Apr
9
Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart killed by drunk driver at 22
Filed Under Decency, Inspiration, National Issues, News you can use, Southern California, Teamwork | 3 Comments
(4/9/2009, Los Alamitos, by Dave Emerson) In a shocking reminder of the fragility of life, 22 year old Angels starter Nick Adenhart and two of his friends were killed by a 22 year old drunk driving with a suspended license early this morning, just after pitching six shut-out innings in his first start of what was looking like a break-out season.
Adenhart graduated from Williamsport High School in Silver Spring Md. in 2004 and was expected to be a first-round pick in the baseball draft that year, which would have made him an instant millionaire. Unfortunately, Read more
Dec
6
4 reasons I love So Cal (& Los Alamitos)
Filed Under About Dave Emerson, About Los Alamitos, Southern California | 1 Comment
(12/6/08) Today I’m writing as a native Southern Californian who’s lived here all of my 58 years, and maybe just a bit as a Los Al Realtor.
Every now and then it hits me what a very special place I’m privileged to live in. Today was one of those days. There are many things to love about Southern California, here are a few that hit me today:
- The weather: December 6th, 2008. Forecast high in Los Alamitos in the mid 70s. Low in the fifties. Crystal clear, warm, sunny day. I took my shirt off when I went outside to jog a couple miles. Try doing that in Chicago! We went to the Seal Beach Christmas parade last night in shirt sleeves. O.K., I’ll admit that we haven’t needed rain gear in years past for that one. But only once.
- The sunshine: Every year I tally in my journal the number of days I don’t see the sun. It averages about five. 360 days of sunshine a year, but with sea breezes! That’s because Los Alamitos is the perfect distance from the ocean–a few miles away, so the coastal clouds almost always burn off by noon, but close enough to keep the climate moderate year round. And close enough we can get to the beach in just a few minutes.
- The geography: Almost all Los Alamitos residents live about 12 minutes from the beach, and just a minute or two from a nice local park. An hour from the San Gabriel Mountains, which include a peak over 10,000 feet high and two major ski resorts. To the east, the San Bernardino Mountains include a peak over 12,000 feet high, several alpine lakes, and three more major ski areas. From the 605 freeway bridge over Coyote Creek I could see both mountain ranges clearly this morning, as well as Mt. San Jacinto, just South of Palm Springs. (Did I mention the deserts?) It’s not all that hard to snowboard (or ski) and surf (or boogie board) on the same day, but I would recommend a wet suit for the Pacific in winter.
The rivalry: Right now, I’m taking a break from the USC – UCLA game, where my Westwood alma mater is doing better than expected. . . so far. USC-UCLA is the only true cross-town rivalry among NCAA Division 1 schools in the country! Both schools are within the Los Angeles city limits, only about 12 miles apart. Many USC students live in Westwood, by UCLA. When I went to UCLA, it wasn’t uncommon for athletes from the rival schools to room together. My best friend in high school went to USC while I went to UCLA.
Rival banners are flying throughout my neighborhood. Three of the sixteen families on my cul-de-sac include UCLA alumni, but we have SC season seat holders anchoring the start of the street. My mother and I both graduated from UCLA, my son’s girlfriend hopes to go there. The managing partner of my real estate office is a USC alumn. Both schools are outstanding institutions with great traditions. And a great, but generally friendly rivalry. As a tribute to the Trojans, let me share the words to USC’s famous Fight Song, at least the way I learned them at UCLA (with apologies to my friends from “Figueroa Tech”):
Fight on! for USC.
You pay a fee; you get a degree!
You’ll be smarter than me, because I went to USC!
I went to USC! I went to USC!
Just kidding. Really. Not trying to alienate 2/3 of the city. Seriously, I think they’re both great schools, one public, one private, Just two of several dozen outstanding colleges and Universities that ring Los Alamitos, ranging from Cal Tech to Biola to CSULB to UCI.
