People who gathered in Mosby Court on Monday for a children’s Christmas party witnessed a Yule season tree cutting that left them perplexed and unnerved.
Roughly eight or nine trees — some at least a century old — had been reduced to stumps in the Raven Street area of the public housing community, recalled Maisie Osteen, an attorney with the Legal Aid Justice Center who attended the community event.
Attendees at a children’s Christmas celebration in Mosby Court arrived Monday to a scene of cut trees in the public housing community.
The Davey Tree Expert Co. was back on the job Tuesday. But by then, the sawing of trees had been joined by an alarming buzz that extended beyond Mosby Court to City Hall. Richmond Councilwoman Ellen Robertson, who represents Mosby Court, contacted the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority to get to the bottom of the matter.
She asked for an arborist report, a replanting schedule and whether any alternatives had been considered other than removal. She hadn’t received her answers when we spoke Tuesday afternoon.
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“But absolutely one thing for certain: no communication to the community,” Robertson said.
“They have agreed that they’re going to put a delay on their implementation of their plan until they have a meeting with me and the community,” she said.
RRHA spokesperson Angela Fountain, in an email later Tuesday, said that the trees were being cut “as part of a curb appeal improvement request that came from the City of Richmond to RRHA for several of our public housing sites including the Mosby Court community.
“These trees are approximately 100 years old and have been identified as a hazard in two capacities — 1) adverse impact to RRHA’s roof systems and downspouts. And 2) their root base has minimized soil capacity to grow grass and sustain and maintain land based plant beds.”
Jim Nolan, press secretary to Mayor Levar Stoney, said the tree removal is an RRHA project with no city involvement.
“The city requested RRHA to pick up trash and remove brush — not trees,” Nolan said. “Beautification and safety is not enhanced by removing healthy trees that do not otherwise pose a threat to RRHA residents or their dwellings. We expect RRHA to plant more trees in these neighborhoods, and replace the ones that were cut down.”
According to Fountain, an additional 30 trees in Mosby South are proposed for pruning and removal. But RRHA CEO Steven Nesmith “has put an immediate pause on further curb improvement efforts until we meet with community residents to hear their voices and speak with the City about our strategy.”
Better late than never, unless you’re a tree reduced to a log or a stump. Still, the sight of trees being downed left residents baffled. One Mosby resident, who declined to identify himself for fear of reprisal, said his first thought was: “Why?”
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“It’s gonna be a heat desert for the kids who will be outside during the summer,” playing without shade, he said.
Asked about the lack of communication with residents, Fountain said Nesmith, who began his tenure in October, “was unaware of the actions that were already in motion regarding our tree removal contract, so it was proceeding without revisiting a communications strategy.”
Amy Wentz attended Monday’s Christmas gathering in Mosby Court held by 2Love LLC, a consulting company that helps underserved communities. She is the co-founder of Southside ReLeaf, a volunteer-based environmental justice organization that has planted nearly 800 trees in South Richmond during the past couple of years.
Wentz said Tuesday that Keisha Cummings, founder and CEO of 2Love, has advocated the planting of trees as memorials to the city’s homicide victims. Sadly, Wentz and Cummings were preparing Tuesday morning to attend the funeral of a homicide victim, DeAndre Broidy, whom Cummings considered like a son.
“At the same time she’s attempting to plant more trees, they’re doing this,” Wentz said.
Trees represent more than potential memorials in places like Mosby. The dearth of them creates a phenomenon called the heat island effect — a legacy of redlining in areas with lots of asphalt and relatively little vegetation. These neighborhoods also tend to be more polluted, more flood-prone and less healthy than their non-redlined counterparts.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration mapped heat islands in Richmond. The city’s warmest neighborhoods “were generally those with the highest areas of impermeable surfaces and the lowest areas of tree canopy. These neighborhoods can sometimes be home to families with income levels below the poverty line” who may be more vulnerable to heat issues if they lack air conditioning, according to an article written by Jeremy S. Hoffman, a scientist at the Science Museum of Virginia.
In 2020, the Science Museum of Virginia received a three-year grant of nearly $308,000 from the NOAA to help redlined neighborhoods become more resilient to climate change.
