A little over a decade ago I went for a late afternoon photo walk around downtown Van Nuys.

The Golden Hour or so it’s called, when the sun casts a kind glow on the city, deepening contrasts and saturating colors.

Van Nuys was bad but not as bad as now. Not every store was vacant, not every sidewalk covered in vagrants, shopping carts and garbage.

The Orange Line had just opened a year earlier and I was excited to ride my bike along landscaped paths paralleling a modern bus route. Why we were nearly a real city with the prospect of urbanism, pedestrians, bus riders, and bike riders.

Macleod Ale opened in 2014 and Van Nuys had a real brewery with community spirit and spirits.

In the future was Trump, Covid, Nury Martinez, George Floyd, street takeovers, ICE, protests for all the suffering in Gaza but no protests for the 100,000 LA homeless. No protests for a city without leadership that permits its parks to burn, its homes robbed, its citizens assaulted.

And in 2013 I could have never imagined the conflagration and destruction of Pacific Palisades, and their billionaire developer, a former mayoral candidate who tirelessly drones on about the importance of rebuilding his richest community in LA.

Where have you gone Isaac Newton Van Nuys? A nation cries its lonely eyes for you.

Altadena you burned down and I root for you too. Come back, brick by brick, ethically, morally, financially, and spiritually and show us how a reborn town can surpass the old town. Build multi-family housing along with single family housing because everyone needs housing.

Van Nuys is a shadow of a place. Nobody leads its rebirth, nobody fights for its glory, nobody upholds its laws or cares for its egregious ills. Nobody limousines from The Grove to KCAL to appear on the nightly news in custom tailored suit and silk tie with Karen Bass and demands drugstores, bookstores, grocery stores, clothing stores, restaurants, and Vuori, Lululemon, yoga and sushi bars for Van Nuys. Nobody looks at empty stores, vacant parking lots, eight lane wide boulevards passing people sleeping on bus benches and demands action from Governor Newsom and city leaders.

But charitably, the successful billionaire developer does think we should have a city that welcomes everyone here, legally or illegally, to pay them a pittance to rebuild, garden and minister to the wealthy elderly.

We have problems man. We have many, many problems and a national breakdown and a local one and people are screaming for someone to come and do something, anything for our betterment.

Where is our savior in Van Nuys? Where is our Rick Caruso? Is our Caruso only this poor blog?