Ok, so when is everyone on this post starting a development company to make your dream of Aiken being some kind of magic village and purchase the Hotel Aiken, old hospital, and the old oil lot on Williamsburg? If you aren’t willing to do that then stop complaining and impeding every venture in town. We peasants who were born here and need to work everyday would appreciate it. Oh yeah, y’all never do that. I’ve watched the north side of Aiken decline during my lifetime not due to development but the lack of it. I have nothing but contempt for all of you. Good day. I promise to never visit this site again. When you leave Aiken (just as you will) I hope the lights can stay on.
I was born here, count myself among the humble peasant class, and am actively advocating for revitalization and investment in the northside. I am also advocating against gentrification — an ill that is being promoted as a good thing when, in fact, it is about the upper class buying up northside properties for cheap and flipping the into half-million dollar cottages that the most existing residents cannot afford. No one should have to lose their homes, sell their soul, and allow the destruction of our grandfather trees and our historic old buildings just to get the City and the predatory developers to invest in the neighborhood.
I am a local from the area and remember when the south side was nothing. It was miles and miles of beautiful farm land and miles and miles of trees. Aiken was an extremely charming slow, southern town with the exception of the Winter Colony. We must maintain our identity or we’ll just become another generic podunk town that will eventually be abandoned as the public seeks out another quaint town to destroy with development. We need growth and good business but it needs to be done smartly, not the rabid development that seems to be occurring now. Not rapid, yes rabid. If you need more than this then perhaps you’ve outgrown Aiken.
Margaret, you speak for many of us who remember what Aiken was like in those days when Whiskey Road was, yes, a charming, pastoral countryside; the days before the Hitchcock Parkway was created, back when a thousand or more acres of land existed as an extension of the Hitchcock Wood, where people hiked, rode horses and kids even camped out. I think it’s safe to say that Whiskey Road long ago lost its charm. Some of us have been watching for years as, one by one, the fields, pastures, woods, trees, charming houses, barns, buildings and historic places have been lost to the bulldozer’s blade. The developers treat people who oppose the loss of place as if were some luddites. At some point, this thing called “charm” disappears entirely, and as someone who remembers the charming places that have been lost, I can see how far we’ve fallen, and how important the need to protect what precious little is left from the developers maw.
Anonymous. We have a policy on anonymous and pseudonymous posts. I have deleted several, including people who agree. No matter what the perspective is, it is respected and accepted, only if it is perceptive and free of derision. The best thing the Aiken Standard ever did was eliminate its news and views anonymous section.
Now, as a fellow peasant who worked 38 of 45 years as a blue collar worker in various fields, I can attest that buying the hotel or Jackson petroleum property is out of my league. The latter is looking too contaminated to develop into even multi family housing, but perhaps you are unaware of that. because it is not very public. In either case, we are not precluded from having a free voice about government controlled properties. Unless you are an authoritarian socialist, I suspect you might agree, if you could only get past the derisiveness.
So, none of us are leaving and you can choose to ignore this site. Or you can stop being the lion on the Yellow Brick Road and proudly identify yourself.
Many of those trees are clearly declining. I bet new ones will planted for future generations to enjoy. You can’t always live for next 5 minutes. Hopefully there will be a town here 50 years from now if some our kids who leave come back.
Hi, Anonymous. A few things. First, the term, “on the decline” is subjective. So is the term, “have to be managed.” One arborist’s management is another arborist’s mismanagement. Also, even if this tree in the photograph were “completely hollow,” which is an exaggeration, how would this justify demolishing the other trees in the Williamsburg parkway?
And in what world does expressing remorse and anger over the destruction of the Williamsburg parkway trees define a person as “living for the next 5 minutes?” Although I can’t know the source of your interest in this topic, your logic sounds much like the logic of a person whose business profits from either the destruction of existing trees or the planting of new trees. In other words, a person who lives for the next 5 minutes.
A few years ago, we had to make the difficult decision to take down a large poplar tree in our yard that had developed a hollow at the base, which likely started from a lightning strike some years earlier. In the course of making this decision, we consulted with several arborists and even had the trunk’s density measured via resistograph, which is not a cheap test. After all the consultations, computations and physical evaluations of the tree were done, we were still left with insufficient information to make an easy decision. There are no guarantees. Even a tree that looks perfectly healthy can fail. To be guaranteed 100% perfect safety, we would need to remove all the trees from our landscape. Certainly a lot of area homeowners have taken that approach.
