Saw this on the way home. Magnolia I think but I could be wrong. October in New York... can a tree even survive this ... especially with winter coming up.
It will survive. It will sprout new growth out at all weird angles and will look like crap. I see this occasionally (usually a homeowner job). Saved a couple a hundred bucks by doing it themselves, will cost a thousand to make it a decent tree again.
We have lots of Plain trees on highway edges in the areas of villages /towns etc. they do that to them around this time of the year every year nex sping/summer the will be back to square one & in full leaf apparently it keeps them more or less the same size without doing harm