7 thoughts on “LETTER: Trees Dying, Planted Incorrectly at New CVS in East Watertown

  1. Just further proof that Robert Korff did a slipshod job with the whole development. The building is a cheap piece of you know what, and the landscaping is dying, the trees are badly planted. Heck of a job Korffy! Some of us knew you didn’t give a hoot about our community.

  2. How is the building a cheap piece of you know what? Actually, the builders, DF Pray, did a nice job with it. I think the problem with the landscaping has been lack of water. New plants, shrubs need water for the root systems to develop and for the plant to absorb the shock of transplant. We’re in a drought and I do not think that the CVS has anyone out there with a hose. If you want to throw stones, look across the street at the 7-11, a real pit of a building, surrounded by trash. Why doesn’t the Town of Watertown do something about that? Or, the cesspool of a laundry next to Coolidge Square Liquors??

    • It’s a cheap aluminum stud building with fake brick veneer that does’t even match up in places. It’s banal strip mall architecture and doesn’t even look nearly as good as the renderings. I mean c’mon Fred, get real. The older buildings around it will last longer. The neighborhood was right to oppose it and it doesn’t appear to be doing big business.

      I live near the 7-11 and the trash you talk about always winds up on my lawn. It was a major mistake allowing the theatre to be torn down years ago. But there are many wonderful stores in Coolidge Square that have no future if we keep allowing bad development bad developers and bad development to take a unique place and turn it into a place like thousands of others.

      I point to Red Lentil and the new Thai restaurant as the kind of new businesses that enhance Coolidge Square–locally owned small business that are unique. Coolidge Square is turning into a food mecca of sorts and that can only be good for Watertown. Or perhaps you prefer another storefront ATM?

      The cesspool of a laundry? Lots of people in the neighborhood depend on that laundry Fred. Do you have a problem with the types of people who use it, maybe? You seem to be the house dyspeptic, Fred.

  3. Where was this uproar when those terrible trees were planted along Orchard St at victory field and almost instantly died? The town spent millions on a field it couldn’t pay for then blocked it off with ugly dead trees

    • A thoroughly thought out article, Libby. Thank you. It sounds from your analysis that the soils were not prepared from the get-go and the trees and shrubs weren’t all in excellent shape to begin with, and didn’t have a chance, particularly given the lack of watering. How did this happen is indeed the operative question. And it has happened all around town. We have to support our green infrastructure and if our tree warden needs funding, or community support, the Council needs to know and we all need to react. How terrible to have lost an entire growing season to negligence. Let’s fix this and prepare for future development projects and future plantings. Does the Conservation Commission also have a role here? Should Trees for Watertown sit in on the Site Plan Review interdepartmental meetings with the developers? How do we develop effective oversight? Does the budget need emergency action? Is the Town Council the organization representing the citizens that is the only responsible party left standing? If so, better get moving to save what little we have left and demand substitutions of trees and total renovation of planting beds when the weather is right. It seems that this is another situation in which action was taken before appropriate planning. I hope that Watertown will look again at its procedures. The community deserves better.

  4. This article shows how crazy our town has become. A few shrubs die and we want the Town Council to get involved. Why doesn’t the Town Council demand that the existing parks – which are in terrible shape – be better maintained. I go to parks and see trash can overflowing, yellow burned grass, and litter all over the place. Let’s see our tax dollars at work keeping our parks green. My friends and I care more about that than a few trees in a parking lot.

Leave a Reply to Dan Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *