Sidewalk Gone For Years, Trees Gone Forever! When Will This Nonsense End?

This is the second consecutive winter that pedestrians have been without a concrete sidewalk in front of 20 and 22 North Fifth Street for reasons that I am not aware of other than no one inside City Hall seems to care how long sidewalks remains missing, how dangerous they are or if they've been replaced with asphalt. The long stretch of sidewalk was torn out and replaced with stones sometime in the fall of 2024 before renovation work began on the two houses.  Why remove the sidewalk before beginning the project rather than after?  Your guess is as good as mine.  How about:  Because anyone can!

While I only noticed a few weeks ago that the mature sidewalk tree in front of the never-ending project was gone (stump sighting!), I did happen to take a picture in late September that shows the tree still standing.  Sometime soon after that, in October or November, I came across a huge piece of machinery at the sidewalk hoisting roofing materials to the roof of the adjoined houses, though I didn't think to take a picture or look to see if the tree was there.  There's no way the tree could have been standing.  I'm thinking the tree was removed to allow that construction activity to take place; it never could have happened with that tall tree standing where it was.  The tree was in the way, and so it had to go.  Its stump shows no signs of decay.  Where there were once three trees on that short section of the block, there are now just two, with a gaping hole between them.  We tend to notice sidewalk trees only when they're gone.  That's why Hudson needs to get its act together and stop this harmful type of nonsense from continuing.

How many more winters of this dangerous nonsense?

Here is a screenshot from a Google Maps view from a few years ago showing the now missing tree (the one on the right). A third tree, in front of 18 North 5th, is out of the picture to the right. It still stands. The tree on the left, in front of 24 North 5th, is also still standing.

Spring 2025

The following picture was taken on September 25 of last year, less than 4 months ago, showing the mature tree in front of 22 North 5th and a portion of a tree sapling in front of 20 North 5th, both of which are no longer with us.  

Yes, even the sapling was removed.  But why? Wouldn't it be interesting to know when the tree that until recently stood in front of 22 North 5th was planted and who got it done?  Was it the city?  Clearly, it was planted at the same time as the other two, and for good reason.  Someone, perhaps long ago, thought it was in the city's best interest to have at least three trees standing between Prison Alley and Columbia Street on the east side of 5th Street, back when trees were regarded as critical to a city's well-being, perhaps equally or more important than concrete and asphalt.  Concrete and asphalt don't help humans breathe and keep cool in the summer.  We seem to have forgotten that there is nothing as critical and sustainable to healthy human life as trees.  Yes, even in an urban environment.