Last week a group of bike thieves encountered a cheap, department store bike locked up to a ginkgo tree in the Kensington section of Brooklyn. Since the bike was locked and presumably the thieves did not have the tools to cut through the chain, they decided it was worth their own intense efforts as well as the destruction of the beautiful tree which was planted there to enhance their own Kensington neighborhood, to chop down the tree to get to the bike.
The entire episode was caught on closed circuit TV, and can be viewed on YouTube. There is a thread now on the Reddit social bookmarking site discussing whether or not the tree can or cannot grow back. But in addition to the obvious waste of a wonderful tree in a neighborhood that can certainly use some “sprucing up,” the man who began the thread on Reddit explained why he is especially hurt by this wanton destruction:
“My dad co-paid with the landlord for the foresters to plan this specific tree,” he wrote. “I don’t know if it’s actually his legally, but it’s definitely his in spirit.” Later he added, “My dad really wanted that type of tree as allegedly it’s very long lived. A legacy if you will.”
