ALTADENA, CA — I’d recently turned 21 and my boyfriend (now husband of 30+years) brought me to the Meadows to meet his sister and see the”biggest stars” from this magical place. A mid century modern home with floor to ceiling windows to enjoy the beautiful views of el prieto canyon on one side and Brown mountain on the other. A nurse and musician like many other young African American couples and families, Yvette and Troy made Altadena their home in the 70s. This is also where Octavia Butler wrote her famous Parable of the Sower novel, and famed artist Charles White and his wife settled.
As my boyfriend and I got serious our visits to Altadena were more frequent, like that crazy hot summer day we drove up (from South LA) to swim at Loma Alta Park.
We married in 1993 and bought our first home at 2748 N. Fair Oaks in January of 1999 just in time for the arrival of our son Logan that June. We raised our two sons here in Altadena. Our sons are bi-racial and identify as Blaxicans. Raising boys is tough, raising black boys in Los Angeles can be dangerous. I remember the Pasadena and Altadena Community still reeling from the murder of three boys on Halloween in 1993 because they were thought to be gang members. The community came together to address the gang violence by supporting young people and working families. I attended a few town halls and witnessed the people of all ages and community organizations coming together to save our children. I knew Altadena and Pasadena were not perfect but I also realized that enough people were engaged and seemed to have the resources and commitment to make an impact.
My sons attended Noyes Elementary and Altadena Christian Child Care Center (ACCC), these wonderful, nurturing spaces were created by teachers like Ms. Johnson, Ms. Lalani, Toni Boucher and countless others. I noticed a great number of bi-racial families. Altadena was a close knit diverse community. I remember hearing someone say,
“I am proud to live in a city where my child and my gardener’s child attend the same school.”
People here value diversity of all sorts: ethnic, economic, linguistic, religious etc. People who could afford private schools, chose to send their children to public schools. Toni Boucher explained to me the story of how Pasadena Schools were desegregated, as did my own research and learned that progressive Alta/Pasa residents fought and won. That victory shaped that generation and future generations, specifically on the idea that if we organize, if we fight we win.
This generation is mostly retired and in many cases very active in the community they love. They are also many of the seniors that lost their homes during the Eaton Fire that devastated Altadena last month. We witnessed the community come together during the evacuation so many people checked on their neighbors, came back for their neighbors, stood with their neighbors to protect and save homes. Families across southern California gave refuge to friends and family. Many of us packed a few things and thought we’d spend a fun night at a hotel. No one could imagine what actually happened in Altadena and Pasadena in January. For two weeks I did not sleep for more than four hours at a time watching the news and neighborhood socials tracking the devastation as the fire traveled west toward my neighborhood.
We Can’t go Back, We must build Altadena Anew
“History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes” – Mark Twain
“Disaster brings out the best and worst in people”, I have heard this at almost every community meeting I have attended. The heroic community response has been inspiring and is fueling our commitment to rebuild Altadena together. Expressions of unity and solidarity are in the “everyone is welcome” attitude at the resource centers.
The Pasadena Job Center, already an important community center, sprung into action and became one the first centers to respond with crews of neighbors and workers clearing the way for emergency vehicles and supporting displaced people with food, and other basic needs. Since then dozens of the existing groups like NAACP, Altadena Strong, and many more are working on support and recovery. I joined a group called Altadena NotForSale, started by a young woman who lost her home, and decided to write “AltaNotFor Sale” on the side of her truck.
I want to be real — 60 days in (since the fire) many people are really struggling, as the shock wears off, I see and hear despair and anger setting in for some of our community members. As the national guard and media move on to the next disaster we are increasingly stuck with insufficient answers and solutions from insurance companies, FEMA, and our local officials; and now the shutting down and firing of federal programs and workers. We are losing faith and our resolve is waning as we see the price gouging rents, the corporate developers harassing us daily about buying empty lots, conflicting reports on the toxicity and clean up efforts. Many of us with homes still standing don’t have safe water, and don’t have clear information on whether our homes, our furniture, our clothes are safe. “It’s a personal decision” a woman was told when asking whether she should discard all her children’s toys and items like strollers and car seats.
Our elected officials are seemingly unable or unwilling to keep the financial vultures out of Altadena.
We are going to have to work together so ensure our future. We can only win if we fight together.
What are we fighting against?
Jacqui Germain explains that Disaster Capitalism is A Cycle of Crisis, Exploitation, and Privatization
These forces are always at play and sometimes described as gentrification. Remember the housing bubble/collapse of 2008 and 2009? Market and interest rate manipulations as well as predatory lending forced thousands of Altadeneans and Pasadeneans out of their homes. We purchased our first home in Altadena for $197,000 in 1999. By 2006 the bank assured me that my home was worth $600,000 and that we should access the equity. I borrowed to make home improvements and complete grad school.
By 2009 I was underwater and according to the bank the only way to avoid a foreclosure is to “short sale” the house. I remember so many families leaving the area during these years. I noticed many of my kids black friends did not return in the Fall. About 30 percent of black and Hispanic borrowers’ homes in total have gone into foreclosure in the years since the housing market crash, compared with 11 percent of whites’ homes. Tenants faced a terrible time because some landlords were in foreclosure for a year or more, while collecting rent from tenants.
Once again to protect Altadena, we must protect each other. Certainly the fire affected all of us but we do not all have the same support, connections, and resources to cope or move forward. Some people never recovered from the housing crisis and are couch/car surfing and houseless. Now with the fire, homeowners are realizing just how difficult the housing crisis is for many. I read a recent post of an elderly woman who lost her home – angry and shocked that rent was $4,000/mo, homeowners who had been “sheltered” from the tenant-experience are now coming together.
Let’s reflect and consciously resist the social conditioning of the previous era, you know when there was a job economy not a hi-tech economy. During the previous era ideas like if you work hard you’ll make it, so if you don’t make it, – “it must be YOUR fault and therefore not deserving of my help”. We’ve confused individualism, consumerism, and that bootstrap mentality as natural instead of rooted in a system of economic competition and social stratification. The developers, banks and politicians that empower them use these disasters to make billions while displacing residents.
We must get organized and develop a strategy to achieve an Altadena that leaves no one behind. Resist the old ideas that “only some deserve to eat, have shelter, security, mental health, and even joy”!
We are Altadena Strong: New and old, documented and undocumented, blue-collar and white collar, housed and unhoused. We do not have to agree on every single thing but we will stand together to defend Altadena for our next generation. If we love Altadena we have to love all of her! As Michelle Alexander explains “Only revolutionary love can save us”.
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