On the 110 between downtown Los Angeles and LAX, a car will pass at least six cell-phone towers poorly disguised as trees. At freeway speeds, they blur into the background. When I joked about them to a lifetime Southern Californian, he admitted he’d never noticed. I pointed to one and by the time he’d turned his head, we’d passed it.
Although the cell-phone towers have been decorated to resemble conifers, they’re stiffened by right angles where a real tree would branch at random. They stick out among the palm trees, which are real but in silhouette at dusk resemble giant lollipops.
Are birds fooled? Will they roost or nest in these antennae, warmed by the man-made surfaces and invisible waves? Do people living nearby consider them more acceptable eyesores than undisguised cell-phone towers or other NIMBY elements, like substations, towers and lines for electricity? I categorize them among facework, implants and fake hair, other common sights unnoticed here or accepted without comment as real.