Something’s not quite right

As a witness to the removal of the trees, I really feel that there

was something very wrong and very unusual going on (“City tears down

Main Street ficus,” Sept. 19).

Unlike any other day when our city workers are out there pruning

and cutting trees, where there are two guys sitting around and

standing around observing each other and a few guys working at a slow

pace, these guys did not take their time.

They came in with a huge crew, earlier than they ever start, and

they worked like they were in a combat zone, like they were at war

with those trees. They just never stopped, never took a break and it

was as if they were getting paid by how soon they got them out or how

many they got out.

It was extremely different than any other time I’ve ever seen city

workers around the city doing anything and I just feel that it was

100% wrong, especially after reading Lynn Miller’s letter (Sounding

Board, “Not everyone in Balboa Village supported ficus removal,”

Sept. 21), and if those facts are true, there’s something real wrong

with Mayor Tod Ridgeway and the way this whole thing came down. It’s

something that can’t be replaced, because only God can make a tree.

I’m just sick about it. I used to go down there for coffee. My

kids go to the arcade -- my grandchildren. It was about the only nice

actually shady beautiful place where you could sit. And now, looking

at those buildings, they look shabby, a lot of them need paint and

unlike, I think, Dayna Pettit’s vision of Fashion Island style down

there, it’s not the same. It never will be. They’re not all owned by

one company, they can’t all have the same face on them, and some

owners are going to want to put money into their properties and some

aren’t.

The day that they were cutting them down I had a lot of

conversations with people and everybody was just appalled. It was

really disgusting what was going on with that city manager being down

there and his comments to the press and to Jan Vandersloot, who was

very civilized in talking to him.

TERRY SANDERS

Newport Beach