. At the end of the story, the Once-ler reveals that he has one last Truffula seed left, and instructs the boy to start a new forest so that "the Lorax and all of his friends may come back."
Interpretation
The Once-ler ran his company with the exclusive goal of increasing its sales and profits as rapidly as possible, a common practice in a corporate market economy: "business is business and business must grow." In the process he ignored the long-term sustainability of his business and environmental concerns such as biodiversity and habitat loss. In his old age he tells a curious boy about the splendor of nature in his youth and the growth and crash of industry at the far end of town.Discovering the potential for profit in a lush forest of Truffula trees, the Once-ler began clearcutting it to mass-market Thneeds made from the Truffula tree tufts. The Lorax vehemently protested the destruction of the Truffula forest, stating that the Once-ler was crazy with greed and that his business was destroying the Truffula ecosystem, causing mass migrations of native fauna, including the bear-like Bar-ba-loots and species of fish and birds. The Once-ler didn't listen; he continued clearcutting the trees and dumping industrial waste into nearby ponds. Eventually the Once-ler's Thneed business consumed every single Truffula tree, eliminating the Truffula forest ecosystem and putting his own company out of business. The Once-ler's relatives abandoned him, and the Lorax flew away, leaving behind a small pile of rocks inscribed with the word "UNLESS."
With age the Once-ler has come to realize the folly of his ways and the importance of conservation. Speaking to the boy in the story, and directly to the reader, the Once-ler explains that "unless" people take an active and caring role in their environment, "nothing is going to get better, it's not." The Once-ler then gives the boy the very last Truffula seed, telling him to grow a new tree and eventually a forest and protect it from unsustainable industrial practices, and that then perhaps the Lorax and his animal friends would return.
Posted Wednesday Mar 21, 2007 10:24 # -
Here is the cicada information I promised Kim J.
Please copy paste this link to your browser or go to the news section at the Village of Riverside website
http://riverside.il.us/index.asp?Type=B_PR&SEC={F810AA08-226D-43B6-A45F-B109A3AB7671}&DE={55F75D23-D42C-4B85-A146-10BE6B6F0DC7}
or http://tinyurl.com/2fgxap (more clickable)Posted Friday Mar 23, 2007 07:58 #
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