One morning hitting Jefferson Blvd, I felt something had happened. Something was missing. Something big and peaceful wasn’t here anymore and it was like Totoro had passed away.
This tree and his healthy 17 brothers and sisters on this block are gone. The city cut them down. How it happened?
Some LA sidewalks are busted, usually by trees roots. It’s the city’s responsibility to take care of them, if a LA resident can’t use the sidewalk he/she can sue the city for that (“trip and fall’ lawsuits). On this stretch, one tree definitely had busted the sidewalk wide open. One tree. What does the city do? Cut them all down including this gorgeous one that wasn’t destroying the sidewalk at all. And of course it’s LA, no one’s walking around and now that this entire block has been deprived of natural shade…
What is sad is how no one wants to do the work and fucking move on. I’ve cut down trees before. It’s a neighborhood issue: take 4 dudes over a weekend to cut the one tree that is annoying, another day to repair the sidewalk and those trees live, the sidewalk is fixed, the city didn’t pay shit, the neighborhood is tighter, people got to know each other and kids can still marvel at that wonderful green giant. Instead it’s a barrage of “if the city had done its job ten years ago” “property owners should have done it” “wasn’t me” BS.
Sorry my big beautiful dude. I miss you.
One reply on “No finesse”
That is sad