WeHo is safe. Our restaurants are open. The bars are pouring, and all West Hollywood hotels didnt skip a beat as the fires roared all around us.
I’ve lived through lots of calamities since moving to Weho in 1985. One could never imagine the Rodney King riots in 1991—LA was shut down, and the city was burning.
During the big one so far in our lifetimes, the Northridge earthquake in 1994 knocked over many communities. WeHo was safe. As the story goes West Hollywood is located right on top of the San Andreas fault. So far, so good, safe inside the bubble.
The George Floyd protests in 2020 brought barricades to Santa Monica Blvd. The West Hollywood Sheriff Station was central command. Never in my life did I expect to see soldiers and war gear on our streets. The fires raged up Melrose to our doorstep.
In fact, there have been well over 100 declared natural disasters as declared by the Governor of the State of California, https://www.boe.ca.gov/proptaxes/disaster-list.htm. these disasters affecting every county and hundreds of cities in the state. And the wild fires of 2025 inched to our doorstep but everything inside the weho bubble remained safe.
The legend of West Hollywood began long before it became a city in 1984. The colors of the rainbow etched into our flag. The spirit that held each other’s hands through the AIDS crisis, and through every crisis that followed. Strangers coming together to march for equality. Neighbors hugging each other to celebrate the victories of battles fought. From cityhood to the right to marry, marching for trans rights or crosswalk safety. It is the people inside the bubble that make Weho truely special.
What does the world think of us? I asked Alexa, “is West Hollywood an invisible bubble?”
Alexa replied, From popmatters.com: “Its a senseless, thrown together movie-set kind of town surrounded by an invisible bubble and populated by zombies who repeat the same actions over and over as if they are in a museum exhibit of life on earth.”
That wasn’t what I expected to hear, but so be it, – the land of the free, a beacon of hope where dreams come true.. a city that once touted liberty away from the bureaucrats in LA.. now breeds the bureaucrats themselves.. a place to get away form it all that is soon to be surrounded by drones. Like Dorothy said.. ‘this aint Kansas anymore’, but it is the safest place to be in Los Angeles in a natural disaster.
Thank you to all the first responders.
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Bravo! Larry, we are in the bubble and thank goodness we are. I get frustrated and upset with the bureaucrats and the “me me” society, but I love the City of West Hollywood and I am so grateful to live here. Where else could anyone walk up and down Flores holding a pitcher of margaritas from Marix post Northridge earthquake at 11:00am? We are blessed here and let’s all remember that.
The title graphic is lovely!