No more "grass" for Los Angeles

[Dave-Vero]

LA Times, Nov. 18

Fan palms no longer hold sway

The City Council wants leafier trees planted on L.A. streets. That means more shade and oxygen.

By Bob Pool, Times Staff Writer

November 18, 2006

For more than a hundred years, the graceful, bushy-topped fan palm has been an iconic symbol of L.A.'s balmy, postcard lifestyle.

But city leaders now want to put an end to the tree's reign on the grounds it is bad for the environment.

City Council members voted this week to halt the placement of fan palms on parkways, median strips and other city-owned property where nearly 75,000 of them now grow.

Instead, the city will plant only sycamores, oaks and other leafy native species that will contribute shade, collect rainwater and release oxygen across the Los Angeles Basin.

The fan palm may be an emblematic part of Los Angeles, but its skimpy canopy is cheating city dwellers of the benefit of real trees since palms "are technically a type of grass and not trees," as a unanimously approved council resolution put it. . . .

_

The threat came to pass.  I'm all for native California "real" trees, but I'm not exactly sure which of them would live happily in such an artificial environment.

[Alan_Tampa]

It does not mean more oxygen - that is the stupidest logic since lawn darts.

If we even allow that among the benefits of planting those weeds mentioned is more oxygen, how could that improve the population's lives in any measurable way - even if crazy hippies did the measuring they would come to the same conclusion.  More oxygen, jeez.  

Alan

[Alan_Tampa]

Also anything unanimously approved by any council is ill advised and probably indicates a kickback to the council members in some way.

The bigger the think tank the smaller the think.

Alan

[Scott]

Dave - check out this topic....

Los Angeles Palms

[DoomsDave]

Okay.

I have to admit, many of the palms planted as street trees in Lost Analjuice have their flaws.

But, gadzooks, replacing them with SYCAMORES?  

Ladies & Germans, that's like replacing kinda-sorta right-leaning types with real honest-to-god dyed in the wool Nazis.   Or sorta lefties with out and out Stalinists.  

Yowza!  Mommy!

I mean, holy cow.  Sycamores get moldy, oh, gawd, I feel a pissy furious tantrum coming on, gonna reassemble my swooning sofa . . . .

dave

[Palmateer]

What's really sad is that the pioneers who developed LA provided an attractive landscape that is now being squandered by the current crop of city 'leaders.'

[BS Man about Palms]

(Alan_Tampa @ Nov. 18 2006,20:51)

QUOTE

Also anything unanimously approved by any council is ill advised and probably indicates a kickback to the council members in some way.

This, of course is the same city council that recently  voted to give a firefighter 2.7 MILLION dollars for eating 2 bites of dog food in spaghetti as part of a prank........ while choosing to IGNORE pictures of the same firefighter participating in and leading pranks on others in the past.  INCLUDING shaving the cojones of someone else tied down and naked, I believe a couple of times!

True wisdom indeed.

[STEVE IN SO CAL]

I agree with Alan...follow the money. Seems a tree grower has gotten to the council, or, more likely the city arborist(easier to bribe just one person)

[cryptobionic]

Palms are a type of grass? Aww man, do I have to enroll in Botany classes all over again?

[Tyrone]

If palms are really a type of grass like for example bamboos, they will produce 30% more oxygen than a sycamore.

I've probably got the terminology wrong but I was taught when studying horticulture that grass and bamboos belong to a group of plants that are called C4 carbon fixers. Most plants fall into the C3 category and succulents are C2 for example. The higher the number the more efficient the photosynthesis process and therefore more oxygen. The councils reasonings appear to be more based on old wives tales and pet hates than science.

What crap!!!

[Dave-Vero]

Scott,

Thanks for bringing up that earlier thread.  I knew it was there, searched for it, and didn't manage to make it materialize.  

I think palms are all C3, as are most grasses.  Warm-season grasses (maize) are often C4.  A bit of googling turned up this intriguing webpage:

http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~cstill/people/erika/erika.html

I haven't looked at this business for many years, but I suspect that this post-doc is pretty sharp.

[BobbyinNY]

There goes my desire to ever visit LA

[deezpalms]

(BobbyinNY @ Nov. 20 2006,08:45)

QUOTE

There goes my desire to ever visit LA

Well Bobby, looks like you'll be headed to San Diego instead. Plenty O' palms here!!

[amazondk]

Just a thought, but don't tree trimmers get more work if the trees are other than palms?  Maybe increasing and maintaining city jobs has something to do with it?  Governments always find ways to preserve their size and spend public money.

dk

[DoomsDave]

(amazondk @ Nov. 20 2006,12:01)

QUOTE

Just a thought, but don't tree trimmers get more work if the trees are other than palms?  Maybe increasing and maintaining city jobs has something to do with it?  Governments always find ways to preserve their size and spend public money.

dk

Well, maybe maybe not.

