The landlord and the LA fires: how my friend’s loss revealed a new hierarchy of who gets help

GoFundMe is now the backbone of American comeback stories. But the people with better connections get lifted up first

I love my landlord. I don’t mean that I find him charming, though I do. I mean I moved on to a swath of dirt in Los Angeles county with three ancient cabins on it, and over the course of six years, went from pleasantries in the driveway to saying: “Love you Jeri, bye!” on the phone.

When I moved into one of the rickety structures on his unlandscaped property in Topanga Canyon, one of the last hippie enclaves just north of the Pacific Palisades, I was the latest in a very long line of tenants. It was a bucolic slice of land and it had to be, because without the scenery, you would notice the three cabins were one good gust away from falling down the cliff.

Kelton Wright writes ShangriLogs, a diary from another fire country in Colorado

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