Editor:
After my initial anger at seeing the grove of trees at Hillside Park removed, I took the time to read the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Master Plan, all 100-plus pages.
I am all for erosion control and making the park safer for visitors, but it’s called a “natural” park for a reason. More paving and planting oak trees and native Torrey pines is a fine idea, but they require many decades to grow to become shade trees. Even if some of the trees were diseased, everything eventually dies. Couldn’t we have kept the shade trees we had for a few more summers, until those oaks had a half-century to grow nearby?
And the “Master Plan” calls for shade trees for the parking lots? Do we go there to hang out at our cars? Oh, and for places for “reflecting.” That grove was pretty cool and zen-like. Have you been to Crystal Cove in OC and seen the coastal trail “improvements” there? Very few people seem to be on them. They look very similar to the sanitized computer simulations of the trail “upgrades” in the SCNPMP. Not one shade tree in sight, ah, perfect for our nine months of warm weather.
I guess that instead, I wish the larger needs of the community were addressed with some of these resources.
Homelessness, city roads/sidewalks, traffic, perhaps enforcing building code heights. The cliffs are OK, as is, to most of us. I had hoped a small educational visitor center and restrooms might be built next to the “grove” at Hillside Park, in my lifetime, or my kids’.
Thanks for the opportunity to vent and have my opinion shared. In all honesty, I’m glad I took the time to read the Master Plan. It reminds me a little of how we thought everything that the Army Corps of Engineers did was always done right, until dams and bridges failed and Katrina came along. I am skeptical of the idea that “all progress is good.” 
PS – I predict a sinkhole on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard in the not too distant future (between Carmelo and Ladera streets) due to the heavy equipment, fire trucks, lifeguard rescue vehicles, etc. and the huge sea caves underlying the street. I pray no one is hurt.
Thank you for your time. Jeff Yeomans,
Still OB proud