This gentleman's concern at the beginning might have been met better by listing to him some of the science-based criteria that the City's Department of Urban Forestry uses to determine a given tree's risk level. I agree that perceived risk is very subjective and we can't give anyone carte blanche to remove whatever tree they feel like. There's also risk that is much more insidious from heat climate events that are also life threatening -- 37 people died in the heat dome 3 years ago, a disproportionate amount of them in neighborhoods w/ low tree cover so you have to reiterate that we're also trying to look out for those folks as well.