Los Angeles is burning again. Some combination of dry hillside, wind, and an as-yet unidentified spark has set the neighborhood of Pacific Palisades on fire. This happens from time to time, and people who don’t live in Los Angeles always ask the same question: Earthquakes, mudslides, wildfires? Why do you people live there?

There’s no real answer to that, except to say that if you’ve ever flown from a snowy, bitter-cold East Coast to Los Angeles, landed at LAX on the evening flight, headed into town in a taxi, and rolled down the windows to smell the night-blooming jasmine, well, that’s one big reason right there.