Packing up to leave in a wealthy enclave of Diamond Bar

Cars are lined up along Diamond Bar Boulevard, where residents of expensive hillside tracts have been  told to evacuate.

Curtis Shen, 49, who owns a lingerie import business in downtown Los Angeles, was standing by his SUV waiting for his wife and daughter. They were packing some things to take from their $1.5-million home in the Country Estates development.

He said houses in the tract are as large as 20,000 square feet.

"A lot of rich businessmen live in there," he said.

--Gale Holland

Comments

[Carrie]

Why does the media always make a big deal of the value of what is going up in smoke? I doubt that the 500+ homes lost in Sylmar were any less valuable to their owners.

[who cares]

Who cares if these houses go up? These people can afford to rebuild again. They'll just beg the US gov't for the $$ and Communist China to help them. In case you don't know, most of the country's inhabitants ate Chinese from the communist country that censored the Olympics. "Alot of rich businessmen: live there? If they're always at the Diamond Bar and Royal Vista golf courses, how is it they make their $$? Oh right, human trafficking, and pot houses. Wake up and smell that the tide is turning red. What about the people that live elsewhere and lost their homes? Are they not worthy of news coverage? I see how bias the news media is to portray these people as vics, but the real vics are those that lost everything in less affluent areas that the media conveniently forgot. $$ sure loves to buy biased press.

[d. barr]

I totally agree with the previous comment. If anything, the wealthy most likely have one or several other homes to go to, whereas less fortunate people who lose their home; lose everything.

[Mark Zinna]

Wow - Fires is Southern California!! Who could have ever predicted this. What mass denial. Keep rebuilding though because maybe there won't be any fires next year for the first time in millions of years...

[Mark Devine]

A 20,000 sq ft home in California would be a lot more than 1.5 million dollars (even in the new re-valued homes) and not every house in this area would be that large. If this area is like most areas in california there are new homes, old homes, and homes that got remodeled during the housing boom. Now the question when insurance payments come in is what is going to be the new value of rebuilding and can you get what you had for that sum. Our business @ mddesignhomes.com has seen the values dropping and the overall effect of what clients can now do verses what they were doing. Our hearts and prayers go out to all those in this situation.

[Gary]

I have always wondered the same thing about the media coverage myself Carrie. A loss of your is devastating and it does not matter whether you are rich are just scraping to get by.

[Claudia]

I think the comment from "who cares?" is really disgusting. Try to remember that even after the news trucks have gone home and the politicians and laymen speculators have stopped running their mouths, HUMAN BEINGS lived in those houses and have lost not only a major economic investment from their lives but their memories, their belongings, and everything that was personal to them, whether they were in an upscale neighborhood or not.

Have some compassion.

[Browne]

Nice racism your post generated Gale. And I bet you are so shocked that people could say comments like the first few posted here. I will say it was because of you. The stay at home mom, what was her husband? Probably a businessman, but you make it a point to say that with this Chinese-American family and to paint a certain picture.

Even in a fire story you guys can't stop being closed minded and biased.

Browne

[Jeff Chou]

Who cares? Let me address that question:
As cliche as it may sound, you do not know anything about the people in this community. Many of the immigrants you make ignorant generalizations of escaped from communist China during the late 40s and made their way to the US in search of better opportunities, searching for the "American Dream." With nothing more than a suitcase and a plane ticket, these people flew halfway around the world to a foreign country to have a chance at embracing freedom and the very capitalism which America champions as its greatest innovation.

Anyone that lost anything in these fires is a victim, regardless of net worth. All you see is an expensive house. You don't see the years of sacrifice that went into that house. Some worked 80 hour workweeks and compounded their savings, while others squandered their money on fashionable clothes, leased luxury cars, rims, gotta-have-it phones, or expensive toys like motorboats. Regardless of race or economic class, losing a home makes a victim out of anyone.

One of many who care,
Jeff Chou

[j. book]

Who cares? God, I can't believe the callousness. I live in another part of this city. It is a 2 bedroom condominium and if thiis fire isn't contained, I will be as homeless as anyone else. So you might not care about the wealthy, but not everyone is wealthy in this city. Even if they are, they are still a human beings, just as you might be. A loss is a loss, and your home is your home, filled with memories. It may be your only shelter.

[Gary]

Some comments go beyond callousness and for those who have made such rude comments that don't live in California your only excuse is ignorance. You assume that since the only houses shown on the news are mansions that everyone in said area must be rich, therefor they don't deserve compassion. May you never find yourself in a disaster yourselves. I was and used MD Design Homes to design our home, and when you have a designer that can tap into your thoughts and dreams, and you feel that house with pictures and memories and it gets taken from you, there is nothing more tragic to loosing it except life itself. I suppose asking for compassion from some of you is a mute point, but thank God the world is made up of more compassionate people.

[Jamal Washington]

One of the greatest things about this country is the ability of its people to come together in the face of adversity despite the vast differences in cultural background and other factors that determine one's personal viewpoints. "Who cares" is certainly entitled to his/her biased opinion about people of Chinese origin. However, it's fantastic to see that there are others who can see beyond this and actually take the time to articulate their outrage. Great job by Claudia, Jeff Chou and others who responded to the comments by "who cares". This person should take his/her disgust with lack of equality (in this case, media coverage for less affluent neighborhoods) just one step further and apply it with broader strokes to all those in need (regardless of ethnicity).

