It Happens All the Time

I have lived in Los Angeles for more than four decades. I slept in a van the night following the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which killed 57, injured more than 9,000, and caused over $13 billion in property damage. Some have published economic losses as high as $50 billion.

View of Los Angeles from Runyon Canyon

I was no different from many Angelenos. Wildfires and mudslides in our coastal and hillside neighborhoods were an inconvenience met with indifference. We saw them as a consequence of living with gorgeous views. Wildfires and mudslides could not have been much of a concern for those who bought and lived in high-risk communities. To claim otherwise would be obtuse, especially for those who owned properties without homeowner's insurance. That is like driving a car without insurance, even if the state lawfully allows it.

I live among Progressives—people who claim to care about the environment, inclusiveness, and equality. I voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in the last presidential election. I voted for Mayor Karen Bass when she ran to become the mayor of Los Angeles. I hate Mr. Donald Trump. I am very comfortable using the word “hate” to describe how I feel about him. It is the most polite word available.

My politics align neither with MAGA nor Progressives. My politics align with civility, humanity, and equality, in that order. Like many Angelenos, my mental wellness has suffered since last Tuesday, January 7. As I am typing this, parts of Los Angeles County have burned to an area larger than the city limits of San Francisco. If you are more of an East Coast person, that is more than twice the size of Manhattan, New York. Other than hazardous air quality and one false evacuation warning alert, I should be okay.

I am not okay. While some Angelenos are living with the same indifference we have carried in the past, most—even those far from the fires—are frayed. Life goes on, right? I don't blame them. Mainstream media has been relentless in describing these neighborhoods as ultra-wealthy and filled with celebrities. It is true. It is also not true.

When I read about Ms. Paris Hilton, I rolled my eyes. When I read an interview with Mr. Mel Gibson, I was struck by how plainly he spoke. He said what he lost was material. His family—the people he loves—are safe. What burned, including the house, can be replaced. He sounded like a person with millions at his disposal and a clear hierarchy of what matters.

Then there is the gentleman in his 70s who lost his home—a rental—in the fire. He worked an early morning shift in a grocery store bakery, finishing at 11 a.m., to supplement his Social Security. He will not find another rental nearby—or even in neighboring communities—at the rent he paid under rent control. There are hundreds, thousands, more like him.

I love Los Angeles. I have lived most of my life here. I am also ashamed of our failure to provide basic human dignity to over 70,000 unhoused people living in the county before the fires. I read that some shelters and support centers for victims of the fire are turning away donated items and volunteers because they are at capacity. Even before the fires, there were more than 70,000 people in need of shelter, water, food, hygiene products, and clothing. Their suffering and indignity remain unheard.

On IG Stories, I unglued about Mayor Karen Bass’s negligence in preparing high-risk areas and providing adequate warnings to residents—allegedly. Negligence that results in deaths? That is negligent homicide. Involuntary manslaughter in California. I do not understand those calling for her resignation.

Resignation is an exit. An easy one. Too easy. I do not want reviews of what happened. I do not want a recall. I want a criminal investigation. If that investigation concludes there is sufficient evidence for involuntary manslaughter for each death caused by the fires, she should be charged—along with others whose negligence contributed to the scale of the fires and the resulting deaths.

Economic losses could reach $275 billion. Estimated insured property losses are about $30 billion. The fires are still burning. The two main fires—Palisades and Altadena—are areas where some homes are covered by the state’s FAIR Plan. As of January 10, the plan held only $377 million to pay claims. It remains unclear how much of the $30 billion falls under the FAIR Plan, but many expect a significant share does.

It is more than houses and businesses. There are schools, roads, electrical lines, gas pipes, water systems, and sewers. The basics. Rebuilding will not be possible without federal aid. President Joe Biden has opened the flow of federal funds. Will President Trump keep it open? He has been invited, but has not scheduled a visit to the devastated areas. Republicans are already signaling that federal funds should not be provided unless changes are made. Changes to what—water management, disaster preparation, wildfire response, environmental protections?

