NEW Video On The Pacific Palisades Fire One Year Later: A Call To Action
[Above, the trailer for a new documentary podcast called "Tahitian Terrace: The Fight to Return Home" to be released this year. -- eds.]
One year ago today, C&L founder John Amato stood watching flames crest the hill above his home in Tahitian Terrace, a mobile home community in Pacific Palisades. When his neighbor Cheryl called 9-1-1, the response was chilling: "You're not our priority." Emergency services were focused on the upscale Palisades Highlands neighborhood, barely a mile away.
Within hours, everything was gone.
A Community Erased
Tahitian Terrace wasn't just a mobile home park—it was one of the last affordable housing communities on the California coast. Over 400 people from 158 families called it home: a 100-year-old woman, teachers living on modest pensions, young families, and a tight-knit community that looked after one another.
"This became like our chosen family," one resident said in the aftermath. "It's a little community, and everybody takes care of everybody else."
Today, not a single home stands. The entire park was reduced to ash and twisted metal. As one survivor put it: "Your whole history of your life just melted."
Broken Promises, Continued Struggle