Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Well, at least the Dodgers won’t lose in the World Series this year.

DODGERS

Before we get to the ugly recap. I have to say that if anyone had to beat the Dodgers, I am glad it was former ANGEL Howie Kendrick. Not that it makes me happy, of course, but after the tough series he had, you have to take you cap off to him.

Now, the ugliness. This is from Jorge Castillo’s game story:

The fans remaining at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday night, the loyal ones who had stuck around to witness the stunning end of the Dodgers’ season, booed Dave Roberts when he finally emerged from the dugout in the 10th inning. They echoed their feelings on his walk back after the manager finally took the ball from Joe Kelly and gave it to Kenley Jansen.

It was all too late to salvage the Dodgers from elimination. The irreparable damage was done. Howie Kendrick had already smashed a fastball from the erratic Kelly over the center-field wall 410 feet away for a spine-cracking grand slam while Jansen, the reliever the Dodgers entrusted in those moments for the entire decade, watched from the Dodgers dugout, warm and ready to go.

It was the second bullpen collapse in the Dodgers’ 7-3, season-ending loss to the Washington Nationals in a decisive Game 5 of the National League Division Series. The first happened two innings earlier when Clayton Kershaw, summoned to pitch in relief, allowed two solo home runs on three pitches to squander the Dodgers’ lead.

The Dodgers’ game plan in this series was to wait out the Nationals’ vaunted starting pitchers and exploit their dismal bullpen. On Wednesday, the Nationals, the heavy underdogs in the series, used the blueprint to topple the Dodgers.

The bullpen performance spoiled a sparkling six-inning effort from Walker Buehler and sent the Dodgers to their earliest exit since 2015 while the Nationals advanced to the National League Championship Series for the first time.

Kershaw, the Dodgers’ Game 2 starter, entered in relief, and didn’t waste time. He struck out Eaton with three pitches, finishing him off 89-mph slider he swung through. Kershaw released a roar. His next three pitches offered different results.

The first was a curveball to Anthony Rendon below the zone to start the eighth inning. The next was another pitch below the zone, a slider, that Rendon golfed into the left field pavilion. The next was a slider up in the zone to Juan Soto. The 20-year-old wunderkind smashed it into the other pavilion. Kershaw crouched when the loud contact was made. He didn’t bother to look. Moments later, he handed the ball to Roberts and walked off the field to boos. He took a seat on the bench by himself.

—–

From Times columnist Bill Plaschke: This is not real. This cannot be happening.

The Dodgers did not just collapse all over October again. The Dodgers did not just blow another season with their Hall of Fame pitcher crumbling again. The Dodgers did not just extend a 31-year championship drought with boneheaded bullpen decisions by their manager again.

Yes, they did. Good Lord, they did.

The nightmare that never ends continued in its most fitful, frightful fashion yet Wednesday at the October house of horrors known as Dodger Stadium surrounded by the postseason demons that have inhabited Clayton Kershaw and Dave Roberts.

In the fifth and deciding game of the National League Division Series against the Washington Nationals, the Dodgers held a 3-1 lead in the eighth inning with the ball inexplicably in Kershaw’s hands. Three pitches and two blasted home runs later, the game was tied.

Two innings after that, with the ball equally inexplicably in the hands of reliever Joe Kelly, a 10th-inning grand slam by the Nationals’ Howie Kendrick finished it.

Before a booing crowd that’d been earlier stunned into silence, the Dodgers’ season ended in a 7-3 defeat that marked the worst collapse in their current seven-year postseason run.

No, seriously, this was bad, this was really, really, really bad. “Disappointing is an understatement,” Roberts said.

They win a club record 106 games over six months, and their championship hopes end in less than a week. They have arguably their best team in 31 years and overwhelm the mediocre National League for the entire season, yet when they finally play a game that matters, they blow it.

They tease their fans with seemingly their best chance at breaking their World Series championship dry spell, yet those fans end the game staring in shock at a pile of Nationals dancing and hugging on the field.

Just like the Boston Red Sox celebrated there last year. Just like the Houston Astros celebrated there two seasons ago.

This was worse than all of that, worse than those losses to the St. Louis Cardinals, worse than the collapse against the New York Mets, worse than anything.

This was the worst because the Dodgers had the lead, and momentum from a brilliant 62/3 innings from Walker Buehler, and power from two home runs in the game’s first two innings.

This was the worst because when the eighth inning began, Chavez Ravine was rocking and the Nationals were reeling and the Dodger bullpen was filled with rested and reliable relievers and the doggone game should have been over.

But Kershaw was on the mound. What was Kershaw doing on the mound?

—–

From Times columnist Dylan Hernandez: October was here and the Dodgers choked.

Again.

Ahead by two runs and only six outs from victory in the fifth and final game of a National League Division Series, the Dodgers found a way to lose Wednesday night.

The resulting despair was intensely familiar to this city, which is more than three decades removed from its last World Series championship. In these parts, baseball’s postseason has become synonymous with failure.

One particular detail of the defeat was especially recognizable. Costing the Dodgers their two-run advantage was their most accomplished, most respected and hardest-working player.

The player was Clayton Kershaw.

Again.

“Everything people say is true right now about postseason,” Kershaw said. “I understand that.”

The lead vanished over successive pitches delivered by Kershaw in the eighth inning that will live in infamy, a slider to Anthony Rendon that was whacked over the outfield fence and a slider to Juan Soto that met the same fate.

The 3-1 edge that Kershaw inherited from starter Walker Buehler was erased, setting up a go-ahead grand slam by Howie Kendrick in the 10th inning.

The Dodgers lost the game 7-3, and the series three games to two.

Kershaw was despondent.

“I let down the guys in the clubhouse,” he said. “That’s the hardest part every year. When you don’t win the last game of the season and you’re to blame for it, it’s not fun.”

