When he settled in west Altadena, Carl Dyson Sr. was determined.
Determined to build a home. Determine to make the “perfect place” that would sustain generations of his family beyond him.
It was the late 1970s. And Altadena represented a new horizon — an American town where the elder Dyson and his family could build a future.
Little could he have foreseen back then the catastrophe that would come a handful of years since his passing amid the Covid-19 pandemic years:
That dark morning, 3 a.m.-ish Jan. 8, 2025, when the next generation of his family watched the Eaton fire burn closer and closer to their Grandeur Avenue property.
No official evacuation alert came. Only instinct, and a belated recognition from family and friends that there was no way to stay. It was time to go. They had to get out before the flames consumed their home, and the thousands of others in its already disastrous path.
And within a matter of seconds, it did.
Fast forward to Friday, Dec. 5, and after months of living the unsettled life of a displaced family in small places from Rancho Cucamonga to Glendale, John Dyson, his wife Darlina and his sister Deborah were all smiles.
They ceremoniously became the first fire survivors in West Altadena to receive an occupancy certificate declaring their new home OK’d for living in.
They aren’t the first to receive such a green light. Earlier this week, the first county occupancy permit went to a homeowner up the road, a larger home more in the foothills area. The first Pasadena resident to receive such a safety permit recently got it for a rebuilt home in the scorched Hastings Ranch neighborhood of Pasadena.
But in this part of the unincorporated town in recovery mode, where evacuation alerts were late to come, where many are still contemplating whether they can afford to come back, it’s a welcome first.
The Dysons’ return to their property in a rebuilt home — a 1,470-square-foot, three bedroom, two bath, with a baby blue exterior (conjuring up John Dyson’s love for the L.A. Dodgers), its bright yellow door, and its ADU in the back — offered a glimpse at what many hope is a future in a part of town known for its diversity, smaller parcels and many charming single-family homes.
John and Darllina Dyson sat in their fresh new kitchen, taking in the moment, and the moments that led the cusp of moving again.
They bounced words off each other: “Amazing.” “Overwhelmed.” “Relieved.”
Like many, there was a time when they were uncertain they would be back here, let alone only nearly a year later.
“We just weren’t sure,” Darlina Dyson said.
“I knew it was going to be a big reach,” said John Dyson, reflecting on the SBA loan they took out, coupled with hopes that a Southern California Edison compensation plan might get them close to some financial equilibrium.
And what about his sister, Deborah? If the family moved somewhere else, where would she and her daughter go, they thought.
It became apparent in those early months that the family would take a chance, and rebuild, containing the line of generations that the elder Dyson started so long ago. After all, this was the home he helped his father build so long ago.
“It’s a bet that we’ll find a way to work out,” he said.
Five months later, their home on Friday was a converging point for neighbors and friends, who came to check out the moment when county officials signed the occupancy permits for the family.
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena, as one of an array of towns in the Fifth District, said the moment was a reminder of the need to preserve generational wealth in an area, where many see it threatened.
It’s here where many could still afford a home, often passed on through generations in families.
It’s here, from its founding in 1887 through the 1920s, Black Americans settled in Altadena from Georgia, Texas, and other states, establishing generational legacies that remained.
Altadena’s large Black population grew more in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of redlining in Pasadena.
Like the Dysons, their descendants stayed. And they helped catalyze a Black home ownership rate in Altadena that was almost double the national average.
It’s a picture that is threatened as Altadena recovers and rebuilds.
Altadena’s residents are immersed in a post-Eaton fire rebuild process complicated by what at times was a slow-moving permitting process (one that has received praise of late for moving faster), economic uncertainty, underinsurance issues and the entry of outside investors, who have bought up two-thirds of severely damaged homes in the area, according to a recent UCLA fact sheet.
The Dysons took the leap, which thousands know isn’t easy. As many pointed out on Friday, not many in Southern California have actually built a house.
Upwards of 2,300 survivors have applied for permits to rebuild. But Barger said she’s focused in Altadena on the more than 4,000 who have not begun the process.
“We just need to do a better job of reaching out to people and finding out what are the barriers,” said Barger, noting acute issues within the state’s insurance infrastructure that are holding people back, along with uncertainty.
“Once you start, you realize you can put one foot in front of another,” she said. “So we need to start getting them to start putting one foot in front of the other.”
In the background, lawsuits against Southern California Edison and the utility’s compensation plan have paused the process for many as they contemplate what to do.
But ultimately, the decision to rebuild has come down to affordability.
“Some of the customers I’ve been able to engage in conversations with, a lot of them are afraid of being able to afford it,” Gabriel Martinez, West Coast Designs & Renovations, Inc. But again, if you really think about what you need and what you want, you need to weigh those out.
“This is a life that’s been turned upside down over night. It’s not just rebuilding a home, but it’s rebuilding a life that you’ve lost. But it can be done.”
Martinez said the building was “personal” for many of his crew, who saw what the survivors were going through.
John Dyson’s sister, Deborah, was also processing it all on Friday, as she proudly held a certificate of occupancy for the ADU she’ll call home.
It came back to generational wealth, and her father, Carl Sr. The moment was about something bigger.
“My dad said this is just the perfect place,” she said, reflecting on his determination to have a home.
“We’d always lived in apartments. When we were 5 and 6 we came here, but he said ‘we’re going to have a house.’”
She remembered the generations of family coming in and out of the old place — just the way her dad had hoped.
Then she pointed to a big cactus at the front of the property, planted by her and John’s mother and grandmother in the early Altadena days.
It survived the fire, the debris clearance and the construction — perhaps a sign of hope that the Altadena they are returning will survive.
“If they are trying to make it where people are running and speculating and buying up, that’s not going to work here,” she said. “We don’t need that. “We need this to be a home and family where we can walk down the street to talk to one another and stay diverse.”