A little this and that from around town. A mural. A corner. A park. A luncheon. Four little windows into the soul of a town finding its way forward.
The Temescal Canyon Mural
I saw a picture of what the heart of the Palisades looks like.
I was riding my bike along Temescal Canyon when I came upon that stunning mural on the wall—the one so many of us have driven past a thousand times, and maybe not really seen.
A handful of Palisadians were there, repairing its bruises. Cleaning it. Touching up its peeling, 36-year-old surfaces. Bringing color back to something that has brought color to this town for a very long time.
I saw Cathy Salser and Kat Kozik, two of the original artists, working alongside a handful of superstar kids from Palisades Charter High School.
And Cindy Simon.
One of our town’s priceless gems.
.
She made a choice to get up on a Sunday morning, drive over to Temescal, and spend the whole day repairing that mural.
Just because.
Just because she loves this town.
Just because somewhere deep in her bones—and I mean deep—she has that beautiful, old-fashioned, not-in-it-for-the-applause yearning to make a difference.
That’s why she was there.
That’s why they were all there.
.
Palisadians of every age, still believing that if something in your town is peeling, you don’t wait around for somebody else to fix it.
You bring a brush.
Next time you drive by, maybe pull over for a second.
Take it in.
It’s our Sistine Chapel.
And imagine all those wonderful young Leonardos—and a few seasoned ones, too—spending hundreds of hours painting, repairing, and resurrecting it for the rest of us.
Just because.
.
The Old Starbucks Corner
Weeks after the fire, some wonderful folks in town spearheaded a campaign to save the remaining walls of the old corner building—the historic Palisades Business Block.
Here we are, sixteen months after the fire.
This is just one Palisadian’s opinion. But to me, that ship has sailed.
.
Every time I drive by there, walk by there, or ride my bike by there, those charred walls don’t make me feel reverent. They make me feel stuck. They remind me not of what we loved, but of what still hasn’t been done.
I absolutely believe the look and spirit of that Spanish Colonial Revival architecture—born out of the early Palisades vision of 1922—should be honored and reimagined in whatever comes next. We should not put up some soulless box and call it progress.
But honoring a building’s architectural spirit is one thing. Keeping burned-out walls standing indefinitely is a whole ’nother ballgame.
.
At some point, preservation can become paralysis.
I understand the impulse. There are plenty of ways for us to be reverent about what the fire did to our town, and to all our lives. We should remember. We should mark it. We should tell the truth about it.
But we do not need the most important corner in town frozen as a permanent scar.
That is incredibly prime Palisades real estate—sitting there, fenced off, for God only knows how long. And now the fencing has pushed all the way to Sunset, so you can’t even walk into town the way you used to.
And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that keeping charred walls standing adds a real layer of cost, complexity, and uncertainty to any deal—for any prospective buyer and for the existing owners.
I’d bet the ranch that Rev. Scott and those early Methodist settlers, Thomas Ince and the dusty dreamers of Inceville, and Will Rogers would all say the same thing.
The best way to honor the Palisades is to get back on our horses.
Wherever those horses take us.
Not by pretending the fire didn’t happen. Not by rebuilding yesterday, brick for brick. But by reimagining a better tomorrow that still preserves the real thing worth saving.
Our character. Our integrity. Our values.
That’s what belongs on that corner.
That’s worth saving.
Steadfast LA and LA Strong Sports
Here’s what’s truly amazing.
Rick Caruso, JJ Redick, Steadfast LA, and LA Strong Sports went to the City and to the LA Department of Recreation and Parks and said:
“Our town park is one of the beating hearts of this town. And so much of it burned in the fire. So here’s what we’ll do. We’ll design it. And then we’ll build the thing. Not just put back what was there, but build something way, way better. We’ll spend $40 million of our own and donors’ money to do it. After we do all this, we’ll give it to you. You own it.
How are we doing so far?”
It’s been no walk in the park for Steadfast LA and LA Strong Sports to get this moving. Nothing this big, this public, and this important ever is.
.
The amazing news is it’s actually happening.
To Nick Geller, to Rick Caruso, JJ Redick, and the entire fantastic Steadfast LA and LA Strong Sports team—cheers to you.
Cheers to what you dreamed of doing.
And cheers to the will it takes to get it done.
And cheers to the simple, beautiful idea you had behind it all: when a town’s heart burns, you rebuild the heart first.
.
Monthly Senior Luncheon
Every month, a handful of beautiful, selfless, joyful Palisadians host a luncheon at the American Legion—for one of the greatest treasures of the Palisades.
Our senior citizens.
Jessica Rogers, Lorie Cudzil, Jim Cragg, all the volunteers from Pali LTRG and American Legion—and all the wonderful folks who make that room feel like a family room—you are doing something far greater than serving lunch.
You are serving belonging.
.
I have the privilege of reading a poem to the fantastic seniors at each luncheon. And every time I leave, after spending time with those seniors, I’m reminded that we don’t dim with age. We deepen.
At the last luncheon, a dear woman in her nineties came up to me as I was leaving. She looked me straight in the eyes and reminded me that, for so many people in this town, the fire is still very much burning.
She had lost her husband before the fire. Her children live far away. Many of her closest friends are gone. Her neighbors, her church group, the familiar faces that made up the architecture of her daily life—scattered.
And now she’s alone, trying to find her way through the maze of insurance, paperwork, decisions, and grief surrounding the home she and her husband spent a lifetime building together.
Then she said the thing that has stayed with me.
She sure wishes he were here to help her.
The seniors in all our lives.
Let’s give ’em a call. Let’s stop by. Let’s bring a sandwich, a cup of coffee, a little gossip, a little time.
And while we’re there, let’s give ’em a big, big, too-long hug to boot.
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Jimmy Dunne is a modern-day Renaissance Man; a hit songwriter with songs on 28 million hit records; songs, scores, and themes in over a thousand television episodes and many hit films; a screenwriter and producer of hit television shows; an award-winning book author; an entrepreneur—and his town’s “Citizen of the Year.” Reach out to him at j@jimmydunne.com.