Controversial ‘Charlie Brown-like’ trees take center stage in Astoria

Astoria sidewalk trees

Residents in Astoria woke up this week to new trees planted in the center of their sidewalk. FOX 5 NY’s Ashlie Rodriguez reached out to the city to find out what happened.

ASTORIA, N.Y. - Residents in Astoria woke up this week to new trees planted in the center of their sidewalk. Not everyone is happy about the landscaping choice.

Astoria residents were literally yelling at just the sight of the city's new landscaping design Sunday afternoon, on the sidewalks of 29th Street from 31st Avenue to Broadway in Queens.

The Charlie Brown-looking trees popped up out of the concrete, seemingly out of nowhere this week. Four of them planted a smack dam in the middle of the sidewalk.

"That was a surprise this morning," one resident said, "to see it in the middle of the thing and yeah, that seems odd."

People walk around the planters, cursing the Parks and Rec Department for the mulchy mess that's sure to be taken over by dogs and create even more space for unplowed snow to pile up.

"It's all over Reddit, it's all over TikTok, it's all over Twitter. Everybody is yelling losing their minds over it. They're just trees," Oaks said.

Others look at the sidewalk saplings confused. From the branches of one tree hang pictures of Fran Lebowitz and Larry David, representing a humorous spin on "Curb" issues.

"You're already kind of dodging those mopeds that come down the street anyways. But I don't know it kind of gives Astoria character," Sickles said.

FOX 5 reached out to the Parks and Rec Department, to find out if giving Astoria character was the goal. They said the design was not made by mistake. Utility lines prevented crews from planting the trees directly along the curb.

"While similar tree placements in other locations have been successful, we’ve heard from the community that we missed the mark with these four trees, and we will be relocating the trees to more appropriate locations," wrote Gregg McQueen, Press Officer at NYC Parks.

Now some residents said they've been asking the city for these trees for so long, that if the trees must be in the center of the sidewalk because of existing utilities well then so be it.

"I want them to stay," Oaks said.