His latest attempt to rewrite his postseason legacy resulted in only more autumnal heartbreak.

—–

OK, enough about that. Time for a…..

DODGERS POLL

Should Dave Roberts be fired as Dodgers manager? Click here to vote.

NL PLAYOFFS

At least the Dodgers made a game of it. For fans in Atlanta, it was over early as the St. Louis Cardinals scored 10 runs in the first inning on their way to a 13-1 win over the Braves.

The Cardinals, owners of the weakest offense among the field of playoff teams, never put a ball over the fence on Wednesday. They blew away the Braves’ cadre of pitchers with a series of tiny cuts. A game-opening walk drawn by Dexter Fowler, who had entered with one hit during this series, and a well-placed sacrifice bunt by Kolten Wong started the surge.

Paul Goldschmidt stroked a single into left field. Marcell Ozuna, who finished the best-of-five set with three doubles and two homers and tied with Goldschmidt for the series lead in hits (nine), sliced one the other way for a run. Then Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman muffed a would-be double-play ball off the bat of Yadier Molina. Everyone was safe.

The Cardinals poured on. They didn’t stop when Braves manager Brian Snitker lifted starter Mike Foltynewicz after they had sent eight to bat and taken a 4-0 lead. Starting pitcher Jack Flaherty drew a bases-loaded walk. Consecutive two-run doubles by Fowler and Wong and a third-strike wild pitch that got by catcher Brian McCann with two out gave the Cardinals a commanding 10-0 lead. No team had scored that many runs in the first inning of a playoff game.

NLCS schedule

All times Pacific. All games on TBS

Game 1: Friday, Washington at St. Louis, 5 p.m.

Game 2: Saturday, Washington at St. Louis, 1 p.m.

Game 3: Monday, St. Louis at Washington, TBD

Game 4: Tuesday, St. Louis at Washington, TBD

Game 5*: Wednesday, St. Louis at Washington, TBD

Game 6*: Oct. 18, Washington at St. Louis, TBD

Game 7*: Oct. 19, Washington at St. Louis, TBD

Houston-Tampa Bay ALDS schedule

Game 1: at Houston 6, Tampa Bay 2

Game 2: at Houston 3, Tampa Bay 1

Game 3: at Tampa Bay 10, Houston 3

Game 4: at Tampa Bay 4, Houston 1

Game 5: Today at Houston, 5:30 p.m., FS1

USC FOOTBALL

Interim athletic director Dave Roberts (no relation to the Dodgers manager) made clear in an interview with The Times that he won’t be the one to make a decision on the future of embattled football coach Clay Helton. Or anyone else, for that matter.

To make such a major move, Roberts said, would be “unfair” to whomever is hired for the AD job permanently.

“If a change was to be made, it would probably be the province of a new athletic director, not Dave Roberts,” the interim athletic director said of Helton. “But like I said, Clay is going to stand or fall on his record. So I mean, if he has a very successful season, I think he’ll be in good stead. If he doesn’t have a great season, the new AD is going to have to make that determination.

“I think it’s a fair statement to say that between now and the end of the season, unless something extraordinary happened, Dave Roberts isn’t going to be stepping in there, making the decision that really I think would be the province of a new AD.”’

ANGELS

Joe Maddon is not the only experienced candidate being considered for the Angels’ managerial opening.

The Angels also have former Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter and World Series champion John Farrell on their list of four candidates, according to people close to the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and requested anonymity.

Maddon interviewed in Anaheim on Monday, a meeting that was said to have gone well. Despite the obvious fit of Maddon, who spent the first three decades of his professional career with the Angels, general manager Billy Eppler has been adamant about considering other options to fill the opening caused by the firing of first-year manager Brad Ausmus.

KINGS

The Kings didn’t go empty-handed in their first road trip under new coach Todd McLellan, but they did end their three-game swing through Western Canada on the flattest of notes. In an 8-2 loss to the Canucks in Vancouver, they quickly fell behind in the first, faded after a brief second-period surge and were buried by four-straight Canucks goals in the third.

What parts of Wednesday’s loss did McLellan dislike?

“All 60 minutes,” he said. “I think it’s pretty obvious.”

As the Kings’ last line of defense, Jonathan Quick couldn’t bail them out either. In two games this season, the 33-year-old goalie has stopped just 42 of 56 shots. Though he was left on an island at times Wednesday, with many of the Canucks’ 25 shots coming from dangerous areas, his eight goals allowed still represented a career high.

RAMS

Speculation surrounding Todd Gurley’s left knee issue dominated the offseason, continued through training camp and remained a topic of discussion through the Rams’ first five games.

Now, add Gurley’s left thigh to the mix.

The Rams’ star running back did not practice Wednesday because of a thigh bruise apparently suffered during the Rams’ 30-29 loss to the Seattle Seahawks last Thursday. Players had a few days off before returning to work Monday and then had Tuesday off.

“It kind of caught us all off guard,” Rams coach Sean McVay said of Gurley’s injury.

Gurley is not the only starter with a lingering injury from the loss to the Seahawks. Cornerback Aqib Talib did not practice Wednesday because of a rib injury.

“You think it’s your typical bumps and bruises, and then it ends up being a little bit more than that,” McVay said of both conditions.

Could Gurley and Talib be held out against the 49ers?

“It’s hard to say. Just being Wednesday, we’ve still got some time,” McVay said. “The big thing was that they missed practice … and we’ll take it a day at a time.”

CLIPPERS

Kawhi Leonard’s Clippers debut is still on hold, the team announced Wednesday evening. After participating in practice, including taking his turn to guard explosive scorer Lou Williams, the team listed him as unavailable for a preseason game against the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night so he could rest.

