In July 2009, a young Google engineer was walking through Central Park when he was struck by a falling oak tree branch, causing brain injuries and paralysis. It seemed like a tragic but fluke injury. Except that, later, the comptroller of New York City, Scott Stringer, started analyzing the claims paid by the city to settle lawsuits, and he discovered an unexpectedly large number of settlements resulting from falling branches. (One was the engineer’s lawsuit, which had settled for $11.5 million.) Curious, Stringer investigated further and discovered that the city’s pruning budget had been cut
...more
