Community Corner

70-Year-Old Pine Tree Murdered by Gravity. Upshot: New Ocean Views!

The tree fell Tuesday morning across one of the southbound lanes of Coast Hwy., blocking traffic for several hours.

Chop down a decades-old tree in Laguna Beach? You'd pretty much be chased out of town with pitchforks and blowtorches.

But when nature (and gravity) commit the dastardly deed instead, well, different story.

Which is what happened this morning around 10 a.m., when a 70-year-old pine tree in the front yard of a home on the corner of N. Coast Highway and Beverly suddenly fell over, blocking one of the southbound lanes of the highway. As of 11:50 a.m., it was still there. Laguna Beach police told Patch that the lane will likely be blocked until around 3 p.m. until the tree can be cleared away.

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Christine Rhoades owns the home where the tree had stood. She was sad about the tree, yet philosophical.

"It's quite a shame," Rhoades told Patch. "On the other hand, when you take something beautiful like this away, the people across the way gain something beautiful, like this view of the Pacific Ocean."

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Rhoades' daughter, Natalie Macken, watched the tree fall over.

"I expect flowers from the across the street neighbors later for upping their property values," Macken told Patch. "They're gonna come home and say 'Look at that, our obscured ocean view just became an unobscured ocean view.'"


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