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THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2007
Volume 6 Issue 183
Santa Monica Daily Press LIL’ BUSH AND THE GANG SEE PAGE 16
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE HITTING THE CORNER ISSUE
Having it made in the shade
PHOTO ESSAY
HERO PRACTICE
Will less trees mean more shoppers for downtown?
SM firefighters work on their skills PHOTOS BY FABIAN LEWKOWICZ PAGE 11
BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
DOWNTOWN SM Beneath the foliage of the ficus trees lining Second and Fourth streets, a controversy is brewing over City Hall’s plans to remove more than 40 of the hearty, shade-producing perennials. Several local business owners have openly complained about the dense ficus trees. Many of the specimens are overgrown, covering store signage and darkening streets, perhaps even keeping shoppers from patronizing neighboring businesses surrounding the famous Third Street Promenade. Eugenia Chusid, a city civil engineering associate, said the plan to remove some of the ficus trees and plant the smaller, skinner ginkgo biloba trees will open up Second and Fourth streets to more sunlight and create added exposure for the many merchants’ signs. But whether or not more sunlight and sign visibility would increase pedestrian shoppers on Second and Fourth streets remains to be seen. “Just like the promenade took a while to evolve, it’s taken Second and Fourth streets longer to evolve than other areas,” said Kathleen Rawson, executive director of Bayside District Corporation, a private/public management agency that oversees Downtown Santa Monica. Many of the businesses on the streets in question are service-oriented, with banks and churches and several city parking garages taking up a good portion of the available space. Most of the parking garages don’t include groundfloor businesses, with the exception of Parking Garage 5, which houses a dance studio on its first level. There are mixed feelings about the removal of the ficus trees, Rawson said. Some see the blocking of store signs as an issue, others feel the tree canopies are so heavy that it doesn’t let in any light, creating an uninviting shadowy environment. “The enhancement to Second and Fourth streets is to address a number of those issues to make the entire area more pedestrian friendly,” she said. Shopping at the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market on Wednesday afternoon, Tony Davis commented that the ficus trees should be uprooted because of the litter of leaves on the sidewalk. Photo by Fabian Lewkowicz fabianl@smdp.com
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