Editor:
I read with interest Anne Eggebroten's piece about her angst with a ficus tree ("Not feeling the ficus trees," Your Column Here, Feb. 15-16).
In 1980, I attended a League of California Cities conference as a representative of Santa Monica. At that conference, I attended a workshop on the problem of tree roots and rising sidewalks. One presentation that really caught my eye was a simple mitigating solution for the problem. After the sidewalk is dug up to be replaced (for the 40th time), you place heavy plastic sliders that go down into the ground a foot or more around the circumference of the sidewalk. This causes the tree roots to grow under them and head in different directions other than the sidewalk. I know I shared that information with the Santa Monica powers that be at the time.
Perhaps it may be time to revisit that concept. Ficus and cottonwoods are notorious for invading sidewalks and water pipes. I also suggest that Anne not wish for a jacaranda. They're pretty when they bloom, but her rugs will be purple instead of fig-berry stained when they drop their blooms.
Cheryl D. Rhoden
Pinon Hills, Calif.