A tree falls in the TL by J. K. Dineen

The Independent

September 21, 2004 page 9A

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. was finally finished off.

            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 resident Jonathan Runckle to the hospital.

            “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.”