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What’s next for Altadena’s Black residents?
Today marks the first day of Black History Month, an annual celebration that raises awareness of Black people’s achievements and contributions to society.
The monthlong celebration will hold even more meaning this year for residents in Altadena’s historically Black neighborhoods. On Jan. 7, the Eaton fire devastated the unincorporated town north of Pasadena, tearing through 9,000 structures and years of history. Of the 17 people who died in the fire, at least seven were Black.
Many of the families who lost homes in the fire had lived on properties passed down through generations. They sought refuge in Altadena from racial redlining, my colleagues reported.
An imperfect paradise for Black Altadenans
Altadena, population nearly 42,000, is the town where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once visited lawyer Clarence B. Jones to persuade him to join his legal team. Where sci-fi author Octavia E. Butler is buried alongside abolitionists, and where a park is named after artist Charles White whose work portrayed Black history.
Octavia E. Butler
(Tony Bernard/Los Angeles Times)
As my colleague Brittny Mejia reported, Black residents found fewer housing restrictions there and neighbors were generally more welcoming than those in other cities and towns — allowing them to thrive. That was especially true of West Altadena, an area that got an evacuation order many hours after the Eaton fire exploded last month.
According to a UCLA study published earlier this week, Black residents in Altadena were more likely to have their homes damaged or destroyed by the Eaton fire and will have a harder financial road to recovery from the disaster. The study also found that 61% of Black households in the community are in the fire’s perimeter, compared with 50% of non-Black households.
Altadena’s Black community had been shrinking even before the fire
Altadena’s Black population has dropped to 18%, down from 43% in 1980. Experts attribute this to gentrification.
The median home value in Altadena from 2019 to 2023 was more than $1 million and roughly a third higher than homes elsewhere in the county, according to the UCLA study. The rising cost resulted in a decline in new Black homeownership in the community even before the fire.
And now, the study cautions, the younger Black community — already struggling to purchase a home there — will likely face more hurdles.
Many Black Altadenans can’t afford to rebuild
As Hendrena Martin dug through the ruins of the home her father had built more than 60 years ago, she wondered if she could afford to rebuild.
“How can a whole city just go up in flames in one night, and you lose everything that you struggled to hold on to?” she told my colleague Colleen Shalby.
Margaret Martin, 96, sits outside a home built by her husband, Henry Martin, in 1966. She’s accompanying her daughter Hendrena Martin as she searches the ashes for valuables.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Martin’s insurance premium under the California FAIR Plan more than doubled last year to nearly $1,700. But even with that payment, she learned after the fire that her property was underinsured.
The Eaton fire also leveled the family home of Nailah Tatum. Her grandfather Olsen J. Rogers purchased it in 1963.
Birthday presents for Tatum were among the items lost within the rubble of their fire-ravaged home. But those could be replaced. As Brittny reported, what hurt most was losing the memoirs that belonged to Tatum’s grandparents; the photos she was restoring for her relatives and the toys and baby shoes that belonged to her older brother who died of cancer.
“You just can’t get those things back,” Tatum told Brittny.
“Altadena Is Not For Sale” signs have popped up throughout neighborhoods as fears grow over who might try to buy the land if residents can’t afford to stay. Some have found business cards from real estate developers on their property.
Tatum’s family plans to rebuild in Altadena, but she said they worry about developers buying out other Black residents. “I’m nervous there’s not going to be a Black community in Altadena anymore.”
The week’s biggest stories
Los Angeles city fire crews clear mud and debris along Palisades Drive where recent rains soaked fire ravaged hillsides in Pacific Palisades.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Southern California is in for a lot more rain
- Two atmospheric river storms are expected to hit California — potentially bringing much-needed moisture to the still-withered Southland while packing a more powerful and prolonged punch up north.
- Forecasters believe there’s little risk that the rains expected next week will trigger destructive debris flows and mudslides in Southern California’s recent burn areas.
- But the risk is still there, and there is a range of possibilities for how much rain will ultimately fall.
Trump’s executive orders continued this week
The 67th Grammy Awards airs on Sunday
More big stories
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This week’s must reads
An urban rat makes its way down some stairs.
(Jamie Betts)
Another unwelcome consequence of climate change: an explosion of urban rats. If scorching heat waves, destructive storms, prolonged droughts and rising seas aren’t enough to make some folks fear the consequences of climate change, perhaps this will do the trick: The warmer it gets, the faster rats multiply in cities that already struggle to contain them.
More great reads
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For your weekend
Woon’s Pasadena location offers a larger dining room and retail space than the original Historic Filipinotown restaurant.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Going out
Staying in
How well did you follow the news this week? Take our quiz.
(Times staff and wire photos)
What airline recently banned see-through clothing and ‘lewd’ body art? Plus nine other questions from our weekly news quiz.
Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
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