Diary of a Fire
Jan. 31, 2025 – three weeks and four days after the Palisades and Eaton Canyon fires started. As I sit on the couch, watching tennis from Australia, my mind keeps wandering back to what happened around three weeks ago....
Fool’s Gold: The Myth of Tiburcio Vasquez
“And still of a winter’s night, they say, when the wind is in the trees, When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, A...
One-Room Schoolhouse
Back to school. A hundred years ago in Topanga, it would have been on foot—and often barefoot—to the little, red, one-room schoolhouse by the creek in the bend of the dirt road. Public education in California was still relatively...
RCD Moves to Larger Home
Topanga Canyon’s local Resource Conservation District is steadily growing in capacity, with more staffing, as well as community service offerings. They have been conveniently located off Topanga Canyon Blvd. for the past eight years, but have recently outgrown the...
Helitankers Arrive in Time for Peak Fire Season
The three massive helitankers that are the core resources for the Quick Reaction Force, are back in town. This high-tech, highly efficient aerial firefighting team will be stationed in Southern California throughout peak wildfire season. These three mammoth airships...
Topanga ArsonWatch Seeking Volunteers
Many Topangans have not lived in the Canyon long enough to remember the fire of November 1993. It burned for 10 days, from the top of Old Topanga Canyon to the coast in Malibu destroying over 300 homes, scorching...
April is Earth Month, and while some large community events are still on hold, there are a variety of activities
The City of Calabasas’ Earth Day Celebration/Green Expo is back, and will take place on Saturday, April 16, from 2 pm to 5 pm at the Las Virgenes Creek site, south of Agoura Rd. in Calabasas. More than fifty...
Wildlife Changemaker!
Our theme this year at Topanga New Times is “changemakers,” but this issue’s change maker isn’t a person or even a project, it’s an important part of a new movement, one that recognizes that nature has rights, including the...
Cheap Labor and an Expensive Hobby Helped Build Topanga’s Roads
I stopped on a Topanga road the other day to wait for a chicken to cross. It gave me a moment to reflect that before asking why it crossed the road, it might be helpful to know why the road...
Watershed Zoom
Join the North Santa Monica Bay Watershed Community on Zoom January 27 at 5:30pm to learn how the community is addressing water supply needs and improving water quality. Help co-create opportunities for positive change. Learn about how the North...
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