Coach Doc Rivers said after practice he was not sure if Leonard would play against the Nuggets. “But I think he will play in one or two preseason games,” he added. “But I don’t know when.”

Leonard didn’t play in the Clippers’ two exhibition games in Hawaii against the Houston Rockets or Shanghai Sharks.

The Clippers have two more exhibition games after Thursday. They play Melbourne at Staples Center on Sunday afternoon and the Dallas Mavericks on Oct. 17 in Vancouver. The Clippers open the regular season hosting the Lakers on Oct. 22.

YOUR FAVORITE SPORTS MOMENT

What is your favorite all-time L.A. sports moment? Email me at [email protected] and tell me what it is and why and it could appear in a future daily sports newsletter or Morning Briefing.

Normally I save this spot for readers and not for co-workers, but this one was so special I waived the rule for today. This moment comes from Times employee Darrell Kunitomi:

Our family had a tremendous L.A. sports moment when our pops, Jack Kunitomi, was selected to be the Dodgers “Military Hero of the Game” on Sept., 2016.

“Our dad was an original Little Tokyo homeboy when L.A. was still a small town. He swam in the L.A. River, and he loved the game of baseball. His Dodger hero was Jackie Robinson, and dad was very happy to see Robinson’s jersey at the stadium, below the stands where only VIPs tread. Dad lived a long and interesting life – in 1941 things changed radically for dad and our community when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Japanese Americans had nothing to do with that, but our pops and mom (newlyweds) headed to a honeymoon of sorts at the Manzanar incarceration camp behind barbed wire. Dad later transferred to Heart Mountain, Wy., where he was drafted into Uncle Sam’s U.S. Army. He went willingly, he was loyal and patriotic, and he trained in the Military Intelligence Service. Dad left our mom and son Dale in camp, and served in the Philippines and Occupation of Japan. After the war he became a LAUSD teacher, and he had four more kids. I detail this because he was just another good American fellow, the sort of average guy who made up the Greatest Generation. It was such an honor the Dodgers bestowed on him. We were all moved when he was introduced during the game. The crowd rose to stand and cheer and applaud our dad, the average Japanese American Joe Citizen. What a proud moment for the family. We wished our mom had lived to see it.

But it was a moment before the game that will be most memorable. There was a crowd of photographers and others around dad near home plate. I was to the side and suddenly I sensed something odd about the people and the noise. On instinct I raised my camera. And Dodger manager Dave Roberts jogged in to shake dad’s hand, something they told us he doesn’t usually do. I got the shot as dad smiled the biggest smile he had smiled in years. The 100-year-old Los Angeles homeboy, all the way to the majors.

TODAY’S LOCAL MAJOR SPORTS SCHEDULE

All times Pacific

Ducks at Pittsburgh, 4 p.m., PRIME

BORN ON THIS DATE

1953: NBA player Gus Williams

1963: Former King Mike Donnelly

1969: NFL player Brett Favre

1972: Former King Alexei Zhitnik

1974: NHL player Chris Pronger

1974: Race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.

1984: Baseball player Troy Tulowitzki

1991: BMX rider Mariana Pajón

DIED ON THIS DATE

1978: Sprinter Ralph Metcalfe, 68

2001: Boxing trainer Eddie Futch, 90

2004: Baseball player Ken Caminiti, 41

2012: NFL player/actor Alex Karras, 77

AND FINALLY

Lowlights of Dodgers-Nationals Game 5. Watch it here.

That concludes the newsletter for today. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, please email me at [email protected]. If you want to subscribe, click here.

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With Santa Ana winds bringing red-flag fire danger to Southern California, the Los Angeles Police Department plans to remove some homeless people from camps in high-risk areas.

LAPD spokesman Josh Rubenstein said the removals will take place Wednesday night and Thursday. Officials did not release specific locations.

The city earlier this year passed an ordinance that makes it easier to clear homeless camps during fire danger periods.

The National Weather Service has issued red-flag warnings for parts of Southern California, saying there is a “critical fire danger” Thursday and Friday.

Los Angeles is particularly vulnerable to fires that start in hard-to-reach areas and then spread. In December 2017, for example, the Skirball fire was sparked by a cooking fire at a homeless encampment in a canyon several hundred feet from Sepulveda Boulevard and the 405 Freeway, hidden from passing cars.

The Skirball fire moved through the hills of one of L.A.’s richest ZIP Codes — in Bel-Air — and destroyed six homes. Though the blaze burned just 422 acres, it was notable because of how it started.

Months later, a Bel-Air synagogue sued the city and the County of Los Angeles, arguing that authorities had failed to clear the homeless encampment where it began. The case is ongoing.

More recently, a large fire in the Sepulveda Basin displaced dozens of homeless people and required 100 firefighters and two helicopters to put it out.

Southern California Edison said that, given the strong Santa Ana winds forecast for the area, power could be cut off to more than 173,000 customers in parts of eight Southland counties.

The outage could affect customers in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, as well as areas in Ventura County and portions of Kern, Tulare, Inyo and Mono counties.

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While millions in Northern California suffered through a massive power outage that began early Wednesday, residents in Southern California wondered whether they could see the same blackouts as officials deal with strong winds that could spark fires.

Southern California Edison said that, given the strong Santa Ana winds forecast for the area, power could be cut off to more than 173,000 customers in parts of eight Southland counties.

The outage could affect customers in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, as well as areas in Ventura County and portions of Kern, Tulare, Inyo and Mono counties.

Robert Villegas, an Edison spokesman, said Wednesday afternoon that the utility was continuing to monitor weather conditions with ground crews before deciding whether to switch off the power. He said Edison could not predetermine where — or when — shutoffs might take place.

“There’s no real way to know when that will be,” Villegas said. “We’re all waiting on the weather.”

The utility will make decisions on a “circuit by circuit basis,” he said, with each circuit providing service to 10 to 50 customers.

