How to solve the wrong problem

At Tuesday night's meeting of the Hudson Planning Board, Colarusso & Sons put forth a proposal to mitigate the visual intrusion of its gravel operations on the Hudson waterfront. Colarusso provided this existing view of the area; you are looking toward the river with the Basilica behind you:

Below is the same view, with Colarusso's proposed vegetative screening added:

At first, this looked to me like one of those "spot the differences" puzzles I hated as a kid. I would grow annoyed before finding the first one. But I have to admit that the truck at the right edge of the upper image is rather effectively screened from view by the proposed plantings.

So what's the problem? Well, when you take into account the path the trucks take between 40 and 280 times per day (according to a good source), the screening has little to no effect. Here is what one of these trips looks like from the same location, albeit with a shinier truck:

Here is the same view with the vegetative screening added:

Can you spot the difference? I didn't think so. As long as the truck path remains where it is, the real intrusion into the district will not be mitigated.

Move the crossing. Solve the real problem.