When it comes to old trees and old buildings, there is much to be said for taking a thoughtful, knowledgeable, deliberate approach when someone make a call to demolish them.
At one extreme in the decision-making process is sentiment. In our case, that venerable old tulip poplar was a grand presence in our yard. My father had planted the tree, and it had shaded many a happy family gathering. Good decisions about a 20 ton tree (a wild guess) that poses a reasonable risk of falling on house or person are best not made for sentimental reasons.
At the other end of the extreme in decision-making is the hard-nosed, “Cut the damned thing down!” One of the arborists with whom I spoke specializes in historic tree care and takes the European approach to managing and old trees, which is different from the way things are commonly done in South Carolina, between the power company butchery, the wanton destruction of old growth trees for development and forestery, which deforesting the southeastern US at a rate that rivals that of South American rainforests.
I’m not suggesting that the trees in the Williamsburg parkway, which may be as “young” as 50 years old are historic. I am saying, however, that by virtue of their age, size and beauty, they deserved a thoughtful and deliberate decision-making process involving knowledgeable arborists with experience relevant making such decisions.
If the Williamsburg parkway trees were to be taken down merely to accommodate development, there should have been a public hearing preceding the decision to destroy them.
These are OUR parkways. They do not exist to accommodate the latest developer’s whim and trend on how to attract millennials to the downtown area. Five minutes from now, those millennials will be old farts like me, and they may find themselves marveling at the stories about the grand trees that once-upon-a-time lived in all the parkways.
On that note, I learned more from the European-school arborist than I learned from the other three other arborists combined. After watching the events of the past year with Pascalis — and over the past 15 years with the so-called arborists who have been “maintaining” the trees along local power lines — I think that policy-makers in Aiken and South Carolina would benefit from learning the difference between long term value and short term profit. Developers have clever ways of justifying the unjustifiable. The “5-minute” bumper-sticker slogan sounds like one of them.
Among the old trees I studied for perspective on our tulip poplar was “the ancient poplar” in Forsythe County, North Carolina. I bet you it has awed more than a few millennials over the years. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=10372
Yes, new trees need to be planted all the time, and they are. Everyone supports that except for a few developers whose idea of site prep is complete annihilation of forest and soil. They go way beyond clearcutting, where residual slash is left behind to build soil and provide shade for seedlings.
Does that mean we need more crepe myrtle lined avenues and streets. No. Everyone supports that.
As for kids leaving, seriously? Kids leave for adventure in other places and many come back for various reasons. But trying to keep adventurous young minds home just generates anger and contempt and a lack of imagination. Let them go if they want to see and try new things.
This is not revitalization it is devastation. Will someone who loves this town and wants to preserve its beauty and charm please please run for mayor? …or city council or something?! The current city government will tear down and pave over what has taken generations to achieve. They have got to go before it’s too late.
Fifty years ago Aiken citizen, led by Nancy Wilds, Art and Maxine Dexter, Robert Lipe, among others, stood in front of bulldozers, had their children climb trees (I was one), and stopped Mayor Odell Weeks from clear cutting downtown Aiken. They stopped the plan to cut all the oaks on South Boundary (the city wanted that to be a four-lane all the way to Laurens Street), and other hideous projects for “modernizing” Aiken. They personally planted many of the trees that make Laurens Street so beautiful now. That is why Aiken is so green and beautiful now. It is time to do it again, time to stop Mayor Osbon who has they same plan to “grow” downtown Aiken.
Thanks for weighing in, Alex. It might seem unimaginable today to think that, yes, in our lifetimes, there was talk of cutting down some of the old oaks on South Boundary to widen the road. History will look harshly, as well, on those today who are championing the demolition of Aiken’s trees and historic structures.
Add to this the fact that the winning bid and/or the final cost estimate were so far over budget that Council approved $500,000 in plutonium settlement funding to cover the cost overruns.
There is still no reported interest in the Jackson Petroleum property that the AMDC paid $175,000 for.
This hurts my heart. I just don’t understand what is happening in Aiken. Can’t we get good people, and who will REMAIN good, caring, honest with integrity, values, ethics, to run for local offices. I moved here for Aiken’s magic, beauty, the people and so much more. I cannot (actually I can…$$$) understand the destruction.
Guess it’s about keeping up with other cities/ towns that are pavement 2 pavement. Living trees which help with pollution & are homes to small animals/birds doesn’t seem to matter, anymore.