The National Weather Service has issued red flag warnings for parts of Southern California.

San Diego Gas & Electric officials say the utility might have to temporarily shut off power to about 30,000 customers beginning Thursday.

“If we do turn off power, it will stay off until we can safely restore it,” the utility said in a statement.

SDG&E officials said they warned customers in fire-prone areas of the county about the potential preventive shutoffs, known as “Public Safety Power Shutoffs,” via outbound dialer calls, texts and emails Tuesday evening.

The mountains and valleys of San Diego County will be under a red flag warning from noon Thursday to 6 p.m. Friday with the expected arrival of Santa Ana winds.

Here are details for the potential Edison power interruptions.

Los Angeles County (about 49,439 customers)

• Lancaster
• Palmdale
• La Cañada Flintridge
• Malibu
• Pasadena
• Chatsworth
• San Fernando
• Santa Clarita
• Unincorporated areas including Acton, Agua Dulce, Boiling Point, White Heather, Sunland, Tujunga, La Crescenta, Montrose, Wildwood, Canyon Country, Newhall, Forest Park, Sleepy Valley, Del Valle, Leona Valley, Plum Canyon, Alpine, Merrie Dell, Indian Springs, Jumper Hills, Valencia, Stevenson Ranch, Mount Wilson, Valyermo, Paradise Springs, Humphreys, Placerita Canyon State Park, Little Rock, Pearblossom, Quartz Hill, Lake Hughes, Green Valley, Elizabeth Lake, Sylmar, Portal Ridge, Three Points, Upper Big Tujunga Canyon, and near Antelope Valley and unincorporated areas of Chatsworth and Sylmar

San Bernardino County (about 40,978 customers)

• Big Bear
• Calimesa
• Fontana
• Hesperia
• Rancho Cucamonga
• Rialto
• San Bernardino
• Yucaipa
• Yucca Valley
• Unincorporated areas, including the communities of Doble and Upper Holcomb Valley, Cajon Pass, Devore, Etiwanda, Lucerne Valley, Lytle Creek, Running Springs, Lake Arrowhead, Cedar Pines Park, Valley of Enchantment, Crestline, Valley View Park, Joshua Tree, Homestead Valley, Oak Hills, Muscoy, Green Valley Lake, Morongo Valley and unincorporated areas near Yucca Valley

Ventura County (about 23,139 customers)

• Fillmore
• Camarillo
• Simi Valley
• Santa Rosa Valley
• Ventura
• Unincorporated areas, including Sespe, Oak Village, north of Moorpark, Piru, Elkins Ranch Golf Course, Leesdale, north Fillmore, Santa Susana, Stauffer, Sycamore Canyon, Solromar, unincorporated areas near Piru and communities near Telegraph Road

Riverside County (about 21,366 customers)

• Banning
• Beaumont
• Calimesa
• Hemet
• San Jacinto
• Menifee
• Moreno Valley
• Perris
• Unincorporated Riverside County, including the communities of Whitewater and Bonnie Bell, Banning Pass, Cabazon, Owl, portions of Desert Hills Outlet Mall, North Palm Springs, Gilman Hot Springs, Lakeview, Nuevo, Mons, Mead Valley, Eden Hot Springs, Mountain Center, Good Hope and unincorporated areas near Beaumont and Banning

Orange County (about 7,250 customers)

• Rancho Santa Margarita
• Orange
• Unincorporated areas, including North Tustin

Kern County (about 19,313 customers)

• Tehachapi
• Unincorporated areas, including Frazier Park, Lake of the Woods, Pine Mountain Club, Bodfish, Kernville, Wofford Heights, Lake Isabella, Camp Owens, Lebec, Bear Valley Springs, Stallion Springs, Keene, Golden Hills, Sand Canyon, Alpine Forest, Manolith, Weldon, Bella Vista, Monolith, Onyx, Canebrake, and unincorporated areas of Walker Basin and Kernville

Mono County (about 13,963 customers)

• Mammoth Lakes
• Unincorporated areas near Bishop, including the community of Paradise and portion of Swall Meadows, Sunny Slopes, Mammoth Lakes (Trails, Core, North, Slopes), June Lake Village, Loop, Crestview, Mono Lake, Mono City, North Conway, Willow Springs, Bridgeport, Old Mammoth, Mammoth Lakes Basin, Lee Vining, Lee Vining Canyon, Falls Creek Tract and Bridgeport Valley to Twin Lakes

Inyo County (about 131 customers)

• Unincorporated areas near Bishop, including Aspendell and Round Valley

Tulare County (about 108 customers)

• Unincorporated areas, including Fairview and Johnsondale

Fry and Cosgrove are Times staff writers. Robbins writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. KTLA contributed to this report.

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Millions of Californians could spend days without power as the state’s largest utility continues shutting off electricity in a desperate attempt to avoid wildfires sparked by windblown power lines.

The first power cutoffs, affecting about 513,000 Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customers, began shortly after midnight Wednesday in several counties around Sacramento, including Placer and Yuba. Roughly five hours later, the outages had extended to Humboldt County to the north, Marin County to the south and Nevada County to the east, according to a map provided by the utility.

The second phase of the shut-off was expected to begin about noon in areas around Silicon Valley and the East San Francisco Bay Area, but the utility said those outages would be delayed until later in the day. About 234,000 customers in Alameda, Alpine, Contra Costa, Mariposa, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and parts of Mendocino and Calaveras counties were expected to lose power by the evening.

At a Wednesday evening news conference, PG&E officials told reporters that they had reconfigured the company’s electrical system to return service to about 44,000 customers who lost power during the first phase of shutdowns, and they were trying to return service to between 60,000 and 80,000 customers in Humboldt County after determining the area wasn’t going to experience the high winds that were previously forecast. Because of a change in the forecast, PG&E also reduced the number of residents in Kern County who would lose power from 46,000 to 4,600.

