A Heartfelt Request, Or, Saturday Morning at 8:35am

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.