The Mayor

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned my conversation with the Mayor. It was about a tree.

Next to our vetrinarian's office stands a tree. If I could ever figure out how to drop pictures into these blogs, I'd show you the picture I took of it. My daughter stood in front of it, dwarfed by the enormous trunk. The limbs undulate like that Hindu goddesses arms, beautiful and mysterious. I had thought the tree was an oak, but when I actually got out and examined it, it turned out to be a maple. So I must admit that I claimed it was an oak when it was a maple. Nevertheless, it's a tree with some drama to its form, strength to its stature, and a fair amount of endurance and determination. It is standing in a slip of land leftover after the vet's parking lot was poured on one side, and on the other is a road. It's kind of wedged into a triangle of remaining soil, yet stubbornly persists on flourishing.

The vet told me the tree was coming down.

The city, it seems, wants to improve that intersection by putting in a roundabout, or a rond point, as they call them in Belgium and France. The city seems enamored with these roundabouts and has been installing them as many places as they can justify them, and a few place where they can't. In order to plan, excavate, re-route, pour and finish this roundabout, the vet's office has to be torn down, and I was told the tree goes, too. A tree--obviously at least a hundred years old, maybe more--has to go down so that the city can put in a roundabout. I've driven that route countless times. It's at the corner where I used to work years ago. It's the corner I pass on my way to the dentist, on my way to one of the major supercenter shopping centers, it's en route to the school my kids went to two years ago. It's near the DMV, even. It's next to the church I used to attend...I know that spot. Yes, the traffic gets busy. There is a four-way stop with a flashing red light. Yes, it gets a little clogged. But is it bad enough to tear down natural history standing like a centurion guarding our past as progress crowds around it?

I hate that.

So I phoned the mayor of the city. He said that federal funds had been secured for that project, so it was out of his hands. He told me who to contact, so I wrote another email and asked about the tree. Supposedly they are checking to confirm if the tree is going. No one has gotten back to me. ]

Will the tree stay or go? Will anyone remember it, once it's gone? Will anyone respect and honor it if it stays? Will they smile as they pass it, or grieve if it's gone, as they circle around on their way to the supercenter?