Latest news with #AltadenaTownCouncil
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Commentary: Six months after the fires: 'We have lost a lot. We never lost each other.'
On Lake Avenue, in the heart of Altadena, two things stood out as I roamed the neighborhood the other day. There were still a few lots of uncleared rubble on the commercial strip, like frozen images from a lingering nightmare, but there was music as well — a buzz-saw symphony of new construction. Altadena is scarred and grieving. Altadena is healing and rebuilding. I parked outside Altadena Community Church, which still looks like it was hit by a bomb, and watched tractors push dirt around at the nearby Bunny Museum, which has hatched a plan to return to service as what the founders have called the hoppiest place on earth. And I called Victoria Knapp, chair of the Altadena Town Council, to tell her how much I enjoyed her essay in the Colorado Boulevard newspaper. 'We lost homes, histories, trees older than any of us, and a sense of safety that may never return quite the same,' Knapp wrote. But the spirit of Altadena will be its salvation, by her account: 'We have lost a lot. We never lost each other. That is how I know that we'll make it.' There's nothing terribly significant about the six-month mark since the Eaton and Palisades fires, or any other history-book disaster. But it's an opportunity to revisit and remember. Sixteen thousand buildings destroyed. Thirty lives lost. Countless livelihoods upended. Knapp, who lost her home and plans to rebuild, did not underplay the years of recovery ahead, but as we spoke, she dropped a few cubes of sugar into that bitter cup of coffee. Building permits are being issued, she said, foundations are being poured, and 98% of all properties have been cleared, despite the remaining outliers on Lake Avenue. Read more: After the fires, starting from scratch in their 70s, 80s and 90s That's all promising, and I want to believe Altadena and nearby communities damaged by the Eaton fire will bear at least some resemblance to what they were. Same for Pacific Palisades and Malibu, where I saw the same juxtaposition of destruction and rebirth on a visit a few days ago. I watched an army of trucks and hard hats, grinding and grunting on the blank canvas of a town in ruins. On the edge of the Palisades business corridor I saw the mangled spine of a fallen staircase, lying on its side like a length of broken vertebrae. Here and there, where lots have been cleared, the backdrop was open sea. It's too soon to know what these distinctive, beloved communities will look like in four or five years. Insurance disputes, lawsuits and definitive causes of the Eaton and Palisades fires may take years to unravel. There's still heated debate about lack of preparedness and the failure of warning systems. Investors hover like buzzards. Some fire victims are determined to rebuild, some won't be able to afford to, and some are still weighing their options. What we do know is that fire and wind will return, as they always do, keeping L.A. forever on the cusp of catastrophe. Not just in Altadena and along the western edge of the county, but everywhere. L.A. is built for drama, with the same geologic forces giving birth to beauty and risk — the San Andreas fault lies on the far side of the San Gabriels and helped create those peaks. As I checked in with evacuees I've gotten to know, I took note of their unrelenting waves of grief, hope, anger, fear, disorientation. 'I cannot wrap my head around how this could happen,' said Alice Lynn, a therapist who called her Highlands neighborhood, and the broader Palisades community, 'forever altered.' She's in temporary housing during the clearance and cleanup operations. 'How does one, as I, in her mid 80s, return home and feel any sense of normalcy when all around me I will see this devastation and loss?' Lynn asked. Her friends Joe and Arline Halper, 95 and 89, will no longer be just a short walk away. The property they owned has been scraped clean, and a 'For Sale' sign stands where their front door used to. Before the fire, neither of them saw a future in a senior living community, but that's where they are, in Playa Vista. 'The loss of our home and neighborhood and community is tragic for us, but this is a very soft landing,' said Joe. They've made new friends, including several other Palisades evacuees, and Joe chortled when he told me his dear youthful bride has taken up pickleball. In Altadena, where one sign expresses both a wish and a promise — 'Beautiful Altadena…The Rose Will Bloom Again' — businesses are reopening, including Full Circle Thrift. I pushed through the door and Alma Ayala, the manager, told me people from near and far have donated clothing, housewares and other items to stock the store. Some of it, Ayala believes, came from those who were keeping rescued items in storage. And as people who lost everything move back to Altadena, she suspects the items in her store will find new homes and second lives. 'This is the third time I've opened this store,' said Ayala. Read more: Stay in Altadena? 'We're torn, because we love this neighborhood and we love all these people.' When it opened for business in 2016. When it emerged from COVID's death grip. And now. West Altadenans Steve Hofvendahl and his wife, Lili Knight, both actors, are sifting through their options. Approaching 70, they know they can replace the house they lost on West Palm, where nearly their entire block was incinerated. But they can't bring back in their lifetimes the mini-orchard that kept them busy and produced the goods for the porch market soirees that brought their neighborhood together. I wondered if those who have committed to rebuilding will quiver, or have flashbacks, when the first nearby wildfire sends smoke wafting across Altadena. 