Friend of the Rock Fight Shawnté Salabert, who lives in the Los Angeles foothills, sent us this powerful piece about being an outdoor lover in Los Angeles. It originally ran in our weekly newsletter, but we also wanted to share it here.
It’s not just another story about what’s lost in a wildfire, but about the strength of the Los Angeles community.
When I attended my first Outdoor Retailer back in 2015, the location on my name tag read “Los Angeles,” the city where I’d been living for almost a decade. It was a beacon for thoughtless commentary:
“Why don’t you move to the mountains if you like being outside?”
“If you like the outdoors, how could you live in L.A.?”
“How do you even hit the trails living in L.A.?”
“You should live in Boulder instead.”
“I hate L.A.”
Every man – and it was mostly men – seemed to burst with opinion, from mildly disturbed to fully vitriolic, whether I cared to listen. As it goes.
Now, a week out from the night I evacuated from the 14,117-acre-and-growing Eaton Fire, which sparked less than three miles from my home and burned within a mile of the same, I see those opinions continue. Commenters from around the world fly to their keyboards, tapping out a parade of anti-L.A. sentiment:
“Maybe they could have protected their homes if they weren’t so busy with DEI.”
“This wouldn’t happen if they weren’t a bunch of liberals.”
“It’s just a bunch of rich people, let it burn.”
“This is what they get for being woke.”
“Who gives a shit about L.A.?”
As it goes.
I arrived in Los Angeles full of hesitation, determined to stay maybe a year and regain my financial footing before hoofing it back to New York, which I’d reluctantly left after losing my job. Instead, I stayed. I’ve been here nearly twenty years, more than anywhere else, including the place where I grew up.
I stayed in L.A. not for the smog or the artifice or the celebrities or any of the other seemingly unsavory elements cited with disdain by non-Angelenos, but because of the nature and because of the people.
I stayed because I could start my day by hiking in Griffith Park, striding past oaks and chapparal to watch the sunrise bathe the city in a wash of urban alpenglow. Because I could step outside my front door 365 days a year and walk, hike, run, climb, paddle to find the natural world thriving in ways small and large. Because I lived against a backdrop of mountains, the ocean glittering to our west, the desert fanned out to the east. Because I could point my car north, east, or south and within a few hours arrive at places that existed as mere bucket list daydreams to so many.
I stayed because of the people. Because I made friends here that were good and true. Because the strangers here were also good and true. Because we marched together against injustice, because we say hello on the sidewalks and trails, because our Buy Nothing groups thrive, because we believe in creating community amid the sprawl, because we held each other through the pandemic, because even now, we give and give and give and give, time and money and things and love.
Those people who scoffed at Outdoor Retailer and those who scoff now, safe behind the digital walls of social media, they can’t possibly understand. But I do, and I’m grateful to call myself an Angeleno.
We got us.
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