Wasn’t this a project of the now defunct AMDC? I guess they had all these trees cut down because they’re trying to make Aiken look like all the horrible projects they’ve approved. Aiken certainly has lost their “Tree City” designation. Just stop it!!!!
The tree survey from around 3 years ago showed a full 1/4 of the trees on city property on decline. Trees have to be managed. The tree in question was completely hollow in its center.
Trees in decline can survive for another 100 years. They may not be preferable in an urban environment, but shallow rooted trees that contain no rot can fall with a good wind. Loblollies are good at that, especially the “genetically superior” stock that tend to snap in half during inclement weather while ‘declining’ Longleafs perservere.
Another aspect of the “declining” tree characterization is the definition of ‘declining’ and who makes that call. I’d have to reexamine the definition that Bartlett used, but I do know, having read parts of the inventory, that Bartlett recommended Bartlett products and methods for many trees. If you find that not to be some kind of conflict of interest please enlighten me.
Trees do not have to managed and forests do not have to be managed. Such an approach can be harmful in some forest types and beneficial in others. Individual trees can benefit from careful light pruning and fertilization, but not the kind of indiscriminate to the bole hacking that is common here.
If that tree was completely hollow in the center, it shows three things:
1. It survived and thrived crown wise despite the hollow.
2. It did not crack in half like a healthy young Bradford Pear
3. If it was a threat, then the City of Aiken and DOT were negligent for years by not removing that threat, and were liable if it came down on a crowd or an individual.
OMG!! Who in the hell is ok ing this? The current city administration doesn’t care one damn cent about what makes Aiken special. I’m quite sure these trees could have been saved!!! WTF!!!
Trees
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafly arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
Joyce Kilmer (1914)
“And lifts her leafy arms to pray;” …
Ok, so when is everyone on this post starting a development company to make your dream of Aiken being some kind of magic village and purchase the Hotel Aiken, old hospital, and the old oil lot on Williamsburg? If you aren’t willing to do that then stop complaining and impeding every venture in town. We peasants who were born here and need to work everyday would appreciate it. Oh yeah, y’all never do that. I’ve watched the north side of Aiken decline during my lifetime not due to development but the lack of it. I have nothing but contempt for all of you. Good day. I promise to never visit this site again. When you leave Aiken (just as you will) I hope the lights can stay on.
I was born here, count myself among the humble peasant class, and am actively advocating for revitalization and investment in the northside. I am also advocating against gentrification — an ill that is being promoted as a good thing when, in fact, it is about the upper class buying up northside properties for cheap and flipping the into half-million dollar cottages that the most existing residents cannot afford. No one should have to lose their homes, sell their soul, and allow the destruction of our grandfather trees and our historic old buildings just to get the City and the predatory developers to invest in the neighborhood.
I am a local from the area and remember when the south side was nothing. It was miles and miles of beautiful farm land and miles and miles of trees. Aiken was an extremely charming slow, southern town with the exception of the Winter Colony. We must maintain our identity or we’ll just become another generic podunk town that will eventually be abandoned as the public seeks out another quaint town to destroy with development. We need growth and good business but it needs to be done smartly, not the rabid development that seems to be occurring now. Not rapid, yes rabid. If you need more than this then perhaps you’ve outgrown Aiken.
Margaret, you speak for many of us who remember what Aiken was like in those days when Whiskey Road was, yes, a charming, pastoral countryside; the days before the Hitchcock Parkway was created, back when a thousand or more acres of land existed as an extension of the Hitchcock Wood, where people hiked, rode horses and kids even camped out. I think it’s safe to say that Whiskey Road long ago lost its charm. Some of us have been watching for years as, one by one, the fields, pastures, woods, trees, charming houses, barns, buildings and historic places have been lost to the bulldozer’s blade. The developers treat people who oppose the loss of place as if were some luddites. At some point, this thing called “charm” disappears entirely, and as someone who remembers the charming places that have been lost, I can see how far we’ve fallen, and how important the need to protect what precious little is left from the developers maw.
Anonymous. We have a policy on anonymous and pseudonymous posts. I have deleted several, including people who agree. No matter what the perspective is, it is respected and accepted, only if it is perceptive and free of derision. The best thing the Aiken Standard ever did was eliminate its news and views anonymous section.