The PG&E blackouts will ultimately affect 34 counties in Central and Northern California, more than half of the counties in the state. Overall, 800,000 customers will be affected with more than 2 million people in the dark as potentially hazardous winds continue to strengthen throughout the day.

In Southern California, residents have anxiously watched how the power shutdowns have affected other parts of the state, wondering whether it was a glimpse at what was to come for them.

Southern California Edison said Wednesday that it was also considering preventive power outages. Given the strong Santa Ana winds forecast for the area, the utility said, power could be cut off to more than 173,000 customers in parts of eight Southern California counties. The outage could affect customers in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, as well as areas in Ventura County and portions of Kern, Tulare, Inyo and Mono counties.

Customers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will not lose power as a result of a shut-off, as the utility that serves the city does not turn off power to customers before or during wind events.

“Due to our location in a highly urbanized area with far fewer wildfire prone areas, we do not face the same threat of wildfire as many of the rural counties located in other service areas served by the larger investor-owned utilities,” LADWP said in a statement.

The move by PG&E marks the largest power shut-off to date as California utilities attempt to reduce wildfire risks amid strong winds. Equipment malfunctions have been tied to some of the state’s most destructive and deadliest fires, including last year’s Camp fire, which devastated the town of Paradise and killed 85 people, and the 2017 wine country blazes.

At the company’s evening press conference, PG&E officials acknowledged that, from their perspective, these types of massive shut-offs during fire season might be the new normal.

Sumeet Singh, vice president of PG&E’s community wildfire safety program, said customers should anticipate similar shutdowns in the future until the utility has finished its wildfire safety plan “unless the weather changes significantly and the vegetation condition and the fuel loading condition, and land and the forest management changes significantly within the state.”

Based on the latest forecasts, the utility says it expects high winds will last through midday Thursday, with peak winds reaching 70 mph through Thursday morning. Gusty winds and low humidity across much of the northern section of the state prompted the National Weather Service on Wednesday to issue an extreme fire weather warning.

Once the fire weather subsides, PG&E will inspect and test the grid both electronically and with on-site crews before restoring service. That could take up to five days, a company official said.

PG&E has 6,300 ground personnel and several helicopters to perform that work, but for safety reasons, can only do safety inspections during daylight hours, according to the company.

“The safety of our customers and the communities we serve is our most important responsibility, which is why PG&E has decided to turn power off to customers during this widespread, severe wind event. We understand the effects this event will have on our customers and appreciate the public’s patience as we do what is necessary to keep our communities safe and reduce the risk of wildfire,” said Michael Lewis, PG&E’s senior vice president of electric operations.

The state’s fire protection agency has not studied whether the power cutoffs have had any effect on the number of wildfires that California has seen, the agency’s spokesman said.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is not part of the decision-making process when a utility is trying to determine whether to cut power, said Cal Fire spokesman Scott McLean.

“We’re like everybody else — we adapt accordingly,” McLean said. “These power outages aren’t hampering our response capabilities. We’re making sure we have the power and logistical support we need to keep functioning.”

McLean said he couldn’t speak to whether Cal Fire leaders felt the outages were helpful, because the agency hasn’t studied the matter, but he did want the public to remember one particular bit of information.

“Ninety-five percent of all wildfires are human-caused, and that doesn’t mean arson by any means,” he said, adding that people needed to be mindful of any activities that could produce a spark, from mowing the lawn to using chains to tow a car.

The power shut-offs have generated backlash, with some residents saying they create a whole new set of dangers as they try to watch for news about fires. There is also concern about those with health issues who rely on electrically powered medical equipment to stay alive. Critics worry that communications and evacuations will be hampered if the power is out, especially if traffic signals don’t work and cellphone service is affected.

“I think this is a tacit admission that they recognize their liability for huge wildfires we’ve had and that their grid has a lot of deficiencies,” James Moore, an attorney from Auburn in Placer County, said of the widespread outages.

Moore, 35, said he realized the power had been cut off when his CPAP machine stopped working overnight. Moore and his wife, Kristen, tried to prepare as best they could with limited notice, filling cars with gas and buying ice to keep refrigerated items cold, he said.

Their home has electric appliances, so cooking will be limited to a propane grill they use for camping. And because an electric pump brings water to the property, the couple also will not have running water.

“I wish they would have been more transparent in informing people earlier of their plan to do these kind of power shut-offs,” Moore said. “I recognize the weather is not something they can predict very far in the future, but the fact they’re turning off power in 34 counties is a humongous inconvenience, to say the least.”

Lilli Heart, 73, a jeweler who works out of her home crafting pendants, bracelets and other decorative objects out of Swarovski crystals, lost everything when the Camp fire swept through Paradise 11 months ago. She’s back on her feet, living in a lakefront home in Cottonwood, but on Wednesday, she was struggling to maintain a positive outlook after her power was cut off.

At first her Facebook posts were upbeat, even cheerful.

“Ok power now down glad I just got my bowl of ice cream eating by flashlight,” she wrote and signed off with a heart emoji.

Eleven or so hours later, she was still mostly holding her own: “The wind is certainly strong today,” she posted to Facebook. “My hummingbirds are struggling to get to their feeders. They are freaking out. Cold here too. So with no electricity or propane I used what was left to get some hot water out of the tap the last of it to make more nectar for them.”

And another heart.

By lunchtime, though, all bets were off. She’d swung by the vet to pick up medication for her ailing rescue cat and his cancerous thyroid. She headed to the market to pick up groceries, knowing the place was cash-only and all she had on hand was $15. She answered her cellphone and let loose on PG&E and its crippled electrical grid.

