The Socially Distant Brockton Lane Tree Challenge Part 2 #brocktonlanetreechallenge

On March 15, 2020 I had posted a list of things that could be done in the public spaces around the Bon Air Neighborhood.  

1. Cleaning around the Bardstown Road Mural (the panhandlers leave their trash)
2. Cleaning north of the Thorntons on Bardstown Rd 
3. Clipping the branches along the chain link fence on Brockton Lane on the Taylorsville Rd Ramp (on the Highgate Springs side  of the fence of course)
4. Cleaning up the trash on Goldsmith Lane around Beargrass Creek south of Seneca High School
5. Cleaning up Brockton Lane both around Bon Air Estates and Highgate Springs
6. If you are really ambitious, there is Beargrass Creek between Bardstown Rd and Downing Lane.
7. For the really stir crazy, there is the Bardstown Road median between Bashford Manor and Hikes Lane (this one also seems the most nerve-racking/risky one, but we will try to do it on 4/18/2020 during Operation Brightside and there will still be a lot of trash).

On Sunday, 3/22/20, I worked again on item #3.   There is a bit of a fun story to go with it. 

The next tree to be addressed was the one at the T-intersection of Rosedale Blvd and Brockton. 

This is the tree before I went at it:

This is the after: 

The job took me about three hours from clipping the branches from the tree, and cutting them down to semi-regulation size and bundling them for city yard waste.  I very much enjoyed listening to KFI-AM Los Angeles in my earbud on a certain smart phone app while I worked.  Mind you the newscasts made me feel a little more mindful of how much better things were in Kentucky in terms of COVID19, but to listen to something different while I worked stretched my mind to think about other things. 

Out of safety I dragged the branches across the street from the tree and cut them down to size in the easement between the street and the sidewalk.  Then the  drama of the afternoon came to life.

A guy in a Subaru stopped and drove up and said in what I felt was a demanding tone:  "We own this building.  Where did this brush come from?" 

I pointed to the tree "From that tree right there."

He said with a tone of voice that I apprised as curt, annoyed and potentially intimidating, "An apartment manager will come to talk to you."

I tested out my smartphone intellect and looked up on the Jefferson PVA site who owned the building.  (It was a LLC based in the 40223 zip code).   I then looked at the Secretary of Website to 

see who were the officers of this LLC,  I got ready for the apartment manager to come so I could drop the owner's first name with some bravado.  (My plan was to say "Oh, your're W-----'s apartment manager.  He said you would be coming.")   

Towards the end of the job, two smiling people did stop.  I got out the first sentence of my practiced line.   Neither of them were his employee.    They were just people who had been looking at moving to the neighborhood.  It was an opportunity to tell them how long I have lived in the neighborhood and what a great of a place it is to live, and how safe it is to live in (even with the police-involved shooting event on Talisman today).

In the end, I spread the four bundles of branches in the easements across the three adjacent apartment houses for city yard waste pick-up.  I thought it would be thoughtful of the guy in the Subaru and maybe reduce his defensiveness when I or someone else comes by in two more years to trim the trees again. 

Well, someone who likes to cut wood can go attack the next overgrown trees where Hendon Road becomes Brockton, otherwise weather permitting I will attack the last couple of trees next week. They are in the state's right of way and in my 20 years, they don't get cut unless me or some other resident does it. 

I have written this post to put my money where my mouth is and not to show off or make a scene of what I have done. I personally felt pleasantly tired after the job and I had an intrinsic sense of satisfaction that I hopefully prevented cars from getting scratched by trees on Brockon Lane--especially mine. 

You are very welcome to attack something on the list that interests you.  If you do, it is recommended that you use proper protection such gloves and/or boots if you are going to pick up trash around Beargrass Creek or other waterways, but it is a strong show of civic pride to clean up your community, while taking a break from the repetitive news on radio, TV and social media.  

 If you are reading this from outside the Bon Air Neighborhood, consider making a list of what needs to get done in your neighborhood's public spaces and consider going and doing it. I bet you will be a sense of satisfaction and less stress because you were not stuck in your home thinking the same thoughts.   

If you do something, please take a before and after picture and post it on the Bon Air Neighborhood Facebook page or your own facebook page and hashtag it #brocktonlanetreechallenge