City's War on Trees

Dear Editor,
   I'd like to commend Lee Nichols for the important article detailing the disappearance of the tree from the residential milieu of Austin ["Clear-Cutting Austin," News, Sept. 21].
   A year ago this past Veterans Day (a holiday no less!), I awoke to the sound of chain saws removing a 40-inch-diameter oak tree from a neighbor's Jewel Street property, immediately adjacent to my own house on West Monroe Street. As the city offices were closed for the day, I had to wait until the following morning to contact city arborist Michael Embesi. When I did speak to him, he informed me that he had approved the variance to remove the tree, because "the tree was in the worst place it could have been - right in the middle of the lot." He also commented to the effect that he regularly experienced a great deal of pressure from developers to grant such variances. Pretty shocking to consider it's that easy to obtain a permit to remove a tree that probably existed before the city of Austin did. The rules were put in place for a reason. If it's no problem to obtain a variance, what reason is there to have rules at all? Embesi isn't doing his job; that is part of the problem. He should vacate his position to someone that will.
   Inside of two months, I will no longer inhabit this Bouldin Creek area neighborhood where I've lived the past 13 years, due to the fact that I can no longer endure the heartache. I am being forced from my home by the methodical encroachment of new houses, which are simply too large for the lots upon which they are being constructed. Currently in progress 10 feet from my bedroom window is a future neighbor's floor slab, which, when completed, will be 2 feet in height above the 6-foot-tall privacy fence enclosing my back yard. There will be three stories of construction placed upon this floor slab. It's still unclear which, if any, of the existing trees will remain.