Joe Restuccia was walking to work down 9th Avenue on April 22 when he noticed a bit more sky than usual. All the limbs on two young trees between W35th and W36th Streets had been cut off, with an arborist crew throwing the last of them in their truck as he passed.
Two young trees on 9th Avenue had all of their limbs cut off earlier this month. Photo: Catie Savage
Restuccia knew something was off. The trees were planted just five to six years ago by the Hudson Yards Hell’s Kitchen Alliance (HYHK), and pruning requests have to be run by them or the New York City Parks Department, who manage all streetside trees in the city. There’s no way either of them would have approved such a dramatic trimming, he thought.
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Brennan LaBrie is a Manhattan-based multimedia journalist who originally hails from Washington State. He began reporting in elementary school, when he published a handwritten weekly paper covering local news for three years, and reported on events like the 2010 Winter Olympics for TIME For Kids. He returned to journalism in college, reporting for the school paper and his hometown newspaper during summer breaks. He also co-directed three feature documentaries, one of which received a 2021 College Emmy. He moved to New York City in 2022, and, following a stint as a server in fine dining restaurants, began freelancing for publications around the city. His favorite topics to cover are urban development, housing, education and environmental issues, and his work can be found in The Rockaway Wave and the BK Reader.