Of course, if I'd just bought a new house and learned that lovely trees were then cut down to put up condos, like DR EDISAURUS just experienced, I think I would be seething mightily. Yes, I might very well have some sort of fit at that!
Well, that was a 2 year slow and agonizing conniption fit before they built those 5 story condos behind what was going to be our dream house. I did have a fit when I first learned of the plans and the evil scumbag who was the developer.
As for where we are living now---I had a big conniption fit in that very backyard about 4-5 years ago. It was the only time my DH had seen me really angry. I was so mad I was shaking. Here's what happened:
A local slumlord owned the acres of woods behind the house we have been living in. (I've been in this house for 27 years.) The woods had been home to vagrants and loads of trash. Instead of cleaning up these lots, after the slumlord got enough code violations, every few years he would bring a big bushhog out to the woods and mow down everything but the huge trees. There were gigantic specimen trees there, 5-6 ft wide oaks, etc. (Now they have been felled.) This wouldn't clean up the trash, it would just chop it up and cover it over. I looked into the slumlord's records and he had hundreds of code violations on about 60-70 rental properties.
The slumlord hired his landraper to clear out the woods one day, and told him to clear from the telephone pole to the house. But he didn't say WHICH house! So while we were at work, this guy totally moved down my huge curtains of porcelain berry vines, destroyed hundreds of daylilys that I had brought down from my grandfather's house in Ohio, and all the things we planted to encourage birds to visit us. They also cut down every tree under 6" in width.
Since I worked until after dark, I didn't realize this had happened until the next morning. I always have breakfast standing at my kitchen counter taking bird inventory. I looked out and it looked like a tornado had hit...there was nothing left but the big trees...all the vegetation was gone!
I saw some men down in the woods, so I went running down there. It was the slumlord and his land raper. They only clear half of my 1/2 acre yard because he'd had a flat tire, thank god. I was very angry, but I could have dealt with it if this slumlord had been the least bit apologetic. Instead, he said, "You should thank me. You got all your "weeds" cleared out for free"! These weeds were plants we had specifically chosen and hand planted as part of our backyard habitat. I told him that he had destroyed all my day lily beds, and he said "Oh, I mow over mine all the time and they come back. No big deal".
At this point I think I really could have strangled this guy--good thing my DH showed up. I had an arborist come out to asses the damages and he estimated the "cost of cure" at $10,000 to replant everything I'd lost. I started a lawsuit with him but my lawyer, who was doing this for free, dropped the ball. But now I'm tempted to try and go after some compensation, because if my tangle and trees were still there I wouldn't even be able to see the acres that were clear-cut, and the future condo owners wouldn't be able to see my house.
I'm not stressing out too much about the new clearcutting for the 3 story condos because we will be leaving this house soon and moving into Atlanta, but it sure doesn't make it appealing for anyone else to live there in the future.
