Lawndale Rips Up the Astroturf, May Go for Real Thing

Lawndale has decided that there is no more splendor in the grass.

The grass, not to put too fine a point on it, was bogus.

It was Astroturf.

When it was installed along the median of Hawthorne Boulevard in 1970, officials of this blue-collar town were justly proud. It covered up the unsightly cement and didn’t require watering or fertilizer.

Monsanto Co., manufacturer of the green polyethylene ground cover, honored the city with a plaque recording the “World’s First Astro Grass Traffic Median Installation.” The city laid down perhaps 100,000 square feet of the stuff.

But after 17 years of hearing about the phony lawn in Lawndale and about “Astrodale,” after cringing at other low attempts at humor, city officials have had enough.

Besides, the stuff doesn’t look as good as it did.

“We just couldn’t get it to stay down. It has done its turn,” said City Manager Paul Philips.

The “blades” of the Astroturf curled, tenaciously trapping cigarette butts and other trash and presenting cleanup crews with a knotty problem.

They tried unsuccessfully to wash the debris loose with high-pressure fire hoses in the early morning hours.

“We used a lawn mower to pick up the junk on it, which looked pretty stupid,” Philips admitted.

Amazed It Lasted

Officials at Monsanto Co.’s Astroturf Industries are amazed that their product, which usually lasts five years, has held up this long.

“I’d love to get a piece of the stuff,” said Ed Milner, Astroturf vice president for market development, in a telephone interview from Dalton, Ga.

That might be arranged.

Laboring amid clouds of dust and the roar of traffic, a crew of 10 city workers is at work pulling the Astroturf loose from the rubbery glue that bonded it to the cement. They pile it onto a flat-bed truck and have handed out some of it to people driving by. Mayor Sarann Kruse, who once campaigned on a platform of “putting the lawn back into Lawndale,” said Monsanto officials are welcome to take as much as they want.

Search for Replacement

The city administration is also hard at work figuring out what to put in its place. One possibility is planting real grass and shrubs.

No thought is being given to replacing the worn-out Astroturf with new Astroturf--or any other artificial plants.

While the City Council waits for staff reports about the cost of various alternatives, the city administration may use a stopgap measure: green paint.