California: Cutting down of trees because long ago neighbors were promised uninhibited views
Removal of nearly a dozen trees from a city park Friday morning
sparked a colorful protest complete with a tree-sitter. The man,
27-year-old Andrew Watkins, said that he and two friends had climbed
into the approximately 25-foot-tall tipu tree in Orpheus Park at 2:30
a.m. Friday and began constructing a temporary plywood platform. His
friends came down, but Watkins remained, spending the morning playing
guitar and entertaining the entire fourth grade from the nearby Paul
Ecke Central Elementary School. The students walked into the park
about 10:30 a.m., carrying picket signs and shouting, “Save the tree.”
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The city’s park and recreation director, Chris Hazelton, said there
was no plan to forcefully evict Watkins, and as of about 10:15 p.m.,
there were no city officials in sight at the park. Meanwhile, crews
took out 10 of the 11 trees Friday morning. The 11th tree —- the one
that Watkins occupied —- will eventually be removed, but that job
can wait, Hazelton said. Hazelton said the trees, which were of
several types, were removed because they were blocking neighboring
property owners’ ocean views. When the park was built some 17 years
ago, the city guaranteed Coast Point residents that the park’s trees
would never block their views, he said.
“I am just beside myself,” resident LeAnn Cassady said as she watched the crew turn tree branches into mulch. Cassady said she regularly brings her two dogs to the park and will miss the shade and beauty that its trees provided. Other
Orpheus Avenue property owners who don’t live in her complex agreed
with her Friday morning, but some people who live in Coast Point said
they believed the trees needed to go. “It’s awful seeing the trees go
down —- but I can be sympathetic to the people who need to have the
trees come down,” said Marc Smith, whose home is adjacent to the park.
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Crikey I think that this is just … so low, how can the Municipality or whatever cut the trees down because they block someones view? Terrible….this just shouldnt happen anywhere, just who do those people think they are?
I can only shake my head at the depths that people go with their own selfishness…
A tree-sitter spent a second day in the branches of a tipuana tipu in Orpheus Park on Saturday, saying he would stay until the city promises not to ax the tree.
“I’m just waiting for the mayor to come by and say they’re not taking the tree down,” Andrew Watkins said.
The activist built a platform in the tree and moved in early Friday to protest city plans to chop down 11 shade trees scattered around the park that were blocking ocean views for the neighboring Coast Point condominium complex.
Workers on Friday removed the other 10 trees and began planting 22 replacements along the park perimeter.
City officials said they were honoring a verbal agreement made with condo owners to preserve their views when the park was built in the early 1990s.
Critics of the cutting, including Councilwoman Teresa Barth, said the trees were healthy and provided shade for the park’s lawn areas and tot lot. The location of the new trees won’t offer the same amenity, Barth said.
On Saturday, Watkins’ fans dropped by the park, offering food and assistance.
Neighbor Bill Sparks said his two children wanted to spend the sunny afternoon with Watkins in the tree. “My son asked me, ‘Dad, when I’m big, will you let me save a tree?’ ” Sparks said of 11-year-old David.
David and his 9-year-old sister, Ella, were among the Paul Ecke Central Elementary School students who held a candlelight vigil at the tree after a sock-hop dance Friday night. The school is connected to the park.
Watkins, founder of a grass-roots group called Local Power San Diego, said sheriff’s deputies haven’t bothered him. “They just said ‘Hi’ and left,” he said.
City Manager Phil Cotton said Saturday that the city has no plans to oust Watkins.
“Let’s let him sit up there,” Cotton said. http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jan/31/bn31orpheus202719-no-headline/