Palm trees, useless and tacky?

[Kent Wang]

I paid a visit to the lovely Rio Grande Valley this past Thanksgiving weekend and noticed that the entire region is overrun with palm trees, many of which were sickly and crooked. Do you think the palm tree is aesthetically displeasing? I understand they are considered iconic in Los Angeles.

 

[designprofessor]

I love them and do wish they would grow in the Oklahoma climate /weather, but its a no go here.

 

[Nantucket Red]

Originally Posted by Kent Wang

I understand they are considered iconic in Los Angeles.

Yes, but LA is one vast, sprawling, squalid slum. I've never visited any city I disliked so immediately and so thoroughly. Lovely vegetation is its only saving grace.

 

[alflauren]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/us/26palm.html

Here's an article from yesterday in the NYTimes about how LA is getting rid of the palm trees. Little shade, too much money to maintain, etc.

It's too bad, really. When I think of LA, I immediately think of the view from the 405 near Westwood, the sun glinting off the ocean from a distance, the distorted haze rising from the ground because of the heat, and the tall palm trees that poke their heads up from the semi-urban landscape.

 

[LabelKing]

There's something particularly tragic about Los Angeles.

 

[stach]

Those palm trees along tops of hills look like upside down ball fringe -

 

[Lamo]

There's something particularly tragic about Los Angeles.

Bret Easton Ellis' less than zero and Joan Didion's piece in Slouching Towards Bethlehem captures this mood rather well.

Having sunshine all the time can be rather depressing. LA can feel so... desolate at times, compared to places like new york, boston or chicago. Vast and sprawling is right. It can get nightmarish during those Santa Ana winds.

"T]hose hot dry [winds] that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen." Raymond Chandler

 

[faustian bargain]

we have lots of nice looking palms up here.

i suppose any tree could be called useless and tacky given the (im)proper context.

 

[texas_jack]

Originally Posted by Kent Wang

I paid a visit to the lovely Rio Grande Valley this past Thanksgiving weekend and noticed that the entire region is overrun with palm trees, many of which were sickly and crooked. Do you think the palm tree is aesthetically displeasing? I understand they are considered iconic in Los Angeles.

These people might argue with you.
http://www.raingardens.com/psst/index.htm
I was near Corpus Christi last week and I saw a lot of palms. I think the kind that people grow in Texas are not the prettiest ones around. They are often crooked and have bits of bark hanging off but I believe that is their natural state. So long as they don't require a lot of upkeep I don't have a problem with them.

 

[rdawson808]

Originally Posted by alflauren

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/us/26palm.html

Here's an article from yesterday in the NYTimes about how LA is getting rid of the palm trees. Little shade, too much money to maintain, etc.


I guess they are dying off and are simply too expensive to replace. They are not native to the area. So they are being replaced with (I believe) native trees. It's a shame, I think, to lose them in LA because they are a symbol of that place. That said, I'm also for planting native species rather than imported ones.

b

 

[cheapmutha]

palms are great if native... trying too hard if not.

so...
FL=good for palms
OH=bad for palms

 

[Get Smart]

when I've had foreign friends visiting from Europe or Japan, one of their first remarks is how impressed (if that's the right word) they are with all the palm trees. I never notice them myself, having lived here my whole life.

"Having sunshine all the time can be rather depressing" - I agree with this. too much of anything is depressing.

 

[lawyerdad]

Originally Posted by Get Smart

too much of anything is depressing.
Poor, poor aportnoy.

 

[imageWIS]

No palm trees, no Royal Palm Way:

Jon.

 

[Violinist]

Yea, I was in LA for the first time this weekend. Tragic, indeed. As you drive by on the highway, you see these terrible neigborhoods with tall palm trees lining the streets, and everything, and I mean everything looks slum like unless you're downtown or in the area I was in. You see these hills where on the very top is a huge house, and on the bottom of the hill are houses I wouldn't store my dirty laundry in. There's massive piles of dirt everywhere. To be honest, it reminded me of Johannesburg and the outskirts of Cape Town.

There's a depressing quality about L.A., which is compounded by the cheesiness of the commercialism that makes NYC look tame.

That being said, I'd really love to go to USC and experience LA for a couple of years.