So Cal Real Estate News

(12/6/08)  Today I’m writing as a native Southern Californian who’s lived here all of my 58 years, not as a Realtor.

Every now and then it hits me what a very special place I’m privileged to live in.  Today’s one of those days.  There are many things to love about Southern California, here are a few that hit me today:

1. The weather: December 6th, 2008.  Forecast high in my home town of 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.  We went to a local Christmas parade last night in shirt sleeves.
2. The sunshine: Every year I tally in my journal the number of days I don’t see the sun.  It averages about five.  Somehow, it seems like we get most of the little rain we get at night.  And almost never on the Rose Parade.  I tell my friends that was the deal the Rose Association made with God about a hundred years ago.  No Rose Parade on Sundays, so people can get to chuirch, and no rain on their parade!  Maybe the NFL should try that one!
3. The geography: I live about 12 minutes from the beach.  1 minute 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.  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.
4. 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 have UCLA alum, but we have SC season seat holders & alum anchoring the start of the street.  My mother and I both graduated from UCLA, my son’s girlfriend hopes to go there.  My boss is a USC alumn.  Both are great schools 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.  I think they’re both great schools, one public, one private, two of several dozen outstanding colleges and Universities ranging from Cal Tech to the University of San Diego.

I could go on and on.  Diversity.  Opportunity.  Culture.  Great churches.  Great museums.  Great beaches.  Great mountain biking.  Over 100 languages spoken in local schools.  Forward thinking.

Sure, we’ve got a lot of people, but locals figure out ways to deal with and even enjoy it.

For me. So Cal is a wonderful place to live year round.  If you live someplace else and want to move here, I just happen to know a good So Cal Realtor.  Actually, quite a few, since Blair and I mainly cover  West Orange County and Greater Long Beach.

Happy Holidays from Southern California!

(by Dave Emerson)  What a great idea–a day set aside for a celebration of thanks!  In many ways, it’s my favorite holiday–less commercialized, more family oriented, with unique American roots and even a healthy main dish.

Thanksgiving is a uniquely North American holiday.   It is only celebrated in the U.S. (4th Thursday in November), Canada (2nd Monday of October), and, more recently, in Grenada (October 25th).

The first “first Thanksgiving:” en Espanol!

The first Thanksgiving in North America was actually celebrated in Spanish in what is now St. Augustine, Florida.  On September 18, 1565, 600 Spanish settlers landed there and immediately held a Mass of Thanksgiving for their safe arrival in the “New World.”

The second “first Thanksgiving”

54 years later, a group of 38 settlers arrived from England at a site about 20 miles upstream on the James River from Jamestown, to begin a second English settlement in the Colony of Virginia.

Although this settlement was a commercial venture of a secular nature, their charter stated, “We ordain that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantation in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.“  So when they arrived on December 4 the group’s leader, Captain John Woodleaf held their first Thanksgiving service.

The third & most famous “first Thanksgiving”

The “first Thanksgiving” most of us think of took place about two years later. . . or was it 4 years later?

On November 21, 1620, the Mayflower dropped anchor off of Cape Cod to begin a new English colony.  The “Pilgrims” were primarily motivated by a desire for religious freedom, but they were joined in the venture by some who came for commercial reasons.  They suffered a horrific first winter in America, losing almost half of their group, but new hope came after the  harvest in 1621.  Governor William Bradford decreed a three day feast, which the colonists celebrated with the local Native Americans.

Two years later, a lengthy drought threatened the harvest, and the colonists prayed fervently for rain.  When their prayers were answered, an actual Day of Thanksgiving was declared by Governor Bradford for July 30, 1623.  This was more of a church observance than a feast day, but over time the two distinct harvest events have been combined into our Thanksgiving holiday.

The first “national” Thanksgiving

In 1777, the second year of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress issued the first national Thanksgiving Proclamation, declaring December 18th as a national day of Thanksgiving, encouraging the governors of each of the thirteen colonies to set the day aside for “solemn thanksgiving and praise,” as well as prayer for the spiritual and material success of the newly independent colonies.

President Washington’s first Thanksgiving proclamation

On my birthday, October 3, but a few years earlier, in 1789, at the urging of Congress, President Washington declared Thursday, 11/26, a “day of public thanksgiving and prayer.” Although clearly non-denominational and non-sectarian, the proclamation was deeply religious.

Here is the text of that proclamation:

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789

Thanksgiving wishes, 2008

This year Thanksgiving again comes in the midst of trying times–at least by modern standards.  We really have no complaints, however, compared to that first New England Thanksgiving in 1621, where half of the colony’s residents had died since landing a year earlier!

A thankful attitude makes life more enjoyable and more worthwhile.  Our real estate and stocks may be worth less than they were a year ago, but we are still richly blessed, and have much to be thankful for.

I’m going to try to make some time to count my blessings and thank God for them, between cleaning, cooking, eating, and then shopping.  Also time to reflect on what’s really important, and to ask God’s blessings and mercy for myself, my family, and our nation.

May you have a blessed Thanksgiving as you celebrate our nation’s oldest and most unique holiday tradition!

(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.

Fortunately, 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