Mrs. Spielberg's trees redux

I left out a pre-9/11 story under the title "Mrs. Speilberg's Trees" (1/28/2005). There was a small lot in Riverdale that Mr. Steven Spielberg's sister built on, near the Hudson River Park I once had to try to survey in, it in NYC coordinates, 0,0 at Columbus Circle, pre-GPS and basemap information unavailable unless one called Iowa or Nebraska, depending on each surveyor, who sort of "hoard" (or once sort of) their survey information building a client database that stretches over years. I had a friend who moved west to get away from it, principle contractors, same jobs. One has to find the right surveyor, ask for his data perhaps and where he left or found any datums. Much of this has changed at the time, I was using an electronic "total station" to sight in archaeological and botanical features with some new software I bought "AutoCad" from someone leaving the country. When the European satellite array gets up, we'll have much more accuracy, i.e., with Galileo, GPS and GLOSNOS the Russian array of satellites. What I was trying to say was that the contractors who worked on the property of Spielberg's sister I was told had cut many trees that they shouldn't have, and a gentleman from City Planning, who led a hiking tour of the Old Croton Aqueduct system on Saturdays for the Bronx Historical Society I attended, took some of the pictures of the trees. I read later that contributions were paid instead of fines that went into a discretionary "slush fund" run by the former Parks Commissioner. I was joking to no one in particular at the time they were going to put Mr. Spielberg's mother in jail, what was that going to look like? Not that she paid into the fund.