The Grove's Christmas Tree
The L.A. Times tweaks City Hall for its official Christmas tree -- which is a little on the wimpy side.
Actually, that's an understatement. According to the paper, San Francisco's official tree clears 100 feet; Chicago's, 85 feet. The infamous Rockefeller Center tree in New York tops out at around 74 feet.
Los Angeles? 25 feet -- if that. Sure, we've got the Grove's 100-foot tree -- but that's a shopping mall tree. Where's the civic pride, the paper asks:
Back at Los Angeles City Hall, the official Christmas tree has been living a lonely existence on Spring Street since the lighting ceremony.
Occasionally, someone will clomp up the steps and look at it. Smokers taking a break from City Council meetings can sometimes be seen taking a puff by it...
Remember the Millennium?
On the evening that the calendar turned to 2000, Paris enjoyed a spectacular fireworks show near the Eiffel Tower, London introduced the Millennium Dome along the Thames and New York partied in Times Square.
In Los Angeles, the Hollywood sign glowed in the kind of pastels usually reserved for the Home & Garden Television channel.
It wasn't always this way.
As recently as a few years ago, City Hall underwent a holiday makeover that left the building strung with hundreds of lights. For reasons that remain unclear, the tradition died.
The mayor didn't seem too fazed by the small tree. "We have a $248-million deficit — we thought we'd be prudent," he said Thursday morning. "Next year will be different."
Meanwhile, Orange County's Fashion Island shopping center has everyone beat, with a 115-foot white fir from a Mt. Shasta tree farm.
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