By Dan Jansenson
(The Daily Press) story “Cash don’t grow on trees” (Oct. 25) suggests that, according to city staff, Santa Monica may lose millions of dollars if there are any changes to the final Second and Fourth streets streetscape plan — such as the uprooting and relocation of scores of healthy ficus trees, for example.
But exactly which design changes are they talking about? Go to the Planning Department, as we did, and you receive one set of plans for the project. Visit the city’s Web site, and you get a different set of drawings, with a different tree count. If one design was used for the application, and a different one for the bidding (after the grant was awarded), does this count as a money-losing design change?
One thing we know for certain: Leaving the healthy trees in place will SAVE the city over $600,000 — by the city’s own estimates. Let’s stick to what we know: Leave the healthy trees in place, and save a few hundred thousand of the taxpayer’s dollars. That’s hardly a risky proposition.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 29, 2007. Read the original PDF.