This will be brief. If you are in Los Angeles and the vicinity I am so terribly sorry. What you are experiencing must be at the absolute limit of or beyond your capabilities.
I too have family and extended family in LA, Pacific Palisades, and Malibu. I am so grateful they are all safe, however, a house has been lost. I’m not going to say anything more. I won’t list sites for donations, as that information has been widely shared. Nor will I jump into the current political arguments about what caused it all. Inexcusable. You either believe the world is undergoing climate change or you do not and don’t use my state to bolster your resentment of environmental policy or hatred of DEI policies.
But, in light of what is called the “discourse” on social media, and having read emerging “takes,” I do ask something of you, my friends. Help the country understand that they probably don’t understand California if they haven’t spent time here, especially if they–understandably–don’t follow our state’s political/economic history.
Here are a couple of points you might drop into any conversation that starts out, “All those rich people in their million dollar houses,” especially if it shows signs of escalating to glee at tragedy:
- California’s weather used to be temperate, compared to anywhere else in the country and maybe the world. The land itself is beautiful. From the Pacific Ocean to the Sierras, or other mountains, it’s only a four hour drive. The curve of the gold hills in summertime.
- Long ago California set up an excellent state university system, and a companion crew of affordable two-year colleges and community colleges.
- Stanford’s founder, one of the strongest private universities in the world, wanted it to feature a working farm. This is simply to say that we began as did many states on the East Coast and in the Midwest.
- All of the above drew the dreamers, the driven and the highly intelligent. To San Francisco and the Bay Area for tech, to Los Angeles for entertainment and, you may not know, military equipment.
- Many of these new arrivals, in the American way, made a lot of money. Sometimes people who came here with money from family, sometimes people who came with $11 and a suitcase.
- With wealth came increased housing prices.
- With the spread of housing came a desire to protect the environment. We began environmental protection work back in the 60s or 70s, which often meant strict zoning laws against residential construction.
- Facing rapidly rising property taxes, we passed a law regulating the increases on the property you owned, meaning nobody moved for a long time, especially the older people.
- All of this means that we have a dire housing shortage, and the housing we do have is priced way above most of the rest of the country.
- We’re working to fix the shortage, but communities object and it takes time. We’re trying.
So the next time someone starts railing about million dollar houses, send them to Zillow. Have them take a look at what a million dollar house gets you in Los Angeles and watch the dawning realization that we are they, and they are us.
The constant demonizing of The Other, states and people, is killing us all.
Dear Texas, Florida, North Carolina, some of the most creative, big-hearted people I know live in you. I wish your states well. I ask, wish us all too. We are not your symbol of political division. Meanwhile, I wish everyone a weekend with a home, and those who no longer have theirs, I wish you the help of your neighbors and our fellow dang Americans.
8 Responses
Thank you for this, Lisa. I grew up in the Palisades and raised my son nearby. It’s heartbreaking to see my former home and the homes of family and friends, my village, reduced to rubble. While most see the area as a refuge for the wealthy, for many of us who were raised there in the 60s and 70s, it was solidly middle class. And, it was idyllic.
While many residents have the financial and personal resources to rebuild, so many clerks, retail owners, gardeners, nannies and housekeepers have lost their jobs and my heart aches for them. My 95 yo mother lost her home but is comfortable and safe. Her housekeeper has lost 3 jobs. My aunt lost her house, and her housekeeper lost all of her jobs. It goes on and on.
Aside from climate change, LA is built on top of a grassland ecosystem that is naturally meant to burn regularly. It’s burned many times before and though this was the biggest wildfire in a long time, it won’t be the last. I agree with the Newsweek writer who said it doesn’t matter who you blame, this was inevitable.
I don’t watch Joe Rogan, but a segment of a podcast he did last year has come to light in the media. He recalled a conversation he’d had with an LA firefighter who predicted exactly what just happened. He said that in the past, they were always lucky that the wind blew from a direction that gave them a better chance of controlling the fires. He knew the day was coming when the wind would blow from a direction that would make the fires too overwhelming to control … and that LA would burn from the mountains to the ocean. When you have thousands of acres on fire in all directions and 40 MPH wind gusts that pick up the fire and rain it down on houses and landscaping, there isn’t much you can do.
I found all the stories of people losing their houses and family possessions very sad. I wish that if they build back, that there is a way to fireproof the buildings. Metal roofs? Cement siding? I dunno.
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Hi Lisa, I’m glad to hear your family are OK, and am so sorry for the loss of their house. Yes, yes, yes, to everything you’ve said here.
What a terrible situation. My heart goes out to all those who are affected. I can only hope that we can work together to deal with the new reality of our climate, no matter where we live.
I am a fourth generation Floridian and my heart goes out to all Californians. I know too well how nature and decades of growth can be a lethal combination.
Much love to you and your family, Lisa, and especially to your family members who lost their house. I know exactly how that feels. I’m so glad to hear they’re safe. And Leslie, my heart goes out to your mother and aunt and their friends who are now struggling. Thinking of them and wishing for comfort and recovery… and for the wounds of our nation to heal.
I agree with everything you wrote here, Lisa, and I am very sorry for your family’s losses. I grew up in Northern California, in what was a modest suburb of San Francisco. It is now part of the Silicon Valley homes reality. The small, very small—1362 square feet—home my parents bought for $10K in 1960, is now listed on Redfin and Zillow for $1.67M, which IMO is insane, but if the house went on the market, I know it would sell immediately. The California housing situation you describe is very real. A friend of mine who lives in Alameda and owns a hair salon in San Francisco describes our surreal housing and property situation by pretending to be a game show host and yelling, “You have won a million dollars!” while all of us watching think of how little a million dollars pays for in California. Climate change is real. All the forecasts and warnings that began years ago, definitely by the 1970s, are now true or on their way to becoming true. The situation is dire and we are ignoring it for profits. World temperatures were the hottest on record last year. Los Angeles is in a drought, but there have been rains that have supported the growth of vegetation that has then dried in the drought, and is now kindling. The Santa Ana winds are potentially altered by the climate change realities. (I think they are definitely altered, but the careful scientific community is still examining this.) The Los Angeles fires are devastating to hear about from a distance. My heart goes out to anyone affected by these fires. As I write this the Palisades and Eaton fires are 11% and 15% contained, and the Santa Anas are forecast to come up again today. We are not out of the woods on any of this in Los Angeles. I agree that fires are an inevitable part of the Los Angeles reality. I’d also observe that no matter where you look in the U.S. from the East Coast to the Florida coasts to the Midwest to the South to Texas, there are homes built on land that will be adversely affected by disasters. Los Angeles is not unique in this respect. If we are a California community and a nation community, which would be in our best interest, we would care about each other, and try to work to make the necessary immediate and long term changes that maximize a good life for all of us. We did that recently in response to Hurricane Helene in South Carolina. Before that we rallied as a nation in response to Hurricane Harvey in Houston and Southeast Texas. People in Los Angeles contributed to those efforts. I will continue to work toward the betterment of all in a time when I am less hopeful than I have been about our ability to live our lives with generous goodwill toward the greater good. The President Jimmy Carter model, as it were. That our incoming president discounts reality and wishes people ill because it serves his purposes is a dismal thing to confront, one of many. A culture built on a foundation of admiration for ungenerous billionaires, and hope of becoming one, is not a solid foundation. It is a fact that if we live in a world where the misfortune of others is celebrated, we are not in a good world. If it is not us currently who is adversely affected by events, it will be us soon.