Arborcide in Brooklyn Heights, Again

Remember what a stink there was exactly one year ago when five 40-year-old trees were cut down in front of 75 Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights?

Now move west a couple of blocks to the Mansion House at 145 Hicks Street, where the co-op board has decided to chop down an 80-year-old, healthy Elm tree. The reason? A poster in the Brownstoner forum said the board doesn't want to spend the $8,000 to reroute electrical pipes tangled in the huge tree's roots.

Residents of the Mansion House told the Brooklyn Eagle back in April that the endanged tree was "one of the few healthy survivors of the Dutch elm disease that devastated most of these majestic trees in the past century."

Several residents of the building told the Brooklyn Paper that they’ll chain themselves to the tree before they’ll let the board chop it down.

UPDATE: Don't miss the lively comments about this on the Brooklyn Heights Blog.