ESSAY // Building the Good Life

Building The Good Life

In 2024, two in ten Americans were displaced by natural disasters. What are the ethics and practicalities of where and how we build our American future?

by Leslie Billhymer

EXCERPT //

We build our lives; many of us turn our homes into museums of our pasts—in pictures, heirlooms, and ephemera are memories, values, and love that are encapsulated in things. We look at the devastated neighborhoods of Los Angeles—thousands of homes and businesses in our entertainment mecca were wiped out by fire in a matter of a few days. 

If the most advanced firefighting organization in the country could not stop the destruction of this year’s fires, where does America’s second-largest city go from here? //

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