Now, as a fellow peasant who worked 38 of 45 years as a blue collar worker in various fields, I can attest that buying the hotel or Jackson petroleum property is out of my league. The latter is looking too contaminated to develop into even multi family housing, but perhaps you are unaware of that. because it is not very public. In either case, we are not precluded from having a free voice about government controlled properties. Unless you are an authoritarian socialist, I suspect you might agree, if you could only get past the derisiveness.
So, none of us are leaving and you can choose to ignore this site. Or you can stop being the lion on the Yellow Brick Road and proudly identify yourself.
Many of those trees are clearly declining. I bet new ones will planted for future generations to enjoy. You can’t always live for next 5 minutes. Hopefully there will be a town here 50 years from now if some our kids who leave come back.
Hi, Anonymous. A few things. First, the term, “on the decline” is subjective. So is the term, “have to be managed.” One arborist’s management is another arborist’s mismanagement. Also, even if this tree in the photograph were “completely hollow,” which is an exaggeration, how would this justify demolishing the other trees in the Williamsburg parkway?
And in what world does expressing remorse and anger over the destruction of the Williamsburg parkway trees define a person as “living for the next 5 minutes?” Although I can’t know the source of your interest in this topic, your logic sounds much like the logic of a person whose business profits from either the destruction of existing trees or the planting of new trees. In other words, a person who lives for the next 5 minutes.
A few years ago, we had to make the difficult decision to take down a large poplar tree in our yard that had developed a hollow at the base, which likely started from a lightning strike some years earlier. In the course of making this decision, we consulted with several arborists and even had the trunk’s density measured via resistograph, which is not a cheap test. After all the consultations, computations and physical evaluations of the tree were done, we were still left with insufficient information to make an easy decision. There are no guarantees. Even a tree that looks perfectly healthy can fail. To be guaranteed 100% perfect safety, we would need to remove all the trees from our landscape. Certainly a lot of area homeowners have taken that approach.
When it comes to old trees and old buildings, there is much to be said for taking a thoughtful, knowledgeable, deliberate approach when someone make a call to demolish them.
At one extreme in the decision-making process is sentiment. In our case, that venerable old tulip poplar was a grand presence in our yard. My father had planted the tree, and it had shaded many a happy family gathering. Good decisions about a 20 ton tree (a wild guess) that poses a reasonable risk of falling on house or person are best not made for sentimental reasons.
At the other end of the extreme in decision-making is the hard-nosed, “Cut the damned thing down!” One of the arborists with whom I spoke specializes in historic tree care and takes the European approach to managing and old trees, which is different from the way things are commonly done in South Carolina, between the power company butchery, the wanton destruction of old growth trees for development and forestery, which deforesting the southeastern US at a rate that rivals that of South American rainforests.
I’m not suggesting that the trees in the Williamsburg parkway, which may be as “young” as 50 years old are historic. I am saying, however, that by virtue of their age, size and beauty, they deserved a thoughtful and deliberate decision-making process involving knowledgeable arborists with experience relevant making such decisions.
If the Williamsburg parkway trees were to be taken down merely to accommodate development, there should have been a public hearing preceding the decision to destroy them.
These are OUR parkways. They do not exist to accommodate the latest developer’s whim and trend on how to attract millennials to the downtown area. Five minutes from now, those millennials will be old farts like me, and they may find themselves marveling at the stories about the grand trees that once-upon-a-time lived in all the parkways.
On that note, I learned more from the European-school arborist than I learned from the other three other arborists combined. After watching the events of the past year with Pascalis — and over the past 15 years with the so-called arborists who have been “maintaining” the trees along local power lines — I think that policy-makers in Aiken and South Carolina would benefit from learning the difference between long term value and short term profit. Developers have clever ways of justifying the unjustifiable. The “5-minute” bumper-sticker slogan sounds like one of them.
Among the old trees I studied for perspective on our tulip poplar was “the ancient poplar” in Forsythe County, North Carolina. I bet you it has awed more than a few millennials over the years. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=10372
Yes, new trees need to be planted all the time, and they are. Everyone supports that except for a few developers whose idea of site prep is complete annihilation of forest and soil. They go way beyond clearcutting, where residual slash is left behind to build soil and provide shade for seedlings.
Does that mean we need more crepe myrtle lined avenues and streets. No. Everyone supports that.
As for kids leaving, seriously? Kids leave for adventure in other places and many come back for various reasons. But trying to keep adventurous young minds home just generates anger and contempt and a lack of imagination. Let them go if they want to see and try new things.
