Residents Balk At Tree Cutting

Environmentalists and aesthetics alike are clamoring to the defense of three troubled pear trees on Holyoke Street, which may be uprooted in the wake of this year’s renovations to the Hasty Pudding building.

At a public hearing held last Tuesday, Harvard petitioned to have the trees removed to allow 40-foot-long trucks access to the construction site. But after some residents raised objections to the removal, the decision was handed over to Cambridge City Manager Robert W. Healy.

As of last Friday, Healy’s secretary reported that he had not made a decision regarding the trees and was waiting for a recommendation from the city’s arborist.

“My understanding is that the construction logistics necessitate the removal of those three trees,” said Thomas J. Lucey, Harvard’s director of community relations for Cambridge. But he added that “the trees will be replaced in a two-to-one ratio.”

While some Holyoke Street store owners said they were content with the replanting offer, others doubted whether the 20- to 30-year-old trees could be replaced.

Raymond Ost, co-owner of Sandrine’s Bistro, said he would miss the view from his restaurant’s window.

“I like trees and I don’t want them to be cut down. They are beautiful pear trees; they bloom in the spring and they make the city more beautiful. They give us an impression that we are not just in a stupid street,” he said.

Ost said he thought that construction could proceed without disturbing the trees. “I’ve been watching them for a little while and they can put big trucks in there without cutting the trees down. It’s just a little bit more effort,” he said.

Down the road, at Thai restaurant Spice, waitress Panja Leymswan was more willing to accept Harvard’s two-to-one tree compensation. “The plan is good as long as the trees are replaced. It takes time for the trees to grow but they will grow,” she said.

Next door, at the Andover Shop, Larry Mahoney cast his opinion and went back to selling suits. “I don’t think the pear tree issue is important enough,” he said.

But Lowell House resident tutor Luis A. Campos, who has no real estate on Holyoke Street, spoke for the trees. Campos made one of the objections to their removal at the public hearing last week and later endorsed another approach.

“Harvard representatives mentioned another option at the meeting which involved bringing smaller pieces and welding them together on site,” he said in an interview. Campos added that the pear-sparing solution would cost an extra $300,000 and take longer.

Though Campos, a self-proclaimed theater fan, said he wanted the Hasty Pudding construction completed as soon as possible, he still wished to preserve the street’s greenery. “It’s one of the few places in the city that has the effect of a promenade. These trees are all the same age and species. It gives a very different feel to the street,” he said.

Though Healy faces no deadline in his response, he is likely to reach a decision before the trees’ leaves have fallen.