Smite them, oh mighty smiter.

May they find themselves in a situation where they have to choose between paying for electricity and paying for food.

One night - or possibly day, no one seems to have seen it happen - the tree disappeared and the treebox was paved over.

That happened in Chicago, 'cept it was an airport. And it was mayor Daily who had it done.

Yep, in the middle of the night they ripped up an airport, without notifying any owners of planes that happened to be parked there that night.

My neighborhood has a trucking company that has slowly bought up several blocks' worth of properties for its big-ass inconvenient semis. Because of the way some of the streets are laid out, some are so untravelled that people unfamiliar with the neighborhood have wondered if those streets were alleys.

But no, they're actual city streets.

However, that doesn't stop the trucking company from pouring gravel all over those wee streets so that people won't drive down them and interrupt their trucking whatnot.

My favorite part? When people park --legally -- on those streets, the trucking company has them towed for parking on private property.

I am not making this up. They are, of course, being sued by a lot of people and (I think) the neighborhood's business association (not for the parking shenanigans, but for other stuff that they didn't bother to get permits to do).

We hatessssss them. Seriously. It's like this whole neighborhood-wide campaign of vitriol against this one jackhole trucking company. If the neighborhood weren't already close-knit, I think our unity in our hatred of the company would have done it.

Aims, that sucks good luck kicking their asses!

Sounds like your trucking company is in cahoots with Lincoln Towing, the object of Steve Goodman's ire in "The Lincoln Park Pirates."

To me way, hey
Tow them away
The Lincoln Park Pirates are we
From Wilmette to Gary
There's none that's so hairy
And we always collect our fee

To me way, hey
Tow them away
We plunder the streets of your town
Be it Edsel or Chevy there's no car too heavy
And no one can make us shut down

We break into cars when we gotta
With pick axe and hammer and saw
And they said this garage had no license
But little care I for the law
All my drivers are friendly and courteous
Their good manners ya always will get
'Cause they all are recent graduates of the charm school in Joliet

Yep, in the middle of the night they ripped up an airport, without notifying any owners of planes that happened to be parked there that night.

Not just the airport - they dug up the runways so IIRC, those planes had to be dismantled and trucked out.

But at least that stuff happened in defense of green space and public access, and not the other way round.

Oh, I can't be reading about things that make me want to go all HULK SMASH. Not right now. I'm already feeling a little SMASHy. I'm in a fragile emotional condition! SMASH SMASH SMASH

Alas, I can only do virtual smashings, because I like all my stuff.

One night - or possibly day, no one seems to have seen it happen - the tree disappeared and the treebox was paved over.

Near me, there was an oddly shaped lot, probably about an acre, in the form of a long triangle formed by three streets. For some reason, when the subdivisions were built around it, it was never touched and was a tiny bit of old-growth forest. The only other piece of old-growth forest in metro Atlanta is a nearby county park maintained by Fernbank Science Center. The owner decided he wanted to develop it or sell it, and the neighbors banded together to raise the money, buy the land and create a park. One neighbor opposed the idea of the park, because, he said, there would be too much traffic. It ended up in a long series of county hearings and, iirc, a proposed lawsuit. In the meantime, of course, the owner couldn't do anything to the land and late one night, he went in with bulldozers and razed it.

Mom just called me with terrible news. Her coworkers 2 teenage daughters were in a car accident today. One died and the other is in a coma. Please send any -ma you have to spare to coworker. I can't even imagine what she is going through at the moment.

Oh, God, that's horrible.