“Beyond the trees’ individual age and worth, these trees are a point of pride for the community. They stand tall, they are beautiful, and they have been the backdrop of a lot of community events and personal stories. But, they also serve an incredibly important role in providing shade to the community,” Osteen said.
To the extent we remove healthy trees from vulnerable communities, we are perpetrating environmental injustice.
PHOTOS: Recognize these Richmond-area places?
In October 1951, workers constructed a section of Forest Hill Avenue in South Richmond. The segment sits between Westover Hills Boulevard and Prince Arthur Road.
In December 1990, a Richmond Ballet dancer stretched before rehearsal of “The Nutcracker.”
In February 1953, Richmond Department of Utilities workers used a 65-foot hook-and-ladder firetruck to install new lights on Broad Street after attempts to secure other ladder equipment from private companies had failed.
In May 1954, Scoop sniffed around the pet food aisle at a grocery store in Richmond’s West End. The store offered a large selection of pet foods, a relatively new concept for the era. The accompanying article said: “Gone, apparently, are the days that Fido took the scraps from the table and liked them.”
In September 1942, members of Richmond Hotels Inc. donated typewriters to the War Production Board and the Office of War Information in response to an appeal for businesses to let the government have any machines they could spare.
In August 1981, children enjoyed outdoor recreation at Camp Happyland in the Richardsville area of Culpeper County, not far from Fredericksburg. The Salvation Army started the camp in the late 1950s to improve children’s health through exercise and proper nutrition.
In March 1971, a crowd estimated at several hundred waited outside City Council chambers at City Hall in downtown Richmond. Residents of the recently annexed Broad Rock area were protesting the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s proposal for low-rent public housing in the area.
In March 1969, a sign went up to mark the site of Henrico County’s first permanent designated library, on Laburnum Avenue near New Market Road. On hand were (from left) Varina District Supervisor Edwin Ragsdale, library board trustee Mrs. F.M. Vaughan, library assistant Virginia Liles and county libraries director David Rowland. The library opened in December 1970.
In June 1969, a Trappist monk at the Holy Cross Abbey near Berryville in Clarke County began his daily meditation. The monks spent their days balancing quiet prayer, spiritual reading and manual labor.
In June 1956, the Rev. Lawrence V. Bradley Jr. of Grove Avenue Baptist Church in Richmond and his secretary, Jean Bolton, got out the summertime heat beater: a simple cardboard fan. The pews were liberally stocked during the warm months because the church had no air conditioning.
In July 1959, the normally bustling downtown Richmond business district, including this stretch along Eighth and Main streets, was much quieter as motorists stayed home because of triple-digit heat.
In April 1966, Union Bag-Camp Paper Corp. officials oversaw manufacturing at a new plant in Chesterfield County. The facility produced millions of bags for supermarket chains and other clients on the East Coast. At the time, about 265 employees worked in two local company plants; the old factory at 13th and Canal streets in Richmond was open for limited operation until it was sold.
In March 1969, a sign went up to mark the site of Henrico County’s first permanent designated library, on Laburnum Avenue near New Market Road. The branch opened in December 1970. Posing with the sign were (from left) Varina District Supervisor Edwin Ragsdale, library board trustee Mrs. F.M. Vaughan, library assistant Virginia Liles and county libraries director David Rowland.
In August 1982, David Tidwell of Croaker posed with his girlfriend’s dog, Blazing Amber of Cinder, at the humorous “Norge Dog Station” at Norge Grocery on U.S. Route 60 west of Williamsburg. The sign had been put up seven years earlier, and the spot became a popular photo opportunity for visitors.
In March 1987, in preparation for new carpeting, the Dumbarton branch library in Henrico County had to remove about 80,000 books from shelves. About 50 people handled the first phase overnight — but restocking the shelves awaited.
This 1957 photo shows Collegiate School in the 1600 block of Monument Avenue in Richmond. The Town School elementary building was on the left and the high school on the right. In 1960, the Town School and the Country Day School merged, operating on the campus off River and Mooreland roads in Henrico County. It remains the location today.
