Posts with the Los Angeles tag

Barris Beat

Rubble and rabble

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment

On Sunday morning, I picked up one of the Toronto daily newspapers. I saw images of city towers tumbling, apartments smouldering and people wandering aimlessly in the streets. Two days later, I watched breaking news on TV and I saw a dishevelled downtown, stores smouldering and people wandering in the streets.

The first disrupted city was Kathmandu, Nepal. The second was Baltimore, Maryland, in the east-central U.S.

Did it occur to anybody else that civil unrest looks a lot like the aftermath of an earthquake? (more…)

Barris Beat

Aid, not Apolcalyptic nonsense

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
The hospital at Sylmar, California, had to be demolished following the Feb. 9, 1971, earthquake.
The hospital at Sylmar, California, had to be demolished following the Feb. 9, 1971, earthquake.

The only time I came close to experiencing a natural disaster first-hand was in 1971. I landed in Los Angeles a few weeks after the 6.6 magnitude Sylmar earthquake rattled the San Fernando Valley. At the time, my parents and sister lived in the valley suburb known as Tarzana (where MGM studios shot all those movies with Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan back in the 1930s). I remember sitting in my folks’ living room a few nights after I’d arrived when I felt a faint vibration beneath me. I looked at my sister.

“Oh, that’s nothing,” she said casually. “Just an after shock.”

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Barris Beat

How much living space is enough?

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Most of these mansions or estate homes end up having two people rattling around in thousands of square feet of unused, unnecessary living space.
Most of these mansions or estate homes end up having two people rattling around in thousands of square feet of unused, unnecessary living space.

In most parts of Canada, they’re located in the suburbs where the lots are larger. In downtown areas they’re called mansions. In some older communities they’re found on former estates. In fact, out in the country, they’re described as estate homes. A few weeks ago, we were driving past a group of them north of Stouffville and an older passenger in our car gasped.

“Unbelievable aren’t they,” I said.

She nodded and reacted with an unexpected comment: “How on earth would anybody clean something like that?” she said.

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