> Once-treelined street losing its shade. The flaming red leaves of the liquidambar displayed fall colors before the rest of the street's once orderly progression because it went unwatered. The tree is now diseased and should be taken out. The upshot for the house and street it once shaded will be far higher summer heat and cooling bills
The Wikipedia entry for liquidambar:
> Liquidambar, commonly called sweetgum (star gum in the UK), gum,redgum, satin-walnut, or American storax, is the only genus in the flowering plant family Altingiaceae and has 15 species. They were formerly often treated in Hamamelidaceae. They are native to Southeast and east Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and eastern North America.
Well there's your problem. They planted trees which are totally off for the local environment.
Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't has a video where he shows that many of the trees planted after the LA earthquake are stunted and dying because they came from an eastern US plant catalog. The locally native trees and shrubs he planted himself are doing great. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvtqKMxZ95s