Tuesday, March 19, 2019
A tree falls in the TL by J. K. Dineen
The Independent
A tree falls in the TL by J. K. Dineen
Herb Caen dubbed it “ The Tree in The Tenderloin” “Trees of
San Francisco” author Michael Sullivan called it “spectacular”…
But last
week – two weeks after all of its limbs were hacked off—the magnificent 1000 foot Norfolk Pine at 606
Ellis St.
All that
remains on the hardscrabble Tenderloin block is sawdust and wood shavings.
“It was a
great tree but they had butchered it beyond repair,” Sullivan said. “Putting it
out of its misery was the right thing.”
The whole
ordeal was enough to send 68- year old Ellis Street
“Oh it was
traumatic,” Runckle said. “When they started cutting it, my blood pressure went
up, so I went up to (the hospital in) Fort
Marley
When
Runckle – a retired building manager and post office worker returned home, the
arborists were working their stump grinders so he left, this time taking refuge
in a dark cinema.
He saw “We Don’t
live Here Any More,” The thing was, he said. “I couldn’t bear to see it go.”
For years,
the tree was the property of Claryasse Carriere, who passed away two months
ago. Her sons sold the building the tree sat on to Vietnamese businesswomen in
the neighborhood, who has told neighbors the planned to knock down the
single-family home on the lot and
replace it with condos.
Neighbor
John Nulty said at least three videographers and a couple of photographers
documented the tree’s demise.
“There was
a bunch of people posing in front of it,” he said.
But the
felling of the Tenderloin’s most celebrated tree may, in the end, have bright spot. It has inspired District 6
Supervisor Chris Daly to ask the city attorney to draft a law regulating the
removal and alteration of trees on private property in San
Francisco
But the law
is little consolation for Runckle, who will no longer be able to gaze at the
glorious pine from his “Back toilet.”
“There was
my preferred toilet,” he said. It had a lovely view.”
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