At the risk of sounding like a "Grinch" in my opinion the money spent on the transportation, rigging, traffic control, scaffolding, wiring and then the removal of this tree could be better spent on many other things.
Food, clothing, health care or even toys for underprivileged kids comes to my mind.
Of course maybe the teamsters, operating engineers, electricians, carpenters, police, scaffold erectors and labors donated their time.
