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The Palisades Fire Revisited 
January 9, 2026 0 18  
The Palisades Fire: One Year Later 
Suzanne Guldimann, January 9, 2026 0  
Life changed for everyone in Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu on January 7 2025. A year after the Palisades Fire those who live or work in its shadow still aren’t used to the endless roadwork, the delays, the road...
Retrospective: Pacific Palisades-Paradise Lost 
Suzanne Guldimann, December 26, 2025 0  
Originally published in the February 21, 2025 issue of Topanga New Times The Palisades fire is named for the Palisades Highlands, where the blaze erupted on the morning of January 7, 2025. The conflagration rapidly spread throughout Pacific Palisades...
Retrospective: Malibu Reeling 
Suzanne Guldimann, December 26, 2025 0  
Originally published in the March 7, 2025 issue of Topanga New Times The Malibu stretch of Pacific Coast Highway turns 100 next year. It’s strange to know its centennial will begin with a third of the houses, businesses, landmarks...
Christmas Carols 
Suzanne Guldimann, December 12, 2025 0  
Villagers all, this frosty tide, Let your doors swing open wide, Though wind may follow, and snow beside, Yet draw us in by your fire to bide; Joy shall be yours in the morning! —Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in...
23 Jan 2026

Urs Baur

Urs Baur is co-founder and Director of Topanga Film Festival & Institute and a highly experienced and entrepreneurial creative professional. He has a track record of guiding award-winning communications initiatives for global brands in leading ad agencies in New York, Los Angeles, Milan and Zurich. The last decade has seen him create cross-platform branding for numerous start-ups in the energy, wellness, sustainability, and cultural spaces. His work reflects a lifelong passion for advancing a more equitable, ethical, and sustainable way of doing business. Urs trusts in the combined power of technology and storytelling to inspire change.
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Rebuilding Sunset Mesa 

Urs Baur, July 11, 2025 0 3 min read  
A Neighborhood Returns One Permit at a Time Six months after the Palisades Fire swept through the coastal neighborhood of Sunset Mesa, the first permits are about to be approved. For many of the over 500 households affected—more than...
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Liberty’s Torch 

Urs Baur, May 16, 2025 0 4 min read  
The Statue of Liberty, that towering green goddess of idealism, was gifted to the United States in 1886 by France—a gesture ostensibly celebrating the centennial of American independence, but more accurately, a passive-aggressive nudge to remind the U.S. to...
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Banned in America 

Urs Baur, May 2, 2025 1 4 min read  
Joyce, Orwell, and the War on Fiction Where lies the obscenity? Today I learned that a sweeping book ban still hangs in the balance in Iowa, as the state’s Attorney General weighs a second appeal to uphold Senate File...
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ON THE GROUND 

Urs Baur, January 24, 2025 1 5 min read  
Urs Baur submits his experience “Too Close For Comfort: A Community’s Resilience in the Face of Fire” I’ve lived in this canyon for 25 years, and while fires are a constant threat, they’re never routine. Each event carries its...
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One way to look at AI 

Urs Baur, May 19, 2023 0 6 min read  
If merely hearing or reading the word ‘AI’ triggers you, you’re not alone; some of my closest friends feel the same. However, the fact that you are still reading tells me you may be willing to stay with me...