In November 1970, a Richmond officer rode his horse by the police bureau’s new stables, which were under construction. The facility near Brook Road and Chamberlayne Avenue included eight stalls, a scrub area, a horseshoeing area and a tack room. The bureau had been looking for an established home for its horses since the mid-1960s, when the Virginia National Guard moved from the Richmond Howitzers downtown armory, where the horses had been stabled for two decades.
In March 1971, a crowd estimated at several hundred waited outside City Council chambers at City Hall in downtown Richmond. Residents of the recently annexed Broad Rock area were protesting the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s proposal for low-rent public housing in the area.
In November 1948, Army Lt. Charles D. Smith Jr. administered the oath to the first set of postwar draftees processed at the Richmond induction station at First and Broad streets. Several of the men were immediately sent to Camp Pickett in Blackstone.
In December 1938, Richmond Glass Shop had a new home at 814 W. Broad St., site of the old Ashland Railway Station. The shop, run by brothers Frank R. and A.G. Bialkowski, had glass of many types, and offered bath and kitchen installation, storefront construction and paint products.
In March 1979, corrections officer Howard Alexander held the homemade rope used by convicted murderer Michael Irwin Cross to escape from the State Penitentiary, then located along Spring Street in downtown Richmond. Cross was captured two months later after attempting to free a fellow convict who was being treated at Medical College of Virginia Hospital.
In June 1986, “Mr. Newspaper” greeted a young girl and her mother at a Richmond-area mall. The RTD mascot often traveled around town promoting the newspaper.
In July 1951, Alonzo Moore, 74, walked down a street in Cape Charles on Virginia’s Eastern Shore and blew his horn, alerting locals to his sale of the fresh catch of the day.
In July 1960, the Schellenberg family of Highland Springs prepared to have a bomb shelter installed in their yard, one of Virginia’s first privately owned radiation fallout shelters. The enclosure was designed to accommodate up to six people during a nuclear attack. The horizontal steel tank (rear) was 7 feet in diameter and 16 feet long. Once installed, the only elements aboveground would be a domed entrance and air filter and exhaust pipes.
In June 1979, Terry Woo set bricks for a walkway as construction of Kanawha Plaza in downtown Richmond continued. The $4 million dollar city-financed plaza linked the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond building and the Virginia Electric and Power Co. building.
In July 1951, two women enjoyed the white sand beach of Cape Charles on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
In June 1968, workers welded boilers at Old Dominion Iron and Steel Corp., located on Belle Isle under the Lee Bridge in Richmond. At the time, Old Dominion’s owner was interested in expanding operations, and the city was interested in using the island as part of a James River park. The company’s history on Belle Isle spanned from before the Civil War to the 1970s.
In November 1972, after the remnants of Hurricane Agnes had washed out a bridge, a barge carried vehicles and workers across the James River from Tredegar Street toward Belle Isle in Richmond. A day earlier, a welder for Old Dominion Iron and Steel Corp. drowned after a boat carrying him and others capsized on the same route.
This December 1973 photo shows the front counter in Roaring Twenties, a new restaurant and nightclub on state Route 10 in the Hopewell area. It was designed to resemble a 1920s speakeasy, with features including an antique cash register, a diving girl and even a dining table from Al Capone’s Florida home.
In October 1969, cadets at John Marshall High School in Richmond posed with their ribbon-bedecked sponsors after an awards ceremony. The school’s Corps of Cadets was established in 1915 — it was the first military training program in a public school in Virginia — and disbanded in 1971.
In May 1989, a transformer exploded under the sidewalk on the Fourth Street side of the Richmond Newspapers Inc. building downtown. The ensuing fireball charred two cars parked on the street and sent flames up the side of the building. No one was hurt in the nighttime explosion, and delivery of the next morning’s Richmond Times-Dispatch (which was printed in the building) was only slightly delayed.
In August 1972, motorists approaching construction on Interstate 64 south of Bryan Park in Richmond were greeted by a robot signalman waving a bright red flag. “Silent Sam,” as the decoy was nicknamed, was used by the state Department of Highways to slow drivers as they neared workmen building an I-195 interchange and bridge near the Acca rail yards.
richmond.com
https://richmond.com/opinion/columnists/williams-richmonds-high-poverty-neighborhoods-need-tree-planting-not-tree-removal/article_a9e97cc9-3ce1-509d-8132-99e169037977.html
