Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Did The City Tell A Lie About Why It Chopped Down Cherry Trees In Queens?
By
John Del Signore
Published May 7, 2012
Modified May 7, 2012
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Geoffrey Croft/A Walk in the Park
By
John Del Signore
Published May 7, 2012
Modified May 7, 2012
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Last month, you may recall, at least nine beautiful blooming cherry trees were chopped down outside Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens. Blogger Geoffrey Croft was outraged to learn, at first, that the trees were killed to make way for a "staging area," for construction of a new $17 million atrium on the property. But the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) told us, "While preparing for the Queens Borough Hall project, we found that the cherry trees were diseased and needed to be removed." Now, however, Croft has learned that most, if not all, of the trees were healthy.
In an email obtained by A Walk in the Park, an architect for the project wrote to DCAS in June of 2009 to say, "one of our Landscape Architects who is also an arborist visited the site last week to confirm the trees on the survey, identify species and review condition and quality of the existing trees... three cherries in the northern lawn area should be removed because of disease, decline, etc., and the remainder of the cherries, while in desperate need of pruning, are in good condition."
Last month we asked DCAS for documentation of the trees' inspection, but a DCAS spokesperson did not respond. Croft believes the city is just covering up an unnecessary arborcide. DCAS claims that in addition to the 2009 inspection, which found fungal conditions in three of the trees, they also conducted an in-house "assessment" earlier this year. But there is no documentation of this assessment, or at least none that DCAS is willing to provide. Croft writes:
By current arboricultural standards and protocol the DCAS project manager should have relied on a tree health report either performed by an in-house certified arborist or by an independent consultant arborist. The arborist report would have included the findings of a diagnostic laboratory analysis of a tree wood samples with assumed fungal pathogens and bacterial disease. And the arborist would then have fully assessed the magnitude of the plant disease, possible treatments, woody decay as well as tree related public safety concerns, that may have justified tree removal.
Having a contractor, or landscape architect or an arborist for that matter simply walk the grounds and offer up an informal eye-ball assessment of a situation without producing legitimate documentation to back up the decision to destroy these vital tree assets is unacceptable, critics say.
Geoffrey Croft: he speaks for the trees. According to a new DCAS plan, half of the remaining 24 cherry trees will be destroyed in order to build the new atrium, which will be haunted evermore by the ghosts of slaughtered trees.
Tagged
arborcide
cherry trees
queens borough hall
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
US judge in NY indefinitely blocks ICE from making arrests at immigration courthouses
The judge said a Trump rule change lifting restrictions on such arrests violated administrative procedure law.
By
Arya Sundaram
Published Oct 1, 2026 at 5:47 p.m. ET
Lawyer challenging NYC rent freeze releases Mamdani officials’ emails and text messages
A judge had ordered officials to turn over correspondence with the Rent Guidelines Board. Randy Mastro has now asked the court to make them sit for interviews.
By
David Brand
News
Lawyer challenging NYC rent freeze releases Mamdani officials’ emails and text messages
A judge had ordered officials to turn over correspondence with the Rent Guidelines Board. Randy Mastro has now asked the court to make them sit for interviews.
By
David Brand
Push to strengthen NY sexual assault laws gathers steam after Cornell rape allegations
By
Walter Wuthmann
and
Jon Campbell
NYC mulls building temporary highway in sky over Brooklyn Bridge to fix BQE
By
Liam Quigley
and
Carol Chen
The most expensive congressional race in NJ history? This could be the one.
By
Mike Hayes
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .