One of the original oaks planted at City Hall in the 1920s, it was already in a precarious condition when independent arborists determined the trees' health during the retrofit and restoration project more than two years ago. It was decided at the time that the root system was not in good shape. We hoped it would be OK with a lot of TLC, but the saturating rains the other night made it very heavy and the high winds blew it over.
Thank goodness nobody was sitting on this bench at the time.
A crew from the Parks and Natural Resources Division of the Public Works Department will cut the tree up in the next day or two, and it will eventually be replaced with a young oak that will have plenty of spunk for the long haul.
Life goes on.
