{"id":244135,"date":"2011-01-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-21T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/a-tree-grows-in-hillcrest\/"},"modified":"2011-01-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-21T08:00:00","slug":"a-tree-grows-in-hillcrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/a-tree-grows-in-hillcrest\/","title":{"rendered":"A tree grows in Hillcrest"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
(L to R): Sandy Robertson, Filbert Vigil, Nancy Moors, David Campbell, Ann Garwood of Hillquest, Ricardo Arroyo and Luke Terpstra of the Hillcrest Town Council posed recently in front of Fibert\u2019s tree located at the corner of Richmond Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Hillcrest. (Dave Schwab\/SDUN) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Local resident works with a formidable community to save a 100-year-old Eucalyptus<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Dave Schwab|<\/strong>Reportero SDUN<\/p>\n

They\u2019re calling it \u201cFilbert\u2019s tree\u201d because Filbert Vigil is the one who led the fight to save the stately, 100-plus-year-old Hillcrest Eucalyptus tree that\u2019s graced the corner of Richmond Street and Pennsylvania Avenue long before there were houses, sidewalks or even a neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Vigil lives across the street from \u201chis\u201d tree, on the property his family\u2019s owned since 1965. One evening about three months ago he was sitting on his balcony and noticed a big white X on the side of the beloved community landmark.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just assumed they were going to take the tree down,\u201d he said. So he called the Sierra Club and told them about the condemned tree and was told, \u201cOnce they\u2019ve been marked\u2014there\u2019s nothing you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undaunted, Vigil contacted HillQuest, a 9-year-old community news website billing itself as the \u201curban guide to 92103,\u201d and asked them for help.<\/p>\n

HillQuest founders Ann Garwood and Nancy Moors took up his cause.<\/p>\n

Pinch-hitting for Vigil, who cares for an elderly mother, Garwood read a letter from him to the Hillcrest Town Council, imploring the advisory group to support saving the tree, a decision the council unanimously endorsed.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody kind of jumped into action, got on board, saw there was really the need to come to the aid of a neighbor: It was great,\u201d Moors said. \u201cI think that\u2019s why it was saved. If people had not mobilized \u2026 it would have come down fairly quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vigil credits the individual he turned to next: KUSI television investigative reporter and consumer
\nwatchdog Michael Turko, for really turning the situation around.<\/p>\n

Turko did a TV spot profiling Filbert\u2019s tree, which, it turns out, had been slated for removal due to a federally mandated wheelchair ramp replacement program requiring the city of San Diego to tear down and replace existing ramps. In turn, this construction would have forced the city to remove the tree too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him (Turko) putting the ramps in was fine\u2014but not at the expense of a 100-year-old tree,\u201d Vigil said.<\/p>\n

Between Turko\u2019s TV spot and involvement by the office of Third District Councilmember Todd Gloria and Luke Terpstra, Hillcrest Town councilmember, things began to move in a positive direction for Filbert\u2019s tree.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe contacted the Community Forestry Advisory Board and they started looking into having the tree designated as a \u2018heritage\u2019 tree (to protect it) and requested a meeting with the city\u2019s street division,\u201d Terpstra said. \u201cThat\u2019s when the street division started backing down and saying \u2018there are things we can do around this tree other than taking it down.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat tree is staying,\u201d confirmed Hasan Yousef, deputy director of the city\u2019s street division. \u201cThe tree will not be harmed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Analysis and testing proved the tree is stable, said Yousef, who admitted public sentiment for saving it unquestionably weighed against its removal. \u201cWe always listen to what the people say and we work with the community,\u201d he said. \u201cWe know the significance of this tree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vigil\u2019s vigilance in helping to save a community landmark has earned him communitywide recognition,
\nTerpstra said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to give him one of our L.I.O.N. (Let\u2019s Improve Our Neighborhood) Awards,\u201d he said. \u201cGenerally, we give these out to someone who has done something to improve their property, make a corner look better, keep their storefronts clean, etc. We said this is perfect for Filbert.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vigil said saving the tree is preserving history.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just outlasted everything around,\u201d Vigil said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the original things of Hillcrest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the tree can continue as a community symbol and landmark, a truly \u201cnatural\u201d resource, said Terpstra.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is one beautiful tree,\u201d he said. \u201cIt blooms every year with its red flowers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talking about what saving \u201cFilbert\u2019s tree\u201d has meant to the community, Vigil concluded, \u201cWe just proved we\u2019re a force to be reckoned with in Hillcrest. …That\u2019s the best part.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local resident works with a formidable community to save a 100-year-old Eucalyptus By Dave Schwab|SDUN Reporter They\u2019re calling it \u201cFilbert\u2019s tree\u201d because Filbert Vigil is the one who led the fight to save the stately, 100-plus-year-old Hillcrest Eucalyptus tree that\u2019s graced the corner of Richmond Street and Pennsylvania Avenue long before there were houses, sidewalks […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":244134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"A tree grows in Hillcrest","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11593,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-no-images","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}