West Hollywood reported Wednesday that 12 city trees were unlawfully pruned, and the city has now filed a vandalism report with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The illegally trimmed trees, which include six Jacaranda and six Chinese Elm, are located along Santa Monica Boulevard between North La Cienega Boulevard and North Alfred Street. This incident took place on June 19, the Juneteenth holiday, a day when most city staff were not working.
The city is responsible for maintaining over 9,000 trees in parkways, parks, sidewalks, and medians. Trees in residential neighborhoods are pruned once every three years; those on commercial streets are trimmed annually.
While Jacaranda trees are beloved for their vibrant lilac color when in bloom, the fallen flowers can create a sticky residue on sidewalks and cars, followed by the release of seed pods.
Here’s the thing about trees when they get trimmed… They grow back
I am sure the Sheriff is putting considerable manpower and investigative effort into solving this………………..
I hope the investigation does lead to the people responsible and I hope that there is a price to pay. Laws without enforcement mean nothing.
wait a minutes. You want there to be enforcement for laws that are broken? how very old-fashioned of you!
I feel for the trees and hope the violators go to jail, but we have an emergency on Santa Monica Blvd. The unhoused filthy have replaced the gorgeous young men who used to roam our streets. I passed 20 people sleeping on the sidewalk yesterday on a walk down Santa Monica Blvd. in broad daylight.
I blame the city council for not asking the police to patrol our streets. Shame on them!!!!
20 only? LOL. it’s really sad.
“replaced the gorgeous young men who used to roam our streets”
Creepy old boomer man alert.
While I empathize & agree, the ‘responsibility’ on this topic now lies with ‘we the citizens’, not the WHSD nor council, however, The ‘Block by Block’ Ambassadors (323) 821-8604 – Call them, they’re rather responsive to this issue but certainly not a permanent fix. BTW, not dissimilar, to an active ‘Neighborhood Watch’ program with solid communications from vested neighbors.
why does this seem out of the ordinary to you ? isn’t it the new normal ? weho has never been any good at common sense at least mi for the last 20 years or so…
You have to ask the police to patrol our streets?
Maybe now that our Supreme Court is allowing cities to ban public sleeping/camping, we’ll do so, as the LASD is currently powerless to tell them to leave. I doubt our far left council would dare to ban sidewalk sleeping though.
And…this is L.A.’s biggest concern at the moment?! Calgon, take me away…
This makes NO sense. Why would someone spend all day pruning trees with the equipment necessary including cleanup and wood chipping the waste? Risking being caught during the middle of the day on the busiest street in the city? I smell a rat. There has to be more to this story. Keep pushing them on this. There must be camera footage of this and witnesses.
Typically it’s billboard companies who signs are blocked.
Agreed, not an inexpensive venture BTW – There’s a larger story & culpability at-hand from some corporate entity, not a small shop-owner.
And some right across from the sheriff’s station in the middle of the day? Cameras should be able to identify the trucks or equipment used.
It was a so-called holiday didn’t you read that? It was June 19th…
It’s not a “so-called” holiday, it is a holiday. Not sure how this is relevant there are no shortage of people out driving and walking around SMB and LaCienega on a holiday.
That is great that the city has notified the sheriff’s department of the vandalism, but what does the city plan to do with these damaged trees?
Are they to be cut down and replaced or will they remain in their pollarded
state?
The branches and leaves will grow back. They were pruned, not killed.
Google what pruning is.
This is what I mean by snarky.
You can inform without the condescension.
Where is there condescension? Because I told them to look up what pruning means?
Why are you always lurking around every corner? You’re obsessed with me.
Your first two sentences were informative. Your last sentence is unnecessary and snarky.
You comment on just about everything I post. I always know when I’m going to hear from you.
You replied to me lol. Did you forget?
Why b was this done? This isn’t something that can be hid. This makes no sense.