In the Wake of Disaster, How to Rebuild

Steve Martin made a movie L.A. Story which Rotten Tomatoes gave a 98 and dubbed a "love letter" to L.A. I also love Los Angeles. It's so beautiful that when I first saw it from the mountain we were driving in on, I cried. I lived there twice. I've had special friends there. Something about it makes people kind.

         Although magical things can happen, some of which I've written about, it's difficult to live there. Along with the ocean, flowering trees and hummingbirds are the heat and earthquakes. Angelenos always say they're expecting "the big one" (earthquake). And flash floods can catch you off-guard. They can seem innocuous – like water you can drive through. My best friend was almost swept away in one. Sometimes you can just feel the howling of the desert. And there have been water challenges (as chronicled in the incomparable Chinatown). And the wind is wild (as I coincidentally mentioned in my last post). But you just don't expect this kind of disaster at this magnitude. Some call it a "climate disaster shotgun that humans helped load."*

        Not to minimize the loss of so many, which is great and tragic, some consider this is a story of trying to survive in conditions too wild for those adverse to danger. According to L.A. writer Carla Hall, Los Angeles is the “only megacity in the world that has mountain lions roaming the streets.” As proven by researchers, years of climate change have brought dramatic shifts between record-breaking heat and heavy rain. According to UCLA climate scientists, that and drought have become a “perfect storm of risks.” Yet Mayor Karen Bass is promising to “aggressively rebuild....Red tape, bureaucracy, all of it must go.” And Governor Newsom is suspending environmental laws for his proposed 'Marshall Plan' to rebuild.

     

*R. Fonseca, L.A. Times