Ficus Fracas : Controversy Mushrooms Over Foliage That Enchants Some but Drives Others Up a Tree

Ventura businessman Dale Bowen needs only three words to sum up his feelings about the mushroom-shaped trees on California Street.

“Cut ‘em down!” he bellowed one afternoon last week from his office high above his antique store’s showroom. “Cut ‘em all down!”

What started as a simple planning decision months ago has exploded into the most pressing question before the City Council tonight: Should the city preserve the California Street ficus trees--popularly referred to as mushroom trees--in perpetuity, or should it whack them down and replace them with stalky palms?

On the one hand, many longtime residents feel a sentimental attachment to the squat, bushy evergreens dotting downtown’s main thoroughfare.

“It is unique,” Midtown resident Don Shorts said of the view from City Hall, where people can gaze upon a street lined with plants that resemble leafy fungi. “We don’t want to be like everyone else.”

Shorts drew up a petition protesting removal of the trees and, in three days last month, gathered about 75 signatures. He plans to present the petition to the council at its meeting tonight.

On the other hand, many business owners with stores on California Street are just itching to see the trees gone. Short with dense green leaves, the mushroom trees grow to a height just perfect for obscuring store signs and window banners.

“The sooner they are gone, the better,” said Bowen, who owns Heirloom Antiques at Main and California streets. “They block the windows. I would rather have a tall tree there.”

City officials say they hope to chuck the ficus trees because they don’t fit into a revamped downtown. Ventura’s planners want to redesign California and Main streets, installing old-fashioned street lamps, laying decorative brickwork and expanding the sidewalks to allow more pedestrian traffic. The estimated cost for the project, which will stretch from Poli Street to Harbor Boulevard and from Figueroa Street to Fir Street, is about $2.5 million, city officials said.

When the sidewalks widen, the mushroom trees will bloom smack in the middle unless someone moves them. But planner Pat Richardson says ficus do not transplant well. The city would spend lots of money to shift the trees a few feet and, even then, many of them would die, he says.

The city will also have to remove the tristania conferta trees on Main Street to complete the project, but few residents seem perturbed about that, city officials say.

“Most of the controversy is just regarding the California Street trees,” said Terry Murphy, a parks supervisor. “For most people, when they get off the freeway, California Street is about one of the first things they see.”

The ficus trees took root in Ventura in the early 1950s, when the city’s Soroptimist Club donated the mushroom-like vegetation for planting along California Street, said Richard Senate, the city’s unofficial historian.

Before that, palm trees lined the length of the street.

“In fact, at one time, Ventura was known as ‘The Palm City,’ ” Senate said. “Date palms were planted all over the city in the 19th Century by the padres at the mission.”

Perhaps it is time to return to the scenery of yesteryear, Richardson said.

“Generally, you need a change every 20 to 25 years,” he said. “There’s the usual wear and tear. And then, things go out of style.”

Whatever the new style, lawyer James Marsala can do without palm trees.

“I don’t mind if they take out those ficus trees,” he said, “as long as they replace them with trees, not sticks. “

Marsala practices law in a periwinkle blue-and-mauve-colored Victorian building on California Street.

“What about our shade?” Marsala asked. “What about the birds we get to listen to? I can stand under ficus trees and talk to clients in the shade.”

Some council members, not unsympathetic to their constituents’ concerns, have considered the shade and bird issues. They think that they have a solution: intersperse the palm trees with locust trees, medium-sized trees with feathery canopies.

“That way, it’s a compromise,” said Councilman Gregory L. Carson, a cheerleader for the redesign. “You’ll get a leafy look. You’ll get an airy look.”

Carson heads the economic committee, which is overseeing the downtown revamping. On Wednesday, the three-member committee voted to recommend the locust-and-palm alternative to the full council tonight.

Other council members are still weighing the issue. Councilman Steve Bennett said Friday that he would study the topic over the weekend.

Councilman Jim Monahan already knows how he will vote--no. No to the palm trees and no to the redesign.

“It’s a stupid idea,” he said. “I have had more calls from people in the last two weeks against that. . . . They’ve got this vision in mind that they want us to look like Santa Barbara.”

But other residents, including many who make a living on the street, think differently. Fran Diamond and Natalie Siman, saleswomen at a California Street boutique, believe that the redesign, especially the palm tree part, will make the road to City Hall look more entertaining.

“It’ll feel like you’re in a beach community,” Siman said. “It’ll add some excitement.”

Diamond nodded agreement.

“You’ve got to bring those tourists into Ventura,” she said. “I think it’ll add a nice touch.”