Saving the Saratoga Torrey Pine – a Waiting Game

Local residents wait Atlas out in their tree watch shift.

Organizers Have Created Tree Watch Shifts – Zapf and Mayor Are No-Shows

Directly across the street from “Esparenza” – the name protesters have given the Torrey Pine target for chopping – is a small group of local residents sitting in chairs, eating, talking, reading.

They’re the current shift on Saratoga Street doing a “watch” for any signs of Atlas Tree Service crews or equipment. If they are sighted, then the call goes out to dozens of residents and supporters to gather at the Torrey Pine.

They were there today, Wednesday, by 7 a.m. – some having breakfast and coffee. They told this reporter that an Atlas “scout” truck drove by to check them out and just drove on.

A few “no parking” signs are up. I was also told that a neighbor’s car was towed the other day.

Waiting the Opposition Out – Classic Tactic of Establishment

So, it’s become a waiting game, it appears. Between the City and Atlas on one side – and local residents, scientists, environmentalists on the other side.

The crews originally appeared last Thursday, August 4th with a crane, trucks and other equipment. But because of the actions of about a dozen OBceans – including Crystal Rose Speros’ climb into the tree itself – Atlas, the City and police backed off.

Everyday since, people have been waiting for Atlas to show up again. The waiting game continues. Who will give up first? Each side waiting until the other side relents.

Of course, politically, waiting out your opposition is a tried and true tactic of the establishment. The powers that be – once confronted with protests and push-back at the grassroots on an issue – often simply back off and wait for a more appropriate time and moment to do what they originally set out to do in the first place.

The establishment has the money, the resources, the time to wait for local residents to become exhausted, too-tired to continue and keep up the fight, or too distracted by the demands of everyday life (jobs, school, family), or even lulled into complacency.

This is what the City and Atlas hope will happen. What if Atlas just shows up 6 weeks from now, swings into action and chops down the last remaining Torrey Pine on the north side of that block.

Of course, every day that Atlas and the City delays, is another day that disproves their claim that the tree needs to be removed for safety concerns and its instability.

But the “waiting game” is the classic ploy of the establishment. It was used around the police surveillance cameras. The camera installation was first announced to the community back last summer – a year ago – and we were told then by police and Councilwoman Zapf’s representatives that the cameras would be up by Thanksgiving, then by the end of the year . An opposition group formed, Citizens Against Privacy Abuse, who held a forum in December, gathered signatures, held small rallies at the Wall, and continued to make noise.

When the cameras didn’t go up by the end of the year, we were then told by the beginning of the year. And of course that didn’t happen either. Meanwhile, CAPA kind of faded away – the individuals were still around, but the group stopped doing things and holding meetings. Months go by.

And then, on July 22nd, the cameras were up and running, and Lorie Zapf held a press gathering to announce the great news. A few former members of CAPA were present holding up signs in opposition.

Meanwhile, back to saving Esparenza, the Torry Pine on Saratoga, the good news is that organizers have collected just about one hundred signatures from residents on that block as well as from residents from all over OB.

The tree watch network with its shifts has been organized. (If you are interested in taking on a shift, just come down to the tree in the middle of the 4600 block of Saratoga and sign up with the folks sitting across the street.) A similar “tree watch” network existed back in OB’s heyday during the Seventies, when it seemed the City and developers were just too casually cutting down the community’s trees.

Councilwoman Zapf and Mayor Faulconer Ignore Torrey Pine Protest

Not only has Atlas been absent in force, there is also a very deafening silence from OB’s representatives.

Neither Councilwoman Zafp nor her aids have been seen down at the tree – in fact, they’re not returning phone calls from residents. Popular Zapf rep, Conrad Wear, has not been there. Neither has Mayor Faulconer shown up – and he lives in Point Loma – nor his aid, John Ly.

They could have shown up to help negotiate some kind of resolution or agreement conducive both to local residents and the City.  This is what leaders do.

So, in a nutshell, the stand-off at the tree, the waiting game,  is demonstrative of the absolute failure of local government.

What with the seemingly unreasonable demands by the City about the tree(s), the lack of transparency, the lack of notice to the community or any efforts to get the community involved or give the village at least some kind of adequate notice, the suspect so-called reports that the City and Atlas are relying on, combined with the  total lack of city politicos involvement, no efforts at negotiation or settlement, we can see that local City government has totally failed the residents of Saratoga and the rest of the Ocean Beach community.

The response – or lack of – has also failed the Torrey Pines themselves – and has failed even the so-called environmental or “green” agendas and policies of Faulconer and the City. This is significant, for a lot of fanfare was raised as the City touted its passage of the green agenda.

Yet, here at the grassroots, down in the nitty-gritty, where the rubber meets the road, where environmental policies get tested, we see a City at the opposite end of any kind of ecological approach to metropolitan management.

We see a City operating as if no one is in charge. We see the City’s contractor in conflict-of-interest mode – the same company that a few months ago, chopped down the wrong tree over on Voltaire.

There are alternatives to just chopping down Esparenza – root study, careful trimming, support structure – reasonable alternatives.  But the City is not making one iota of an effort into looking into alternatives than making a massive mound of splinters.