A lot of people who frequent the Governmental Plaza between the Old Guilford County Court House, the Guilford County Courthouse and Greensboro City Hall were excited to learn two years ago that Guilford County was renovating and updating that plaza as well much of the surrounding parking area.
However, now some of those same people – who eat lunch on the old plaza or take a break outside a few times a day or who kill time out there while waiting for court to commence – are alarmed to see that the renovation project will mean the removal of some grand old trees that have graced the plaza for a long time.
Some concerned citizens who contacted the Rhino Times wanted to know about the tree situation at the plaza – now that machines have arrived to remove a very large tree on the plaza near the back of the Old Guilford County Court House.
According to Guilford County officials, the removal of that tree is necessary for several reasons.
“It’s actually related to damage the tree is causing to the Old Courthouse,” wrote Guilford County Communications and Public Relations Director Julie Smith in an email, “The tree roots have grown into the drainage system of the Old Courthouse which is contributing to flooding in the basement area and may be contributing to foundation damage of the building, therefore it had to be removed.”
Smith added that other trees on the plaza also need to be taken down after the initial tree is taken out.
“There are additional trees that will be removed for the same reason,” Smith stated. “The county will also need to remove the trees at the other corner of the Old Courthouse near the entrance to the parking deck. Those trees are not healthy and are also causing foundation and flooding issues.”
Call it Brownsboro from now on.
Guess Greensboro has yet to come around to XXI century knowledge that cutting down the trees left and right is increasing temperature. One, no shade, two, no cooling water vapor released, three, heat attracted to concrete and asphalt.
Biggest cities knowing this, trying to manage their tree stock that’s been casualty of XX century views on urban development. Not here. Maybe they should drive to downtown High Point and try to survive 5 minutes outside. Those multilanes streets in downtown that don’t see traffic could and should easily be transformed into one lane one way streets with reclaimed space for lining them with trees and outside dining and events.
Cut down more trees all around the city, it is going to be great.
Every time a tree is cut down or a piece of ground is paved it creates more global warming. Shame on Greensboro
When I first flew over Guilford County coming from the drought-dried land of California in 1977 the most impressive sight was the massive swath of green trees. I was amazed at the green-shaded streets, the deeply shaded fields, the cool dirt roads, the smell of green dripping trees after a summer thunderstorm. The contrast to the summer brown hills of Northern California was stunning.
So much of that is going away now. Everywhere I turn in Greensboro and Guilford County the trees are being cut down. All around the airport, along the highways, the loops, the new developments and business parks, the older buildings being renovated, streets being widened, and downtown to redo the “streetscape”. There’s always an excuse and they encourage planting back wimpy bushes for trees that were more than a hundred years old. Now the city isn’t even going to deal with people’s leaves which will lead to more trees being cut down for convenience’s sake, while the politicians continue to whine about climate change warming the temperatures.
Leave the trees alone. Stop making excuses. Build around them, landscape around them, design roads around them. The ones that are more than 10 years old can’t be replaced by smaller shrub trees that don’t offer the shade and cooling that mature trees do. Encourage care and planting of trees through citywide leaf collection with vacuum trucks, offer free classes on the care and proper trimming of trees. Get Duke to do a better job of trimming and get all new builders to have a proper plan for planting under utility lines so there’s no future need for Duke’s butchering every year. We have the right name for a city filled with beautiful, green, luscious trees but the city and County seem to be constantly working against that vision.