“I’m really mad at them,” Heart fumed. “We’ve had high winds in California for years and they’ve never shut down the power. It’s unconscionable. They’re talking about possibly six days. I have nine orders today. I can’t fill my orders. And that’s just me. Some people are on oxygen. I think the governor needs to step in and do something.”

Online chat boards dedicated to monitoring police and fire activity in rural counties were filled with residents asking for help and advice. Some said the short notice of blackouts had caused turmoil as people searched for open gas stations to buy fuel for generators and rushed to buy batteries and other supplies.

Brady Miller, a resident of Red Bluff, about two hours north of Sacramento, said he barely had cell service and no way to charge his phone, lamenting he had only flashlights and canned goods to get through the power outage.

“It sucks,” he said. “Twenty-four-hour notice gave panic to our community.”

Angie Sheets of El Dorado Hills noticed that generators were flying off the shelves at Costco as she shopped for groceries earlier in the week. Considering the nearly $1,000 worth of food she planned to purchase and the imminent power outage, Sheets said, she called her husband to talk about buying one for their home.

“By the time I had done that, the last big generator was gone off the shelves,” she said.

Her husband, a law enforcement officer, found a generator at a Costco in Rancho Cordova and paid about $600 for it. On Tuesday night, they filled up their bathtubs with water, unsure whether the toilets would flush without electricity. Sheets went to Safeway to pick up more bottled water and said a line of cars snaked around the gas station parking lot.

“In this particular area, they did say we could lose power for up to seven days,” Sheets said. “I think that’s what’s making people on edge, the fear of the unknown and wanting to be safe for your family.”

Families in Rocklin, a city in Placer County about 20 miles from Sacramento, went to sleep Tuesday night unsure whether schools would be open in the morning or whether they would have electricity.

Ultimately, power was cut to homes in parts of the city, but the campuses in the Rocklin Unified School District opened as scheduled. Residents flooded a nearby Starbucks that still had power early Wednesday to charge electronics and buy a hot cup of coffee.

About an hour away in Placerville, the power went off around 3 a.m., leaving many angry and scrambling for supplies.

Placerville Hardware owner Albert Fausel had his store’s cash registers running on a generator at midmorning as customers roamed the aisles in darkness, loading up on flashlights, oil lamps and batteries.

Some lamented that the utility had shut off power amid only a slight breeze.

“There isn’t a tree moving right now because of the wind, and we don’t have power,” Tod Pickett said as he bought battery-powered lamps from the hardware store. “And they are telling us there’s a hurricane.”

State Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) said people in his district understand that power shut-offs may save lives and prevent the kinds of wildfires that have devastated the community, but he expressed frustration over the outages before wind speeds had even picked up.

“Now for 12 hours the power has been shut off, and there’s no justification based on the wind speeds that we have anywhere in Napa County,” Dodd said. “It’s totally acceptable for the power to be shut off when people are in danger and a fire could start. My constituents get that. But this is beyond belief.”

Daniel Barnes, who has lived in Placerville for 11 years, shook his head as he stood downtown, where many shops and restaurants were closed. Typically, the area is packed with tourists and shoppers. But on Wednesday, the only major activity was traffic lights blinking.

“This is the politics of power generation,” Barnes said. “It’s devastating to the economy of a small town like this.”

Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin said although his community of about 65,000 has lost power, he feels better prepared for outages this week than he has in prior shut-offs, when some criticized PG&E for failing to communicate with local officials and emergency responders.

Martin said the county is working closely with PG&E to locate residents with sensitive medical needs and those who may need power to survive. Schools closed in anticipation of the outages, and hospitals, county courthouses, government offices and traffic signals are operating off generators, he said.

“It’s having a significant impact on us as a community up here,” Martin said. “I think we’re as prepared as we can be.”

Denise Boldway, owner of Blossoms Florist in Eureka, said the outage launched the city into pandemonium.

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“You couldn’t get gas last night, and there was a two-hour wait at the grocery store to check out. Stoplights are out today, and traffic is backed up in every direction,” she said.

Still, she says, she fully supports PG&E’s decision to cut the power.

“The winds are 30 to 45 mph today and you don’t even want to walk outside,” she said. “I feel like it’s totally justified.”

Outages forced the closure of several schools across Northern California, including UC Berkeley, which canceled classes after it was notified by PG&E that power would be cut for up to 48 hours, according to a statement by university officials.

The California State University system also had to cancel classes at Sonoma State and Humboldt State, which together have about 17,000 students.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that he supports the utility’s decision to take “proactive measures” in the face of severe wildfire conditions. But he again lashed out at PG&E leadership for not making more efforts to prepare the company’s infrastructure for fire danger.

“They’re in bankruptcy because of their terrible management, going back decades,” Newsom said at a housing-related event in San Diego. “It’s time for them to do the right thing. Get out of bankruptcy and get this system into the 21st century.”

Times staff writers Joseph Serna, James Peltz, Alejandra Reyes-Velarde, Anita Chabria, Melody Gutierrez and John Myers contributed to this report.

PLACERVILLE, Calif. — 

Classes were canceled. Frozen foods melted. Hospitals switched to emergency generators. Blooms withered in florists’ coolers. Unused food was jettisoned at shuttered restaurants. Lines formed at gas stations. Cellphones faded out.

That’s what happened Wednesday when the state’s largest utility shut off power to millions of Californians in a drastic attempt to avoid the killer wildfires that have charred hundreds of thousands of acres, caused billions of dollars in damage and spurred cries for widespread change in how electricity is delivered over the state’s aging grid.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. began cutting power to customers shortly after midnight in counties around Sacramento. By the end of the day, the outages had radiated out to encompass 34 counties, with all but seven counties north of Merced at least partly in the dark.

