Death Of An Icon

Palm trees are an integral part of L.A. -- its landscape and experience. Yet, this non-native, "ecologiocally worthless" plant may face jeopardy in the coming years. David Davin reports in CityBeat:

The palm tree signifies lots of things that Los Angeles likes about itself. They’re exotic, tropical, born of the desert, somehow at once a symbol of sun-baked survival and do-nothing opulence. They’re also steadily disappearing from the L.A. landscape.

The stark symbology of the palm, it seems, has grown too expensive. Las Vegas and Phoenix have been planting forests of them, driving prices upward. Now, as L.A.’s aging palms come down, very few are ever replaced.
To some unsentimental types, it would not be so bad to see the palm trees fade into the sunset. “They have no ecological or environmental value whatsoever,” says Carmen Wolf, program director for the Theodore Payne Foundation.

Paula Daniels, Commissioner of the Board of Public Works and in charge of the Million Trees L.A. initiative, says that while palm trees will not be excluded per se, “they are not going to be part of our concerted effort.... Palm trees don’t provide the same energy savings or offer any air or water quality improvement.”

To me, L.A. without palm trees would be like Paris without the Eiffel Tower. Luckily, our great palms also have supporters:

Virginia Postrel, a longtime observer of Los Angeles society and author of The Substance of Style, says the idea that Los Angeles is – or can be – anything like it was in its native state is ridiculous.

“The distinctive identity of California and of Los Angeles is not a geographic and biologic identity nearly as much as it is a cultural, historical, and experiential identity,” says Postrel. That identity is also one of immigration and reinvention. Like the palm, few Angelenos are native.

“What the palm tree really represents is an oasis,” she adds. “Los Angeles is a manmade oasis; a place in the middle of the desert with water and people – lots of people – in it. So the palm tree is the perfect tree for Los Angeles." [more]

I couldn't agree more.
photo Larry Brownstein/California Stock Photo
[edit: "Fan palms no longer hold sway" in LAT 11/20]