Commission Impossible

In Willows, homeowners must plant and maintain their own street trees, or the city will do it and charge them on their taxes (and they really stick it to you). I know this because I was left to do it when my mom died - she'd written me a note: "Don't forget to plant a tree in front of the rental." The enormous elm that I had played beneath as a child had grown out into the sidewalk and the truck was splitting from an old wound, so the city removed it free of cost. They even fixed the sidewalk, which had migrated about four feet into our front lawn. All we had to do was buy and plant a replacement, pretty fair I'd say. So, we went to the old nursery there and they had a list of approved street trees.

And the homeowner is responsible for care of the street tree - if it dies, the city will replace it and replace it, at the homeowner's expense.

I think that's the way to go. Here, I see city guys going aroud in trucks, watering each tree. That seems wasteful to me - 1.2 million? Homeowner maintenance works in Willows, drive down North Lassen and you will see it is one of the nicest neighborhoods in town because of the huge old street trees.

Of course, Britton said when she took the job tht she did not want big old growth trees, that she "envisions" a canopy of "young to middle-aged" trees. That's too bad, most predator birds need the big, old, even half dead trees. We have tons of hawks in our old neighborhood, where the bigger lots allow for huge trees. The hawks come every year about now. The other day my husband and son saw a hawk carry a rat out of our Filbert neighbor's back yard.

One year, about January, a group of two dozen or more kites congregated on our back acre for about two months. They came every afternoon and played and ate until sunset. Finally they meandered off in pairs (most raptors mate for life), although one pair stayed til the weather got hot. It was kind of creepy at first -- we'd be out in the yard and SWOOP! one of them would grab a little songbird in mid-flight and sit down on a branch to tear it to pieces. But we got over it - these pairings only happen every so often, the group turns out a batch of mature chicks, and they all get together somewhere, like a debutante ball. And we wouldn't have seen it if we didn't have a bunch of 80 year old sycamores, cedars and oaks.

Old trees are one of the things that make Chico special. Like the Hooker Oak. My family thought so much of that tree, there are pictures of it throughout our old family albums. It's a good thing for photographs - you know you won't see a tree like that again under Chico's current policy.

Juanita,

I'm not sure how much of the budget goes to residential tree work, versus the amount that goes to more "public" environs. But it would be interesting to find out. I've never seen a street tree crew in my neighborhood.

I was really disappointed that the City decided to remove so many trees downtown due to sidewalk buckling. I assume that was done out of fear of litigation as well as cost issues.

I sent a web link to Chico's Park Director (now GSD) regarding rubber sidewalks after the downtown trees were pulled. The sidewalks panels are made of recycled tires and can be lifted to grind down tree roots when buckling starts.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/243444_ncenter05.html

http://www.rubbersidewalks.com/

I don't know if I'd be one to champion something that sounds more crackpot than back-in-diagonal parking. But it is an interesting new concept and might be worth putting down a trial span to see if it has some merit. Trees are less expensive to replace than sidewalks are to repair. But you don't hear people commenting on "beautiful sidewalk lined streets".

Lon

I saw the rubber sidewalks on an installment of Heull Howser's "California Green" and I think they are one idea that bears looking into. Ever been on one of those running tracks made out of old sneakers - very nice.

I don't mind a little concrete, but sometimes they use too much - like at the Plaza. Rubber is just one alternative - the city really needs to use more imagination in these things.

Yeah, I know, they charge a lot for a little imagination down there. Or they don't have any of their own, and they have to outsource to some consultant. Maybe they should have got the people that run WaterWorks Park.

We were over doing errands on Park Ave the other day and we saw Gregg's pretty pictures on the Jesus Center. Boy, what an improvement, thankyouverymuch.

Back to work.