Why do people plant trees too close to sidewalks?

Don M. said:
Yeah, that would be my take, also. However, the kids got this old house for a "song", and it will require a lot of work to bring it up to modern standards....but the price they paid gives them a lot of room to pay for fixing it up. It's basically quite solid....nowhere as dilapidated as another poster on this forum has described her place....so by the time they get it all remodeled, they will have a nice "antique" house, at a fair price.
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Our house is already worth 50,000 more than we paid for it 8 months ago. Next year we will try and refinance and take that money out to redo the roof, correctly, and a bump out to move the hot water heater and repair the laundry room.
 

Don M. said:
Yeah, that would be my take, also. However, the kids got this old house for a "song", and it will require a lot of work to bring it up to modern standards....but the price they paid gives them a lot of room to pay for fixing it up. It's basically quite solid....nowhere as dilapidated as another poster on this forum has described her place....so by the time they get it all remodeled, they will have a nice "antique" house, at a fair price.
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Now, that changes everything. Good on them. Definitely helps take the pinch out of unexpected bills as well as expected bills along the way.
 
Here in San Jose the care of the trees and sidewalks in front of one's homes is the responsibility of the owner of the house. However the city also had strict regulations regarding what can be done with the trees. The city also regularly reviews the conditions of the sidewalks and makes home owners either have bumps ground down or replace sidewalks as needed.

Although some people might see this as the local government having too much control I personally like it because we have great trees on many of our streets and the sidewalks are generally reasonable. One can easily find out what the regulations are before purchasing a house here. Several of us in the neighborhood and arrange to have one of the approved tree care companies come out and trim all of our trees at the same time.

We have a huge California Sycamore in front of our house and they are also in front of most other houses on the block. They provide a nice amount of shade on the street and keep it from getting too hot in the summer.
 

From 1976-84, I personally with my own two hands planed 1,000 trees, some too close to the driveway, a few too close to the house, and some under power lines.

But hey, I was just a dumb city boy who went rural. The mistakes for the most part have been corrected.
 
Damaged Goods said:
From 1976-84, I personally with my own two hands planed 1,000 trees, some too close to the driveway, a few too close to the house, and some under power lines.

But hey, I was just a dumb city boy who went rural. The mistakes for the most part have been corrected.
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Should've mentioned, early 1950s, a landscaper convinced mom to let him plant a tulip tree in our postage stamp back yard because it produces huge tulip-like flowers. Mom was just a city girl who grew up in an asphalt/concrete environment with the nearest grass at a city park a few blocks away. So she wasn't too hip in these areas.

Fact is that the flowers on a tulip tree are :( nothing. Also, the tulip tree (liriodendron tulipfera) is the tallest tree in the eastern US, not exactly what you'd want in a big city back yard.

She ripped the guy and had him remove the tree before the roots buckled the humble backyard walkway and went on to become an award-winning grower of roses when the parents moved on up to the 'burbs.
 
now i'm about the last to say people need permits for planting trees, but some do. people are clueless about how far apart things should be planted. maybe a nice mailer with types of trees commonly planted in the area with how far from sidewalk for planting. have seen some people plant trees in that little strip of ground between curb and sidewalk. or should someone be the bad guy and drive around looking for poorly planted trees? maybe a notification that trees are too close, could damage sidewalks as they grow.

when development i used to live in was brand new... ZERO landscaping/grass. was told almost every weekend, trucks would drive thru with tons of small trees/bushes for cheap. many,wires many yards still have these pines with long needles... think some kind of white pine. they grew fast. Hurricane Sandy rolled thru and MANY just neatly snapped off... way up high. upon closer look... seems many had been staked/wired when really small and never UN-wired. as they grew, they pulled the stakes out of the ground... and they went up, up, up as the trees grew. the wires cut into the trees and the high winds just snapped them off. sounded like gun shots!
 

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