While Astoria isn’t exactly filled with green spaces, this new addition to one particular neighborhood has left locals perplexed regarding its purpose. As seen in the image below, a lone tree has been planted in the middle of the sidewalk. This not only looks visually bizarre but also makes for an awkward path to navigate for those using bikes or pushchairs. Furthermore, on garbage days, this could cause even more problems due to obscuring a large part of the path. Such is the obscurity of the newly planted tree that some residents are even questioning the legality of it.

News of the unusual tree quickly spread to Reddit where hundreds of Astoria residents gave their thoughts on the matter. The tree was planted on Yes, 29th between Broadway and 31st Ave and one user claimed that many people in their building had already notified 311 to complain.

This even prompted one user to claim: “For what it’s worth as a civil engineer, whatever agency forced that in looks like they made it wildly non-compliant for ADA access. Federal requirements mandate 4′ unobstructed paths, most NY agencies I work with try to go for 5′ wherever possible. This looks like something a planner or landscape architect did without getting any approval for.”

Whether this is true remains to be seen. However, it’s fair to say that this tree has proven to be incredibly unpopular and based on this, it may not be around for too much longer.