'I think it will be the winds,' Hofvendahl said. His neighbor, Jonni Miller, is already working with a builder along with her husband, Anthony Ruffin, who lived on West Palm as a boy when Black families moved there because they weren't welcome in much of L.A. Miller and Ruffin — social workers whose job is housing homeless people — are staying in temporary quarters in Glendale, but return to their property now and then. On a recent evening visit, Miller was rattled by the call of coyotes. The howling was longer and louder than she remembers, and 'frightening in a way that I haven't been frightened before.' She said she suspects 'the lack of sound-buffering from the missing homes' was a factor, adding: 'I will be much more careful letting our animals out at night once we are home again.' When I checked in with Verne and Diane Williams, 90 and 86, they said they're still committed to rebuilding on Braeburn Road in Altadena, where they lived for half a century. But they know that's going to take a while. 'The worry is that we won't still be alive,' said Diane. She handed the phone to Verne, who was itching to share an update. The architect for their new home had a connection at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, Verne told me. They took their blueprints there and a studio employee used some projection equipment to stage a moment of magic. Read more: As Eaton fire advanced, here's how employees rescued 45 elderly and disabled patients 'They were able to take the architectural plan and project it … down on this gigantic floor, where I could walk the walk of what will be our new home,' Verne said. 'It was the most uplifting event since what happened six months ago.' One thing I noticed on cleared and graded properties in Altadena, across the vast, haunting cemetery of lost homes: There are roughly as many signs that say 'Altadena Not For Sale,' as there are signs that say 'For Sale.' I understand both sentiments. The day after the fire, I met Mark Turner and his wife, Claire Wavell, at an evacuation center in Pasadena. Turner was showing their daughter May, 13, photos of their house, which had survived mostly intact on a street that was nearly obliterated. The family has moved more than a dozen times since then, settling for now into a rental property they own in Arizona. May is enrolled in school there, and given the uncertainties about when or if Altadena will be Altadena again, they're giving serious consideration to selling the house they dearly loved, and even more so upon learning it had survived the fire. 'It's very mixed. It's heartbreaking, honestly,' said Wavell, who began processing aloud, once more, the longings of the heart, the musings of the mind, and the complexities of staying, of going, of not knowing. Wavell has been writing poems to clear her mind of all the noise. Among them, "Return of the Wind," "Week of a Thousand Years" and "6 Months." 6 months today our lives changed forever… 6 months today that night, burned into mind branded onto heart Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Column: For L.A. County Supervisor Barger, the right to rebuild in Altadena is nonnegotiable
On Tuesday evening, three weeks after the start of an unprecedented firestorm, Alphonso Browne circled the Pasadena City College gymnasium before a gathering of hundreds who lost their homes, holding a sign intended as a warning to any land speculators hoping to capitalize on Altadena's misery. 'Altadena Not For Sale.' Altadena Town Council President Victoria Knapp, who lost her home, stepped to the podium and urged: 'I want everyone here to please take a deep breath and honor those who lost their lives to this devastating fire.' A woman standing next to me said that she, like many others in western Altadena, got no evacuation warning and barely made it out alive. She said her name is Rose Robinson. Baseball great Jackie Robinson was her uncle, and her father, Mack Robinson — a Pasadena City College student-athlete — was a track and field silver medalist in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. 'We lost the suitcase he took to the Olympics,' she said of the fire that destroyed her home and everything in it. The gathering at PCC, organized by a nonprofit called Change Reaction, was intended as a show of support for those impacted by the fires, with relief checks of up to $5,000 distributed to attendees. 'We will rise from the ashes stronger than ever,' said Bishop Charles Dorsey of the Lifeline Fellowship Christian Center. L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who terms out in 2028, told the crowd that the board had just unanimously approved a motion she co-authored that calls for a streamlined and robust recovery and rebuilding effort. She also said President Trump, who visited the Palisades last week — but not Altadena — has 'committed resources to make sure the community is brought back.' Read more: Fire victims seek answers about rebuilding, cleanup timeline With Barger as the lone Republican on the Board of Supervisors, in a state that at times has been at war with Trump and vice versa, I think it was smart of her to invite Trump to see the damage in L.A. County first-hand. Better to have him involved in the discussion than turning from it. But I'm a lot more skeptical than Barger about any promise of resources from the White House, just as Trump appears intent on taking a hatchet to federal spending. After the meeting on Tuesday, I talked to Barger about Trump, and a few other things, including her call for an investigation into why evacuation warnings for residents of western Altadena were late, and the risks and merits of swiftly rebuilding in what will continue to be a high-risk fire zone. On Trump: Barger said that when candidate Trump spoke of hard-working people who have trouble paying the rent or the mortgage and feel as though they're falling behind, he was speaking of people such as those who live in Altadena. And they need his help. 