In the interest of letting this post fall off the page ..... but, I'll comment yet again ...can't help myself .....

Critical assessment reveals that the amateur 'pruning' of this monster BP is a real hack job and may well have further compromised its stability. Two other BPs down the street have already fractured and they weren't nearly as overgrown. Meanwhile, another neighbor has had it done right and aggressively by a professionl tree company complete w/bucket lift and chain saws. It's kind of a 'crepe murder' of a BP, but at least their neighbors don't have to worry. I should be so lucky!

The original builder provided 'landscaping' on my lot had a BP but 10' away from the now monster BP (our houses are all of 15' apart). When my 'garden elves' designed my front yard, first thing they did was pull out the BP (I gave it away and it's doing great in a two acre backyard where it can't cause trouble). They installed a Serviceberry in a different location, but even they never saw this monster BP next door coming!

I appreciate that the city requires basic greenery of every new home, but they really need to re-visit their criteria. BP's on small, city lots are akin to kudzu and running bamboo.

I'll go quietly now.

Zigzag,
If the tree is really upsetting you, the way he butchered it, you can call a tree company and have an arborist inspect it for stability.
If the arborist will give you a written statement stating that the tree is a catastrophie waiting to happen, youo can run to your city counsel with it and see if they can help you somehow.
Unfortunately, when people plant humongous trees on a small little lot, something bad is bound to happen sometime down the road.
Poor tree, I feel sorry for some of them after they have been hacked to pieces.
Good Luck to you.

Thanks for the input, butterfly - I hope this will shake itself out before the danged thing fractures in my direction and wipes out my front landscaping! Neighbor tree owner left on vacation so all's quiet for the time being. I'm hoping he'll come back w/fresh eyes and realize that a professional pruning is in order.

I hate to disagree with what happened, but the "professional arborist crew" work on a callery pear to hack it is hardly professional, and simply not the best way to handle that tree. I guess anything for a $$$$.

Have you thought of just ringing the bark on that tree so that it croaks within a few months? ;P

The "list of good urban trees" in many municipalities is usually very mundane/simplified, or outdated. Pears were in vogue in the 1980s until they reached mature sizes and showed their only saving grace is flwoers and fall foliage (albeit on horribly structured branches). Breeders rather tried creating "a better callery pear" rather than just focusing on a better plant selection all together. Sad.

It's sad on how "landscape architects" and worse, the self-proclaimed landscape "designers" overplant landscapes and then are followed by landscape(lawn maintenance) illegals that hack and cut whatever to look busy. In fact, I watched the dreaded DIY network this past weekend and couldn't believe the overplanting done on Desperate Landscapes on a very small front yard lot. Unnamed cultivars of buddleja were placed 4' on center and a yard about 25' wide by 20' deep was also planted with a zelcova tree (gets about 40' tall by 25' wide) AND a Chanticleer pear (which gets 30' tall by 15' wide).

Talk about scandal to the masses.

Gusoli, I agree about the severity of the professional pruning and was surprised at how severe it is, especially since it's mid-summer. That BP has nearly no foliage left which may not bode well for its future. The one on my other side (yep, I'm surrounded) was well pruned last winter when dormant. LOL about ringing the bark - we've actually entertained a couple of similar ideas, but I'm such a chicken!

And I agree again on the DIY landscape shows - they are totally wrong 95% of the time, but instant gratification seems to be the desired result with no eye to the future. I'll bet if they did follow-ups on those yards a year or two out, they'd be just as 'desperate' as before, only worse!