A Balcony View:

Picture this. You wake up. You dress for work. You go out to get the paper. It’s a beautiful, crisp winter morning. You peruse the front page. And as you turn to go back inside, you discover two 7-foot-tall trees have been planted on your front lawn.

For some unknown reason, the city of Glendale decided that our home in the Rossmoyne area needed two trees. My girlfriend and I do not know why our house was chosen or what prompted them to pick whatever species they selected. All we do know is that we didn’t request the trees, and the city of Glendale never notified us of its intentions.

I took a little stroll around the neighborhood and discovered the city planted about 12 trees in all, with no particular rhyme or reason. They planted trees in front of houses that had strips of lawn separating the sidewalk from the street. And they planted trees on the lawns of a few other homes, like ours, that have no sidewalk or public access. Our home doesn’t even have a front driveway.

Because our home is on the side of the street with no sidewalk, the trees planted by the city seem all the more curious. Definitively speaking, there are no rights of easement, meaning there is no public right-of-way that would give the city any justification to plant trees. Which makes me wonder: When did the city of Glendale obtain the authority to place trees on our lawn without asking permission? When did they get the right to determine our landscaping choices?

Perhaps official notification were the white Ts the city spray-painted on the curb. I guess residents are supposed to know when Glendale places a mark on the front of your home, trees are on the way. Unfortunately, we enter through the back alley, so we missed that tell-tale sign. By the way, thanks Glendale, for tagging our curb! The spray-painted letters add a “homey” touch.

I’m not alone in my belief that the rogue tree planting was inconsiderate. I chatted with a neighbor as she was leaving for work. I asked if she had been notified by the city. Like me, she was not. However, because there was a sidewalk in front of her house, she figured the city had some authority to place a tree on the strip between the street and sidewalk.

“I just wish they would have said something,” she told me. “They put the tree directly in front of my door. It would have been nice to have it planted a few feet to either side.”