LA palms require a lot of maintenance, parituclarly CIDP and Washies.  Trimming of leaves, etc.

Sycamores will require it, too, repairs to broken sidewalks, fixing rotten branches . . . .

Good question!

dave

[Scott]

Just remember, the LA City Council - the highest paid in the country, just got voters to agree to extend their terms in office! UGH. LA needs an enema!

[Jim in Los Altos]

LA planners are squandering its image by their ill-conceived plans. Flush LA city planners. There are so many better and more beautiful cities in SoCal anyway but, please, sycamores and native oaks? If they're insisting on more dicot trees why not floss silks or jacarandas or some of the great ficas species to add some pizazz instead of those musty old sycamores? It'll be up to private property owners to keep things more interesting in LA and I'm sure palms will always be popular there. Up here the cities of San Jose and Santa Clara have been planting palms more and more. San Jose city planners have spent millions of $$$ on palms over the last few years and the city is looking OH SO GOOD. My own city planners (Los Altos) have no imagination though. The only palms seen growing on public property and along expressways and such are mostly volunteer CIDPs and Washingtonias. The city's favorite tree seems to be the Liquidambar...go figure.

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

Stupidity runs amok!  How on earth can anyone reason that the broadleaf trees are going to "collect more rain"?  Disease prone Sycamores are water hogs.  How will the native oaks grow in the concrete canyons?  Won't the Dicots have to be massacred so they aren't in the utility lines, streets, and to keep them from bushing against the buildings?  Lets not mention the pavement, sewer lines and water lines!   The public needs to replace the city council, not the trees!

[palmazon]

So that's what The Beatles meant when they sang "Jojo left his home in Tucson Arizona for some California grass..."

[Zac in NC]

(cryptobionic @ Nov. 19 2006,10:28)

QUOTE

Palms are a type of grass? Aww man, do I have to enroll in Botany classes all over again?

Yep, looks like I'll have to tell some of my professors this. Thats not what I was taught. Somehow, I don't think the LA City Council got that memo about the variety of families included in the Monocots, or if they did, they missed the point entirely.

Zac

[Jeff Searle]

(Keith in SoJax @ Nov. 21 2006,11:54)

QUOTE

Stupidity runs amok!  How on earth can anyone reason that the broadleaf trees are going to "collect more rain"?  Disease prone Sycamores are water hogs.  How will the native oaks grow in the concrete canyons?  Won't the Dicots have to be massacred so they aren't in the utility lines, streets, and to keep them from bushing against the buildings?  Lets not mention the pavement, sewer lines and water lines!   The public needs to replace the city council, not the trees!

Keith,

     Very well put!

[mnorell]

If you read between the lines in all of these NPR/L.A. Times articles, you'll detect that L.A. is broke, and the plain fact is that they can't AFFORD palm trees anymore. They are so popular that the city can't compete with private landscape designers and developers. The fact that they're trying to sell this botched p.r. job is a testament to their stupidity. The woman who is supposed to be the head of this program obviously knows nothing about plants (hence the "grass" reference, among other ridiculous assertions she has made).

Luckily, Angelenos are very passionate about their palm trees, and the hotels, business developers, housing developers and homeowners buy plants by the millions in L.A. And since L.A. doesn't have the money to pay crews to remove trees, you'll only see changes due to attrition. Once these stupid politicos are out of office, this will fade away, just as Mayor Tom Bradley's pledge to plant something like 5,000,000 street trees in L.A. amidst much fanfare some years ago never came to fruition. L.A. can't afford to maintain its streets, let alone its street trees!

I spent twenty-five years in L.A. watching these kinds of ridiculous charades...one particularly fun instance I remember was a barrage of p.r. work to remove all Ficus retusa/nitida because they supposedly polluted the air! Hello, who's calling the kettle black!? This all just happens to be part of the fabric of the place...

[chris.oz]

Great idea,  for CO2 to oxygen conversion;  for 5 months over winter,  they wont have a leaf on them !

[chris.oz]

Palms are a type of grass

Great logic.

Can I say "dogs are a type of whale" then,  and how much respect would I get for making a public statement like that !

[Zac in NC]

(chris.oz @ Nov. 23 2006,22:01)

QUOTE

Palms are a type of grass

Great logic.

Can I say "dogs are a type of whale" then,  and how much respect would I get for making a public statement like that !

Yep. Considering they are both Mammals, by their logic, you are correct, sir. ( best impression of Ed McMahon by Phil Hartman impression here)   :cool:  :cool:  :cool:

Zac

[NBTX11]

Someone needs to email the council and "educate" them.