Over 60 years ago, Pauline Townsend, a single Black mother of four, achieved something that at one time had seemed nearly impossible: She moved out of central Los Angeles and purchased a home in a small community in the foothills.

“[They] were coming from the heart of Los Angeles and moving out to pretty much the forest at the base of a mountain. And that was very much what I grew up in,” said Anjelika Perry, Townsend’s granddaughter. The home has stayed in the family for multiple generations, and Perry and her cousins grew up with those same trees and mountains as their extended backyard.

The Perry family home was one of 9,418 structures destroyed by the Eaton Fire that ravaged Altadena, a longtime haven for Black families looking to own a home with access to the outdoors. Altadena is a rare example among Los Angeles County’s 88 cities and over 100 unincorporated areas: a diverse community close to nature, in a region where communities of color consistently have less access to parks and open space than predominantly white neighborhoods.

Altadena is tucked just below the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, with popular hiking trails extending from each corner of the unincorporated community. It’s surrounded by wilderness on three sides: To the north is the vast Angeles National Forest; to the west is the eight-mile Arroyo Seco; and to the east is the Eaton Canyon Natural Area, where hundreds of hikers trekked up to a waterfall daily before the fire.

For Perry and her cousins, growing up in Altadena meant walking barefoot through grassy yards, spending summer days under the shady trees at Charles Farnsworth Park, and hiking through the “enchanted forest,” a trail through the ruins of an old estate and into Angeles National Forest that starts less than a mile from Perry’s grandmother’s home. The house was passed down to Perry’s parents and then to her and her siblings.

“Just being outside, I think that is really a blessing for a lot of Black and brown communities to be in communities where it’s safe to do that and have no fear,” said Perry.

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Discriminatory redlining practices and more affordable home prices pushed many Black families to west Altadena starting in the 1960s, with Lake Avenue serving as the dividing line. By 1970, 70 percent of Black households in Altadena owned their homes, nearly double the countywide rate at the time. The homeownership rate for Black families in Altadena is now nearly double the nationwide rate, and while the percentage of Black residents has declined from a peak of 43 percent in 1980 to around 18 percent today, the percentage still remains much higher than for the surrounding suburbs that line the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.

The lasting impacts of redlining also contributed to the disproportionate impacts of the Eaton Fire on Altadena’s Black families, who saw a larger share of homes destroyed or damaged than non-Black households, according to a data brief by researchers at UCLA.

Charles Farnsworth Park, where Perry spent summer days with her cousins and siblings, was destroyed by the Eaton Fire. Nearby Charles White Park, named after a Black artist who lived in Altadena and touted as one of the only public parks named for an artist in the US, also sustained damage. The fire impacted countless trails leading up into the foothills that some Altadena residents accessed on foot from their homes. The foothills themselves are now a scorched bare brown.

“Altadena is one of the places where you get on the hiking trails and you see Black cowboys, Latino cowboys. The hiking trail is full of diverse people. You run into other Black residents who have been there forever,” said Lauren Randolph, who moved to Altadena with her husband, Jordan Gaskins, in 2018.

Their home, which was also destroyed in the Eaton Fire, directly backed up to the Chaney Trail, which climbs steep chaparral hillsides north of Altadena and can connect with other trails heading deeper into Angeles National Forest. The couple and their two children hiked the trail “almost every week,” said Randolph.

“I think living in the foothills gives more access to the outdoors, and trees and a lot of the things that a lot of neighborhoods that have been redlined don't have. All the trees, the parks—Altadena is one of those places that had all that beauty. And you would see everybody making use of the outdoors,” said Randolph.

While Black residents who moved to Altadena found themselves surrounded by this wilderness, across Los Angeles County, inequities persisted in access to the outdoors and green space. A countywide parks needs assessment completed in 2016 and expanded upon in 2022 found that Black and Latino families were more likely than other demographics to live in communities with less park space per capita, and communities of color were overrepresented demographically in areas with the most environmental burdens, such as poor air and water quality, pollution, and nearby hazardous waste facilities. A history of redlining, segregation, discriminatory zoning, and decisions about where parks and polluting facilities are located all contributed to these inequities, notes the 2022 report.

Altadena was ranked as having a “low” park need in 2016, likely in large part due to its proximity to Angeles National Forest. The rugged San Gabriel Mountains, which compose the backdrop of Los Angeles have long played a major role in the largely park-poor county’s overall green space. At over 700,000 acres, Angeles National Forest alone accounts for over 70 percent of the county’s total combined local and regional parks, open space, conservation areas, and nature-based recreation areas.

It was Altadena’s unique combination of proximity to the mountains and a diverse community that drew Randolph and Gaskins to the area. Both grew up in other foothill communities about 30 minutes east, but Altadena felt different.

“That part spoke to us, being in the foothills of the mountains, and it felt similar,” said Gaskins. “But the thing about Altadena was just the generational families, Black families, and artists and scientists. It was this really unique mesh of people.”

Photo courtesy of Lauren Randolph and Jordan Gaskins

The Bailey family moved to Altadena for similar reasons—nearly 60 years ago. Jacqueline and Alex Bailey bought their first home in Altadena in 1968 and remained there until the Eaton Fire destroyed it. They were initially drawn to Altadena because of its proximity to the foothills and the diverse community, and those same aspects of the community kept them there for decades.

“We didn't have to get in the car to go anywhere. We were very close; we were maybe four or five blocks from the base of the foothills. So we could just walk up to the top of Lake (Avenue) to the trails,” said Jacqueline Bailey.

Bailey became a Girl Scout troop leader in the 1970s, taking her daughter and other young girls straight up into the foothills for hikes and backpacking trips. “It was just a good place, a good house, a good family,” said Bailey. 

The Baileys didn’t feel ready to venture back to their community until over a month after the fire. They’re now starting to think about rebuilding. “It's more than emotional, when you buy a piece of property and you've had it for 56 years and then it's gone,” said Bailey.

When Perry returned to the site of her family home, she was struck by what the fire took away from her community, and by what remained. “The fire burned so much," she said, "and all of those trees are still standing there.”