ST. LOUIS – When tree crews got to work in the 2800 block of Victor Street in Fox Park on March 22, neighbors didn’t think the leftover limbs and scrapped stumps would still be there three weeks later.
“This stuff has been sitting here, it’s been collecting trash. It’s making a mess,” Amanda Izzo said.
“I have a teenager. Sometimes she struggles to find a parking spot on the street,” neighbor Simon Yost said. “I think it would be good if at some point here we could move on with our lives.”
Izzo said it’s not just there street, but surrounding blocks as well.
“There are trees piled up everywhere,” she said.
Sure enough, when we hiked through Hawthorne and rode down Russell, we saw more piles of tree debris. But none of the wooden waste we witnessed compared to the volume on Victor.
“You know, it just reduces the quality of life in the neighborhood, I would say, significantly,” Izzo said.
Another neighbor claimed a representative from the city’s Forestry Division said the debris should be picked up within three business days after it’s cut down.
When that didn’t happen, several neighbors submitted requests to the City of St. Louis’ Citizen’s Service Bureau. They said those requests have gone unanswered.
FOX 2 took their concerns to city hall. A representative for Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office said a contractor is handling the project for city. The Forestry Division is working with the contractor to address the pickup delay. After we spoke with the city, neighbors informed us crews returned to Victor Street to begin cleaning up the debris.
“I think, with just the city in general, you’d like to hope there’s a plan behind what they’re doing. It kind of seems like they’re just speaking to the urgency,” Yost said. “Whatever we’ve got to do get the staffing up for not only the garbage collection and stuff like that, but I think we’ve got to overcome some of these historic St. Louis roadblocks and get to some solutions.”
FOX 2 will continue to follow the tree trouble in Fox Park until the cleanup is completed.
