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The tree that ate the sidewalk: ficus

K3aqcwncBloomberg News has a nice news-feature today on the sidewalk-eating headache that is the ficus tree: "The bill is coming due for Los Angeles, decades after ficus trees were planted to supply shade for a city bathed in sunshine almost year-round. The thrusting roots of mature ficus are tearing up sidewalks, triggering complaints and lawsuits."

I was particularly happy to see L.A. Land's tree expert, Pieter Severynen, quoted prominently: "Ficus trees are notorious supersizers,'' Pieter tells Bloomberg. "Almost everything grows in Southern California. It becomes a curse when the cute little tree you planted turns into a monster.''

More: "Los Angeles budgeted $8.4 million in May toward mending 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) of damaged sidewalks, said Victoria Villa-Agustin, an analyst at the Bureau of Street Services. It paid about $415,000 to settle 99 claims involving tree mishaps from July 2007 through April 2008."

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Photo Credit: Bloomberg News.
Hat tip: JJ, via e-mail.

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Comments

There was some plan afoot -- I think it's dead now, mercifully -- to make L.A. home sellers responsible for repairing sidewalks in front of their homes before close of escrow. Sort of the way they are now responsible for low-flow toilets and gas-shut off meters. We love those trees, but...

Ficus tree's look far better than palm tree's.

Are you effing kidding me? Its a curse when a tree grows huge and healthy, requires little to no water or maintenance? The rest of the world would kill to have the lowly ficus tree. Only in LA is a large, healthy, zero-worry tree considered a curse. Re-route the damned sidewalks, keep the trees.

Ficus trees are giant weeds. But don't try to cut them down, or the tree-huggers will cry.

There is a tree in France that owns itself.

That's right. It is the legal owner of itself. It appears the last human owner willed the ownership to the tree itself.

I think that's a small, yet promising beginning where we see trees, rocks and animals, including us, as just one big sister/brotherhood.

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Peter Viles
Peter Viles, senior producer for Real Estate at LATimes.com, has worked as a reporter for the Associated Press and CNN, and has written for portfolio.com. He lives on the Westside of Los Angeles with his wife, fashion designer Stacy Johnson, and their two children.

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