The City of Los Angeles Board of Public Works Committee has set a date to hear public comments on the plan to remove trees along Wilshire Blvd sidewalks and median from Hobart to Fairfax avenue. The hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, July 22 at 10:00 a.m. at City Hall (200 N. Spring Street) in the Board of Public Works Public Hearing Room, Room 350.
The removal of the trees is part of the construction plan to extend the subway along Wilshire Blvd and has raised concerns among residents and civic leaders in the area who would like see the trees preserved. Over 140 trees were originally targeted for removal by Metro for construction of the Purple Line. After meetings with the Miracle Mile Civic Coalition, Metro reduced the number of targeted trees to 82 according to Los Angeles Magazine who spoke with Lyn McEwen Cohen.
The iconic palm trees were installed as in the late 1980s, when the Miracle Mile Civic Coalition organized funds to hire the downtown landscape architecture firm Melendrez to revitalize the neighborhood and beautify the medians constructed in the 1950s.
