Com Ed Hacks Away

When you see the ComEd crew coming down your block with the cherrypicker and the chain saws, you'd better get out there and hug your trees.

It's that time of year, and ComEd is in town.

The pruning policies of ComEd are atrocious and should be stopped by the City, rather than being permitted by the City. Take a look at these trees on South Jefferson Street. I'm sure there are more extreme examples, but these happen to be on property with which I'm familiar - at the corner of Jefferson and Lawrence Avenue, just south of West South Street.

Can you challenge the crews? You betcha. Should you? You betcha. Tell them to clear out. If you have to, call the police and demand their assistance to help you protect your valuable trees.

ComEd would like to conduct its own form of "clear-cutting", so that it doesn't have to come back every couple of years to trim branches away from its lines. Well, bully for them. They hack away and go away, leaving unsightly trees for the rest of us to endure for years.

What will happen as these trees age and begin to lean from being unbalanced? Will they fall toward houses (away from the power lines, of course)? Where will ComEd be then? Will it show up promptly to remove the dead, fallen trees and to pay you adequately for the damage caused when the trees fell? Maybe in your dreams...

© 2008 GUS PHILPOTT