They met within the Sixties on their first day of ninth grade at John Muir Excessive Faculty in Pasadena.
They each went on to turn into authors.
They lived subsequent door to one another in Altadena.
They misplaced their homes in final yr’s Eaton fireplace.
They usually sat subsequent to one another Monday night time on stage at Vroman’s Books in Pasadena, sure by friendship, historical past and loss.
Michele Zack and Michelle Huneven had been there to speak concerning the re-release of Zack’s 2004 guide, “Altadena: Between Wilderness and Metropolis,” which has been up to date with references to the fireplace that destroyed a lot of the neighborhood and killed 19 individuals.
“Wilderness and Metropolis” is a historical past guide, a lot of the dialogue was about Altadena’s post-Native American passage from foothill agricultural mecca, to western enlargement terminus, to fashionable L.A. suburb with a definite sense of place.
However previous actually is prologue, so the query hanging over the dialogue Monday night time was not about what Altadena has been, however what it can turn into. Altadena has been referred to as artsy and a bit funky and architecturally diverse, however it was celebrated for 3 issues specifically:
Racial variety, socio-economic variety and relative affordability.
All three had been in jeopardy earlier than the fireplace, and extra so after, with hundreds of tons vacant and native companies on life help. A member of the viewers famous that on the finish of the primary version of Zack’s guide, she addressed future uncertainties in a piece titled, “Whither To, Altadena?”
“Will the neighborhood retain its creative components, horse properties, trails, rural really feel, and architectural heritage at the same time as property values come up and the financial advantages of extra density and hillside improvement tempt builders and political entities?” Zack wrote greater than 20 years in the past.
“I stated that in 2004 and right now that query is on everybody’s thoughts,” Zack stated Monday night time. “How are we going to rebuild? Can we rebuild higher? You understand, individuals need it to be simply the identical, however it’s not going to be the identical.”
Huneven stated she and her husband had simply been speaking about which Altadena qualities are most vital to attempt to re-create, and which might be hardest to re-create.
Zack took the cue and led with Altadena’s sense of independence as a high quality value conserving.
“Perhaps that ‘dwell or die’ spirit,” she stated of a neighborhood that has chosen to stay unincorporated through the years (it sits past Pasadena metropolis limits), and has dedicated to residing with rising perennial threats of drought, deluge, particles flows, earthquakes and wildfires.
And but, excessive warmth will proceed to show scorched vegetation into kindling, and Santa Ana winds will blast their means towards Altadena alongside the bottom of the San Gabriel Mountains, and every stiff breeze will carry with it the reminiscence of insufferable loss. A live-or-die spirit could be arduous to keep up, regardless of the dedication to a fire-hardened rebirth.
“I imagine greater than half of the individuals … who misplaced their houses haven’t but determined whether or not or not they’re going to construct again,” a member of the viewers stated, noting that Zack and Huneven are within the different camp, with their new homes beneath development. “So I used to be simply searching for a bit little bit of your hopeful perspective.”
Huneven, whose newest novel, “Bug Hole,” is about in Altadena, answered first.
1. Altadena, Calif, United States – November 11: A statue displays in a fountain at Michele Zack’s house, a Mediterranean fashion structure designed by artist Frank Brown, which was misplaced in the course of the Eaton Hearth, on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025 in Altadena, Calif. (Carlin Stiehl/For The Instances) (Carlin Stiehl/For The Instances) 2. The stays of Michele Zack’s house, a Mediterranean fashion structure designed by artist Frank Brown, which was misplaced in the course of the Eaton Hearth, stands on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025 in Altadena, Calif. (Carlin Stiehl/For The Instances)
“Properly, some days it looks like the fireplace simply goes on and on and on and on,” Huneven stated. “These are the times I’m down simply because there’s insurance coverage, there’s loans, there’s contractors, there’s permits, there’s inspections,” she stated. “After which different days, you form of see a home rising up and making one thing from nothing…what I consider as artwork and wonder.”
She stated Zack and he or she visited their tons just lately, climbed the steps of her under-construction house, and took within the view from a rooftop terrace.
“And you already know, searching over Altadena … it seems to be like Altadena within the olden days. It seems to be like countryside and some homes right here and some homes there and it actually appeared very magical and hopeful,” Huneven stated.
“And people mountain views we now have now, with out all the homes in the way in which,” Zack stated.
I had met with Zack a few months in the past at her burned-out property, the place she had cherished her backyard, her courtyard, and the rambling circulation of the 100-year-old Mediterranean-revival house. She advised me she had briefly wished she didn’t wish to rebuild, as a result of it could have been simpler to start out over in one other place. Her coronary heart wouldn’t let that occur, although, and because the historian tapped by the Altadena Historic Society to write down the 2004 guide, she felt an obligation to the neighborhood.
However she understands why, for many individuals, doubts stay.
“I feel it’s a really powerful resolution and it’s important to be like, in our case, loopy, as a result of we’re too previous to be constructing a home,” Zack stated Monday night time. However “I actually wish to be again in my home… and we’re so rooted in the neighborhood, as a result of we’re rooted to put.”
Huneven stated that final yr, because the smoke cleared, she and Zack had been commiserating someday about what had been misplaced.
“And I stated, ‘Properly, you already know, we’ll at all times be mates. We’ve been mates because the first day of highschool.’ And Michele stated, ‘Properly, will we ever be neighbors?’ And that’s what received to me,” Huneven stated.
Within the up to date foreword to her guide, Zack notes that after the fireplace, she recalled that “this isn’t the primary time that half (or extra) of Altadena’s inhabitants left.” It had occurred within the Sixties and 70s, when “racial fears, reducing property values” and different elements triggered white flight.
As soon as once more, Zack wrote, Altadena’s future will probably be decided by “who stays, who leaves, and who strikes right here. What forces will decide who is ready to return to Altadena submit fireplace? Who will management the rebuild?”
The foreword ends with this:
“Allow us to work on a highway that leads someplace, within the phrases of [former Altadena author Zane Grey], ‘with the qualities that make life value residing.’”
steve.lopez@latimes.com
