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By Jorge Casuso

February 13 -- Participants at two public meetings Tuesday gave a cautious go-ahead to a plan that would create a new Downtown assessment district to bankroll $3.7 million in improvements.

But the message to “proceed with caution” came only from a handful of residents and activists, most of them members of a group fighting to save the Downtown ficus trees along 2nd and 4th streets who knew little or nothing about the plan.

“If it wasn’t for the Treesavers being here,” one member said at the evening meeting, “it wouldn’t be much of a community meeting tonight.”

“This is Santa Monica’s ‘living room,’” another attendant said, referring to the Third Street Promenade. "“Why aren’t more people involved.”

The meetings -- one for property and business owners, the other for the general public -- were widely publicized, with the Bayside District sending 1,300 postcard invitations to Downtown residents and stakeholders and taking out ads in the local press.

But the first major change in two decades in how the Bayside District manages Santa Monica's major economic engine has failed to draw the expected interest, although an online poll seems to be garnering a good response, according to consultants.

At Tuesday’s meeting for property and business owners, half of the two dozen people who attended were either Bayside and City officials or members of the press.

After listening to presentations outlining how the new assessments would improve the Downtown -- from instituting a $1.3 million ambassadors program to funding $1.2 million in additional maintenance -- most of members of the public were ambivalent.

Of the nine who voted, five were cautious about the plan, one gave it a go-ahead, while two thought it was a bad idea.

The sentiments were echoed by the dozen and a half people who attended the evening meeting after activist Jerry Rubin sent an email urging members of Treesavers to attend.

Of those who showed up, two thought the plan was a good one, 13 expressed caution, while three opposed it outright.

“I’ve very concerned about Third Street,” said Louise Steiner, who has lived in Santa Monica since 1976. “If it isn’t broken, why fix it?”

“I do get a bit worried about the private sector paying for things,” said Gillian Ware, A British citizen who lives half the year in a rent controlled apartment in Santa Monica. “I get a bit worried about things getting privatized.”

Among the recommendations the participants forwarded to the Bayside working group hammering out the plan were to support the City’s maintenance efforts, to make sure the cleaning doesn’t unduly disturb Downtown residents to include residents and small businesses in the new board that will run the proposed assessment district.

But mostly, the Treesavers focused on the “greening of Downtown,” including fighting the City’s plan to compost or relocate 75 mature ficus trees and replace them with ginkos that don’t tear up sidewalks.

Last month, the Landmarks Commission voted not to designate two stretches of ficus trees Downtown as landmarks, paving the way for an appeal to the City Council and a likely lawsuit against the City.

The City plans to remove most of the ficus trees that line 2nd and 4th streets as part of a $8.2 million Pedestrian and Streetscape Improvement Project.