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They're old, they're gray, they steal carbon from the air, they block the sun, they buckle the sidewalks... and they're so ridiculously green it's almost like they're showing off.
They are the 50+ ficus trees who have the nerve to stand in the way of progress near the 3rd Street Promenade. And they've got to go.
In order to expand the popular shopping district (once known as the Santa Monica Mall), city officials have decided that it would be best to uproot over 30 elderly ficus trees, and destroy over 20 of them, probably out of principle.
Sure Santa Monicans unload their wallets at Whole Foods, putter around in their hybrids, and pretend to vote liberal, but when it comes right down to it, they hate nature, they hate the environment, and they really can't stand ficus trees - especially when buses and trucks scrape up against them.
How do we know this? Because there's only one Santa Monica councilman who gives a twig about the old trees, Kevin McKeown, and even he thinks the future for the trees looks dark.
To revisit the plan -- which has been in the works for a decade -- a council member on the prevailing side would need to place the item on the agenda, an unlikely scenario, since City staff has warned that changing the project could jeopardize the earmarked State and Federal Transportation funds, McKeown said.The uprooting begins Monday. Happy Columbzzzzz Day.“I don’t know, since the contract (with the contractor hired by the City) has been signed, that we can postpone the work,” McKeown said. “Whatever you do, you will have to act quickly.”
“The sense of urgency is very strong,” McKeown said. “There’s less than 100 hours before the trees start to be removed.” - The Lookout
The Times today quoted activist Jerry Rubin who admitted that the ficus are not people "but if they were, they'd probably be shouting 'Don't relocate us, don't get rid of us before our time!' "
Too bad for Jerry that the city council are people, and they're about to shout, "gentlemen start your chainsaws."
Somehow an emergency meeting has been called by the Treesavers tonight on the front lawn of the Santa Monica City Hall. 1685 Main Street, 6:00pm.
The trees don't stand a chance. Not even the LA Green Girl is that into saving them.
In Santa Monica the only way an "emergency meeting" would get the people behind it is if someone threatened to ban Starbucks or BMWs. That's not a city that cares about trees. They care about having a nicer Banana Republic. Or another place to get shoes.
Or encroaching into Venice some more.
If you can't see that a new Baby Gap opened on 4th Street because an old tree is in the way, Santa Monica would be likely to just crumble into the sea. Nobody wants that.
Those ficus should make like a tree and leave.
photos via The Treesavers.org
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Just to throw a horticultural slant on all this; these trees(Ficus nitida variety retusa) are horribly suited for their application as street trees as they obviously have voracious invassive root systems that perhaps only skateboarders have an affinity for. They, like their invassive counterparts Liquidambar a.k.a. Sweetgum(also planted heavily throughout the area) look especially neat, yet have no place being planted anywhere near concrete of any kind for now obvious reasons. Next time throw a nice Chinese Elm, ooh, ornamental!
OMG, you loon, they're REPLACING them, one, and two, they're FICUS TREES, which are ornamental, non-native species. It has nothing to do with the Baby Gap, it has to do with responsible management of resources. Would you rather they have to repave the streets every two weeks? Because THAT'D be environmentally responsible.
It's "logic" like this that makes right-wingers right about lefties. Make like a tree and shut up.
must have perfectly smooth roads for the SUVs
Ficus? Ficyou!
awesome...
You know, it's dumbass posts like this one that remind me why I don't read LAist anymore. It was worth getting an account just to say that.
Ficus and palm trees aren't native to Santa Monica. They were planted by real estate developers (oh, noes! Teh Evil DEVELOPERZ!1!) and short-sighted city planners in order to create an artificial environment to convince idiots east of the Rockies to move to the edge of the desert. They don't belong here any more than turf grass lawns and all the other artifacts of East Coast suburban living that abound in SoCal.
If the Treehuggers really gave a shit, they'd be pulling for installing native trees and plants. Instead, they're acting like every other selfish assclown with a cause and a bullhorn: it doesn't matter what's best, just what they want. They want their shade and canopy without having to deal with any of the costs. You want the ficus trees, Treehuggers? Great, you can start with the one in front of my house that shits its berries every summer, tears up my sidewalk, horks water from my rosemary hedge, gets into my sewer lines (which I get to pay for, thanks) and acts like the invasive bastard it is.
...and, yes. That should be Tree Savers, not Treehuggers. The ficus roots growing into my brain have undone my spelling/context centers.
these hippies need to find something better to do with their time.
The ficus trees are going to be replaced with other ---- wait for it ---- wait for it ----- trees!
I don't know anything about the replacement trees, but hopefully they are not going to tear up the sidewalks, cover the ground in slick berry waste and restrict sunlight from reaching the sidewalk. Don't be an idiot and elevate these ficus trees to sequoia status. Pretty soon you are going to say that the spotted owl lives in them.
Furthermore, your comments about Santa Monica are a little silly and can hardly be taken seriously. It must be fun to write such cute little sentences you big idiot.
Anyway, the protests have nothing to do with the trees and everything to do with a dislike towards market capitalism and the evil third street promenade.
Please spare us your opinion about Santa Monica, douchebag, you'd think that the editor of a blog that wants to represent Los Angeles wouldn't be making idiotic generalizations about a part of the city (or region if you want to nitpick) he apparently doesn't know much about.
I was going to write a bit of a "are you kidding?" email but it's been done for me. I won't miss those ficus at all. Never liked them and am glad to learn in these comments how much more I don't like them (non-native, wreck sidewalks, sucks up water...)
Can't WAIT to see the new trees and plants that go in.
i love how non native People hate non native Trees so much.
so Santa Monican
Wait, so you have to be a native to appreciate where you live and how to best present a particular place with a partial eye on the environment? I realize Santa Monica is not some pristine wilderness sanctuary, but the fact that the city wants to replace exotic trees with less damaging, more water friendly natives makes them laughable?
P.S. We are just about all non-native.
Thanks for posting on this. It's nice to know you read your tip mail. The protesters have won a stay of execution (for today, anyway). Stay tuned and thanks again.
dianejwright
http://blog.fatbrain.ca
Re: #11: But "non-native," when talking about trees, refers to species, and there's only one species of human--people can't really be non-native in the same way trees can. Unless you're saying that the Chumash belong to a different species than Homo sapiens? Because that'd be some old-school racism right there.