About 800,000 customers were expected to lose power Wednesday, leaving more than 2 million people without lights, air conditioning, computers and refrigerators. Gusty conditions are expected through Thursday morning, and PG&E fears windblown electrical lines could spark fires if power is not cut.

The move by PG&E marks the largest power shut-off to date as California utilities attempt to reduce wildfire risks. Equipment malfunctions have been tied to some of the state’s most destructive and deadliest fires, including the 2017 wine country blazes and last year’s Camp fire, which devastated the town of Paradise and killed 85 people.

In January, PG&E filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, anticipating multibillion-dollar legal claims stemming from the Camp fire, which also destroyed nearly 14,000 homes. A month later, officials at the utility acknowledged that its equipment probably sparked that blaze.

“The safety of our customers and the communities we serve is our most important responsibility, which is why PG&E has decided to turn power off to customers during this widespread, severe wind event,” Michael Lewis, PG&E’s senior vice president of electric operations, said Wednesday. “We understand the effects this event will have on our customers and appreciate the public’s patience as we do what is necessary to keep our communities safe and reduce the risk of wildfire.”

But tempers flared against the utility everyone loves to hate — enough so that a cautious PG&E erected barriers around its San Francisco headquarters Wednesday. At the same time, the California Highway Patrol was investigating whether someone shot at a PG&E truck Tuesday night.

The CHP initially reported that a rock had shattered the passenger-side window of one of the utility’s vehicles, which was traveling south on Interstate 5 in the small Northern California town of Maxwell. But when an officer took a closer look, there was “some evidence that it might have been a bullet that hit the window,” said Officer Cal Robertson of the CHP’s Northern Division.

PG&E officials did not respond to a request for comment.

The big question circulating through darkened homes and stores Wednesday was whether cutting power is even a good way to stop wildfires.

The state’s fire protection agency has not studied whether power cutoffs have had any effect on the number of wildfires in California, said Scott McLean, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which is not part of the decision-making process when a utility considers such a drastic measure.

“We’re like everybody else — we adapt accordingly,” McLean said. “These power outages aren’t hampering our response capabilities. We’re making sure we have the power and logistical support we need to keep functioning.”

UC Berkeley economics professor Severin Borenstein spent much of Wednesday like everyone else in Northern California: preparing for the PG&E blackout to arrive. Classes were canceled at UC Berkeley, which was notified by PG&E that power would be cut to most of the core campus by 11 a.m.

Without a backup generator or a stockpile of spare phone chargers, Borenstein’s plan to keep his refrigerator cool and his phone running was to connect each device to a charger that would get juice from his car, which he’d leave idling as long as necessary.

“I’ve packed the freezer with ice to keep it cool, but if I can run [the refrigerator] off our car for a couple of hours a day to bring it to minimum temperature, that will help,” Borenstein said. “It’s a pain in the ass. This is why we live in a modern economy, so we don’t have to spend most of our lives doing these things.”

But how Borenstein and millions of other Californians — and the utilities that serve them — arrived at this point began long before this week’s weather forecast or the fires that have ravaged the state over the last few years.

PG&E’s shutdown strategy to avoid starting fires is the result of California’s energy economy being thrown off balance by climate change, Borenstein said. Southern California Edison has announced that it also could cut power to customers, but on a smaller scale. San Diego Gas & Electric Co. has taken similar measures in the past.

“Utilities have been having transmission and distribution failures since there’s been electricity, and they’ve started fires,” Borenstein said. “The difference is in the last decade we’ve seen the start of massive fires in ways that weren’t happening before.”

Because of the blackout, classes were canceled at campuses throughout Northern California. All facilities in the El Dorado Union High School District in the Sierra foothills east of Sacramento were closed Wednesday; the district said it would extend the cancellations into a second day Thursday. The California State University system canceled classes at Sonoma State and Humboldt State, affecting about 17,000 students.

In the Sierra foothills town of Placerville, the power went out about 3 a.m., leaving many residents angry and scrambling for supplies. Customers roamed the aisles of Placerville Hardware in darkness at midmorning, loading up on flashlights, oil lamps and batteries. Cash registers ran on a generator.

“There isn’t a tree moving right now because of the wind,” said Tod Pickett, who was buying battery-powered lamps. “And they are telling us there’s a hurricane. There are 12 billion reasons why PG&E is sticking it to us,” he continued, referring to the monetary settlements paid after past fires.

Pickett wasn’t the only Californian on Wednesday to accuse PG&E of putting its interests ahead of its customers’. Lilli Heart eventually took the utility to task, too. But it took her a while to reach that point.

The power in her lakefront home in Cottonwood went out at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. At first, her Facebook posts were upbeat, even cheerful. She’d lost everything in the Camp fire 11 months earlier, so what’s a little darkness to a 73-year-old survivor who fled Paradise and started over?

“OK power now down glad I just got my bowl of ice cream eating by flashlight,” she wrote, signing off with a heart emoji.

Eleven or so hours later, she was still mostly holding her own: “The wind is certainly strong today,” she posted to Facebook. “My hummingbirds are struggling to get to their feeders. They are freaking out. Cold here too. So with no electricity or propane I used what was left to get some hot water out of the tap the last of it to make more nectar for them.”

And another heart.

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By lunchtime, though, all bets were off. She’d swung by the vet to pick up medication for her ailing rescue cat and his cancerous thyroid. She then headed to the market for groceries, knowing the place was cash only and all she had on hand was $15.

When Heart answered her cellphone, she let loose on PG&E and its hobbled electrical grid.

“I’m really mad at them,” fumed the jewelry maker who works from a home studio. “We’ve had high winds in California for years and they’ve never shut down the power. It’s unconscionable…. They’re talking about possibly six days. I have nine orders today. I can’t fill my orders. And that’s just me. Some people are on oxygen. I think the governor needs to step in and do something.”

