by Timothy Rutt
Altadena Heritage is urging its members to push the county to put more trees on the west side of town.
"We most definitely don’t want to start any kind of rivalry between the two sides of town, but we would really like to see some equity here," said AH President Mark Goldschmidt in an email to members.
Last week, a map of the proposed tree locations showed that East Altadena is getting the lion's share of new plantings and trees to replace those blown down in the 2011 windstorm. Of the over 200 trees to be planted by the county, only 26 are to be planted west of Lake Avenue.
Except for one or two new trees, the planting will also avoid the Woodbury Road corridor, which is currently undergoing new median landscaping. While the medians will receive new trees, there are no plans for planting new street trees on the north and south sides of the road, which have been mostly bare since the street was widened to four lanes in the 1960's.
The county's planting scheme "seems patently unfair since much of the west side of town is conspicuously lacking in trees, while the east side is verdantly covered," Goldschmidt wrote.
In the email, Goldschmidt pleads:
We strongly encourage our Altadena Heritage members to write to our Supervisor, Michael Antonovich, asking him to instruct Public Works to come up with a more equitable scheme. Please contact him via email at Fifthdistrict@lacbos.org. Also, please copy his Senior Deputy for this area, Sussy Nemer, snemer@bos.lacounty.gov, and Joe Gaydosh at Public Works at JGAYDOSH@dpw.lacounty.gov. Time is of the essence as tree planting should begin in October. Also, please identify yourself as a member of Altadena Heritage.
