They are too weak to support the weight of their branches. They all get to a point in their lives when they just drop their branches off. Perfectly healthy tree, calm day, branches just fall off the damn tree.
Horrible trees.
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When Hurricane Elvis (okay it was really a derecho) roared through Memphis in 2003, every one of the 50 or so of the Bradford pear trees at our office complex was severely damaged or completely destroyed. They’re the mobile home of trees!
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Heh,
When I went to UCDavis, there were some of these trees scattered around town. One was in the yard of a house that a classmate in Vet school was renting with some others. Cue endless jokes about what her house smelled like, and why…
She was pretty cool with the whole situation, but I’m not sure I could have dealt with the smell.
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This is a crime. A crime against humanity.
Apples, even. This is somehow worse than, say, getting rid of elm trees for the accursed Bradford Pears.
I am no fan of these awful trees, but they make good rootstock when grafting.
Y’all probably already know that nearly all the pears, apples, oranges, grapefruits, grapes, peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, pecans, etc. that humans eat come to us in their delicious forms because the trees they grew on were grafted.
Bradford as a rootstock is a desirable thing.
https://permies.com/t/35817/Grafting-Bradford-Callery-Pear
Finally, for all of you who are game to experiment, and you have a Bradford pear tree nearby, and you possess a steady hand and sharp knife (and a wee bit of electrical tape), behold:
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We had one in our front yard when we moved in. Actually, everyone did - the builder put one in every yard. 5 years ago, ours fell over, right across the driveway. The thing would’ve been about 20 years old at that point. It came apart at the bottom of its trunk - I’d expected the limbs to fall apart, as others have described, but evidently it rotted right at the base. I spent the rest of the day chain-sawing the thing into portable segments. And that was the end of our stinktree!
The builder also put a willow oak at every house. They’re fine, at least they’re native, but are already getting to the point where the roots are pushing up the sidewalk.
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Though, when I think of linden trees, I think of Berlin. But I think Germans would be just fine with renaming the street in downtown Berlin, “Under the Cum Trees.” Berliners, I think, would be fine with that.
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I really appreciate the entire rest of your post, but I’m old enough to remember the horror when 3/4 of elm trees in the U.S. were afflicted with Dutch elm disease and had to be cut down. I’ve also experienced the cathedral-like expanse of an elm-lined block. Cutting down a healthy elm would be unfathomable to me.
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You’d better hope they aren’t seeking out the water main!
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How have I made it to today-years-old without having ever seen that before?
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Because Palm trees are a bit scarce around Chicago?
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100% agreed.
I am very grateful you appreciate trees and I thank you for standing up for them. 
I wish all of humanity would recognize the value of healthy tree(s), healthy canopies, and leave healthy trees alone, to the fullest extent feasible–I did have to cut one down that had started falling on our house.
(and now, with apologies for my treehugger soapboxing; and this is not directed at you because I think you get it already…)
Over the years, I have gotten into so much conflict re planting trees, protecting trees, mulching-watering-pruning-feeding-caging-staking-of-trees and more in my neighborhood. Having not been called before my property owners association in nearly two months, I know the clock is merely ticking seconds away from my next helping of reprimands, threats, etc.
The cathedral of trees you mention has always been the only church I belong to.
Cutting down any healthy trees, anywhere, has always been gut-repugnant to me. I have felt this way for as long as I can remember being alive, even as a kid. It bothers me more now because the world is hotter, we need more shade, more CO2 sequestration, more fresh air, more evapotranspiration, more beauty and living things in “the built environment” etc.
The lack of respect that [human] tree-killers have for living beings that are often tens or hundreds of years older than the chainsaw-wielding human in question is more proof to me that we as a species have left the path of reason quite some time ago.
Planting trees is and has been my only redress when I despair of humanity’s endless stupidity.1
That said, the whole “here’s a thumb in your eye” jack move from these school administrators who chose to kill off food-providing mature shade-makers…
… is, to me, even more perverse. Far more perverse.2 I have been to apple orchards with apple trees upwards of 100 years old. So I can completely sympathize with and feel the righteous anger of @moortaktheundea.
