Our Alta Weekly Newsletter features original reporting about life in California and beyond, and we can guarantee that no two dispatches are ever alike. This year, our contributors have covered dog-park squabbles in San Francisco, rewilding efforts in San Diego, and immersive art installations in Joshua Tree. We celebrated culture (Woody Guthrie’s remastered album) and mourned losses (David Lynch). The five dispatches we highlight below are shining examples of the compelling narratives, surprising subjects, and unique points of view that you can find in your inbox every Thursday. Sign up here to join the conversation.
“Will Rogers Is on Fire,” by Andrew Dubbins (January 16)
In Los Angeles, the new year began with a horror show, as gale-force winds stoked flames that would decimate the beloved neighborhoods of Altadena and Pacific Palisades. Writer Andrew Dubbins grew up in the Palisades, and he drove to his childhood home to help his parents evacuate. “As daylight thickened into darkness, the flames twisted up higher over the mountains,” Dubbins writes. “I went out to the porch and saw the fire pouring over the ridge, into Will Rogers Park. My parents came and looked at the tall wall of flames approaching. My dad made the decision. ‘It’s time to go,’ he said.”
“Attack of the 75-Foot Roving Mud Puddle,” by Meg Bernhard (May 1)
The California Department of Transportation’s biggest enemy just might be a giant pool of sludge near the Salton Sea. Starting around 2016, the muck began moving, baffling state officials and diverting traffic. Reporter Meg Bernhard looked into the puddle’s murky history: “Seemingly out of nowhere, the muck started moving southwest at a quick clip, at least as far as puddles go, digging a crater of slurry sediment and water 75 feet wide and 25 feet deep. By May 2018, the mud puddle was about 80 feet from the Union Pacific Railroad tracks.”
“Dashboard Dining in the Golden State,” by Erik Himmelsbach-Weinstein (July 17)
Contributor Erik Himmelsbach-Weinstein explored the latest trend in California car culture: influencers cooking elaborate meals from behind the wheel. TikTok users have made branzino, beef Wellington, and a complete Thanksgiving meal while sitting in their Honda Civics and Toyota Corollas. “Making and eating in the car can be confining and messy,” Himmelsbach-Weinstein writes. “But the dripping and staining are actually good things, visual gold to [Sophie] Saldana’s more than 500,000 combined Instagram and TikTok followers, who love a satisfying close-up of ingredients, like stretchy cheese in a mozzarella stick.”
“Holbox’s Michelin Chef Was Awaiting Citizenship Until 2025,” by Jeff Gordinier (August 7)
Holbox, a seafood restaurant in a South Los Angeles food court, catapulted to fame in 2023 after it was named Restaurant of the Year by the Los Angeles Times. The following year, Holbox received a Michelin star. All that time, however, head chef Gilberto Cetina was undocumented. In an Alta Journal exclusive by award-winning food writer Jeff Gordinier, Cetina revealed that he obtained citizenship only this spring, a few months before ICE infiltrated the city. “Chefs at almost every restaurant in California worry about raids, of course, because of the centrality of immigrant labor to the ways we grow and eat food,” Gordinier writes. “Part of Cetina wants to stay silent; part of him can’t. ‘The less public we are, the less of a target we become,’ he says. ‘But then it reaches a point where you have to speak up.’”
“The Penny Saved My Life,” by David L. Ulin (November 20)
In November, the final penny was pressed at the Philadelphia Mint. Some celebrated the coin’s long-awaited retirement, but others mourned its bittersweet ending. In a personal story for Alta, David L. Ulin recounted how a penny saved him in a near-fatal car accident near Stinson Beach. “Still, whether the universe is magical or chaotic, it certainly confounds us,” Ulin writes. “It certainly does with us what it will. In that sense, the penny has long served as a kind of totem: if nothing else, part of a ritual (or series of rituals) by which I try to wrap my mind around the world.”
Make sure you’re getting Alta’s free newsletters. Sign up now!•
Lydia Horne is the research director at Alta Journal. Her writing has appeared in Wired, Racquet Magazine, L.A. Taco, Hyperallergic, and other publications.
