Los Angeles went through and planted a shit-ton of camphors. They annihilated the sidewalks in 20 years and dripped staining red berries all over everything the entire time. You could literally ski down one slab and halfway up the other because (A) they were slick with crushed camphor berries (B) the edges would literally jut a foot or more up from the next slab over. I used to rescue handicapped guys on scooters all the time. They'd try to make it to the grocery store and they'd be on the sidewalk and then the sidewalk became shit and by the time they realized how fucked they were they'd tried backing up a mobility scooter and failed and high-centered or hung a wheel into traffic. Camphor trees are dope. But they give no fucks about sidewalks. And neither does LA.
How do you know that was a Camphor tree in Totoro? God that movie is special. That's it, gonna watch it next.