Caption: Hart PlazaBy SUSAN MORSEFree Press Staff WriterIn a classic bureaucratic mix-up, the City of Detroit paid $1,250 to have 30 trees cut down Thursday in downtown's showplace plaza without the knowledge of a horrified City Council.Thirty of 190 young Norway maples planted seven years ago in Hart Plaza at the foot of Woodward Avenue were chopped down early Thursday to make way for the JEfferson Avenue trolley extension near Renaissance Center.But the trolley project contract authorized by the council last week reportedly made no provision for the tree cutting and was changed without the council's knowledge."It's idiotic. It's stupid," sputtered Councilman David Eberhard, who rushed to stop the work cres after a chance observer interrupted a council budget session in the City-County Building to point out the growing line of felled trees across the street.Eberhard said the council has called for a meeting at 9:45 a.m. Friday with the contractor and several city departments to explain the mix-up.A stump is all that remains of one of the felled trees.The Renaissance Center rises in the distance.
The front and back of this photograph are pictured below.
