Yesterday I had an opportunity to drive through the Palisades and Malibu as we headed to our visit at the Getty Villa. It was my first time being in that area since the Palisades fire last year. (Los Angeles is an enormous city and there are plenty of neighborhoods I rarely have a reason to visit).
We took Sunset boulevard from West Hollywood all the way to PCH, and as we passed through Beverly Hills and Bel-Air, it felt like the traffic was falling away from us and by the time we were in the Palisades, we were pretty much all alone.
I didn't intend to take us on a disaster tour, but it is still unbelievably hard to see what was once a beautiful neighborhood still in such a state of devastation more than a year later. Obviously, insurance recovery, environmental mitigation, lawsuits, and I'm sure many other steps I haven't thought of, take a lot of time. There's been some discussion about easing construction permitting and such and you can see some new builds coming in, but the neighborhood is currently a shadow of what it once was and it's hard to imagine as a homeowner being ready to rebuild and live there with your family. There must be trauma and loss, and maybe no one wants to be the first house back up, when all your eye can see is burnt out empty lots.
It's also much different seeing the damage on the neighborhood level, looking to the left and right and just seeing how many homes are gone, every few businesses or so, and seeing how quiet it was on a Sunday at 11am. The only person we saw was a security guard standing outside of a business.
Along PCH from Sunset up into Malibu, so many of the beach houses are gone --- this long stretch of waterfront properties, just fenced off and wiped out. Many of the properties have 'for sale' signs. I can't imagine that rebuilding there makes a ton of sense. It's not even clear how much actual property, as in earth/rock/soil, there actually is there --- these homes were probably 3/4 on pilings. Shouldn't the city just re-take them in an eminent domain process, shore up the coast line, and then let the view be the view?
It's mind-boggling the amount of wealth that was wiped out in those fires. These were generational homes. Beachfront and ocean view properties.
Living way on the other side of Los Angeles, I've not been particularly keyed into what's happening with the recovery. I'm aware there has been a ton of problems with insurance companies and city construction red tape, and there are lawsuits filed and brewing. I suspect that this 'recovery' process will stretch out much, much longer.
I wonder how things are going in Hawaii.
It's hard seeing the disasters unfolding on the other side of the world, knowing that this is only just beginning for them. I suspect we're all going to have to get used to this.
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