Spacing reports on the fate of the Hug Me tree at Queen Street West and Peter Street after it was found knocked down yesterday. After narrowly avoiding being hacked up by the City's Forestry department, the tree is back—intact—in the hands of Elicser, the artist who had been painting it for the past few years, thanks in part to a woman whose husband proposed to her in front of the tree six years ago.

Newsstand: November 23, 2009
I walked past this today on my lunch break - I was so worry that it had been taken down on purpose by the city! So glad it's back in good hands at least.
Awwww. I'm glad it was saved. They should plant a new tree there so my grand kids will have something to paint.
(And that's 3 street art posts today! Suck it, haters.)
From the pics it looks like it keeled over and died from ugly graffiti.