Human choices have generational consequences far beyond the one year the action is taken. The messaging too, from those school admins, is one of ignorance, blindness, laziness, short-sightedness, majorly-missed opportunities, and a real stab in the back for pollinators. So many learning opportunities missed. Fresh apple juice. Insect life-cycles. For pete’s sake, it’s possible to make a whole dang curriculum out of the apple trees they cut down.
Imagine the takeaway, stated and unstated, the students there learn from the school admin’s actions and mindsets. “Screw you, next generations!” would be one, IMO.
My dad worked at a food bank for years, before he died. This food bank was in a food desert, in a massive city, in the American midwest. No fresh fruit for miles, courtesy of redlining, late stage capitalism, cynical city planners, and so much more. I was just getting started with Global Re-Leaf in that city before I moved out. It would have been great to plant food-bearing trees in that city. Now I live near a town that has this and this for ongoing projects, both of which support fruit tree growing in urban areas, especially in food deserts.
In urban areas (i.e., not in a dedicated forest on so-called protected lands often logged for pennies courtesy of various governmental co-optors), trees’ services importantly include reduced crime rates, mental health benefits, and “increased property values” WTFTM.
The services all trees provide us are beyond financial and economic measure.
https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/mcpherson/psw_2016_mcpherson001_livesley.pdf
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As you may imagine, these days, I have been quite busy. Where I live now, it’s easily 2-4 hours labor to dig a hole due to the enormous rocks here in the Edwards Plateau. Watering through droughts here in Texas is not for the weak of limb or faint of heart, and every tree needs at least 2 years of weekly watering at minimum. I heartily recommend planting and caring for trees if anyone wanting an opportunity for spiritual growth.
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From where I stand, there are orders of magnitude re tree-killing sins. My opinions may be odd, and not widely held. Sheeesh in my own neighborhood, I know that’s true.
ETA: typos
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aka Jizz Blossom
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It always breaks my heart when i see commercial and residential development raze beautiful undeveloped land with lots of trees. I mean i get it, people have to live somewhere if an area is growing but the end result is very few if any trees end up standing once everything is said and done. Proper conservation matters, near where my parents live north of Houston there’s Woodlands/Kingwood and it is known as a wealthier area but the main thing i admire of that zone is that they put in a lot of effort to keep as many trees as they could and driving through there is wonderful. When i drive the area my parents live you do still see some big trees but they’re relatively sparse and makes everything look terribly plain.
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I have a Bradford Pear in my back yard. It is about 8 inches diameter and came with the house (bought in 2015).
The plusses + grows fast, provides lots of shade and blocks views into the neighbor’s yard, and their view into ours.
Branches are easy to cut, dry fast when cut up, and burn hot when I need a few sticks of fruitwood.
The minuses - too much shade over other plants with its reaching, so I must prune constantly.
Roots are shallow and pushing up rockwork and crowding other plants in the gardens.
Eventually this tree will get so big for our tiny yard that it will have to be cut down. The problem is that I will have nothing blocking the neighbors and our privacy will be greatly diminished in our shrinking world with everyone home all day every day. So, I’m going to put off cutting it down as long as possible. But it’s not a “must keep” tree.
There are some other AMAZING trees out there. Trees like a Fringe Tree.
https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=chvi3
Or a wisteria:
Or a tulip tree:
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There should definitely be some other trees that might work better for your space as far as not having shallow roots and being bushy enough to provide privacy. You might be able to reach out to plant nurseries or landscaping companies in your area by phone and chat up someone that could recommend something for you 
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Be careful what you wish for. Wisteria are choking vines that have pretty flowers for a few weeks. We have one on arbors in our yard and we have to trim the tendrils every few days all summer or it climbs up the neighboring trees and starts to kill them.
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Thanks for the tips, @Grey_Devil and @DukeTrout
What I would really like is a tree that does something. (Besides grow prolifically.) Either it produces fruit, or an amazing display, or pretty leaves that rustle, or a gorgeous scent. Or birds and bees love it, like the bottle brush on the other side of the yard.
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