NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Two protestors were arrested Saturday morning in an effort to stop the city from cutting down cherry trees at Corlears Hook Park in Lower Manhattan.
Both 71-year-old William Talen and 64-year-old Francis Pondolfino were charged with criminal trespassing and obstructing governmental administration just before 7 a.m. when authorities said they refused commands to leave a fenced-in area.
City contractors called 911 as they couldn’t get to a tree because Talen and Pondolfino had wrapped their arms around it.
Other protestors sat nearby for hours and chanted, as trucks were forced to turn around without chopping down the trees because they were blocked from access.
“They don’t have to kill the cherry trees. This is Cherry Street. What, is this now Street Street, without the cherry trees?” Alison Colby, an East Village resident and production editor, told the New York Post.
Part of the $1.4 billion East Side Coastal Resiliency project, the city plans to chop down 1,000 trees, including the cherry trees, in an effort to raise the park so the neighborhood will be more resistant to flooding. The tree cutting was temporarily barred in December by the state’s top court.
Despite the protest, workers were able to partially cut down two London plane trees in the park that were over 70 years old.
The protestors, who dubbed themselves “land protectors,” said they’d come back to the park every day though it’s unknown when contractors will attempt to try again.
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