'As the president of the United States, he has the ability to help cut some of the red tape,' Barger said. 'We need the federal government, and I think it takes an adult to stand up and say, 'I respect this president, and I'm going to work with him.'' Moving swiftly is one thing. Moving recklessly is another. Barger, who represents the unincorporated Altadena area, needs to find the right balance when it comes to removal of toxic debris and determining when it's safe to move back in. Anguished residents — understandably — want a speedy process, but there could be a price for moving too quickly. On breakdowns in the evacuation warning system: 'People don't want to hear that the firefighters did the best they could. They want to know why they were not told to get out,' said Barger, who authored a motion calling for an outside, independent investigation of what went wrong. As The Times has reported, residents of western Altadena, home of an historic Black neighborhood, received electronic evacuation notifications much later than residents of more affluent neighborhoods to the east. All of the deaths in the Eaton fire occurred in western Altadena. Read more: L.A. fire updates: Fire victims seek answers about rebuilding, cleanup timeline No one, Barger said, could have anticipated a fire that began in Eaton Canyon, a couple miles to the east, and then headed south, would kick to the west so suddenly and ferociously, with embers riding winds of 60 miles an hour and faster. But that still doesn't explain why neighborhoods to the east were alerted electronically at 7:26 p.m. on Jan. 7, and residents on the west side didn't get alerts until 3:25 a.m. the next morning. (Nor does it excuse the fact that, in a state that has had more than a few learning opportunities when it comes to deadly, raging wildfires, there was panic in parts of L.A. that received erroneous evacuation alerts due to a software glitch.) Barger also has concerns about the limitations of cellphones as a key part of the warning system, because some people don't have them, forget to charge them, don't hear them, or don't keep them close by when they sleep. In Altadena, some residents were alerted by deputies, but for many, it was too late to save anything. The county needs to explore other options, Barger said, and I asked if an old-fashioned air-raid type system could work. 'I've thought about this,' she replied. 'Up in La Crescenta, you've got the canyon and they've complained about the fact that there's bad cell service, and if there's a fire, how would they be notified? And they want to put, at the top of the canyon, a siren, so that they know when to evacuate.' It'll take some work to determine feasibility, Barger said, but 'sometimes getting back to basics is not a bad thing.' On rebuilding in high-risk fire areas like Altadena, known for its tree canopies and proximity to wildlands: 'The people that live there have a right to rebuild,' Barger said, adding that she believes the issue is nonnegotiable. 'I talked to a probation officer whose home had been in the family forever, and I'm not going to look her in the eye and say, 'You can't build. Sorry. Climate change,'' Barger said. 'But what I will say is we will provide you with all the resources that we can so that when you rebuild, you do it in a way that recognizes that you are in a high fire zone.' Barger was talking about standard fire-hardening techniques, such as proper vent covers, fire-resistant materials and brush clearance. 'I don't understand why it costs so much to harden a home,' Barger said, 'but we need to provide either tax incentives or financial incentives for people to do that.' I mentioned that The Times just ran a story about a Santa Rosa neighborhood that was rebuilt after being decimated by fires, and by design, there are no trees. Barger said trees that were damaged in Altadena will have to come down, but 'one of the commitments we've made to the community is that we will save any tree we can. My mom used to say…trees do make a community. If you go to some of these newer developments where they didn't put trees in, it seems sterile.' Sure, we all love trees. But California isn't done burning. And if sterile is safer, maybe that's the price of survival. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
30-01-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Column: For L.A. County Supervisor Barger, the right to rebuild in Altadena is nonnegotiable
On Tuesday evening, three weeks after the start of an unprecedented firestorm, Alphonso Browne circled the Pasadena City College gymnasium before a gathering of hundreds who lost their homes, holding a sign intended as a warning to any land speculators hoping to capitalize on Altadena's misery. 'Altadena Not For Sale.' Altadena Town Council President Victoria Knapp, who lost her home, stepped to the podium and urged: 'I want everyone here to please take a deep breath and honor those who lost their lives to this devastating fire.' A woman standing next to me said that she, like many others in western Altadena, got no evacuation warning and barely made it out alive. She said her name is Rose Robinson. Baseball great Jackie Robinson was her uncle, and her father, Mack Robinson — a Pasadena City College student-athlete — was a track and field silver medalist in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. 'We lost the suitcase he took to the Olympics,' she said of the fire that destroyed her home and everything in it. The gathering at PCC, organized by a nonprofit called Change Reaction, was intended as a show of support for those impacted by the fires, with relief checks of up to $5,000 distributed to attendees. 