The Mexican Effort to Destroy the Trees

In Mexico City, a common issue that some people get annoyed about is the removal of trees from the city.

Most recently, you had a very famous tree that has been around for more than a hundred years that was recently cut down due to lack of proper maintenance and because it was infected with something and at risk of falling down onto vehicles from my understanding.

You can see it here.

Capitalinos se toman selfies en glorieta de La Palma en CdMx antes de retiro por hongo

However, most of the trees that get cut down in Mexico City don't make the news like that one.

That tree had a lot more historical importance and was located in a quite nice part of town.

Still, in other occasions, you might come across the ire of the locals whenever a business -- be it local or foreign -- hires someone to cut down a tree in front of their business.

That particularly where the issue comes from most of the time is when businesses decide to cut down trees without authorization.

At least from what I have noticed over the years.

A Mini Protest at the Farmacia Similar

Over a week ago, I was walking around Mexico City taking photos of a bunch of places.

While I'm not sure what the neighborhood was as there wasn't a metro station too close by, it wasn't too far from Estadio Azteca.

At any rate, I was walking alone and simply noticed a little protest or commotion going on anyhow.

Across the street from me was a Farmacia Similar.

Which, for those who don't know, is one of the cheapest pharmacies in Mexico that are all over the place.

Out of curiosity and with no regard to if this scene was going to get violent or not, I chose to walk up closer to see what the anger was about.

In short, there were 7 people standing outside this pharmacy.

Some were making noise and arguing with whatever employee and others were just watching with concerned looks.

Ultimately, the issue was about how they were cutting down a tree in front of this pharmacy and the neighbors of the area didn't want that.

Now, to be fair, I'm not sure really what purpose the tree brings.

I heard extra trees in a city can make it less hot like you can read here.

And obviously extra trees can make a neighborhood look nicer than otherwise like you can see with this meme here.

Outside of that, I'm not sure why these folks were getting so annoyed at the tree being cut down but I can see some reason for why they'd want to keep it.

But they were mostly going on about how "you don't have the right to cut this tree down."

All the while asking for proof of permission to do so but seemingly the employee in charge of responding to them didn't have any proof to produce.

Meanwhile, right behind all of them, you still had workers seemingly getting their job done on this tree.

So, in short, their protest didn't do much work.

While I'm not planning on going back there anytime soon, I can only imagine that the tree is gone by now.

I didn't stick around as it was looking like it would rain soon and I kinda felt like getting back to my apartment before getting soaked.

Here in Mexico City, it tends to rain a shit ton during the summer months and I didn't have an umbrella on me.

If the moment had allowed for it, I wouldn't take a pic of the moment also but I wasn't sure if I'd get some negative attention for that.

As I wrote here, for obvious reasons, you can get bad attention when taking pics of things (especially if the employee might bitch about it or whatever else).

So ultimately I just ditched as the moment wasn't that interesting anyhow.

Though, having said that, it does remind me of this common enough issue that seems to make its attention known over the years living here in Mexico City.

Any Examples?

For those curious, I went online to find some examples of people complaining about trees being cut down by businesses down here.

I'm sure some individuals get involved in trying to cut down trees too but, over the years here, it does seem to me based on my observations that it's quite common for some businesses to get involved in this anyhow.

So enjoy the videos below of some other examples I could find online of this happening.

But that's it.

Nothing else to say on my end but simply to report on an issue you might encounter if you live here in Mexico City.

If you got anything to say, drop a comment below.

And follow my Twitter here.

Thanks for reading.

Best regards,

Matt