The Case for Letting Malibu Burn
November 12, 2018 10:19 AM Subscribe
The Case for Letting Malibu Burn As the Kardashians flee and young offenders are forced to save their mansions for $1 an hour its fun to remember that time in 1995 when UCLA prof, trucker and Mac Arthur fellow Mike Davis annoyed a lot of people by making a convincing argument to let Malibu burn (full pdf).
A political history of the fire coast...
"From the very beginning, fire has defined Malibu in the American imagination. Sailing northward from San Pedro to Santa Barbara in 1835, Richard Henry Dana described (in Two Years Before the Mast) a vast blaze along the coast of Jose Tapia's Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit. Despite (or, perhaps, because of) Spanish prohibition of the Chumash and Gabrielino Indians' practice of annual burning, mountain infernos repeatedly menaced the Malibu area throughout the 19th century."
"From the very beginning, fire has defined Malibu in the American imagination. Sailing northward from San Pedro to Santa Barbara in 1835, Richard Henry Dana described (in Two Years Before the Mast) a vast blaze along the coast of Jose Tapia's Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit. Despite (or, perhaps, because of) Spanish prohibition of the Chumash and Gabrielino Indians' practice of annual burning, mountain infernos repeatedly menaced the Malibu area throughout the 19th century."
This post was deleted for the following reason: This is not framed well given the current fire situation, however interesting the political history. -- restless_nomad
Wealthy pyrophiles..
"A perverse law of Pyne's new fire regime was that fire stimulates development as well as upward social succession. By declaring Malibu a federal disaster area and offering blaze victims tax relief as well as preferential low-interest loans, the Eisenhower administration established the precedent for the public subsidization of firebelt suburbs. Each conflagration, moreover, was punctually followed by rebuilding on a larger and more exclusive scale as land-use regulations and sometimes even the fire code were relaxed to accommodate fire "victims." As a result, renters and modest homeowners were displaced from areas like Broad Beach, Paradise Cove and Point Dume by wealthy pyrophiles encouraged by cheap fire insurance, socialized disaster relief and an expansive public commitment to defend Malibu."
posted by Damienmce at 10:24 AM on November 12, 2018 [4 favorites]
"A perverse law of Pyne's new fire regime was that fire stimulates development as well as upward social succession. By declaring Malibu a federal disaster area and offering blaze victims tax relief as well as preferential low-interest loans, the Eisenhower administration established the precedent for the public subsidization of firebelt suburbs. Each conflagration, moreover, was punctually followed by rebuilding on a larger and more exclusive scale as land-use regulations and sometimes even the fire code were relaxed to accommodate fire "victims." As a result, renters and modest homeowners were displaced from areas like Broad Beach, Paradise Cove and Point Dume by wealthy pyrophiles encouraged by cheap fire insurance, socialized disaster relief and an expansive public commitment to defend Malibu."
posted by Damienmce at 10:24 AM on November 12, 2018 [4 favorites]
"Letting" may not be part of the formula...
posted by jim in austin at 10:26 AM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by jim in austin at 10:26 AM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
Okay for reals though from the second I first laid eyes on that many-miles-long wall of houses separating the PCH from the public beach, I’ve thought about how great it’d be if they were all gone, every last one of them.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 10:27 AM on November 12, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 10:27 AM on November 12, 2018 [4 favorites]
What a reprehensible sentiment to have about a neighborhood in which people actually live and actually contain their lives.
Wishing they had never been there to begin with is one thing. Wishing for what now exists (however troublesome it might be) to not exist is a wish that only truly shows its malice if the wish comes true. Congrats!
posted by hippybear at 10:33 AM on November 12, 2018 [9 favorites]
Wishing they had never been there to begin with is one thing. Wishing for what now exists (however troublesome it might be) to not exist is a wish that only truly shows its malice if the wish comes true. Congrats!
posted by hippybear at 10:33 AM on November 12, 2018 [9 favorites]
What a reprehensible sentiment to have about a neighborhood in which people actually live and actually contain their lives.
Move.
posted by Damienmce at 10:34 AM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
Move.
posted by Damienmce at 10:34 AM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
Maintaining private property on that beach is an act of violence. An extremely expensive act of violence, backed by the threat of further state violence.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 10:39 AM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 10:39 AM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
> What a reprehensible sentiment to have about a neighborhood in which people actually live and actually contain their lives.
> Move.
Okay, will you help pay for the people who don't have the funds available to pay for a move on their own?
Seriously, not everyone affected by this crisis is a rich movie star or whatever.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:40 AM on November 12, 2018 [4 favorites]
> Move.
Okay, will you help pay for the people who don't have the funds available to pay for a move on their own?
Seriously, not everyone affected by this crisis is a rich movie star or whatever.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:40 AM on November 12, 2018 [4 favorites]
Any luck on a working link to that PDF?
posted by Samizdata at 10:44 AM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Samizdata at 10:44 AM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
My college roommate lived in Malibu, in a home on the beach, which had been in their family for a while. In 1970, it burned to the ground in the Wright fire. His mother was the only one home at the time. She tried to water things down with a garden hose, but all the water pressure was lost up the coast, so all she got was a trickle. His family lost pretty much everything she couldn't load into their station wagon in under 10 minutes.
When they rebuilt, the used redwood (the most fire resistant wood used in California construction) along with a flat roof that could be dammed and flooded, sprinklers for the entire house, and a battery backed pump if necessary to pull ocean water onto the house.
Malibu has a complicated history of long time settlers and noveau riche celebrities. (One summer my roommate's sister used to play touch football with Alice Cooper and his band, who were renting the house next door.) When you built there in the 1900s, Malibu was just a long ways away from the small town of Los Angeles. The movie starts didn't start arriving until roads improved.
posted by blob at 10:51 AM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
When they rebuilt, the used redwood (the most fire resistant wood used in California construction) along with a flat roof that could be dammed and flooded, sprinklers for the entire house, and a battery backed pump if necessary to pull ocean water onto the house.
Malibu has a complicated history of long time settlers and noveau riche celebrities. (One summer my roommate's sister used to play touch football with Alice Cooper and his band, who were renting the house next door.) When you built there in the 1900s, Malibu was just a long ways away from the small town of Los Angeles. The movie starts didn't start arriving until roads improved.
posted by blob at 10:51 AM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
Okay, will you help pay for the people who don't have the funds available to pay for a move on their own?
Well, California has effectively paid many times over to keep them there, so instead switching over to paying for move instead of rebuilding would make a lot more sense.
posted by tavella at 10:54 AM on November 12, 2018 [6 favorites]
Well, California has effectively paid many times over to keep them there, so instead switching over to paying for move instead of rebuilding would make a lot more sense.
posted by tavella at 10:54 AM on November 12, 2018 [6 favorites]
Okay, will you help pay for the people who don't have the funds available to pay for a move on their own?
Seems preferable to paying to help them rebuild in a fire zone.
posted by explosion at 10:55 AM on November 12, 2018 [2 favorites]
Seems preferable to paying to help them rebuild in a fire zone.
posted by explosion at 10:55 AM on November 12, 2018 [2 favorites]
« Older “Appreciate its gestalt. Savor the aromas.” | The reality of Aung San Suu Kyi Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Melismata at 10:24 AM on November 12, 2018