For years, the landscaping in berkeleys residential traffic circles has been maintained by the people who live nearby. In may of last year, city staff recommended all of the trees in the circles be cut down because they obstructed the view of drivers. Predictability, a lot of people thought that was not a good idea. Absolutely not. In fact, i think they support rather than the track. Reporter the decision was the result of a 2 million lawsuit settlement when someone was injured in a crosswalk at this intersection. This tree was alleged to have contributed to the accident. When more than 1000 residents signed petitions, the mayor created a Citizens Task force to work with staff engineers, who then recommended that only trees up to six inches in diameter would be allowed. They seemed perplexed by the idea that you cannot guarantee a tree would only be six inches in diameter, the trees grow. Reporter the task force discovered other cities like seattle require trees in their traffic circle