This is not revitalization it is devastation. Will someone who loves this town and wants to preserve its beauty and charm please please run for mayor? …or city council or something?! The current city government will tear down and pave over what has taken generations to achieve. They have got to go before it’s too late.
We’ll said Laura!!
Thank you for reading and commenting, Margaret. 🌿
Fifty years ago Aiken citizen, led by Nancy Wilds, Art and Maxine Dexter, Robert Lipe, among others, stood in front of bulldozers, had their children climb trees (I was one), and stopped Mayor Odell Weeks from clear cutting downtown Aiken. They stopped the plan to cut all the oaks on South Boundary (the city wanted that to be a four-lane all the way to Laurens Street), and other hideous projects for “modernizing” Aiken. They personally planted many of the trees that make Laurens Street so beautiful now. That is why Aiken is so green and beautiful now. It is time to do it again, time to stop Mayor Osbon who has they same plan to “grow” downtown Aiken.
Thanks for weighing in, Alex. It might seem unimaginable today to think that, yes, in our lifetimes, there was talk of cutting down some of the old oaks on South Boundary to widen the road. History will look harshly, as well, on those today who are championing the demolition of Aiken’s trees and historic structures.
Will someone please run for Mayor!!
Obviously it does not require a brain.
Add to this the fact that the winning bid and/or the final cost estimate were so far over budget that Council approved $500,000 in plutonium settlement funding to cover the cost overruns.
There is still no reported interest in the Jackson Petroleum property that the AMDC paid $175,000 for.
This hurts my heart. I just don’t understand what is happening in Aiken. Can’t we get good people, and who will REMAIN good, caring, honest with integrity, values, ethics, to run for local offices. I moved here for Aiken’s magic, beauty, the people and so much more. I cannot (actually I can…$$$) understand the destruction.
How sad. Well, lets see we are dealing with people that told citizens that :
The Pascalis Properties were ” The Parkway District”
Listed a Field trip to Vic’s in Florence as an official meeting minutes and all.
Put the Hideous Parking Garage for the Bomb Plant Lab on the agenda under “Petitions and Resolutions”
so I guess it shouldn’t be a shock that the city called butchering these beautiful trees ” streetscaping”
I wonder what is planned there? ………a) Dollar General B) a Parkers or C) Storage?
The photos are so very appropriate as a representation of Aiken City Council’s approach to governance and “revitalization:” Destruction is thy name.
Wouldn’t some Bradford pears look great! I hate old oaks😳
Guess it’s about keeping up with other cities/ towns that are pavement 2 pavement. Living trees which help with pollution & are homes to small animals/birds doesn’t seem to matter, anymore.
Wasn’t this a project of the now defunct AMDC? I guess they had all these trees cut down because they’re trying to make Aiken look like all the horrible projects they’ve approved. Aiken certainly has lost their “Tree City” designation. Just stop it!!!!
The tree survey from around 3 years ago showed a full 1/4 of the trees on city property on decline. Trees have to be managed. The tree in question was completely hollow in its center.
1/4, what about the other 3/4? What are they going to put in their place, crepe myrtles? Red buds?
Trees in decline can survive for another 100 years. They may not be preferable in an urban environment, but shallow rooted trees that contain no rot can fall with a good wind. Loblollies are good at that, especially the “genetically superior” stock that tend to snap in half during inclement weather while ‘declining’ Longleafs perservere.
Another aspect of the “declining” tree characterization is the definition of ‘declining’ and who makes that call. I’d have to reexamine the definition that Bartlett used, but I do know, having read parts of the inventory, that Bartlett recommended Bartlett products and methods for many trees. If you find that not to be some kind of conflict of interest please enlighten me.
Trees do not have to managed and forests do not have to be managed. Such an approach can be harmful in some forest types and beneficial in others. Individual trees can benefit from careful light pruning and fertilization, but not the kind of indiscriminate to the bole hacking that is common here.
If that tree was completely hollow in the center, it shows three things:
1. It survived and thrived crown wise despite the hollow.
2. It did not crack in half like a healthy young Bradford Pear
3. If it was a threat, then the City of Aiken and DOT were negligent for years by not removing that threat, and were liable if it came down on a crowd or an individual.
How absolutely horrible and stupid! Shade was – what these trees donated – free of charge and beauty!
OMG!! Who in the hell is ok ing this? The current city administration doesn’t care one damn cent about what makes Aiken special. I’m quite sure these trees could have been saved!!! WTF!!!