'We will rise from the ashes stronger than ever,' said Bishop Charles Dorsey of the Lifeline Fellowship Christian Center. L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who terms out in 2028, told the crowd that the board had just unanimously approved a motion she co-authored that calls for a streamlined and robust recovery and rebuilding effort. She also said President Trump, who visited the Palisades last week — but not Altadena — has 'committed resources to make sure the community is brought back.' With Barger as the lone Republican on the Board of Supervisors, in a state that at times has been at war with Trump and vice versa, I think it was smart of her to invite Trump to see the damage in L.A. County first-hand. Better to have him involved in the discussion than turning from it. But I'm a lot more skeptical than Barger about any promise of resources from the White House, just as Trump appears intent on taking a hatchet to federal spending. After the meeting on Tuesday, I talked to Barger about Trump, and a few other things, including her call for an investigation into why evacuation warnings for residents of western Altadena were late, and the risks and merits of swiftly rebuilding in what will continue to be a high-risk fire zone. On Trump: Barger said that when candidate Trump spoke of hard-working people who have trouble paying the rent or the mortgage and feel as though they're falling behind, he was speaking of people such as those who live in Altadena. And they need his help. 'As the president of the United States, he has the ability to help cut some of the red tape,' Barger said. 'We need the federal government, and I think it takes an adult to stand up and say, 'I respect this president, and I'm going to work with him.'' Moving swiftly is one thing. Moving recklessly is another. Barger, who represents the unincorporated Altadena area, needs to find the right balance when it comes to removal of toxic debris and determining when it's safe to move back in. Anguished residents — understandably — want a speedy process, but there could be a price for moving too quickly. On breakdowns in the evacuation warning system: 'People don't want to hear that the firefighters did the best they could. They want to know why they were not told to get out,' said Barger, who authored a motion calling for an outside, independent investigation of what went wrong. As The Times has reported, residents of western Altadena, home of an historic Black neighborhood, received electronic evacuation notifications much later than residents of more affluent neighborhoods to the east. All of the deaths in the Eaton fire occurred in western Altadena. No one, Barger said, could have anticipated a fire that began in Eaton Canyon, a couple miles to the east, and then headed south, would kick to the west so suddenly and ferociously, with embers riding winds of 60 miles an hour and faster. But that still doesn't explain why neighborhoods to the east were alerted electronically at 7:26 p.m. on Jan. 7, and residents on the west side didn't get alerts until 3:25 a.m. the next morning. (Nor does it excuse the fact that, in a state that has had more than a few learning opportunities when it comes to deadly, raging wildfires, there was panic in parts of L.A. that received erroneous evacuation alerts due to a software glitch.) Barger also has concerns about the limitations of cellphones as a key part of the warning system, because some people don't have them, forget to charge them, don't hear them, or don't keep them close by when they sleep. In Altadena, some residents were alerted by deputies, but for many, it was too late to save anything. The county needs to explore other options, Barger said, and I asked if an old-fashioned air-raid type system could work. 'I've thought about this,' she replied. 'Up in La Crescenta, you've got the canyon and they've complained about the fact that there's bad cell service, and if there's a fire, how would they be notified? And they want to put, at the top of the canyon, a siren, so that they know when to evacuate.' It'll take some work to determine feasibility, Barger said, but 'sometimes getting back to basics is not a bad thing.' On rebuilding in high-risk fire areas like Altadena, known for its tree canopies and proximity to wildlands: 'The people that live there have a right to rebuild,' Barger said, adding that she believes the issue is nonnegotiable. 'I talked to a probation officer whose home had been in the family forever, and I'm not going to look her in the eye and say, 'You can't build. Sorry. Climate change,'' Barger said. 'But what I will say is we will provide you with all the resources that we can so that when you rebuild, you do it in a way that recognizes that you are in a high fire zone.' Barger was talking about standard fire-hardening techniques, such as proper vent covers, fire-resistant materials and brush clearance. 'I don't understand why it costs so much to harden a home,' Barger said, 'but we need to provide either tax incentives or financial incentives for people to do that.' I mentioned that The Times just ran a story about a Santa Rosa neighborhood that was rebuilt after being decimated by fires, and by design, there are no trees. Barger said trees that were damaged in Altadena will have to come down, but 'one of the commitments we've made to the community is that we will save any tree we can. My mom used to say…trees do make a community. If you go to some of these newer developments where they didn't put trees in, it seems sterile.' Sure, we all love trees. But California isn't done burning. And if sterile is safer, maybe that's the price of survival.
