It seems a terrible mistake to cut any mature trees, let alone many of them. In an area where trees really aren’t natural inhabitants and where we really do “have to” cut trees due to disease, beetle infestation, and so on, it seems a crime to cut trees that could stay. To say that we have to do this because the money has to be spent surely is wrong. Better to give the money back than to spend it for a bad thing. To say that “trees will be removed” (as the City Manager is reported to have said) sounds closed-minded. To cut mature trees and then replace them with saplings really is a poor trade. I can’t imagine a bike path so dramatically useful that it would justify this action. What constituency is asking for this development? I have heard no good arguments for it and plenty of outcries against. We should not cut these trees.