Cruniac trees in the city center of the spark of the decline in the city center

The city center of Los Angeles has seen more than its share of indignity in recent years.

The pandemic sent rates of unit of office increasing while masses of workers in person stayed at home and, in turn, many restaurants and companies have closed. The homeless has skyrocketed in the midst of economic, mental and drug-health-health crises.

And although the city center has since experienced a certain development, an imminent feeling of disarray and decrease persists. After the 6th street viaduct was triumphantly revealed, its media threw quickly gave way to unruly street controls and copper thieves that cut its lighting.

Even if the horizon line extended, Angelenos’ attention fell on two skyscrapers that the taggers had almost entirely covered in graffiti.

This is why the shocking act of this weekend of vandalism which withdrew six of the mature trees of the city felt all the more discouraging.

“It touched a sensitive string,” said Cassy Horton, a 37-year-old downtown resident. “It really likes flies in the face of everything we try to do (to revitalize) the community, and for someone to go around … and to find the little progress we already have … was really, really overwhelming and hurtful.”

In addition to security, she said, Green Space was one of the main concerns of nearly 100,000 people who live in the city center, so the attack on some of the rare trees in the region has particularly angry.

“It’s a bit” enough it’s enough, “said Horton, who sits on the board of directors of the Downtown Los Angeles Residents Assn., Who advocates more than 2,300 residents and community stakeholders. “Many problems that we face when we are talking about homelessness and mental health and outdoor drugs and all these things-they feel really thorny and complicated. … But something like that, it has become a bit of rallying for people in the city center. We want to have a warm, welcoming and safe public kingdom.”

Many slaughtered trees were discovered on Saturday morning, when images of sawn trunks and their massive and slaughtered branches have illuminated electronic online babes and have become viral on social networks.

On Wednesday, the LAPD announced the arrest of Samuel Patrick Groft, 45, suspected of crime of vandalism. Investigators say they have linked the suspect to 13 trees slaughtered in five places across the city, and advice on additional trees continue to come. Groft would have been captured on surveillance images using an electric chainsaw to reduce trees to several days, at several different times for more than a week. The first confirmed date was April 13.

The LAPD has published this image of the suspect of the trees, which was captured by supervisory video.

(LAPD)

Streetsla, the city’s office responsible for maintaining the streets and the urban forest, said its teams had confirmed a total of six vandalized trees in the city center last weekend: three ficus, two Sycomore and a Chinese ELM, according to a statement by the director of the Dan Halden. These large shade trees, many along South Grand Avenue, were cut at the base or cut several feet above the road. He did not immediately answer questions about the trees that have been cut in other parts of the

The Streetsla team “quickly replied and erased the debris from the six locations,” said Halden. He said they still evaluated the total cost of potential damage and replacements.

For many, this act of blatant lack of respect represents the last failure of city officials to prevent the city center from a new deterioration, and underlines a feeling of rodent that the heart of Los Angeles fell to the edge of the road.

“This indicates the lack of respect,” said John Sischo, a longtime developer in the city center. “It’s because nobody really cares. … This thing happens when there are not enough people.”

Sischo said it was difficult to bring people and businesses to return to the region when there are real and perceived security problems that are not treated. A turnaround requires attacking homelessness through a committed and proactive government that works in cooperation with companies and local leaders, he said. He hasn’t seen that yet.

The office of the mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass published a statement calling the vandalism of trees “beyond understanding”.

(CARLIN STIEHL / LOS Angeles Times)

In many ways, Paul Kaufman, a small business owner in the city center, agrees.

“There are certain areas of progress, but it seems very interrupted,” said Kaufman, who loves the region and thinks he deserves better. “Something seems really great and then he spreads.

The city center offices remain approximately a third party, according to CBRE real estate brokerage, the effects of the pandemic being always important. Crime rates in the region seem to be relatively stable in recent months, according to available data from the Central Division of LAPD, which covers the entire city center. (However, it is difficult to evaluate in depth the quantity of crime has changed in recent years, because the LAPD has recently revised the way it records such statistics.)

But there have been areas of progress and resilience: the apartments in the city center remained relatively full. The new restaurants are opening up, the Metro regional connector is operational, and several new retail spaces and high -end hoteliers have made their debut. In addition, he plans to revitalize the Center Convention and prepare for the 2028 Olympic Games promises a wave of investment in the city center.

And that is perhaps why this violent aggression against the trees of the community “has really struck a nerve,” said Nick Griffin, executive vice-president of the DTLA Alliance, formerly Downtown Center Improvement District.

“In the community of downtown Los Angeles, we work to bring the city center back and (sums) particularly focused on improving the public domain-it seemed to be such an insane attack on this subject,” said Griffin. “It seems so absurdly insane.”

Sans-Abrisme was a lasting problem in downtown Los Angeles. Here, a man repairs bikes along the 5th street in Skid Row.

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

But he and other organizers of the region hope that the concern about trees – and what it means about the state of the city life – could inspire renewed action, investment and hope.

“In some respects, one of the key things we focus on is to build the community and the coalitions it takes to revitalize a place like the city center,” said Griffin. “There is not a single miracle solution and there is not a single organization that can do it.”

Ricardo Sebastián, an entrepreneur who lives and works in the city center, has tried to change the perception of the neighborhood through social media and marketing campaigns – but unfortunately, it seems that this incident could harm these efforts.

“It actually perpetuates the stereotype that the city center is dirty, dirty, dangerous,” said Sebastián. “We can paint and we can start and we can build windows and bring really interesting businesses. … But if we have people who come to town sunbathing chainsaws or degradation (buildings) …. We have to work much harder.”

For some, this is the plan.

Horton and other members of the board of directors of the group of residents called for immediate measures of city officials, both to replace the trees and to keep the aggressor to report – in order to help “move the antisocial chaotic trajectory of our neighborhood”, wrote the group in a letter to the city officials. The group said that he was looking forward to working with officials, including the member of the Ysabel Jurado council, who represents the city center, to ensure that “the loss of these trees signals the start of the end of continuous corrosion in the DTLA public domain”.

“We need champions; we need people in Los Angeles to worry about the city center and see it as the heart of our city,” said Horton. “This is where we come together, this is where we protest, this is where we go out. … We are starting to see some of our elected leaders intensify and support us, but our challenges are acute.”

In a public statement, the Jurado office said that his team was in “close communication” with the LAPD on his in progress investigation, and that she had presented a motion that would increase the sanctions in the municipal code for trees injury violations, in the hope of dissuading future incidents. The press release thanked the community for having brought the problem for the officials, saying: “This is exactly what the co-government in action looks like. Stay listening for updates. ”

The office of the mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass published a statement qualifying the law “beyond understanding”.

“The city’s public works teams assess the damage and we plan to quickly replace these damaged trees,” said Bass spokesperson Zach Seidl in a statement. “Managers must be held responsible.”

But some have not seen this incident as a sign of more important problems in the city center, although there is a clear environmental loss with the loss of a tree: they provide shadow, rainwater and pollution management and habitats for birds and other small animals. It has also been noted that urban trees slow down street deterioration and reduce crime.

“It’s a huge success,” said Lee Coffee, who lives and works in downtown Los Angeles, mainly shifting the loss of shadows. But he called the whole test “in a way random”.

“Cleaning was very fast,” said Coffee. “I have not noticed any other event like this.”

Staff editors Roger Vincent and Clara Harter contributed to this report.