LA is Burning

Dear faithful subscribers forgive me for not writing sooner but I am on my second evacuation of the year. My first was in Aspen when the neighbors above left a fire going. An ember got into the walls and when I came home from skiing the place was full of smoke. Slightly concerned but I just thought it was our fire and maybe the flue was not open. Then suddenly the fire department knocked and they quickly started to pull down the ceiling that connected our unit to the one above. Water rained down and we had to relocate on New Year’s Day. That affair was absolutely nothing compared to yesterday and what we face at home. The Pacific Palisades are nearly all ash and I just got word that Runyon Canyon is on fire and the West Hollywood Hills are being evacuated. I’m safe and sadly watching all of this from my hotel room in Westwood. I keep going back and forth from crying to furious at our lack of leadership in Los Angeles. Our mayor is on a vanity trip to Ghana, Gavin had his hands in his back pockets as he watched the westside turn to rubble and Biden only seems to care that he became a great grand father. Kudos to you all now what about your citizens.

My boyfriend’s daughter’s school is gone and our quaint little village now just a memory. He and I can handle anything and stayed in the canyon as long as we could hosing down the woods around the house and trying to help neighbors. But these children and the elderly it just breaks my heart. I want so badly to help but the police nor fire depertment will let us join the ranks. For now all we can offer is prayer. I’ll get back to y’all when I have ways to help but for now here are some photo’s I took as we were leaving. The photo with the pink sofa was taken by a friend looking back at us on the westside of LA and now I fear his house is in trouble too. To me the juxtaposition of the jubilant pink and the heavy smoke is so LA a city of dreamers and creators. This image seems like a high budget Armageddon film come to life.

San Vicente Blvd and Cliffwood looking west about 2pm Jan 7th

View from the house as we began to pack

Taken from Westridge Trail Hiking trail looking west about 7pm. It all happened within a few hours everything gone

When we made it safely to the hotel an old Judy Garland film was playing through the fire something about it felt poetic to me. Our city can burn but we will always have these memories of what this city created. The next morning as I obsessively watched the news and social media this photo of Will Rogers house was in my feed by Alison Martino, a fellow Historic Preservation enthusiast. The Rogers donated their ranch to the people of Los Angeles and I often come here to hike, ride horses, write or simply find a peaceful moment in a busy world. Losing history like this is what’s really going to hurt. I think but I’m not positive the Hollywood sign is burning right now after just celebrating its 100th year. Godspeed friends was have a long road ahead.

Also got word my Malibu apartment burned. That is where I moved to get away from the Bravo spotlight and reconnect with myself. I was supposed to stay in Malibu for three months and it turned into three years. Forever grateful for my time there.