We have a “street tree” that’s been dead for a couple of years. It used to be just mostly dead, but for at least the last two years it’s been an increasingly flammable, rotting stick. I’ve been increasingly concerned that it would fall down and tip over, either crashing into someone in the street, or crashing into something in our driveway, or taking out the water main that feeds the fire hydrant next to it. Or all of the above.
But we can’t touch it or cut it down because it’s a “street tree”, meaning that it’s between the sidewalk and the street, owned and managed by the city, and only they can trim it or cut it down, even though it’s on our property. (If you look at the far right of the “after” picture from yesterday’s post you can just see it.) If something bad happens we’ll be the ones getting sued, but the city’s the one responsible and we would have a mess on our hands. (I hate that kind of mess!)
So today I filled out the online form for the City of Los Angeles Bureau Of Street Services, asking them to look at it and cut it down. I sent the e-mail at 11:11. At 13:04 (1:53 later) I got an automated response saying that the order had been received, including the phrase “Please be assured that the Bureau will respond as quickly and as thoroughly as City policy and resources allow.”
OK, I got it. Everyone’s living through budget cuts, money’s tight, it’s a bureaucracy, sequestration, I’m cynical, blah blah blah. I figured that the tree would get looked at in a couple of weeks, a month, a few months, whenever, and then it might get cut down in a couple of weeks, a month, a few months after that. Maybe.
I left at 15:30 for an errand. I got back at about 17:20 (about six hours after I sent the request, about four hours after I got the confirmation) and I found this:
DAY-AAHH-UM!!
It’s not even like they were still there cleaning up! I was gone less than two hours less, and apparently less than two hours after they sent the confirmation they were there cutting down the tree! And they got it done, cleaned up, and vanished in just over an hour!
NINJAS!! LIGHTNING FAST NINJAS!!
Kudos to the LA Bureau Of Street Services!
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 
We’re so exposed now. No more wild life here-the skunks will be so visible they’ll run out of smelly trying to scare every living thing off
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I’ll count as a good thing anything that decreases the odds of Jessie running into YET ANOTHER skunk. The squirrels are evil little beasts and are too well fed to begin with. The rabbits don’t climb trees, at least, not that I’ve ever seen. The raccoon are on their own.
The only thing that bothers me is that now I’m going to have to COMPLETELY RE-DESIGN the Christmas lights for that end of the yard!
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Can you request a new not dead tree?
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There’s a thing on their site about the application process for choosing an “appropriate” tree from an “approved list”, getting a permit, and putting it in yourself. We’ll probably do that, it looks naked there.
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