The first fire broke out on Tuesday. By Thursday morning, it was painfully clear that we would need federal aid. I worried that Mr. Trump would demand that local law enforcement cooperate with federal agencies in identifying, locating, and deporting unlawful immigrants as a condition for receiving federal funds when he takes office on January 20. I worried about this when he won the election. One disaster—an earthquake or a fire—can place us at his mercy. Our Sanctuary status has long been a thorn in his side.

I have not been shy on the point that existing immigration laws should be enforced. Mr. Trump and I differ on how. He supports federal agents entering schools and workplaces without cause, stopping people in public spaces without cause, even deploying troops domestically to identify unlawful residents.

It has already started in California. Last week, El Centro Border Patrol conducted Operation Return to Sender. Agents detained people outside a Home Depot and a gas station near Bakersfield, even stopping vehicles on Highway 99 and asking for papers. It is estimated that 80 to 180 people may have been detained. With no local agency involved, there is no transparency—how many, where they were taken, how they are being treated. Do they have legal representation? You know my plan to carry my U.S. Passport Card instead of a California-issued ID starting January 20? I am not waiting. It is already in my wallet.

Would President Trump provide aid while California is preparing to spend $50 million in taxpayer funds to challenge his policies in court, including $25 million to fight deportations?

Immigration laws should be enforced—but not through mass hunts. Like any other crime, enforcement should begin with cause. No one should be stopped simply because they do not look American.

I am a pragmatist. Do we wait until demands are made? Perhaps negotiations are already happening behind closed doors. If we are forced to reconsider our Sanctuary position, the first step should be cooperation when unlawful residents commit crimes for which deportation is already permitted under the law. While that occupies federal agencies, can we buy time for those who have built lives here? People should know what is coming so they can prepare.

Unlike fires, we can warn people. Some may need to liquidate assets. Some may relocate to another Sanctuary city—Chicago or New York. Some may repatriate. They will need time.

It happens all the time. We think we can save everyone. We cannot. Rainbows and unicorns are comforting, but they do not fund recovery. Do we abandon burned communities for unlawful residents? Do we abandon unlawful residents to rebuild burned communities? I hope it does not come to that. But this is Mr. Trump, so anything is possible, and we must prepare for that possibility.

_____

More essays:
Can We Please Return to Civility?

I Am Not Alone. I Am a Party of One.

Hunger

Be a Parent, Not a Pimp

This Crazy World We Live In

ESSAYS | RECIPES | STYLES | IG

Comments

Newsom's Affair: Somewhere Between His & Her Stories

Did Ruby Rippey lose her voice twenty years ago, as she suggests in her Vanity Fair essay, when her affair with then San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom exploded into public scandal, or did she simply have no defense to offer at the time? Perhaps Kamala Harris’s advice that she remain silent was not merely counsel to let time provide clearer perspective, but the advice of an attorney who understood that no arrangement of words could defend what Rippey had done to Alex Tourk, her husband at the time. By Pablo Picasso at LACMA For the record, I have said before that I will never vote for Gavin Newsom. My opinion of him is exceptionally low. So none of what follows should be mistaken for a dispatch from Team Newsom. It was not until I read Rippey’s essay that I learned of Newsom’s affair with her. From it, I learned that she worked for him. What elevated the story from garden-variety political infidelity to something approaching daytime-soap-opera tawdriness was that Rippey was married to Ne...

