I have been so heart-broken and so angry this week. I'm fortunate to live in perhaps the safest corner of Los Angeles (Westchester), where an aviation disaster is a bigger threat than either fire or flood. But I know both the Palisades and Altadena well. Indeed, looking at my Strava records, this time last year my family was hiking up Millard Creek and along the old Mount Lowe Motorway, which is a just a couple of narrow canyons west of Eaton. And on the previous weekend last year, we hiked up Temescal Ridge, which is where the Palisades fire started. The devastation of seeing favored hiking trails go up in flames is nothing like losing one's home and all the personal belongings and memories it contains. Given time, the hiking trails will reopen, and the destroyed communities will rebuild and recover, even if they never will be the same again. All of this is to say, this has been a really, really tough week for greater Los Angeles. Even in a sprawling metro area of 15+ million people--and the enormous Angeleno diaspora beyond--we're connected to each other through these local places.
CA is so good at proposing and spending millions to study and propose a worthwhile project. Then spending more millions to get that worthwhile project approved only to be killed by some small group claiming to care about nature. 3 examples of worthwhile projects- Huntington Beach desalinization plant, Sites Reservoir, Oakland/Alameda port restoration and expansion.
The irony is nature went ahead and destroyed nature on its own…
So grateful to have communities like these to help process this unprocessable week. I moved to the Bay last year after living a decade in Altadena and Pasadena and about 25 years around LA. Got married in Eaton Canyon and have so so so many memories of that beautiful special community. We have no friends or community in our new home yet and just miss our old city. X has been even a worse hellscape than usual. It’s nice to have a place to come grieve together when we’re so far from what still feels like home ❤️ I’m so sorry for everyone experiencing such incomprehensible loss. Thanks for sharing their stories.
I've always wondered the perspective of the guy who made the Innocence of Muslims video. My understanding is he went to jail on a probation violation because of that video. Seems like an untold story.
If anyone’s looking for the gofundme link for the nice couple on Second Sunday who lost their home in the fires, here it is! https://gofund.me/65905738
Matt, I'm the guy who asked if you came up with "hate facts". Was wondering the same thing about "State Incapacity Libertarianism" to describe the government of CA. Absolutely perfect way to describe the unending spending that somehow results in nothing ever getting done.
Trying to figure out why Sarah and Nancy are keeping their episode with Meghan behind a paywall. Theoretically, you can donate to Meghan through her YouTube channel “The Unspeakable”.
Am I crazy or did we never get a podcast version of the last second Sunday? Hope those of us who can’t join this evening’s broadcast will be able to catch-up at some point.
You guys need to slow down. It is a new year and I am old and can't keep up with you whippersnappers. I am falling behind all this content. I get FOMO went I can't leave pithy and/or pseudo-intellectual comments on Substack.
P.S. Actually only Matt is older than me, but his natural boyish exuberance still shines through.
Matt - would love to get a link to that piece you mentioned about Karen Bass that called her a DMV branch assistant manager - so good. I also have been bingeing KCAL and other local news which I almost never watch and it has been sincerely incredible. So immersed, raw and emotional and moments of only in LA odd delight: reporters rescuing chickens from an Altadena backyard, Steve Guttenberg directing traffic, residents trying to put out embers with almond mik, herding goats down a Brentwood canyon. Local TV news often feels old fashioned, formulaic and corny but my god these local reporters work their ASSES off every day and they have been amazing during this crisis! I used to be a local radio reporter in LA and I’d always be mad when crisis hit that I couldn’t be processing a mass shooting I’d be bothering family members at a morgue or something awful. I’m so happy I’m no longer on that beat but it’s been such a weird feeling not being able to do just facts reporting in a crisis. I’m not always critical of X but the flattening of the hierarchy of posters does mean you have to sift through a lot more bullshit conspiracy, speculation, partisan bickering to get to actual information in an emergency.
You don't need many (honorary) roof Koreans to keep a temporarily abandoned neighborhood safe from looters. If I had to perform my civil obligation as a juror, I would not vote to convict such heroes.
