Cagey council consent

Some branching, beautiful shade trees that give character to Tracy's downtown are probably going to be chopped down.

That's because of the passage of a consent item on the City Council agenda regarding a contract to rebuild the sidewalks and pavement of 10th Street between E and East streets (as reported here in the Tracy Press). It was not debated. It was approved unanimously.

It's assumed the green beauties will be ripped out with the aging concrete that makes up the 10th Street sidewalk.

Which is too bad, because the lack of mature trees in the rest of the Downtown Streetscape area is one of the project's most glaring shortcomings. It makes the place terrible to walk around in during the summer. And wasn't the point of the whole project to make people want to walk around? The city's ripping off its toenails after buying a multi-million dollar pedicure.

It will be a real failure if the trees of 10th Street are cut down during this project that is supposed to enhance, not deflate, Tracy's downtown.