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Tuesday,
August 21,
2007, #159 (1426)
By Anna Kamushadze A row of 40-year-old sycamore trees fell victim to purported beautification works on Rustaveli Avenue last week, leading some to decry the loss of greenery and question whether the city took saws to wood for the wrong reasons. The administrator of Old Tbilisi district, Lasha Purtskvanidze, says the sycamores were rotting on the inside, posing a danger to pedestrians. They're going down and new trees are going up, he promised. Some of his constituents were unconvinced. "I was shocked when I these trees lying here," said Davit, a passerby. "I'm 54 years old, and these trees have been here since my childhood. I doubt these trees are a hazard. I think there's another reason-they're building some hotels here. Maybe they'd prefer street lamps." The Hilton hotel reportedly planned for the building in front of the trees-from which businesses were evicted two weeks ago to make way for redevelopment-has nothing to do with it, Purtskvanidze insists. "Experts checked the trees and said they were damaged. They look fine from the outside, but the inside is rotten. If we don't cut them down, in five years or so they'll come down on their own and hurt people," the district administrator said. New, nicely-sized trees will replace the ones they cut down, he added, along with bushes and flowers. And it's just coincidence that it's the trees in front of the future hotel site which are rotting-the district will check out other sycamores lining the central avenue, he says, and take down any others which are in poor shape. Nana Janashia, executive director of the Caucasus Environmental NGO Network, cries foul. "I don't know what kind of information City Hall is relying on when they say these trees are dangerous. We saw those sycamores ourselves, and they were fine," Janashia told the Messenger. According to Janashia, sycamores can live for at least five centuries, making the disputed trees relative youngsters at 40 years old. She agrees with skeptical Tbiliselebi, saying the trees went down because City Hall wants to improve the view of, and for, the planned hotel. Old Tbilisi City Service backed up assertions that the trees were damaged, and fell before the axe due to experts' recommendations. Press center head Natia Piranishvili says she has no information about any hotel being built there. "No trees
will be cut down because something is going to be built. Cutting down
trees is only to better organize the streets and beautify the area,"
Piranishvili told the Messenger. |
Trees
fall, tempers rise on Rustaveli Avenue
