A few weeks ago Mike Borbely, chairman of the Palm Haven Restoration Committee, posted photos on the neighborhood's website, www.palm haven.info, which showed damaged neighborhood trees. Cables had been anchored to one tree, and in another case the cables from a leaning pole were cutting into a tree.

Andrew Johnson, vice president of communications for Comcast, said that the cable provider removed the anchored digital cable wires from the Riverside Drive tree that was being used as a telephone pole.

"We got out and fixed that problem the day we saw it on the website," Johnson said.

The website now shows a Comcast engineer removing cables from a nearby home, but Borbely claims that Southwestern Bell Communications also has anchored cables to the same Riverside Drive tree and they need to be removed.

Calls to SBC have not been returned.

The PG&E pole with the cables damaging one of the Riverside Drive palms was relocated, and the guy wire was removed, according to PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith. He told the Willow Glen Resident that after reviewing the pictures on the Palm Haven website PG&E went out on March 19 to take care of the problem.

PG&E is still investigating the cable and guy wire problem on Riverside Drive.

"The situation with the leaning pole is being looked into," said PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno about the utility pole on Riverside Drive. "We do have an action plan."

Ralph Mize, the city arborist, said that his office has made contact with PG&E, Comcast and SBC and is working on resolving the issue. Because the palms in question are in the public right of way—situated between the street and the sidewalk and not on private property—they fall under the city's jurisdiction, requiring the city to take the lead and rectify the problem.

Borbely said the city was unaware of this problem until he notified the city arborist that these trees, nearly a century old, were being damaged by utility poles and cables.

But so far there's been more talk than results between all the communication companies, Borbely said. He said getting the problem reconciled would be the main item at the next monthly meeting of the Palm Haven Restoration Committee on April 5.

"It just gets so much more complicated," Borbely said. "But this isn't something we're going to give up on. I mean with the leaning pole, it hurts to watch it sway during a storm, and we're afraid it could fall and do even more damage."

The nearly century-old palm trees are Mexican Fan palms—or Washingtonia Robusta—a palm species whose trunks do not heal when damaged, so whatever damage the cables are doing is permanent.