The Fire and Rain Have Left Town

Only in Los Angeles can one go from summer on Monday to winter on Wednesday.  In November.

The fires have died for the most part, as we all must someday, but we are still displaced from our offices until, tentatively, mid-January due to the Getty Fire.  At least we still have our home.  That is the disaster mentality of L.A.:  “only a few out buildings burned, but people and animals are safe and the house still stands.”  A few news outlets confused “out buildings” with “outhouses,” which, of course, means something completely different to those of us who remember the implication.

We learned several weeks ago that the fire was caused by a tree branch falling on power lines along Sepulveda Boulevard in the pass just north of the Getty Center.  This according to the LAFD Arson-Counterterrorism Section.  Our office and buildings withstood the fire thanks to the hard working fire fighters, but the place needs some clean-up to remove ash, debris and burned foliage.  The air quality also needs to improve because it still smells like an ash tray outside.

And now we have the rain which rolled in with tremendous, thunderous aplomb yesterday.  Rains after fires can create some additional problems with mudslides, but rain also freshens the air, and the cool breezes were a welcomed relief from the stagnant 90 degree temps of Monday.

The traffic to and from work was a slog before the fire.  Now that we are commuting to our temporary work space downtown, each day we realize how lucky we were before the fires.  Vermont Avenue, one of the main north-south thoroughfares around the clogged 101/110/10 freeway interchange, is slow but colorful:  sit in comatose traffic while inching along through Little Bangladesh; Wilshire Center and the Metro Station; Koreatown; Pico-Union; West Adams; University Park.  Vermont offers a measure of real down-to-earth life we do not see in Brentwood on our former commute every morning and evening.  Sprinkled along the Vermont sidewalks are stands with street food and fruit and homeless denizens wandering up and down seemingly stunned and confused or just plain angry.  One person in a stuffed black bra and underwear screamed “Give me my money!” at the passing traffic.  A nearby restaurant shouted in neon “Pick your chicken, we kill it, cook it and serve it hot to your table!” Through it all, USC students bike to class with laptop bags slung over their shoulders.

Los Angeles:  where every commute is an adventure through several countries and social strata.

For now, no fires; no floods; and a city very much alive.

Vermont Avenue in the old days: still too much traffic