In Palm Springs, California,trees once planted for ‘racist’ reasons will be removed

At an informal meeting with neighborhood residents Sunday, Mayor Robert Moon, council member J.R. Roberts and other city officials promised residents they would remove the trees and a chain link fence along the Crossley Tract property lines as soon as possible.

Many longtime residents of the neighborhood previously told The 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 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. 

Roberts apologized to the Crossley Tract residents for any wrongdoing by the city in the past and said he and the rest of the council wanted to make the necessary changes to ensure future generations didn’t have to deal with the same problems current and past residents faced.

“You asked why it took us this long,” Roberts told about 50 residents gathered for the meeting on a vacant lot on Lawrence Street. “I can’t answer that But guess what? We’re here now.”

City Manager David Ready previously said estimates the city had received for removing the trees were about $169,000. Approval of expenditures over $20,000 have to go to the city council for the thumbs up, and city officials also have to figure out where, in a city budget stretched thin by rising public safety costs and hundreds of millions of unfunded pension liabilities and retiree healthcare costs, that money will be allocated from.

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. City records indicate the area was incorporated into the city about a decade later, after Crossley’s death.

Click Here to Read Full Story

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *