Although the Los Angeles wildfires are still burning, the actual physical damage caused is already obvious. Homes and businesses disappeared. The same goes for schools, supermarkets and houses of worship.
The fires also robbed some Californians of something more intangible: a sense of community. What defines community? While it is often a physical space, it is also more vibrational and amorphous – a network of feelings between its members and their environment, constructed and natural.
Angelenos have taken to the internet and in conversations to commemorate what they lost in the fires that destroyed Pacific Palisades and Altadena on the coast, an East Side enclave with a thriving black middle class. Fish Tacos at the Reel Inn. Pancakes at Fox’s. A synagogue. Rabbit Museum. Hiking trails. A pet supply store with a brisk trade in backyard chickens. Accounting is older and incomplete. These fires can smolder for weeks. There is something new to kindle every day.
Eulogies reveal personal and collective loss. Lakers head coach J.J. Redick, who recently moved to Palisades, captured this in an interview over the weekend. His rented house and all of his family’s belongings were burned to the ground. But he said what troubles him most is the loss of community. “All the churches, schools, libraries are gone,” he said. He puts his head in his hands as he talks about the recreation center where his children play sports. “It was so painful to lose it,” he said. What is a fence without these spaces?
what happens next
Originally settled by native peoples and later becoming a property of Spain and then Mexico, Los Angeles was incorporated in 1850, the same year California became a state. Vast urban sprawl and frequent natural disasters make it feel less stationary than most major U.S. cities. It is always growing, changing, renewing, reforming.
I grew up in Palisades in the 1990s. I left home for college when I was 17, and almost every time I came home, the things I loved were gone—a nearby bookstore, a restaurant. Every loss is a pinprick. It’s also a real-life example of the Ship of Theseus thought experiment: How many blocks can be replaced before it’s no longer your neighbor, no longer your home? Now, losses occur all at once rather than slowly over time. Then comes another comprehensive loss—citizenship, inability to insure, and inability to reimburse.
Some people believe these communities should not be rebuilt, or should not be rebuilt in the same way. They cited “The Case for Letting Malibu Burn,” a 1998 article by ecocritic Mike Davis. But Malibu gets burned often, and for better or worse, it always comes back. Again, these communities are almost certain to return. There will be new schools, new churches, new recreation centers. As an Angeleno, you only have to witness so many natural disasters to realize the city’s resilience.
The next Palisade will be different. Neither will future Altadena. (Whether middle-class families can still use them remains an open and necessary question.) And they’re unlikely to feel the same way. At least not for a long time. But for now, these communities still exist, with people comforting, helping, remembering, and healing each other.
With luck, enough government funding and hard work, these places may be built back safer and better able to withstand the impacts of climate change. For a century, Los Angeles has been a factory of dreams. Its residents remember what they lost, are grateful for what they have retained, and may dream of brighter things.
This is a time for condolences, help, and healing. Soon it was time to start over. After all, there’s nothing Los Angeles loves more than sequels.
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