Neighborhood Garden Trashed Without Notice

PALM SPRINGS – Gladys Meloni has a green thumb. But in the last week she has watched 16 years of dedication, not to mention thousands of dollars, being hauled away in a dumpster.

“I haven’t been able to sleep the last three or four days,” Meloni said.

That is because the management at Meloni’s mobile home park in Palm Springs is clearing away the garden she has spent years growing.

And she says they did it all without giving her notice.

“They told me that unless I remove all the plants, which there were close to 100, they are going to put it in the dumpster,” Meloni said.

We tried to talk to the management at Parkview Mobile Estates. They were below Meloni’s garden Tuesday morning, but they refused to comment.

“The park manager told me it was because the city was going to be building, putting in new sidewalks,” Meloni said.

The garden backs up to a closed road which is city property.

And from the curb, upeight feet, is also under city jurisdiction.

But the Assistant Director of Public Works in Palm Springs says they know nothing about this clean-up project, and any plans to put in sidewalks are still a year or two down the road.

Neighbors say it’s not what the park management is doing, but how they are doing it.

“I don’t mind that they’ve come in and cleaned up, but I wish I would have had some notice so I could have saved some of the furniture they took.”

Thor Blackburn lives down the street from Meloni.

He says he did receive a phone call from management, but only after crews had come in and cleared some of his vegetation and taken his lawn chairs.

“Very frustrating,” according to Blackburn. “The reason I bought this place is because I like this, I call it my back 40.”

Meloni, like many of her neighbors, has moved what she can into her front yard and along the side of her house.

Now she’s just sitting, waiting, and watching as all her hard work is uprooted.