Tree removal by our town

First let me begin by saying that I think it is great that the town is removing some of the trees that are damaging our homes. I live at the corner of Oak and Ellis St and will say that Mayor Higgins and the town did a great job during the super cell and I made certain to personally thank him and his team.
However over the past 3 days they have been removing trees on Oak Street. There are a few issues that trouble me and I am hoping to get more information.
1. Who determines which trees to remove? Three trees on Oak St were removed in the last week. The issue is the three trees that were removed were in front of unoccupied, bank owned homes. Translation their is no tax revenue from these homes!! Why protect abandoned properties? I am not a tree expert but I can walk down Ellis St and point out at least 20 trees that have cracked and lifted the sidewalks. These are all in front of occupied tax paying homes and these are the homes the town should protect. Let the utility companies pay for the tree removal of the trees that affect their lines. They are the ones who weaved the line in between the trees.
2. The trees that were removed were left with long trunks sticking out of the ground. Are we now the town of totem poles? Will that be the next contest at the Spooktacular this year? Decorate your totem pole contest. The tree lined streets are part of the charm of our town. As a home owner I agree that the trees need to be removed. They are dangerous and have caused significant damage everytime we have a storm. The totem poles look really bad and I would like to know the plan to have them removed and the stumps ground down. Is that phase two of the process.
3. I have two town trees left on my property. One lifts the sidewalk everytime the wind blows at least 1". The same side walk I had to pay to have repaired 2 times after previous storms. The second has a root that lifted the side walk at least 6" and is now a tripping danger to the students that walk to school. I have had several contractors tell me that they will not fix the problem because they will have to cut the root and they would be liable if the tree falls. My homeowners insurance tells me I am liable if someone trips and falls. The town tells me the tree is fine and the sidewalk is my responsibility. The town is more then willing to let me pay to have it removed...please note that my property taxes are over $10,000/year. Of that 10K they can cut the tree down at their expense. In addition I pay $850.00/year to have a tree service maintain these two trees.

 
Again I am pleased that they are removng some of the trees but there does not seem to be a lot of thought put into the process. I am hoping that I am incorrect and there is a good solid plan for this project but based on what I have seen so far we are becoming the town of totem poles!