The Trees of the Triangle

By Peter Albert, DTNA President

Easily one of the best things about the Duboce Triangle are its trees. Few neighborhoods in San Francisco have an actual canopy over its streets: a feature that graces many gorgeous neighborhoods in cities from Berkeley to Brooklyn. San Francisco, however, is often written off as hostile to trees, given the salty winds, the fog, the lack of maintenance, or (ugh) the propensity to cut trees down and concrete the tree-holes over because of the "mess" their leaves, roots and branches create. Happily, Noe and Sanchez Street stand out as exemplary tree-streets, where the ashes and Chinese elms are particularly distinctive. The maytens on 14th Street are another graceful touch, as are the doll-house-sized cherry trees on doll-house sized Carmelita. As difficult as it may be to keep a tree healthy here, our neighborhood demonstrates that trees can thrive in San Francisco, and that we are all richer for it.

That may be why it grieves me to no end when I see trees cut down and a long stretch of sidewalk go barren. Somehow, the City and its residents determined that it is the responsibility of property owners to maintain trees but that city permits are needed to both plant and remove them. Obviously, some residents saw the trees outside their doors as a nuisance. The loss of a tree, for whatever reason the permit-seeker states, has a negative visual impact that can be stark and profound if repeated up and down a block. I would like to think that no more trees need to be removed absolutely: a "wrong" tree, for example, could be replaced with a right tree, a sick tree with a healthy one. In a few cases, as with the ashes along Noe, we should assert that the trees are so remarkable that removal should only be an last resort in the extreme. In celebration of our trees, I will select one I am particularly fond of each month and jot down a few words about why that tree makes living here so much better for me.

This month, the tree is that large cherry sitting in a box on the sidewalk at Duboce between Noe and Walter. No local tree is as generous year-round as this: snowy blossoms in the Spring, silvery-green shade in the summer, fiery orange in autumn and delicate, light-letting silhouette in the winter. While the liquidambars on Sanchez a block down always seems thoroughly confused about the time of year, this cherry is a Swiss watch of reliable punctuality. A stroll under its copper branches at any time is a rebuttal to the claim that there are no seasons in San Francisco. This cherry is notably more robust in size than its siblings across the Park on Carmelita, and I worry each year it will simply outgrow its box and collapse, but each Spring, the new buds on the bare branches reassure me that the box has held and the roots are not too crowded after all.

I don't know if this tree sprouts fruit. Some cherries nearby actually offer up an edible snack or two each year, and you can walk slowly past the tennis courts in Buena Vista Park in June if you don't believe me.

My thanks go out to the "owner" of the cherry tree on Duboce. No doubt my gratitude is shared often by the wide club of admirers of this cherry, including the new ones I might have helped to enlist with this report.