Thursday, June 28, 2012

Lime Avenue: Bixby Knolls' Best!






I am a very lucky girl to live in District 8 of Long Beach, the lovely Bixby Knolls community, and to have such fabulous neighbors. My neighbors have helped me find my dog when it got out, hold my child when a van came crashing into my kitchen on a rainy day so I could call 911 and calm down, and the latest good deed my wonderful community did was to plant 20 lovely Chinese Elm trees on my street. 

My neighbor and friend Melissa and I had a plan: I would write to our Councilwoman Rae Gabelich and simply ask for trees to be planted on our street to help beautify it, and because we are so close to Atlantic Ave (where it's all happening, especially on First Fridays each month -- so I'm not complaining), which causes a lot of cars to park on our street due to overflow. So to give our little block of Lime Avenue a "boost" in spirit and beauty, I wrote to Councilwoman Gabelich and she responded YES! After several more communications between myself, Melissa and our current Councilwoman, we set the plan into motion.

Petition was signed, names were written down, volunteers were lined up; a date was set, Melissa and I went to OSH to buy the mulch, and VOILA! We now have a lovely, tree-lined street. This not only helps with shade, privacy, aesthetics, but it also increases property value by up to 15%!

A special shout-out to our volunteers for all their hard work, for Councilwoman Rae Gabelich, who is completing her final term, for Rose in the Councilwoman's office, for Jerry Rowland, city arborist, for John Royce, who is President of the Cal Heights Neighborhood Association and a tree "expert" and to my friend Melissa Von Leffern for instigating this whole thing, down to the two of us watering all the trees on our street last night! It's been a joy and will continue to be one as we watch our baby trees rise above and grow great heights, much like the character of our neighbors on Lime Avenue in Bixby Knolls! Next on the list: Neighborhood Watch!