The streets above Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades, once lined with homes, are now fields of rubble. A light haze of smoke hung in the air the other day. A huge American flag was affixed to the burned-out remnant of a home overlooking the boulevard. It was disconcertingly quiet; except for the crews working to restore power and the occasional fire truck, the streets, blocked off on this day by police and National Guard cordons, were deserted.
It reminded me of another disaster that took place less than a mile from where I lived more than 20 years ago: the attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. The piles of rubble, the haze, the workers and the firefighters, the American flags, the mournful silence.
In some ways, Sept. 11 stands alone as an American catastrophe. Nearly 3,000 people died that day in Lower Manhattan. The terror attacks reshaped America’s place in the world, and transformed our airports and our homeland security system. It is one of the reasons the nation went to war in Iraq.
But the tragedies in Los Angeles and Manhattan left scars on the landscape and psyche of America’s two biggest cities. Sept. 11 is a before-and-after time stamp for New York City. The fires in Los Angeles seem likely to become the same kind of marker in time.
In the days after the attacks in New York, there was speculation about whether downtown Manhattan, covered in dust, blocked off by police barricades, a graveyard for thousands, would ever rise again. The same questions are being asked now about the Palisades and Altadena. Will people build again or just head someplace else?
The patch of southern Manhattan that seemed so desolate in 2001 is today a neighborhood of soaring office buildings, memorials, a museum and a transit center. What was once the target of a terrorism attack is now a destination, and a stirring one at that. When I walked around there a few weeks ago, it was filled with people. It’s a testimony to urban resilience and recovery. And it’s a lesson and an inspiration for Los Angeles in the difficult years ahead.
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