Council
Axes Treesavers' Appeal |
By Jorge Casuso
February 21 -- They quoted studies, sang songs, issued
threats, pleaded and begged, but in the end the Treesavers failed
to convince the City Council Tuesday night that the Downtown ficus
trees slated for removal should be saved.
In a last ditch effort, the Treesavers will urge a Superior Court Judge Thursday
to quickly hold a preliminary hearing to halt the axe.
The fledgling group had hoped to convince the City Council to overturn a decision
by the Landmarks Commission last month that the ficus trees that line 2nd and
4th streets do not meet the criteria for preservation.
But the council didn’t buy the argument that the rows of trees deserve
to be designated as landmarks because they can be tied to a pre-feminist activist
and to the City’s first female mayor. After nearly two hours of emotional
testimony, the council voted 5 to 1 to deny the Treesavers’ appeal.
“You could use the criteria to landmark almost anything in the city,”
said Council member Ken Genser. “I did not hear any arguments that the
criteria for the landmarks ordinance were satisfied.”
“I think they did what they did correctly,” said Mayor Herb Katz,
referring to the landmarks commissioners. “These trees are not landmarks.”
Council member Bob Holbrook agreed, noting that the only five Santa Monica
trees to receive such a designation included a massive Banyan tree planted by
the city’s founder, the nation’s tallest member of a rare species
of Eucalyptus and a 150-year-old oak tree.
“It’s hard for me to make the connection that these trees are more
historic than another group of trees in the city,” Holbrook said.
The only dissenting vote was cast by Council member Kevin McKeown, whose motion
to add a friendly amendment to reconsider the issue of removing the trees failed.
The “no” vote, McKeown said, “reflects my dismay” that
the motion did not include reconsideration.” The council, he added, had
decided to “use public money against public opinion to remove healthy
trees.”
The vote -- which paves the way for the City to remove 23 “structurally
unstable” ficus trees and relocate another 31 of the 153 ficus that line
the two Downtown streets -- came after testimony from more than 50 Treesavers
who packed the council chambers.
Before testifying, the group showed a slide presentation that showcased newspaper
images of Jacqueline Girion and the beautification committee’s efforts
to plant the trees half a century ago and also tied the effort to former mayor
Clo Hoover.
“You have a chance to make things right,” Girion’s oldest
son, Woody, told he council. “This is a groundswell. This isn’t
going to go away.”
“I love the trees, they’re part of my life,” said Sally Silverstein,
who has lived in Santa Monica for 40 years. “For you people to want to
destroy our trees is incomprehensible.
“Don’t you feel guilty?” Silverstein said. “I beg you
all, save the trees.”
The Treesavers, headed by local activist Jerry Rubin, not only shared personal
stories about the trees and quoted scientific studies extolling their benefits,
they even sang and shrieked.
Marissa Rubin, Jerry’s wife, sang some of the lyrics from
the 1960s folk song “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell.
“They took all the trees and put ‘em in a tree museum,” Rubin
sang. “And they charged all the people an arm and a leg just to see ‘em.”
The audience then sang the chorus in unison: “They paved paradise and
put up a parking lot.”
One woman walked up to the microphone and let out an earsplitting shriek that
could have been the agonized cry of a tree being chainsawed.
“We are not crazy tree huggers,” she told the council. “We
are patriotic Americans.”
But by the end of the public hearing, it was clear that the council members,
who noted several times that they could only vote on the appeal of the landmarks
commission’s decision, would not reconsider the removal of the trees,
part of a $8.2 million Pedestrian and Streetscape Improvement Project.
The council called Walt Warriner, the City’s urban forester, and consultant
Cy Carlsburg, who testified that although the 23 trees slated to be chopped
down looked healthy, they were “structurally compromised.”
The trees, said Warriner, “displayed an extensive amount of decay.”
“I don’t think that we want to see the trees on 2nd and 4th streets
decline at the same time,” said Carlsburg, who noted that they were planted
at the same time.
After the hearing, Tom Nitti, the attorney for the Treesavers, said he would
head to court Thursday to ask that a Superior Court judge quickly schedule a
hearing on a preliminary injunction that would halt the axe.
The hearing, which had been scheduled for Friday, was delayed after a new judge
was assigned to the case, Nitti said. The new judge has not set a date.
Nitti said he was told by City officials that “they intended to start
cutting down the trees on February 22.”
City officials, who had agreed to wait until the Friday hearing, said they
are waiting to see what the judge decides Thursday.
“We’re going to wait and see what the court says tomorrow,”
said Kate Vernez, a senior analyst with the City Manager’s office. “We’re
not going to prejudge what the judge will do.”
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