17 Comments

1. uranari:

Wow. Now let me think. Who do I want to report this to me. The wonderful Gerard Van Der Leun or some face at CNN. Pajamas Media is making sense more and more.

Jun 1, 2005 - 10:57 am 2. PSGInfinity:

Roger,

I disagree. We don’t need to see this report, you need to move to a more, shall we say, serene locale. Salt Lake City, perhaps? Or maybe Glasgow, Montana? Grand Junction, Colorado?

Slinking towards the door, //PSG

Jun 1, 2005 - 11:12 am 3. Lola:

This statement about the local builder asking that inconvenient question is precious . . .

Jun 1, 2005 - 11:34 am 4. Silicon valley Jim:

Does anybody here know enough about soil mechanics to explain why the land is sliding now, a month or more after the rains stopped (I think; they didn’t stop here until about ten days ago)?

Jun 1, 2005 - 12:00 pm 5. c:

Another poem by Gerard might be in order, similar to “The Old Regime”. Is death by rubble and landslide at all like death by the rabble when it has been put upon so dismissively? Maybe SUVs instead of tumbrels in this one

Jun 1, 2005 - 12:00 pm 6. Kevin P:

Roger:

Before I get to my main point I want to send my prayers to the owners of those homes and I know they are going thru terrible hardship right now and I do not wish to add to their troubles. But if there is a request for federal dissater relief I will scream.

These homes were going to slide down the hill, it was just a matter of when. federal dissater relief should be reserved for unforseen occurances. Geoligists have been predicting this dissaster for decades. This is not a class warfare argument. Bad things happen to rich people and they should not be cut off from federal aid. But if these owners did not have the saftey net of a federal bailout their insurance would cost more, they would have been required to build these homes so they could have prevented this from happening.

I am not some anti-development fanatic.I think homes would have been built there, they just would have done the work on securing the loose soil and the homes would have cost millions of dollars more. If the federal government bails these unfortunate people out the homes will be rebuilt and the same thing will happen in the next 10 to 30 years. Geologists have been predicting this for decades. This is not a suprise. Some of the owners of these homes will take a huge economic hit and some of them are not going to have the resources to recover. I do feel sorry for them. But I don’t think the nation should have to bail these people out for their gambling debts.

Jun 1, 2005 - 12:11 pm 7. Kevin P:

SVJ:

I don’t know the mechanics but the only analogy I can think of is a 300 pound man sitting on a chair made out of popsicle sticks. The water from the rains sometimes work right away and sometimes they work slowly. But the Soil is not compact enough and when the rains came after years of drought the soil began falling apart. It was just a matter of time.

Jun 1, 2005 - 12:17 pm 8. Gerard Van der Leun:

As a star class reporter for Pajamas I’m hear to report that I just updated the page to include the fact that yes the vain mayor just did the paperwork for disaster relief.

Greed has no pride.

Jun 1, 2005 - 12:24 pm 9. Kyda Sylvester:

The canyons of Laguna long have been host to natural disaster. Laguna Beach was the first southern California community I saw up close and personal and although its charms have tarnished, it still captivates.

Equally precious, Lola, is VDL’s description of the town mayor: She’s sporting the right look as usual: sharp little black baseball cap with the Laguna Beach zip code “92651″ embroidered, not stenciled, on the front, carefully formed blonde (of course) pony tail falling just so out of the back, an intense attention to her makeup, and dangling gold errings that set off her carefully chosen black jacket. This, I’m informed by family and friends, is the OC fashion statement du jour (she no doubt completes the look with fake boobs and a 4-wheel drive SUV).

I’m acquainted with people who once lived Laguna style in a converted 2-car garage with no yard which they sold some 10 years ago for almost $700,000 (if you stuck your head out their bathroom window, you had an ocean view…sorta).

Between slides and fire, it’s shaping up to be a long, long summer in California.

Jun 1, 2005 - 12:31 pm 10. Kyda Sylvester:

Kevin P–It’s like the folks who keep rebuilding in the flood zones of the Mississippi. If I remember correctly, the government did finally inform some of them that they no longer would be eligible for federal flood disaster relief.

Jun 1, 2005 - 12:35 pm 11. Gerard Van der Leun:

I state for the record that I have no knowledge or experience of the natural or unnatural state of the mayor’s boobs. I do have some experience with the natural boobs that comprise the rest of the city council, however. They’re the ones that agreed to pay the City Manager for Life over $200,000 a year.

Jun 1, 2005 - 12:38 pm 12. Silicon valley Jim:

(she no doubt completes the look with fake boobs and a 4-wheel drive SUV)

with a bumper sticker saying “Live simply so that others may simply live” or “Love your mother”, the latter superimposed on an image of the earth.

Jun 1, 2005 - 1:04 pm 13. Kyda Sylvester:

Aw, come on, Gerard. Surely such a discerning man as yourself can spot the counterfeits (fake but accurate?).

Seriously, thanks for your fine reporting and I’m in awe that your balance and good humor haven’t collapsed long with your neighborhood.

Jun 1, 2005 - 1:08 pm 14. Catherine:

Horrifying.

You probably have to have spent YEARS of your life driving Laurel Canyon to know just how horrifying this is.

Jun 1, 2005 - 3:53 pm 15. Catherine:

I mean . . . uh . . . just how horrifying this is to me!

Jun 1, 2005 - 3:53 pm 16. Catherine:

Or do I mean Beverly Glen?????

Jun 1, 2005 - 3:56 pm 17. richard mcenroe:

Catherine ó Steeper slopes on Beverly Glen, better drop-offs on Laurel Canyon. BTW, Laurel Canyon, 3 am, blood alcohol level somewhere in the upper two’s, Honda CX500, interesting experience. I’m just saying…

Jun 1, 2005 - 7:36 pm

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