Rantz: City of Seattle values trees over your safety

It appears Seattle City Light cares more about some trees than they do about citizen safety. It’s the latest in a string of bizarre, ideologically driven positions the City of Seattle has taken.

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According to KOMO TV, there’s a half-mile section of Aurora Avenue in Seattle that is “blanketed in darkness.” They report:

People who travel this section between Woodland Park and the zoo said they haven’t seen working street lights for months.

“I noticed the entire trail going up here and the park itself is pretty dark. I mean, there’s no lights,” said Thad Johnson, who regularly walks his dog in the area.

Why won’t they replace these lights? Trees.

“In this instance, you’re dealing with a park environment with some beautiful trees that we certainly don’t want to cause any damage to,” Scott Thomsen, a spokesperson for City Light told KOMO. Yup: tree branches are in the way.

Perhaps they’ll act if a citizen is assaulted by an attacker hiding in the dark?

I’m sure they’re beautiful trees but this is a clear safety issue and people are more important than a random tree. As the story points out, the cyclist who was attacked in West Seattle believed broken street lights gave her attacker some cover. Is the tree so beautiful that you’re willing to risk someone’s injury or death?

This seems like the city is taking an ideological position. It’s an extreme one, at that, where a tree is valued more than human life. No one is arguing we should frivolously chop trees down. But to keep a half-mile corridor nearly pitch black for months because you don’t want to disturb a tree? That’s absurd and dangerous and shows a strong allegiance to Mother Nature than the basic tenets of your job: keep the lights on.

We’ve seen frequent examples of ideology leading to horrible decisions. Perhaps with the spotlight on this issue, City Light will now act.

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