Me and a colleague speculated over why San Diego County can’t seem to protect their citizens from something as regularly cyclic and expected as wildfires. Everyone knows the drill come October. The Santa Anas come blowing in. The brush dries out. Eventually something is going to catch fire, and the fire is going to spread. Fast.

And yet here we are again, with houses burning to the ground, and hundreds of thousands of people displaced. Holy shit.

I have my theories about the county’s refusal to use any principles of urban development whatsoever. I have no doubt that this misguided clinging to libertarian principles contributes to this tragic repetition of events.

But we started amusing ourselves by going down the conspiracy track. Certainly, there’s a lot in it for the developers and their dependent contractors. Rebuilding homes will create jobs, and money will be flowing out of the pockets of insurance companies and into the pockets of the developers and contractors, all of whom have no desire to abide by sane building regulations, apparently.

When’s the next time the city is going to burn down, I wonder? 2011, maybe? Sooner, if this drought doesn’t end?

In San Diego thus far, no one is pointing fingers quite yet, at least not in the pwned mainstream media. (I think Clear Channel owns half, and Rupert Murdoch own the rest down here, but I could be exaggerating. A little.) But L.A. is a little different. The people are blaming the local policy wonks. The council members are blaming the state of California. But I was amused by the scathing criticism levelled by a climatologist against the marionette-like city planning committee in Malibu.

I can’t imagine anyone in San Diego having the balls to say something like that, even if it’s totally true. And the thing is, none of the victims really have much to gain by telling it like it is, because in a year or two, the insurance companies will pay developers and contractors to rebuild their houses.

Whatever. I’ve given thought to possibly staying down here and working at least for a few years more, but I’m starting to get sick of the idea of being surrounded by morons and lunatics.