I could go on and on. Diversity. Opportunity. Culture. Great churches and museums nearby. Great beaches. Great mountain biking. Outstanding schools, both public and private. A small town feel where local kids help sell Christmas trees to raise money for the youth center on land donated by Ganahl Lumber, and where you might just find the Mayor’s the volunteer helping you pick out your tree. That’s happened to me here in Los Al–I doubt many Los Angeles residents can say that.
Sure, we’ve got too much traffic, but locals figure out ways to deal with a lot of it. And hopefully our City Council will eventually make it enought of an ongoing high priority to eventually make some progress.
For me. Los Alamitos is a great place to live year round. If you live someplace else and want to move here, I just happen to know two good Los Alamitos Realtors.
Happy Holidays from Los Alamitos, Southern California’s “sweet spot!”
Nov
16
So Cal on Fire
Filed Under Southern California | 2 Comments
(by Dave Emerson. Pasted in from my real estate blog, SoCalRealEstteNews.com. Saturday afternoon, 11/15/08) Being a second-generation native Californian, I tend to take our local disasters in stride. Local’s joke that we really do have seasons out here in So Cal, they’re just not the traditional winter, spring, summer, & fall outsiders are used to. Our seasons are more like flood & mudslide season, riot season, fire season, and earthquake season. (I left off “drought,” but that’s more like a year-round thing every few years).
Trouble is, in the last few years fire season keeps getting longer.
I just flew back from a wet, chilly, but fall-foliage beautiful two days in Nashville on Thursday night. During the last half of my non-stop Southwest flight home the “Tea Fire” in Montecito ignited, spread, and burned several dorms and other buildings in my wife’s Alma Mater, Westmont College. I teased my son-in-law that he needed to keep I couldn’t leave the state for two days without Barb’s college burning down. Fortunately, injuries and loss of life was minimal, but hundreds of gorgeous acres and scores of expensive mansions were lost, along with the Tea Garden well known among Westmont students.
The winds died down on Friday, but when I got up this morning and saw the Santa Ana winds gusting through our Los Alamitos neighborhood, I knew the fires would be back today. Before we even turned the TV on for the non-stop coverage I told Barb to expect at least 4 new fires and 500 homes destroyed. Sadly, it appears that I may have underestimated.
Most of our natural disasters aren’t really that widespread in their devastation. This week’s fires, for example, will probably devastate less than a hundredth of 1% the homes in Southern California. That’s still hundreds of homes and millions of dollars, but most of us aren’t severely impacted.
The smoke and pollution will be felt by millions, lots of patios and cars will need to be washed off sometime early next week, but life essentially goes on.
Fire season is brought on by the infamous “Santana” winds, often mistakenly called “Santa Anas.” The word is probably a contraction of vientos de Satan, Spanish for “winds of Satan.” These are hot, dry offshore winds that descend from the Great Basin through the Mojave desert down into Southern California, primarily in spring and summer. While the threat of fire is generally greater in the fall, with recent dry winters fire season has extended to include spring and, now, late fall as well.
Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, and, just as the reliably long and bitter winters of New England determine the way life is lived there, so the violence and the unpredictability of the Santa Ana affect the entire quality of life in Los Angeles, accentuate its impermanence, its unreliability. The wind shows us how close to the edge we are.
—Joan Didion, “Los Angeles Notebook”
Ultimately, additional restrictions will be imposed on construction and additional clearance and greenbelt requirements imposed in fire prone areas. Our wildfire challenges are actually easier to manage and less widespread than California’s earthquake risks.
To most Californians, our natural disasters are less ominous than those in so many other regions of the nation or the world. Most of us regard them as one trade off for 360 days of temperate sunshine a year and the many other benefits of living in a dynamic, diverse land of opportunity.
While our thoughts and prayers and help will be going out to our neighbors in these days of loss, while it’s annoying to curtain outdoor activity and deal with the smoke and ash, most Californians still consider this our Golden land of opportunity, and really wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
(photos from L.A. Times’ Gallery)