The Art of the Cold Shoulder

The shoulder has repeatedly been treated as one of fashion’s safest ways to be sensual. Most of us give Brigitte Bardot the credit for making the off-the-shoulder silhouette iconic—and certainly, few wore it with more persuasive nonchalance—but fashion history tells a far longer story. Recognizable versions of the neckline appear as far back as the 17th century, when European bodices widened and dipped low enough to reveal both the décolletage and shoulders. By the 19th century, the silhouette had become a fixture of evening dress. Queen Victoria herself wore a broad, shoulder-baring neckline for her 1840 wedding, and through the 1850s and 1860s, off-the-shoulder ball gowns paired tightly corseted bodices with sweeping skirts and bertha collars that framed exposed shoulders in lace, silk, and ruffles. Victorian modesty, it turns out, was considerably more situational than its reputation suggests. Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, Portugal The silhouette continued to surface as fash...

Oh Snap! BTS Just Made the Grammys Irrelevant

I am not ARMY. The first BTS member to intrigue me was J-Hope, who appeared last year on one of my favorite Korean shows, Chef & My Fridge, with his refrigerator in tow. There, I learned that he had performed at Le Gala des Pièces Jaunes at Paris La Défense Arena at the personal invitation of Brigitte Macron, France’s first lady. Naturally, I found the performance on YouTube. Thirty-five thousand people filled the arena as thousands of voices in France roared the Korean lyric, “adeuri neom jal nagaseo mianhae, eomma.” One need not own a purple light stick to recognize that kind of cultural power. Afterward, I became mildly obsessed with J-Hope and, by association, BTS. Original photo by Sudhith Xavier. Photoshop by ChatGPT. A song currently in heavy rotation on my playlist is SWIM, from their latest album, ARIRANG. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and remained there for three consecutive weeks. During its debut week, its songs occupied the top nine positions on the...

Pasta al Tonno: A Korean Gal’s Ramyeon in Pasta

Growing up Korean, ramyeon was the reliable quick meal: intensely satisfying, reliably filling, and unlikely to leave much of a dent in the bank account. It was a cheap thrill, the sort of thing we were regularly warned was not particularly healthy while continuing to keep it stocked in nearly every Korean home. That contradiction was built into its history. Korean ramyeon was introduced in 1963, with government financing, as one possible response to South Korea’s severe postwar food shortage. Ceramic bowl was wheel-thrown and glazed by me. Once regarded largely as budget food, ramyeon now commands a global following that could almost compete with BTS. ARMY, please hold the hate mail. Pasta al tonno may not share ramyeon’s austere, mission-driven origin, but it occupies a similarly dependable place in many Italian kitchens, particularly among younger cooks and college students. It is quick, inexpensive, and deeply satisfying without putting an unnecessary dent in the wallet. Humble ...

Shrimp & Kimchi Inari

Inarizushi emerged in Japan during the Edo period, when seasoned fried tofu pockets filled with vinegared rice became popular as inexpensive street food. Its name is tied to Inari, the deity associated with rice, agriculture and prosperity, and to the foxes regarded as Inari’s messengers and linked in folklore to fried tofu. Inari, however, has never been Japanese to me. Growing up in South Korea, I knew it as yubu chobap, a meal my mom packed for school lunches and picnics—and one that always felt like a treat. Rather than sushi rice, she filled the tofu pockets with different kinds of fried rice. Perhaps that is why I have never regarded the pouch as something requiring too much fidelity. Shrimp & Kimchi Inari is my homage to kimchi fried rice, only quieter: shrimp and kimchi folded into rice with less seasoning than I would ordinarily use for the fried rice version. The restraint is intentional. The lighter seasoning leaves room for the fried tofu skin, with its distinctive swee...

Curated: Ballet Flats for Fashionistas

The ballet flat began, quite literally, with a foot in the theater. Claire McCardell and Capezio helped coax the slipper from studio floor to city pavement in the 1940s, while Audrey Hepburn and Brigitte Bardot later supplied the sort of cinematic endorsement no advertising budget could manufacture. What had been designed for pliés became a shorthand for modern femininity: graceful without fragility, polished without the architectural inconvenience of a heel. at Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France Its staying power lies in that contradiction. The ballet flat is delicate but practical, prim but faintly rebellious—the shoe of a woman who has somewhere to be and no intention of arriving with sore feet. And so, with a small curtsy and considerably better arch support, here are 12 curated ballet flats ready to take their turn in the spotlight. ANCIENT GREEK SANDALS Iro PVC Ballet Flats JavaScript is currently disabled in this browser. Reactivate it to view this content. ANCIENT GREEK SANDALS I...

