|
|
|
|
|
 |
I live on Monterey Blvd. in the Sunnyside District. The median strip from Forester to Acadia is a wasteland of dirt ,black plastic, weeds and broken and bent trees. There were city plans on the drawing board to plant the median strip with sound deadening plants akin to what has been done on upper Monterey Blvd. as it leads into Westwood Park. Nothing has happened in the years since the proposal was made by the Dept. of Public Works. I even planted a section in wild flowers only to have it ripped up by a maintenance crews who thinks dirt and wood chips blowing in the wind is more aesthetically pleasing. What is going to take to have this median planted with greenery that requires little of no water since the irrigation system ahs not worked in years.
The trees lining the sidewalks on Monterey Blvd. are “city-maintained trees” that have grown too large for the sidewalks. Some of the trees have fallen in previous years winter storms, some have been cut down both leaving leaving ugly stumps. Many of the trees are diseased and leaning dangerously and most have substantial root systems that have buckled our sidewalks.
I have told by the Dept. of Public Works that even though these “city trees” have buckled the sidewalk in front of my house and all my neighbors “WE” are responsible for replacing the damaged sidewalks. Since we are not in a high (pedestrian) traffic area was are not on any schedule to repair our sidewalks. To replace the sidewalks we need to first cut back the root system on the trees which, if not done properly, could compromise and stress the trees. I have bids of at least $3500 - $4000 to replace all of the sidewalk in front of my house, complicated further by all of the buried utility boxes and the need to rebar the sidewalk since everyone seems to park their cars on the sidewalk at night. This is a major chunk of change when you are living on a fixed pension. I am concerned that as long as these trees remain and are not replaced, the sidewalks will continue to buckle and lift upward creating an ongoing pedestrian hazard and I will be in a continual mode of incurring an ongoing expense of repairing the sidewalk.
I call this city-hell - trapped by a bureaucracy that created long standing problems in civic design (the widening and tree planting of Monterey Blvd. in the late 1960’s) and the residents are left to try and clean up the mess and battle City Hall. IF this was Pacific Heights we would not be having this conversation. Our previous supervisor did not even know that this section of Monterey Blvd. was in his district. Thank God for Sean.
Leonard
Sunnyside resident/homeowner for 21 years
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
