How do you solve a problem like Malibu? A call for revisiting Mike Davis' 'Ecology of Fear'

The Woosley Fire, as of Wednesday morning, had burned through 97,620 acres of LA County's famed Malibu Canyon and neighboring communities nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains. Long home to an unruly mix of surfers, hippies, and celebrities, the fires have devastated numerous firebelt suburb populations along the coast, aided by the dreaded Santa Ana winds. 

In total, officials have tallied more than 400 homes and other structures destroyed, leaving many homeowners to wonder whether or not to rebuild. But, LA Times op-ed columnist Gustavo Arellano asks us to ponder what would happen if we don't.

Over the last century, communities along Southern California's rugged coastline have seen an average of two major fires every decade since 1929. As predicted in Mike Davis' 1998 essay "The Case for Letting Malibu Burn,” little has been able to stop Mother Nature's wrath, which has only been made more frequent and more damaging by the region's increasingly hotter and drier summers. 

The City ...

Mackenzie Goldberg via Archinect - News http://bit.ly/2Dmwos6