Recently the city chopped down the hedges along Mt. Pleasant Cemetery at the top of the hill, which are usually around 10 to 12 feet tall, making the cemetery visible to the houses across the street and passersby on 5th Ave W and W Raye St. According to Cynthia Thurman from the Parks and Recreation Central West District office, the laurel hedges had grown so tall that they were running into the Metro power line above and encroaching on many of the nearby graves – the city had to cut them.

“We needed to get a grasp on the maintenance on that hedge because it had been neglected so long,” she said.

But some neighbors think the trim may have been too extreme, affecting the privacy of both memorial patrons and the bustling neighborhood around the cemetery. One reader called the hedge chop a “massacre.” Candy Martin wrote,

I have been wondering why on earth they cut down the hedge that surrounds the Mount Pleasant Cemetery…It was very tall, so when I drove by and saw a road crew cutting, I assumed they were trimming it down a bit to get it out of the wires above, but next time I came by it was cut down several feet to about waist height. I don’t understand why they did this because it looks terrible. My father is buried at Mt Pleasant, and I thought it was very nice to have the greenery there. Now it doesn’t feel very private or calm. What about the people that live across the street – do they enjoy seeing the cemetery now instead of the greenery?

Meg Ferris shared Candy’s sentiment,

It makes it feel exposed, sort of like the graves don’t have privacy any more.

But according to Thurman, the hedges, which are now around 4.5 feet won’t be this short for long. She said that because the hedges had been neglected for so long, the only choice was to cut them short to allow them to grow in and be maintained in the future. In the future the hedges will be kept at around 5 to 6 feet tall.

“It doesn’t look good today, but this time next year it will look great,” she said. “The tops will start sprouting and the whole hedge will fill in.”

Thanks to Candy and Meg for the tip!