To the editor: A California-certified engineering geologist who has worked on landslides for decades writes that the state should require houses in the Portuguese Bend landslide area to be dismantled and the residents to vacate. (“Why homes were built on the Rancho Palos Verdes landslide. It’s not the city’s fault,” letters, Sept. 9)
I have lived in this active landslide area of Rancho Palos Verdes for decades and have no plans to leave. Our house is on steel beams and moves along with the slide, and we will go off the grid now that power has been cut.
My parents bought our property in 1948. I was 11 when, in 1956, the landslide was triggered when L.A. County tried to extend Crenshaw Boulevard.
Geologists knew the area sat on a dormant ancient landslide, but the county did not notify parcel buyers of this fact. People who remained figured out how to be flexible and resilient.
Now, two years of heavy rain have caused an acceleration and expansion of the land movement, but there are solutions that can slow it if funding is forthcoming.
By the way, all of California is in danger if a large quake occurs. I feel safer here than I would in the L.A. Basin.
Tony Baker, Rancho Palos Verdes
