Solutions Sought for Roots Under Sidewalks

The people of Long Beach’s Park Estates neighborhood are fiercely protective of the trees that cover their streets like tall green awnings.

And their sidewalks show it.

A stroll on the sidewalks sometimes can rise or drop with every other tree, a potentially hazardous consequence of hidden root systems.

Over the past three years, at least 46 people, many of them senior citizens, have tripped and fallen on crumpled--but nicely shaded--sidewalks across the city, records indicate.

Their legal claims have cost Long Beach more than $460,000, according to the records.

As a result, Long Beach Councilman Doug Drummond says it may be time to focus on the responsibility of the city’s overwhelmed Bureau of Public Services, the department that is responsible for many aspects of tree and sidewalk maintenance.

Park Estates was one of the neighborhoods that he cited as having a problem. Last week, he brought the issue before the City Council, which referred it to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Although Drummond said he looks forward to suggestions from the committee early next year, he has one of his own: booklets that detail how much space certain trees require, as well as instructions on pruning them.

Sometimes, he said, homeowners plant trees without regard for the space they require, leading to ruptured curbs and driveways.

Later, well-meaning but inexperienced property owners often try to intervene by trimming trees too much, leaving dead or maimed trees, he said.

“We should have a pamphlet when this is all over so that people can understand their duties and proper tree maintenance,” he said.

Regardless of how the issue plays out, some homeowners in the quiet neighborhood are clearly in support of keeping the trees.

Christine Vogel, a nurse and mother who lives in Park Estates, says she is much more concerned about the trees than the rippled sidewalks.

“I’ll live with the sidewalks rather than have the trees go,” she said.