War On Plant Life?

 

(C) 2026 Luke T. Bush

PLATTSBURGH CITY, NY -  08/01/26

Gone.  Small trees and shrubbery.  Stubs left behind for someone to trip over when taking a short cut at night to the parking lot on the corner of Court Street and City Hall Place.

Birds used to hang out in the trees and shrubbery, places to hide, places for observation.  All gone.

Just down the street at Macdonough Monument park there was a spot where goldenrod grew, a food source for Monarch butterflies. Stripped away.

And at Champlain Monument milkweed grew in a small garden.  Ripped up and trashed for more lawn.  Monarch butterflies screwed again.

Decades ago there was a Plattsburgh City mayor who didn't like trees.  Chop, chop.  He was getting reading to cut down a large tree that still stands in front of the old federal building, now the Strand Center for the Arts.  He didn't like the way it blocked the view of Brinkerhoff and Margaret Streets.  Citizens came to the rescue and every year the tree is decorated with lights for Xmas.

Maybe the city should cut away all plants and pave everything with tarmac for a ubiquitous ugly parking lot.

 

Eye For Detail

 

Spotlighted

 

Sun-Spiked

 

Permanent Erasure

 

PLATTSBURGH CITY, NY

Two guys were tired of the weeds and trash in a downtown open hole so they cleaned it up and decorated it with all sorts of stuff like a small US flag and a Minnie Mouse stuffed doll.  Somewhat outre but it did spruce up the spot.  The mayor -- apparently not a fan of outside art -- had all the items removed.  So the artistic duo returned and added more items but the mayor removed them.

 

 The mayor decided to cement the hole to permanently fix his problem.  Couldn't a tree been planted there?  It appears the opening was to make space for plant life. The spot is now just plain and ugly but it's available for any dog owners to leave their pet's shit behind like the rest of downtown.

 

Erased Again

 

Take Back

 

Thanks, Wendell

 

 

 

Thanks, Wendell.  The cigarette butts are so much better.

All we need now is dogshit.

Beatification

 

 

 

 

The Lookout