Vomero, checks on street trees immediately

            “After yesterday's serious episode, in Vomero, where yet another tragedy was narrowly avoided due to the sudden fall of a tree in one of the busiest streets of the neighborhood, in via Cimarosa, near the entrance to Villa Floridiana, requests for verification of the street trees present in the neighborhood are pouring in.” Gennaro Capodanno, engineer, president of the Comitato Valori collinari, intervenes once again on the matter. “I was particularly struck by the report of a commercial operator on Via Bernini,” Capodanno points out, “who forwarded me a photo of a large plane tree, located on the sidewalk of Via Bernini itself, almost at the junction with Via San Gennaro al Vomero, which, due to lack of pruning, has even exceeded the height of the building immediately behind it. The problem is that, as it has grown, this tree has leaned toward the road and it is precisely this inclination that is causing concern. For this reason, the competent offices are asked to intervene quickly to carry out the necessary checks.” “Many still remember the tragedy that the entire city experienced on June 10, 2013, exactly six years ago – Capodanno recalls -, when the fall of a large pine tree in via Aniello Falcone, also in Vomero, caused the death of a woman, who was in transit at that moment with her car. A tragedy that is still alive in the minds and hearts of all of us for that absurd death.”"Unfortunately, in terms of safety, living in Naples is becoming more difficult every day - underlines Capodanno - Neapolitans should in fact all be affected by a strong strabismus, so with one eye they could look where they put their feet, avoiding the holes and dips present on sidewalks and roadways, and with another they could observe the objects that can fall from above, starting from pieces of cornice or plaster, to end up on trees, lampposts, baskets and, why not, even flower pots ".

            "As for street trees - Capodanno points out -, in Vomero we are paying the price for the lack of pruning, requested several times but never carried out. Furthermore, many of the ancient plane trees in the neighborhood, affected by various pathologies, including colored cancer, attacked by insects, such as the infamous "plane bug", an insect of the tingidae family, whose scientific name is Corythucha ciliata", are severely weakened, with the possibility of being able to fall at any moment suddenly, as happened today in via Cimarosa ". “I hope – concludes Capodanno – that the competent offices will want to implement all the measures needed to guarantee the safety of citizens, monitoring, among other things, the entire public tree heritage present in Vomero, taking steps to promptly eliminate trees that are affected by pathologies that make them unsafe and at risk of falling but, at the same time, providing for the planting of new trees, in order not to further impoverish the already meager public greenery present in the hilly neighborhood, where for some time, many tree fountains have been empty or with only the presence of stumps”.