It began in an inferno
The year is 2025 and it began in an inferno. We had but a week to finish expressing our happy new year wishes, when on January 7th a spark carried by the blistering Santa Ana winds ignited what were some of the most destructive and fast spreading collection of fires Los Angeles has experienced. Trump was sworn into office as President for the second time and he has made sweeping executive orders and withdrawn from international commitments that scream loud and clear that the climate change crisis, in his administration, will not be defined as a crisis at all. This is an inflection point in the U.S. and here in Los Angeles. A moment of destruction and existential dread that will require grassroots organizing and local solutions to rise out of the ashes. Fire begets rebirth in nature. The question is whether Los Angeles will rise like a phoenix: reborn stronger and better for the pain it has endured.
A nighttime satellite image shows wildfire burning homes and buildings in Los Angeles County’s Altadena region on Jan. 8, 2025. (Satellite image: ©2025 Maxar Technologies.)
Since its inception as a city, Los Angeles was not planned according to a singular grand vision. Its signature sprawl and diverse enclaves have lended it the reputation (with validity) as being a segregated and dysfunctional urban form. Sprawling city planning with narrow roads built into fires prone wildlands that are only accessible by car are some of the urban design features that create greater risk to people and homes. LA has suffered fires before but this fire season has etched worry deeper into the psyche of the Angelenos. Images of cars abandoned on the wide palm-lined thoroughfares being bulldozed to make way for firefighter trucks, adds fuel to the fire, so to speak, of the argument that our urban form is putting us in acute risk and we are in urgent need of an urban reimagining.
The Palisades, Eaton and the Hughes fires have caused major displacement, with whole communities beginning to ask if they would return and rebuild or move on. A whole swath of factors will play into this decision and there are a number of solutions that could be entertained. But what is certain is that rebuilding and reimagining Los Angeles after this climate disaster will require multiple visions as has always been the case in this metropolis of so many realities and faces. LA’s urban form, in the big picture, is the antithesis of a climate smart city. But among the car-dependency, freeways, single family zoning exists a rich ethnic diversity and creative heartbeat, spirited pride in neighborhoods and community, and access and deep appreciation of some of the most contrasting and dramatic natural landscapes.
LA needs connectivity through diversified road and sidewalk infrastructure including bike paths, public transit, and safe pedestrian routes. Resilience through a broad increase in affordable housing, accessible public spaces for community gathering and resource sharing, urban greening that combats urban heat islands and reduces our collective stress levels. Despite LA being stretched across a huge basin, people showed up to help neighbors far removed from where they lived during the fires. An outpouring of mutual aid reflecting a much more socially connected city than the dark reputation LA has for being absent or violent when things go south. LA, in fact, deserves to be celebrated for its people who are loving and fighting for each other, despite the systemic failures and fraught planning and policy. legacies.
Section of the LA River Bike Path. One of the key project goals of the Festival Trail is to create a continuous 51 mile LA River Bike Path from beach to the valley.
LA is scheduled to host the 2026 World Cup, the SuperBowl in 2027 and the Olympics and Paralympics in 2028. The mandate for the city is to ensure that these megaevents are not further exacerbating the existing struggles of Angelenos. Understandably, LA county leaders and residents are concerned that there will not be enough resources to go around, especially now, after so much infrastructural and personal damage. Rebuilding Los Angeles requires us to take a few steps back and consider not just how to minimize the risk from extremely acute climate events but how do we build back a city in a form that takes into account both the short term, immediate needs and our long-term resilience and sustainability.
The Festival Trail is a concept that, like Los Angeles, will belong to many different communities while bringing about a new collective identity. So many people and groups are working towards creating a more livable, affordable and walkable LA. The Festival Trail is the platform and the people that will bridge this work. In the context of the fires, our coalition will answer the big questions we all have.
How do we create a path to joy in our city?
How do we unblock bureaucracy to create needed infrastructure and housing?
How do we sustain the inertia of radical togetherness?
How do we protect our communities from the next climate-related “unnatural” disaster?
How do we catalyze a harmonious and intuitive transit network to save lives?
How do we build a sense of belonging that reinstates faith in the fight for democratic institutions?
How do we combat isolation and make civic experiences a sense of belonging, reinforcing democratic systems for all?
The first Festival Trail charrette at El Pueblo Historical Monument. People from all sectors came together to envision and define how the Paralympics and Olympics will catalyze long lasting, positive legacy for all Angelenos.
No one person or group has the answers to all these questions, but collectively we certainly do. Follow the Festival Trail to hear first hand the folks that are talking the talk and walking the walk of building a Los Angeles that is equitable, accessible and livable for all.