The NIMBY award goes to...

[wyliepoon]

From Yahoo! News

Link to article

Ocean view -- as soon as the poison works

24 minutes ago

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A Vancouver woman pleaded guilty on Thursday to poisoning several trees that border the city's downtown Stanley Park to improve the view of the ocean from her condominium.

June Matheson admitted she purchase herbicide in the United States and applied it to five trees in the spring of 2004 in an effort kill them. Three trees later died, according to a court document.

A witness told police that Matheson, a well known interior designer, had complained that the city-owned trees, which ranged in height between 25 and 45 feet, had grown too tall and she wanted to "get rid of them."

Prosecutors said Matheson may have felt an improved view of nearby English Bay would increase the value of her condo, which she sold in October 2004 for nearly C$1.7 million ($1.5 million), and called her actions "selfish in the extreme."

Matheson, 72, agreed last month to pay C$50,000 to the city to replace the dead trees and help plant others in Stanley Park, which is one of Canada's most famous urban parks. Local media reported she was given an absolute discharge by the court following the guilty plea.

 

[Ed007Toronto]

Back in the 70's I was growing up in North York. We lived in an older part of Willowdale so the area had no sidewalks and the street drains were ditches. They decided to improve the street by paving it, putting in sidewalks etc. When completed the city planted maples on our side of the street and crab apple trees on the other side. There was a developer across the street that hated the crab apple trees. Mysteriously his was the only tree on the street that year after year didn't catch on. Of course after many years they finally realized what he was doing. You drive down this street today and all the trees look 30 years old, but not his.

Somewhat related story. This same developer planted two pines in front of his home. They were each about six feet tall when one mid December night one disappeared. Someone cut it down during the night and stole it. The cops came in the morning and literally followed the trail of needles four houses down the street to where a bunch of low life stoners lived. They decided they needed a Christmas tree. The morons got charged for this. We all had a big laugh at this one. Today one thirty foot pine remains.

 

[building babel]

The Globe has a slightly different take on this story on their front page today. The judge said Ms.Matheson, 72, had been humiliated. She was the victim of death threats and hate mail. People threw bags of dog excrement, and rocks, at her balcony and shouted abuse.

She was an enterprising old girl though, out there in the dead of night boring 3/4 inch holes in the three trees and pouring in a mixture of glyphosphate and triclopyr, right under the noses of her neighbours.

Meanwhile, the large silver maple on the grassy knoll outside the Maison Babel appears to be surviving another winter, gathering its strength so it can try to send its roots into the drainpipes of our homes when spring arrives ...

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

What about that Rita Salmonelladingdong woman that's against OCAD, AGO, sunny days and little puppies?

 

[building babel]

Does she fix silver maples?

 

[scarberiankhatru]

"one mid December night one disappeared. Someone cut it down during the night and stole it. The cops came in the morning and literally followed the trail of needles four houses down the street to where a bunch of low life stoners lived. They decided they needed a Christmas tree."