[ACT] Tell the Pasadena City Council what you think...

[SSL]

Jeremiah-

Native Sycamores are wonderful trees. They don't do well in sidewalks. If you notice , in Nature they tend to grow in stream beds where the soil is very well drained. They easily develop a fungus that rots them at the junction of the roots and trunk, sadly. Native Oaks have like problems and since they are protected there are cost problems with trimming and so on. in fact the regulations to protect oaks interestingly enough have lead to people not wanting to plant them. If you notice the mature street trees on say Michigan in Bungalow heaven, you will notice that they have large areas of open soil in the parkway and on lawns that lend to their health. Planted on a commercial street they don't have this.

A gGinko, in spite of the fact that Gustav Stickley loved them, is a sucky street tree. The leaves have high amounts of lubricity making them terrible as a street tree because they promote tires slipping and sliding and I forget but either the male or female tree is highly poisonous.

--- On Mon, 2/23/09, Jeremiah Small <jeremiah at stonehillnews.com> wrote:
From: Jeremiah Small <jeremiah at stonehillnews.com>
Subject: Re: [ACT] Tell the Pasadena City Council what you think...
To: steve_lamb57 at sbcglobal.net, Meb787 at aol.com, "Lisa Hastings" <rumberalisa at gmail.com>, "DFA" <sangabrielvalley4democracy at yahoogroups.com>
Cc: "Bill Bogaard" <bbogaard at ci.pasadena.ca.us>, act at fourpalms.org, "Kevin Urich" <kevinu at pasadenaweekly.com>, "larry wilson" <larry.wilson at sgvn.com>, eti at fourpalms.org
Date: Monday, February 23, 2009, 10:25 AM



Re: [ACT] Tell the Pasadena City Council what you think...
As I understand it, the plan is to replace the trees with non-native Ginkos. I am curious why this species is being considered. The historical argument for native Washingtonia palms is obvious, but Ginkos?



Is there a reason native California Sycamore or California Live Oak doesn’t make sense?



Jeremiah Small



On 2/23/09 9:53 AM, "SSL" <steve_lamb57 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:



Lisa-



Perhaps a little history would be helpful to you. First of all the Washingtonia Palm is the traditional Pasadena street tree for major streets. Has been since 1918 or so. In the 1970's a group of us do gooder civic design types had the idea that we wanted to make Colorado and other commercial streets in Pasadena more walkable, and more like the commercial streets of a European city. Like Paris, Utrecht, or Amsterdam with thier canopy of street trees.



We sought to keep the historic Washingtonias as a overstory and use other trees as a understory for shade. Several businesses funded the study and elevation drawings INCLUDING VROMANS (be nice to Joel) and for many years copies of the elevations hung gathering support at Barney's LTD. 



We had specific detailed well studied recomendations for the type of tree to be planted ahd how they should be planted to ensure very little sidewalk damage and that we got healthy long lived trees. Some business owners, Jim Plotkin in particular,who was involved at the time with the Old town Merchants Association and a major landlord in old town, were rabily against the trees we selected because they were slow growing and would cover their signs for too long. The City of Pasadena being a political creature compromised and put in faster growing less hardy healthy trees and then because so much time had lapsed and costs had gone up, didnt put them in correctly. Those of us whose idea this was protested and were either ignored, or told to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good, a refrain one often hears in Pasadena from the government except when one is attempting to get say a zoning or building permit...



Anyhow, this mess was inevitable, because the City of Pasadena screwed it up from the begining. So now that the cheap trees have their canopies finally above the signs, they are eating the sidewalk and /or dieing and must be cut down to protect the public. 



They should be cut down. Trees with long lifespans and properly planted should be planted for an understory. Sadly, even if we start in the morning, I wiull not live long enough to see them as mature civic shade trees, but part of being civic minded is leaving a better world for the next generation. 



Let us attempt to have Pasadena City Hall take the correct lessons from this:



1 .Some questions can or should not properly be answered with compromise

2. The good is the enemy of the perfect, and of the future

3. It doesnt do any good to "save" 15% today if it will cost you 150% in twenty five years.



And of course, 

4. People will defend things, even if done incorrectly, that improve the humaneness of their existence.



Steve Lamb



P.S. Sadly what I take away from this, Devils Gate and Lincoln Crossing, is that visionaries need to never and I mean never, share any idea with any governmental agency because they are, in my wretched experience, completely incapable of ever carrying through without destroying the whole purpose of the original idea. I guess if they were capable of being visionary or carrying a visionary idea, they wouldnt be bueracrates in the first place. This miserable lesson, that they are just incapable of implimentation without destruction, has been a painful one that has taken me most of my life to learn, because at first I could just not believe the levels of mendacity, sloth and corruption. I see much more clearly now, sadly.



--- On Sun, 2/22/09, Lisa Hastings <rumberalisa at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Lisa Hastings <rumberalisa at gmail.com>

Subject: Re: [ACT] Tell the Pasadena City Council what you think...

To: Meb787 at aol.com

Cc: act at fourpalms.org, eti at fourpalms.org

Date: Sunday, February 22, 2009, 9:15 PM



Who started this tree destruction program anyway? First on Arroyo Parkway, then Holly Street going toward city hall.  Now, Colorado. Why in the world does Pasadena want palm trees? The ones on Arroyo Parkway look terrible and Holly Street going toward city hall looks so barren now! Palm trees aren't trees anyway. They're classified as grasses! And they're not native, either! What is going on? Is this part of all the new development? Tear everything down and put up high density population development?



On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 7:02 PM,  <Meb787 at aol.com> wrote: