By Jasmin Shirazian
There’s something dangerous dangling in the trees of the G11 parking lot, marked off by a few measly signs and a g-string worth of caution tape.
That’s right — I’m talking about that damn branch that has been hanging on by a thread over by the campus apartments, directly over like, at least five parking spots. As if those aren’t already a hard commodity to come by.
This thing has been just aimlessly left to blow in the Humboldt breeze — dare I say, heavy gust — since Feb. 26. I know because I was there when some guy reported it to a parking enforcement officer, as if she was gonna do something helpful about it. Lo and behold, a makeshift barricade appeared a little while later and they called it a day. They haven’t done a thing about it since — I guess we’re all just waiting to see it drop one day, and hoping no one is there on a particularly windy day to get hurt.
My thing is, don’t we have some kind of maintenance person for the trees on campus? Like, I guess we don’t if they haven’t taken care of it. You would think at a school in the middle of the forest, we would have some kind of solution past the point of barring it off, right?
I don’t know what it is about this damn branch that bothers me so much — I don’t drive so I’m not affected by parking, I’m not necessarily scared I’m the one that’s gonna get hit by it. I think I’m more so irritated that it’s just another thing that can be added to a list of shit that’s potentially hazardous to students that has been brushed off and barely dealt with. Of all the issues Cal Poly Humboldt has, this one is so small — and the fact that they won’t just handle it grinds my gears. Anyway, look out overhead for any incoming tree parts and stay safe out there.
Jasmin Shirazian is the curly-haired head copyeditor and social media manager for The Lumberjack. She is a TV show enthusiast, cat lover and higher education reporter for CalMatters.