When the Woolsey Fire tore through Malibu in 2018, it felt like the end of the world as we knew it.But half of our town survived, scarred, yes, but still standing. But in reality, it really was the beginning of the end.
This January, the Palisades Fire came for the rest. In a single, searing sweep, the other half of Malibu, its history, our hangouts, our heart… was gone.
Entire stretches of Pacific Coast Highway reduced to ash. What Woolsey spared, Palisades Fire obliterated.
We didn’t just lose homes and landmarks, we lost the soul of a place once defined by a rare, unshakable magic.
Since founding 90265 Magazine in 2013, I’ve spent years chronicling Malibu’s iconic lifestyle and the people whose character and grit gave this town its heartbeat. The memories will live on in those pages, and in our memories.
This year has been an awakening for me, as jarring and irreversible as the fires themselves. Maybe it’s the chaos of the times.
Maybe it’s the profound personal changes I didn’t see coming, the kind that shake you down to your core.
Either way, my trajectory has shifted. The way I see
the world, the way I move through it. It’s a different world now.
What I know is this: loss will gut you, but it will
also strip away what doesn’t matter. And in that raw, unfiltered place, you find the truth.
That truth is this: we were lucky enough to live in our own Shangri-La, to collect beautiful memories before devastation stripped Malibu of its soul.
Now, a new chapter begins, not just for me, but for Cali Mag as well.
For years, I wrestled with its identity through waves of global and local upheaval. But now the path is clear, and with clarity comes change – and this time, it’s
welcome.
