The palm trees on Ponce de Leon Boulevard in Coral Gables — the ones that took out former City Manager Pat Salerno — are 
being removed today from the corner bumpouts just north of Alhambra Plaza.
These would be the 14 Bismarckia palms whose created traffic visibility issues were covered up by Salerno but deemed serious enough by an independent engineering consultant — working with both the city and the county public works traffic engineering division — to recommend immediate removal in April.
Well, duh! Couldn’t city officials tell by the sudden spike of accidents in the last year or so?
That’s why the issue first came up in the Fall of last year. Multiple complaints led City Commissioner Vince Lago to ask the city manager to provide information on accident statistics and a 
traffic visibility assessment of three-block stretch of Ponce.
Salerno got a report from the police, but apparently cut and paste only the convenient parts — basically lying about the fact that there had been a 300+ percent increase in traffic accidents. He also deleted the part where the police recommended the thick-trunked trees be removed. Why he hasn’t been charged with something like falsifying documents is beyond me.
Related story: Gables Manager Pat Salerno felled by lie to commissioner
The crashes continued and Lago asked for information again, getting stonewalled again. So he went directly of the cops. That’s how he found out about Salerno’s lie.
The city manager couldn’t cope with anybody catching him or even challenging him and resigned abruptly at the next commission meeting.
Tuesday, as commissioners met in the historic City Hall, the $12,000-a-pop plants were towed out of downtown Coral Gables on flatbeds to be replanted away from traffic. The thick-trunk Bismarckias were being replaced with thinner-trunked bridalveils that also — bonus! — provide more shade.
Though why the city didn’t go that route is beyond me.
Acting Public Works Director Ernesto Pino told Ladra that four would be transplanted at Coral Way and Red Road, five on the golf course where North and South Greenway meet and four more at the intersection of Coral Way and Segovia, also on the golf course.
The work should be completed by now.
Gables removes Ponce palms that took out Pat Salerno added by Ladra on
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