At least your Firehoses are never empty, Matt
Sad, but excellent comment. 😢🏆
I have been so heart-broken and so angry this week. I'm fortunate to live in perhaps the safest corner of Los Angeles (Westchester), where an aviation disaster is a bigger threat than either fire or flood. But I know both the Palisades and Altadena well. Indeed, looking at my Strava records, this time last year my family was hiking up Millard Creek and along the old Mount Lowe Motorway, which is a just a couple of narrow canyons west of Eaton. And on the previous weekend last year, we hiked up Temescal Ridge, which is where the Palisades fire started. The devastation of seeing favored hiking trails go up in flames is nothing like losing one's home and all the personal belongings and memories it contains. Given time, the hiking trails will reopen, and the destroyed communities will rebuild and recover, even if they never will be the same again. All of this is to say, this has been a really, really tough week for greater Los Angeles. Even in a sprawling metro area of 15+ million people--and the enormous Angeleno diaspora beyond--we're connected to each other through these local places.
Thank you for the honor. See you guys on Sunday.
All of SoCal is rooting for you, your neighbors & the firefighters!
My heart goes out to all my neighbors and community. I'm a fellow Altadenan. We've lost everything.
CA is so good at proposing and spending millions to study and propose a worthwhile project. Then spending more millions to get that worthwhile project approved only to be killed by some small group claiming to care about nature. 3 examples of worthwhile projects- Huntington Beach desalinization plant, Sites Reservoir, Oakland/Alameda port restoration and expansion.
The irony is nature went ahead and destroyed nature on its own…
So grateful to have communities like these to help process this unprocessable week. I moved to the Bay last year after living a decade in Altadena and Pasadena and about 25 years around LA. Got married in Eaton Canyon and have so so so many memories of that beautiful special community. We have no friends or community in our new home yet and just miss our old city. X has been even a worse hellscape than usual. It’s nice to have a place to come grieve together when we’re so far from what still feels like home ❤️ I’m so sorry for everyone experiencing such incomprehensible loss. Thanks for sharing their stories.
I've always wondered the perspective of the guy who made the Innocence of Muslims video. My understanding is he went to jail on a probation violation because of that video. Seems like an untold story.
Great idea.
Donated to both. What a tragedy. 😢
If anyone’s looking for the gofundme link for the nice couple on Second Sunday who lost their home in the fires, here it is! https://gofund.me/65905738
Matt, I'm the guy who asked if you came up with "hate facts". Was wondering the same thing about "State Incapacity Libertarianism" to describe the government of CA. Absolutely perfect way to describe the unending spending that somehow results in nothing ever getting done.
*Meghan's Substack is called the Unspeakable. Don't fly coach.
Trying to figure out why Sarah and Nancy are keeping their episode with Meghan behind a paywall. Theoretically, you can donate to Meghan through her YouTube channel “The Unspeakable”.
Weird unintentional glitch that should be fixed now.
Good to hear. Thank you Matt.
Am I crazy or did we never get a podcast version of the last second Sunday? Hope those of us who can’t join this evening’s broadcast will be able to catch-up at some point.
You guys need to slow down. It is a new year and I am old and can't keep up with you whippersnappers. I am falling behind all this content. I get FOMO went I can't leave pithy and/or pseudo-intellectual comments on Substack.
P.S. Actually only Matt is older than me, but his natural boyish exuberance still shines through.
Funny how we’re all pretty much the exact same age
Matt - would love to get a link to that piece you mentioned about Karen Bass that called her a DMV branch assistant manager - so good. I also have been bingeing KCAL and other local news which I almost never watch and it has been sincerely incredible. So immersed, raw and emotional and moments of only in LA odd delight: reporters rescuing chickens from an Altadena backyard, Steve Guttenberg directing traffic, residents trying to put out embers with almond mik, herding goats down a Brentwood canyon. Local TV news often feels old fashioned, formulaic and corny but my god these local reporters work their ASSES off every day and they have been amazing during this crisis! I used to be a local radio reporter in LA and I’d always be mad when crisis hit that I couldn’t be processing a mass shooting I’d be bothering family members at a morgue or something awful. I’m so happy I’m no longer on that beat but it’s been such a weird feeling not being able to do just facts reporting in a crisis. I’m not always critical of X but the flattening of the hierarchy of posters does mean you have to sift through a lot more bullshit conspiracy, speculation, partisan bickering to get to actual information in an emergency.
Just a tweet:
https://x.com/KenLayne/status/1877172301696819363
Though I do recommend his latest episode of Desert Oracle:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2MbuSRn0EuJB3DzcN4BDgr?si=72546d7894e844a2&nd=1&dlsi=314947d6c1a8401e
Thanks!
You don't need many (honorary) roof Koreans to keep a temporarily abandoned neighborhood safe from looters. If I had to perform my civil obligation as a juror, I would not vote to convict such heroes.