We received an evacuation alert Wednesday night. Fire comes out of nowhere and threatens to engulf all of Hollywood. I pulled my son out of the tub. We rushed into the car and drove north, past two other fires, through smoke and sirens, traffic jams and chaos, with flames on the horizon in every direction.
People keep saying the scene outside Los Angeles looks like something out of a movie. But they don’t, not really. Movies need protagonists. Every apocalypse on screen has a leader. So, where are ours?
The fire destroyed the entire community. Thousands of people lost their homes. More people are displaced and looters are rampant, taking away those who are lucky enough to own personal property. As I type this, the wildfire tracking app Watch Duty is blaring a steady stream of alerts, new fires are igniting, existing fires are spreading, and the wind is picking up again. Will the latest alert say our neighborhoods, streets or schools are next?
I wish there was a deity to change this storyline, or for real estate developer and future mayor Rick Caruso to change the direction of the dancing fountain at his shopping center Grove. Now, I just want some assurance that there is a plan. It’s going to be scary, but we’re going to get through this. Los Angeles will continue to exist and be rebuilt. Together. Let someone, you know, lead.
As any screenwriter will tell you, the protagonist doesn’t need to be perfect. In fact, we prefer them to be flawed as long as they are ours.
I can’t keep up with Rudy Giuliani’s criminal indictment, but after September 11th, America’s mayors stood at Ground Zero, assuring broken cities that terrorist attacks would only make us stronger. Will there be anyone – anyone? — Standing on the ruins of Pacific Palisades or Pasadena and saying the same thing about Los Angeles?
Lt. Gen. Russell Honoré took over New Orleans in 2005 after widespread criticism of the response to Hurricane Katrina. Then-Mayor C. Ray Nagin called Honore a “John Wayne guy” who “got out of the helicopter and started cursing and people started moving.”
In the dark early days of the coronavirus pandemic, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was not exactly kind. (I’m not sure he knew how to do that.) But his daily briefings became crucial. That said, Cuomo’s resignation follows allegations that he downplayed COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes and engaged in sexual misconduct, which he denies.
Los Angeles has no shortage of heroism. The city has taken some action that elected officials have not. From firefighters and first responders to everyone opening their doors, volunteering, and donating to the GoFundMe page, I have never seen such unity. But if leadership is a Churchillian combination of confident rhetoric and decisive action, Los Angeles has neither.
When Mayor Karen Bass returned from a previously planned trip to Ghana, she held a brief, defensive press conference and told residents they could find emergency resources at a “URL.” She had to quell a public spat with the fire chief, telling reporters at a joint news conference Saturday that she and Fire Chief Christine Crowley were “in lockstep.”
“We are going to get through this crisis together,” she told X on Saturday. At a press conference on Sunday, Ms. Bass vowed to “make sure Los Angeles is a better city.”
Will these efforts reassure Angelenos? On Sunday, a petition to remove Ms Bass received more than 100,000 signatures “because of her failure to provide leadership during this unprecedented crisis”.
In a widely circulated video, California Governor Gavin Newsom, wearing aviator sunglasses, looked at me as if he couldn’t wait to get back to his idling SUV, while an anguished Angeli No told him that her community had been destroyed and begged him to help. He did find time for a lengthy interview with “Pod Save America,” in which he defended his record and response to the crisis, explaining that he “didn’t get straight answers from local officials.” How about we start with Pod Save Los Angeles?
Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump incited a campus brawl, calling California’s governor “Gavin Newscomb” and blaming Democratic policies for the destruction in Los Angeles.
Despite what X would have us think, history shows Americans are pretty forgiving in crises. We are willing to make sacrifices and overlook mistakes as long as we feel someone is directly helping us. But we get neither poetry nor prose. Our cities are burning to ashes and we are being ruled by childish social media posts, presumably by President Biden, but honestly, who knows?
I watched it all with anger, but also distraught. Why is it that the town that gave us Clint Eastwood, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, and Will Smith (well, there was Slap, but he still saved the world) can’t find its main character? To try and save us from this disaster? The state loved a charismatic action hero so much that it spawned the Terminator’s political career.
California has always been a governance beast, with a population of nearly 40 million and interests ranging from Central Valley farmers to Silicon Valley billionaires. The state has elected strong leaders in the past. Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t say Ronald Reagan and Jerry Brown weren’t in power. But the dominance of a single party in recent years has narrowed the scope for tough civil servants.
At the same time, Los Angeles is a large, multi-ethnic conglomeration of disparate suburbs and is not known for citywide civic engagement. City residents are very interested in hyper-local issues like neighborhood zoning, and often overlook issues that affect the greater Los Angeles area. Beverly Hills and other wealthy areas operate as municipalities and cannot vote for city leaders.
Unlike New York City, where politicians must master the art of retail politics, Los Angeles is so large (503 square miles) that local officials interact with voters primarily through television and radio. They are not, like New York City leaders, forged in the daily trials of tabloid media, accustomed to getting hammered and then outraged every day. In contrast, Los Angeles’ elected officials act in a Bubble Wrap manner. At the risk of sounding like Yankees fans, many seem weak.
I’m not calling out bullies, but those who have managed to survive epic disasters have a bunch of tyrants. I doubt General H. Norman Schwarzkopf (aka Storm Norman), who led with a clean slate and authority during the Persian Gulf War, would make his interns cry. It doesn’t matter. We don’t need hugs. We are scared.
Every day we watch our cities, our communities, our livelihoods burn to the ground. At least 24 people died and an estimated 12,000 buildings were destroyed. Without leadership, we try to find reliable information on WhatsApp chats and social Facebook pages. (I told you, it was bleak.)
Currently, I don’t care who has or hasn’t cut funding for water or fire services, or if stink is a thing, or if the wind eats your homework. We are heartbroken, suffocated in toxic air, and crushed by the weight of inaction.
I hope someone steps in who cares more about saving the city than saving his career. We need someone to stand up in front of a whiteboard with authority and tell us the plan. I think Arnold Schwarzenegger will show up at the Eaton Fire and take over. He did tell us he would be back. At this point, I’d even choose Como.
Amy Chozick is a Los Angeles-based writer and executive producer and the author of “Chasing Hillary,” which she adapted into the Max series “The Girl on the Bus.”
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