[Marco]

I live in Rowland Heights..a neighbor to Diamond Bar. I worked hard for my home. I was raised poor, and worked my butt off for everything I have. If I lost my home, yes it could be rebuilt, but the memories and belongings cannot be. I am not chinese, I am Mexican. In some of your ignorant eyes, that's even worse. These people are losing their homes..nice homes whether they are in upscale communities or not, they are their homes. Race should not matter here...the human spirit should.

[JJ]

My family lives in Diamond Bar, and I grew up there. And, yeah, there are a lot of Chinese.

The thing I can't stand about what "who cares" says is that s/he is generalizing about all Chinese people, ya know. I'd like to point out that most of the people who do manage to flee from Communist China, like my parents, my grandparents, are those who opposed that government.

They worked hard. I have never lived in the Country -- and even though those people are really wealthy -- don't think their home is any less just because they're Chinese people.

In any case, there's something to be said about the writing of this little piece as well. It seems to have an implication that we should sympathize with them BECAUSE they're wealthy and have to evacuate, and not because they have to evacuate and might lose a home. Period.

[mddesighomes]

Over the last few days I have read many opinions about the fires in Southern California, and some individuals feel the rich don’t deserve compassion or sympathy since they have “multiple homes” and are “rich”. First of all, it must be clear that to have compassion and feel sorry is not the same. You can feel compassion for the memories that were lost in the burnt homes that cannot be recovered, such as a baby was born in that house, or maybe they raised their children in the home that burnt down. Think of the markings on the door jam for each year of age for a given child has grown, or the nicks in the kitchen drawers because their kids played drums on the drawers while putting the knives away. Every house acquires its own memories no matter how many homes you have or don’t have, when it burns down you cannot recover those memories.

When I walk through a big city like San Francisco I see all of the homeless people on the street asking with humility for help, and people walk by them as if they are invisible. Some people feel they do not serve compassion as the homeless man or woman must have done something to put themselves in such a position. If someone asked the homeless person what happened, you might find most are homeless because of a lost job, or a spouse died and the surviving spouse couldn’t do it alone. You would find that chances are there was no other option for them, and you might just find that there were homeless people displaced in the areas that burnt in the fires, and they must find a new place to be homeless at.

To here such disdain about the rich or poor is troubling to me as we all are God’s children, we are all brothers and sisters, we are all dependant on our community to stand in unity as one in a disaster. Have we forgotten 911 and how it brought us together? Have we forgotten how precious life can be? What would you do if put in a position of any kind of loss? Would you feel hurt if no one cared about you?

Give the rich a break because they have multiple houses, they still built memories in those houses. Remember the rich like Opera and other stars in the area donate enormous amounts of money to the poor, and volunteer their time to help the less fortunate. When you walk by a homeless person, try a little compassion you might someday need some yourself.

[JP]

Wow, who cares. I do. I work for a very hard working couple who happen to run a business from their home. Never mind if the people who live with "The Country" are wealthy, let's take into consideration ALL of the people who are probably employed by these people. Not only would these homes be lost but ALOT of people would also be out of work.

[opinionated]

to mark devine,

he said some of the homes in the area are that large, he did not say his was....I live next to the area, and believe me, the universe is in balance with regards to the price of homes in that area, granted you don't have an ocean view, but it is a very peaceful community, and Diamond Bar is a city that is just a little disorganized and lacking in drawing businesses....we are just a town that people use to get from Orange County to Chino Hills (pm) vice versa for (am)...I say Tonner Canyon or Carbon Canyon needs to be leveled, widened and paved so that Diamond Bar can have peacefulness....

[Darren]

Some of you guys have no heart! I live in the Country Estates, and I can assure you that if my house went down, I wouldn't have another place to go to. I put my life's savings in my home, and still owe the bank quite a bit! I'm not Chinese, and I drive a cheap SUV. I'm barely getting by in the this economy.

Up in the Country Estates, there are 3 income classes: lower, mid, and upper. The lower classes, are your typical middle-income people. The upper classes are the Snoop Dogs and NBA players (former and current).

The 18,000 sq ft. house, is not the 1.5 million dollar one. The 1.5 million house is actually one of the smaller and cheaper houses there, believe it or not. If Snoop Dog's house or some of the NBA player's houses up there burnt down, they could afford to rebuild. If my house went down, I'm pretty much homeless without the fire insurance.

[Elizabeth Sagarminaga]

I"m looking for Charlie and Darren. They use to live in the coundtry about 20 yrs ago. Carrie Maldonado and I Elizabeth Sagarminaga use to hang around with these guys. We use to be close and hang out all of the time.... Charlie Rim and Darren Rim. Please contact me if you read this.... I found Tracey Camacho, Dayna Howard, Tania Cruz and Rose Padilla. I'm not sure if you guys remember them..................I'm on a mission to find you guys now. I found out that Carrie has Huningtons Disease and I would love for all of us to get together before she gets more sick...............

mariposabebe@gmail.com