Posted on 12/20/2017 8:47:01 AM PST by PBRCat
Many longtime residents of the neighborhood previously told the (Palm Springs, Calif.) Desert Sun they believed the trees were planted for racist reasons in the 1960s, and remained a lasting remnant of the history of segregation in the city. Residents said the invasive tamarisks, which block views of the Tahquitz Creek Golf Course and San Jacinto mountains, have artificially depressed property values and prevented black families from accumulating wealth in their property over the past half century.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
Idiots. Trees are planted in certain areas around courses to limit the impact of golf balls on nearby residents.
And, I thought it was bad to cut down trees.
Perhaps they are looking for lawsuits when errant balls break their windows or bonk them on the head?
When hedges are racists, we’re all racists. (Oh, wait, we are!!)
Closer to home, it reminds me of when chronic complainers and activists protested to have the public schools in liberal Evanston, Illinois remove protective bars from the first floor windows of an elementary school. The purpose of the barred windows was obvious: to prevent break ins and repeated acts of petty vandalism in the form of broken glass windows.
Decades later, black parents and students took up the cry of “racism” claiming that the barred windows made the students feel like they were “jail birds” and the mere fact of the bars conditioned their minds to believe that they were likely to become prison inmates.
Evanston caved and removed the windows and replaced every one to improve student self-esteem. The school district spends massive sums of money per pupil, but cannot understand why “Johnny Can’t Read” and “Janey Can’t Read” after graduation.
Everything is racist now.
I assume only White Birds and White Squirrels live in those Trees.
After everyone gets their knees back in place, maybe reason can set in.
It sounds to me that the PEOPLE who had the trees planted, did it for racist reasons.
It sounds to me like the residents/homeowners have a legitimate case.
“The Crossley Tract was founded by Lawrence Crossley, Palm Springs’ first African American resident, in 1956. Crossley intended the 20-acre tract, which at the time was outside city limits, to be a place where black families who worked in Palm Springs but were barred from living there could live.”
“....black families who worked in Palm Springs but were barred from living there....”
You can clean my toilet, but you can’t live here. AND I don’t want to look at where you do live while I’m playing golf.
“Along the 14th fairway of Palm Springs’ Tahquitz Creek Golf Course stands a long row of tamarisk trees, a 50-foot-tall wall of dense foliage seen nowhere else on the course. This species of tree, which guzzles water and leaves large deposits of salt, is so invasive that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has categorized it as a pest.”
http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/local/palm-springs/2017/09/28/palm-springs-african-americans-think-trees-help-segregate/574894001/
***seen nowhere else on the course.***
Interestingly, the offending species of trees are native to North Africa.
The residents may have a better complaint as to the city not maintaining the trees in terms of pruning and removing brush and dead branches.
I am not sure if I would accuse golfers of racism for not wanting to look at a slum district. Berms and barriers are used throughout the USA for the same purposes.
Selective editing.
The Crossley tract was eventually annexed to the city. It was originally beyond the city limits.
Having lived in Palm Springs, allow me to provide some context here. Those tamarisks were planted in the 1960s. It really strains the outer limits of credulity to imagine some landscape architect anticipating that the nearby neighborhood would eventually be populated by blacks. And reaching even crazier heights, trees must be planted in anticipation of those changing demographics, propholactically preventing black people from having golf course views.
Nobody is entitled to free golf course views. Homeowners pay a hefty premium for a golf course view.
The current Palm Springs city council is quite insane. Expect to see lots more of this kind of nonsense.
Yup, and a golf ball net is way uglier.
"Treebeard some call me. Side? I am nobody's side, because nobody's on my side. Nobody cares for the woods anymore."
Racist Trees??? Really? I heard they are going to cut it, then plant new trees to replace them. Are those trees going to be racist?
The trees are green so I figure it is the Irish they do not like.....
Designing such physical barriers to separate green spaces from uglier districts is a normal part of urban planning. Consider:
1. A series of billboards to separate a MLB stadium from public housing projects;
2. A berm to separate a race track from an ugly Interstate highway;
3. A well manicured public park to hide a commuter railroad;
All of these “barriers” are in Barack Obama’s Chicago! In fact, the baseball park is home to Obama’s preferred team “The Chicago White Sox.” Allegedly, the billboards are reinforced with steel to prevent stray bullets from the Chicago Housing Authority projects from hitting patrons at the baseball games.
I am surprised that they did not say golf courses are racist.
They will insist that basketball courts be put in its place.
In the 1960s, the neighborhood was pretty nice. Palm Springs in the 1960s was a very different place than it is today. The current city council’s fondest wish is to become San Francisco.
Write this date down on your calendar. We can count the days before the Racist Tree victims start complaining about errant golf balls and lack of privacy.
Golf course communities are very much at the heart of the Palm Springs lifestyle. You pay a super premium for a unit on the course. You pay a premium for a view of the course.
Nobody is entitled to a free golf course view.
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