Debaucheries of the Far Right

That, in the simplest terms, is how I understand the recent rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States. We are now free to carry concealed handguns without meaningful state regulation. Women and girls are being forced to give birth, even in cases of rape and incest. We are increasingly unrestrained in our destruction of the environment. Prayer is being ushered back into public schools under the guise of freedom. What else can this be called, if not the debaucheries of this nation’s far right? Photo by Fred Moon on Unsplash When I began writing about political and social issues, it was not merely to register my personal views. It was to draw attention to something larger: the state of our shared humanity. Last November, when I referenced New York State’s gun control case before the Supreme Court alongside a recipe , I did not analyze the ruling in detail. I wrote instead about the deeper unease it stirred in me—the sorrow of realizing how many people live in such fear of one a...

Curated Sunglasses: Shades Without the Mourning

Sunglasses began as utility: a practical defense against glare, wind, and the indignities of squinting. Then fashion claimed them. Frames grew bolder, lenses darker, silhouettes more deliberate, until sunglasses became less an accessory than a small act of self-invention—the quickest way to suggest mystery, polish, or studied indifference. I lose sunglasses the way other people lose packs of gum: casually, repeatedly, and without explanation. After enough expensive disappearances and appropriate mourning periods, I now wear budget-friendly pairs almost exclusively. These 12 curated sunglasses offer the pleasure of a fashion statement without requiring a period of mourning when one inevitably vanishes. The trouble with a small indulgence is that shipping can cost nearly as much as the thing itself—unless, of course, one reaches the minimum. To spare us that particular absurdity, all 12 were curated from Amazon Prime. JOOPIN Oversized Sunglasses ZENOTTIC Retro Square Polarized Sunglasses...

Seafood Jajang Deopbap

Jajang, born from Chinese zhajiangmian and transformed in Korea into the rich, dark sauce made with chunjang, has become woven into the fabric of Korean everyday life. What began as an adapted working-class meal of black bean sauce (jajang) over noodles (myeon) in port cities has evolved into a national comfort food, synonymous with quick delivery, moving days, and casual family meals. Jajangmyeon was the pizza and burgers of my childhood. End-of-school semesters and good test scores were acknowledged with jajangmyeon. My grandparents always had it delivered when I stayed with them during school breaks, a proper opening to days of my grandmother’s home-cooked meals to come. Ceramic bowls were wheel-thrown and glazed by me. Its presence is as cultural as it is culinary: from shared bowls among students and office workers to its symbolic role on Black Day, when singles gather to eat jajangmyeon together. It is the unofficially official meal on moving day. More than just a sauce, jajang r...

Tôm Rim: Caramelized Prawns

Inspired by Anaïs Aa Dao Van Manen’s Vietnam, the cookbook published by Phaidon , I set out to cook Vietnamese food for myself. There is a certain satisfaction—a quiet, private sense of achievement—when we learn to cook within a familiar cuisine that our hands have never actually prepared. I did not realize, until drifting through the pages of Vietnam , how central caramelized sugar is to the cuisine—often referred to as a caramel braising sauce. After my first failed attempt at following the Tôm Rim recipe from the cookbook, I turned inward to develop a version that simplifies the process while preserving the dish’s essential tension: the salinity of fish sauce meeting the sweetness of caramelized sugar. INGREDIENTS [serves one with rice] fourteen whole prawns, shells on, slit along the back and deveined two tablespoons of vegetable oil one tablespoon of sugar one tablespoon of fish sauce one tablespoon of Cambray onion, white part only, diced one tablespoon of red onion, diced one cl...

Exhaling Life

Search This Blog