City of Santa Cruz Staff used heavy machinery to uproot and destroy mature fruit trees and nopales today. Topsoil compaction from the bulldozers will do irreparable harm to the precious garden microbes that make the beach flats garden soil so abundant.
This is a complete betrayal of promises the city made to the gardeners! They said the fruit trees would not be torn out. They’ve also removed 5 of the plots that were laid out by the gardeners and Parks and Rec staff. This is unacceptable.
The bottom line is that the owner no longer wants to lease it out and they have every right to make that choice. It is sad, but as I understand from reports, the owner tried to negotiate with the gardeners and they were unwilling to have talks about it. If the city made promised they could not keep, thats on the city, not the owner.
Rose, I think it may be unfair to jump to the conclusion that this was done with the Seaside Company’s approval. As far as we know, there has been no change in the Seaside Company’s offer to lease 60% of the garden for 3 years as an interim solution while the city works on a permanent site for the garden. Kris Reyes, spokesperson for the Seaside Company, expressed his desire to work out a way to preserve these trees that the city just bulldozed. He said this in meetings with gardeners and publicly in a radio interview on KZSC. At this point, we really can’t be sure if the city’s action in ripping out the trees and apparently changing the 60/40 division was done with the property owner’s approval! The city claims the tree removal was a “mistake.”
Such vile and despicable human beings. There is a special place in hell for those who would destroy a garden.
“An official with the Parks and Recreation department called the incident a mistake due to miscommunication.” ( KSCO )
I call that so much BS, frankly.
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