Residents Remain Concerned About Fallen Tree Outside Library

When branches began falling from the large tree outside the on Venice Boulevard on Friday morning, library staff quickly called the city’s 311 nonemergency city services line and the Los Angeles Police Department.

It wasn’t until Monday morning, after several calls to various city departments, that the majority of the dangerous, overhanging branches were finally cut down by Recreation and Parks workers. A city inspector is now supposed to examine the tree to determine whether it still represents a safety hazard, but as of 2 p.m. Monday that hadn't happened.

Library staffers told Patch that Friday morning only one branch had fallen, but by that evening several branches had collapsed and had fallen into the street.

Although the Street Services workers did come out and place orange and white sawhorses around the tree on Friday morning, library staffers said nothing else was done to ensure the area around the tree was secure.

After on Sunday morning, Patch reported that the city had cordoned off the area with yellow caution tape. However, library staffers informed Patch on Monday morning that it was personnel from —across the street from the library—who came and put up the tape on Friday afternoon after the staffers requested it. 

Library workers also got to work Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, cleaning up the fallen branches and debris around Inglewood and Venice boulevards and outside the front of the library.

Unable to reach the correct department or have city emergency services secure the area, library personnel ended up calling out an independent company, Toyo, at around 5:30 p.m. Saturday to remove many of the branches and clean up the street. The library paid for the services out of its own budget.

A spokesperson for Councilman Bill Rosendahl told Patch, “We got calls Friday morning about the tree starting to crack, and those calls were routed through 311 to the Public Works department, and [Street Services] came out to secure the area.”

However, it turns out, those calls should have been routed to the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks and assigned to the forestry division. An emergency crew from that department was available over the weekend and could have come out to secure the tree.

On Monday morning, a Recreation and Parks department crew did come to the library, trimmed the tree, chopped up the branches that had already fallen and ground them down to wood chips.

According to the spokesman for Rosendahl's office, the job was completed by 9:45 a.m. An inspection of the tree is now pending as there is concern that it may be unbalanced and could still pose a safety hazard.

“[The councilman’s office was very impressed with the library department’s actions. They spent their own money even though they didn’t have to, because they knew it was a safety hazard,” the spokesperson said, adding that there were lessons to be learned from the confusion that occurred over the weekend.

“We’re going to work to see what we can do to help clarify procedures so there isn’t too much confusion in the future [when something like this happens.]”

He added that part of that confusion may have stemmed from the fact that when the city assessed the damage Friday there was no encroachment on the through traffic lanes on Venice and Inglewood boulevards.

“People thought the city wasn’t doing anything, but [Friday] the encroachment was only on the parking lanes and not blocking any travel lanes,” the spokesman said.

A library staffer told Patch that Monday morning, Los Angeles Department of Transportation workers were also on the scene to fix one of the traffic signals, as the branches had fallen down over the weekend onto the signal and exposed its wires.

As residents await the tree inspector, Mar Vista Community Council Chair Albert Olsen told Patch, “I hope the city will treat this issue with the urgency it deserves. We were very fortunate that no pedestrians were under the branches when they fell, and if the remaining side of the tree with intact branches and heavy foliage is creating the potential for another such accident, we need to deal with it sooner rather than later.”

Patch will continue following this story and bring you more details as they become available.

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