Allied -- against the trees

City redevelopment plan would uproot foliage

January 17, 2008

9:44 PM

Schreiber/Anderson Associates

Many trees on Allied will go with the old apartments.

Amid all the talk about affordability, it's easy to lose sight of other aspects of the

Stalker did not return phone calls seeking clarification of her comments. At the public meeting, she said the city wouldn't know which of the trees would be felled until a survey of the site was done. But she predicted that the new buildings would require eliminating most of them.

Stu Levitan, chair of the Community Development Authority, which is leading the redevelopment, says the city has no choice. "In the toss up between safe, quality, affordable housing and the trees, ultimately we went with the housing."

Fair enough. But how ironic that in trying to "improve" the Allied Drive neighborhood, the city might wipe out one of the few good things about it.