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“Trial by fire.”
It’s a cliché, but Los Angeles has a way of validating clichés — riots, earthquakes and fires are part of life here. One waits for locusts.
More to the point: When a crisis most tests our faith and confidence, do we trust bonds of community, and can we rely on the arms of government to protect us?
Even for this battle-tested city, the events of the past few days have been hard and heartbreaking. Fueled by dry conditions and high winds — bitter reminders of the climate future that awaits — fires swept down on the region, cutting through the Pacific Palisades and Pasadena with terrifying ferocity.
Tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate. Thousands more trembled at home waiting for direction, frantic and afraid.
The government urged residents to obey: to leave homes and neighborhoods and trust that firefighters would do their best to protect them. That’s a hard order, and a reminder that government matters. Elon Musk won’t save your house in a fire.
Leaders are judged in these moments, and not all of them will be remembered well. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was out of the country when the fires ignited. Her absence was palpably felt, reminiscent of Gov. Pat Brown in Greece when the Watts riots erupted in 1965 or LA Mayor James Hahn being out of town on Sept. 11, 2001.
The former helped end Brown’s governorship, when an up-and-coming actor named Ronald Reagan made hay of it during his campaign for governor. And the latter gave a spotlight to then-City Council President Alex Padilla, who garnered the spotlight in 2001 and has done well for himself. He now sits in the U.S. Senate.