At around 4pm this afternoon a huge Oak tree came crashing down on the driveway of a home on Blandford in Redwood City. The tree also appears to have hit part of the resident’s garage, fortunately to date there are no reports of anyone being hurt.

Tree branches hit and pulled on the power lines nearby which cracked two power poles, one of those hit another tree up the street and broke some large branches off that tree. Residents around where the tree fell all lost power and both police and fire services quickly arrived to deal with the dangers caused by the live electrical wires.

Will this be a lawsuit for the City? Neighbors living around the area where the tree came down told me that the homeowner had been calling the city for over a month concerned that the tree might be about to fall. The tree was rooted in the parking strip, so it is technically the city’s responsibility. This morning the sidewalk around the tree began lifting and again the homeowner called the City telling them about the severity of the situation. Obviously nothing was done and the tree fell over from what appeared to be rotten roots. The damaged could have been far worse and the legal implications greater for the City had the tree fell directly over the home.

Who’s going to be responsible here? Just this morning I met with the Mayor of Redwood City and learned about cutbacks and many of the other issues facing the City. Was this delay due to cutbacks or would the response been that slow before the economic downturn?

Also, this issue is a huge catch 22. You see a tree you believe is about to fall on your home. You call the City, they don’t come out. However, can you imagine how the City would have punished this homeowner if he had an Oak tree cut down by some private service without their permission. No easy answers here.