But lately, my mind has been captivated by a different kind of L.A. firestorm writing: A crop of first-person accounts that offered new ways of understanding both what was lost and how we move forward. Here are a few I\u2019d recommend:<\/p>\n
Losing your adolescence<\/p>\n
Joshuah Bearman<\/a> grew up in Altadena in the 1980s. His piece, entitled \u201cMark\u2019s House Is Gone. Heather\u2019s House Is Gone. Eddie\u2019s House Is Gone,\u201d <\/a>is less about Jan. 7 and its aftermath but what it was like to grow up in Altadena in that era. The parental conflicts. Proximity to some of the best and weirdest minds in science. Love. Loss. The San Gabriels. When KROQ was cool. The zenith of the Southern California middle class. He ends with this obituary:<\/p>\n The symbolic loss of Altadena feels even more acute now, as we see the failed promise of America being channeled into a cynical, populist nightmare. Because Altadena was a place where that promise had been fulfilled. What we lost in the fire wasn\u2019t just a town; it was a historical arrangement \u2014 living evidence of the postwar American compact, that brief window between the Great Depression and Reagan, when there was a shared national project, and the story behind it felt true because there was the sense that, someday, that story could include anyone.<\/p>\n We\u2019re back to 1925<\/p>\n Dana Goodyear lived in the modest part of the Palisades \u2014 the Alphabet streets \u2014 and loved it so much she thought she might never leave.<\/p>\n \u201cWe lived three blocks from a firehouse. The Alphabets would never burn. These were mantras I had repeated to the kids and to myself throughout the years.\u201d She recounted the hell of Jan. 7:<\/a> chaotic evacuation, hours of not knowing and endless second-guessing about what she frantically collected from her home and what she left behind. <\/p>\n But the New Yorker writer also provides a moving urban excavation of what Pacific Palisades was before the fire and imagines what it could be like in the future. The most haunting passage comes in the form of a conversation with local historian Randy Young:<\/p>\n \u201cI can tell you the exact date the Palisades is right now. It\u2019s 1925.\u201d He showed me an old picture of the Alphabets, looking toward Chautauqua. It was a plain \u2014 unpeopled, with only a few structures and wide-open spaces in between. To a student of the past, it was thrilling, and also unnerving. Time had turned abruptly back.<\/p>\n Mourning \u2018Afro-dena\u2019<\/p>\n Lynell George lives just outside Altadena in northwest Pasadena, but \u201cAfro-dena\u201d has always been her special place. In a sprawling essay in Sierra magazine,<\/a> she writes about discovering the deep Black historical and cultural roots of Lake Avenue and the difficulty of processing how it all burned to the ground. <\/p>\n Post-fire, she finds ghosts everywhere: In the prescient words of Octavia Butler, in the struggles of her friend who introduced her to Altadena and lost his home in the fire, in bearing witness to the terror of climate change. A Facebook friend is stunned by the destruction because she assumed you were safe if you didn\u2019t live on a hill or have a view. Not anymore. George concludes:<\/p>\n The guideposts we once lived by are being rewritten as fire blazes through one tract and then the next. We take precautions and then the precautions fail us. Then there are the surprises we confront \u2014 unfathomable, life-changing ones, that leave us reaching for words. I am thinking about the elders in Altadena who already so long ago cut ties with the past, left so much behind to start anew \u2014 here.<\/p>\n Our ash-filled RAV4<\/p>\n I\u2019ve come across the writings of Altadena poet Jessica Abughattas<\/a> in several publications this year. Her work offers beautiful snapshots<\/a> of what life in the diverse community was like<\/a> and, in my view, how hard it is going to be to bring it back. <\/p>\n She also wrote a harrowing account <\/a>of her experience as the Eaton fire roared through Altadena. Her work is less about grand sweep and historic meaning and more about ground-level observation that lets the real Altadena come alive. From her poem \u201cWest Altadena:\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n Neighbors pass, two lines of smoke Today\u2019s top stories A large plume of smoke from the Palisades fire rises over the ridgeline.<\/p>\n (Brian van der Brug \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Unanswered questions abound over the Palisades fire<\/p>\n Shoppers in California plan to splurge this holiday season \u2014 out of fear<\/p>\n With Trump threats on back pay, another blow to public servants<\/p>\n What else is going onCommentary and opinionsThis morning\u2019s must readOther must readsFor your downtime Matthew Schaler, right, and chef Ben Barron are two of the real cooks at \u201cFamily Meal.\u201d Guests can watch them in action.<\/p>\n (Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Going outStaying inA question for you: A question for you: What frustrates you the most about parking in L.A.?<\/p>\n Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.<\/p>\n And finally … your photo of the day Antonio Adriano Puleo remodeled his L.A. home after architectural designer Ben Warwas suggested some \u201clittle tweaks\u201d that would transform the property into a \u201cforever home.\u201d<\/p>\n (Juliana Yamada \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Today\u2019s great photo is from Times photographer Juliana Yamada<\/b> at an L.A. home that transforms into a stunning art gallery and studio<\/a>.<\/p>\n Have a great day, from the Essential California team<\/p>\n Jim Rainey, staff reporter How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>. Check our top stories<\/a>, topics<\/a> and the latest articles<\/a> on latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is one of those weeks when the horror of January in Los Angeles came roaring back to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":292173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,11791,7823,4140,4238,11789,99,6276,2961,224,2444,5337,11395,7825,5996,11792,11790,3549,290,6620,7827],"class_list":{"0":"post-292172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-civic-revolt","11":"tag-covid","12":"tag-covid-19","13":"tag-days","14":"tag-essential-california","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-l-a","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-times","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-may","22":"tag-pandemic","23":"tag-part","24":"tag-president-biden","25":"tag-red-county","26":"tag-san-diego","27":"tag-state","28":"tag-time","29":"tag-years"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
in hooded sweatshirts,
from the sober living house
next door, as I stand in the front yard
watering dirt.
I ask little of the garden \u2014
mere inspiration \u2014 working
my shovel into bare earth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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<\/a> <\/p>\n
<\/a> <\/p>\n
Hugo Mart\u00edn, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, Sunday writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters<\/p>\n