Chicago gives us rate hikes; we give city Christmas

The symbiotic relationship between the suburbs and Chicago always has been rocky.

For starters, the city sports teams always have treated the suburbs as a mistress. They complain about Chicago and cry on our shoulder with promises to leave the city and settle down in Schaumburg, Naperville, Gurnee, Arlington Heights or Addison because we understand them and will treat them better. But the teams always stay with Chicago, which, being a little petty, is quick to blame suburbanites for beating up first-base coaches, dashing World Series hopes with one foul ball or slapping Devin Hester.

The relationship between city and suburbs provides some mutual benefits, but both sides see the other as parasites. Suburbanites complain about divorcing the city and still having to pay support. The city blames the suburbs for selling guns to Chicago and fueling the heroin market.

Now, suburbanites are complaining about plans to raise fares for all our residents who take trains into the city, hiking tolls on roads leading into the city and charging more for suburbanites to park in the city. Worst of all, the city plans to nail us on water. Chicago lets us use (and even abuse) Lake Michigan water for showers, pools, washing kids' soccer socks and keeping the grass green on our perfectly edged lawns. Now that we're addicted to the stuff, they plan to jack up the price.

How are we repaying such grinchiness? The suburbs are giving the gift of Christmas to Chicago. The city wants a majestic Christmas tree for its Daley Center Plaza and wants it for free. The suburbs are letting the city choose any one of the best three we've got.

A city website - www.chicagochristmastreecontest.com - gives people through Tuesday to vote on the best suburban tree to donate to the city. The nominees are:

Ÿ A 55-foot spruce owned by the Jozefow family of Northlake.

Ÿ A 55-foot spruce owned by the Spangler family of Western Springs.

Ÿ A 59-foot spruce, purchased as a 4-footer from the Wheeling Nursery in 1966, owned by the Schwarz family of Glenview.

Once a suburban tree is chosen, the Long Grove office of The Brickman Group will tackle the task of cutting it down, getting it into the city (good thing Christmas comes before the toll hike) and making sure it stands tall and sturdy in Daley Center Plaza. The homeowner gets grass seed after the stump is ground down.

In helping narrow the field of Chicago-worthy trees, only three of the top 10 nominees were from the city, "and I think all three were too small," says Rick Corby, Brickman's regional manager, who oversees this annual project.

A Killdeer resident with a biology degree, Corby (who puts up a 10-foot tree in his home) knows the ins and outs of moving a tree that size.

"I used to go up in 60-, 70-, 80-foot trees," Corby says, adding that Brickman has a "mature tree corps" that will harvest the winning tree.

"Last year's tree (a 70-footer from suburban McHenry) was the largest tree we've ever done," says Corby, who notes Brickman was in charge of the annual Christmas tree at the John Hancock Center for two decades before the city started using a single large tree for the Daley Center Plaza display.

While he needed two cranes and an additional trailer to move last year's monster, having the tree in an open field made the job easier.

"This year, they are all in somebody's yards," Corby says.

Two years ago, Brickman needed a 100-foot crane to lift the tree (from Palos Heights) over the suburban setting. It's all very tricky and generally costs between $80,000 and $100,000 to move a tree in one piece that might cost just five grand to chop down, Corby says.

"Quite honestly, there's a lot of pressure," Corby admits. "There's a lot of engineering that goes into it. Chicago is the Windy City, and it's something everybody is going to look at."

And it needs to be done in a matter of days.

"It would be great if we could pull a huge net over the tree, but that isn't the case," Corby says. "The first thing we'll do is tie the tree up to protect it."

Workers climb into the tree, tie the limbs and then secure the trunk with a chain that is used to lift it onto a trailer, or two. A single large chain saw cuts it free. Once the tree reaches the city, workers build a stand and support it with four steel cables.

In 2009, the tree was a little sparse. "So we drilled holes and put in rear and wired branches to the rear and wired those branches to other branches," Corby says. "I don't know how many branches we put into that tree."

Whatever tree makes the cut this year, it should stand as a literally shining example of what good can be accomplished when the suburbs and city work together.