The governor did do something Wednesday, but not what Heart had in mind. At a housing-related event in San Diego, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he supports the utility’s decision to take “proactive measures” in the face of severe wildfire conditions.

But he lashed out, again, at PG&E leadership for not putting more effort over the years into preparing the company’s infrastructure for inevitable fire danger.

“They’re in bankruptcy because of their terrible management, going back decades,” Newsom said. “It’s time for them to do the right thing — get out of bankruptcy and get this system into the 21st century.”

Not everyone was venting Wednesday.

Lake County lost power in the early morning, in such widespread fashion that Sheriff Brian Martin said he thought it was “virtually our entire county that is shut off.”

Unlike in earlier power outages, PG&E is working closely with the county to locate residents with sensitive medical needs who may rely on power to survive. Hospitals, county courthouses, local government offices and traffic signals are operating off generators.

“It’s having a significant impact on us as a community up here,” Martin said. “I think we’re as prepared as we can be.”

Luna and McGreevy reported from Northern California; La Ganga and Serna from Los Angeles. Times staff writers John Myers, Anita Chabria, Melody Gutierrez, Maura Dolan and Phil Willon in Northern California and Hannah Fry, Jaclyn Cosgrove, James Peltz, Richard Winton, Colleen Shalby, Liam Dillon and Alejandra Reyes-Velarde in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Thursday, Oct. 10, and Julia Wick is on assignment. I’m Shelby Grad.

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Classes were canceled. Frozen foods melted. Traffic lights went dark. Hospitals switched to emergency generators. Blooms withered in florists’ coolers. Unused food was jettisoned at shuttered restaurants. Lines formed at gas stations. Cellphones faded out. And people were angry — very angry at the unprecedented power blackout launched by Pacific Gas & Electric to prevent wind-driven wildfires.

[Read the story “Millions without power as PG&E blackouts bring concern, anger, resolve,” with dispatches from across California by the Los Angeles Times]

A dark day: The great blackout of 2019 was a humiliating moment for California decades in the making, a perfect storm of poor infrastructure, ignored warnings and a changing climate. Los Angeles Times

‘Pandaemonium’: A run on gasoline, portable generators and other supplies hit some areas. And does any one have a spare refrigerator? Los Angeles Times

Distrust: PG&E was already disdained in many quarters after its equipment sparked some of California’s worst fires. But the blackout only added to anger at the bankrupt utility. Los Angeles Times

Next? Southern California Edison said that power could be cut off to more than 173,000 customers in parts of eight Southland counties, given the strong Santa Ana winds forecast for the area. Los Angeles Times

Maps: Where PG&E may shut off power and where Southern California Edison may do the same.

Plus:

• Yes, you can survive with your cellphone. Los Angeles Times
• PG&E’s website could not handle the blackout. Bloomberg
• Gov. Gavin Newsom, the blackout and his winery. San Francisco Chronicle
• The PG&E bankruptcy keeps getting messier. Wall Street Journal

TIMES INVESTIGATION

An L.A. Times review of inspection reports and court records has revealed serious failures of oversight in the care of patients at Kedren Community Health Center’s acute psychiatric hospital, a key resource for people struggling with mental illness. Among the cases: a patient allegedly killed by his roommate, a patient who reported being choked by a Kedren employee, and claims by former employees of retaliation for reporting misconduct. The claims have focused scrutiny on a historic institution founded in the ashes of the Watts riots that for more than 50 years has been a mainstay of mental health, primary care, education and other family services.

DODGERS

After the Dodgers set a franchise record for regular-season victories, the team’s postseason came to a stunning end. Up 3 to 0 over the underdog Washington Nationals, the Dodgers proceeded to give up seven runs, including a 10th-inning grand slam. To say L.A. fans are displeased with manager Dave Roberts right now would be an understatement. Los Angeles Times

L.A. STORIES

Liquor stores were a flashpoint after the 1992 L.A. riots. Do they still have a place in South L.A. in 2019? Curbed Los Angeles

For many L.A. Latinos, Trump has become a call to action. But what can they actually do? Los Angeles Times

The iconic Sportsmen’s Lodge sign was almost lost to the trash dump. Now it is being preserved. Los Angeles Daily News

“The Real Bros of Simi Valley” is not actually shot in the Ventura County city. But it does capture something funny about suburbia. Los Angeles Times

The survival of coastal bobcats and foxes might lie in finding a way to get them across Interstate 5. Orange County Register

A sign of the season: Porto’s turkey, potato gravy balls are back. San Gabriel Valley Tribune

CRIME AND COURTS

The notorious Chowchilla kidnapper will stay behind bars. Fresno Bee

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Just over half of public school students who took the state’s standardized English language arts test performed at grade level, while only 4 in 10 are proficient in math. The scores represent a slow upward trend over the last four years. Los Angeles Times

The tiny San Diego County hamlet of Campo is pretty much a ghost town. But you can own it if the price is right. San Diego Union-Tribune

Del Mar’s war over sea level rise and climate change is getting more intense. San Diego Union-Tribune

ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE

Gov. Newsom signed into law Wednesday a bill designed to open the elusive beaches at Hollister Ranch — a significant move forward under his administration on an issue that has stalled for decades in the face of powerful landowners. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Silicon Valley is trying to embrace a pretty basic concept in the business world: Make a profit. So high fliers are asking: What is that? New York Times

How L.A. has become the capital of the calm business. Los Angeles Times

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The tarantulas invading part of the Bay Area are just trying to make a love connection. Wall Street Journal

The LAX Theme Building is an L.A. architecture gem, but it was never very successful as a restaurant. Blame TSA security. LAist

The fight over Hong Kong has become a sensitive issue in the gamer world. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: mostly sunny, 81. San Diego: sunny, 75. San Francisco: mostly sunny, 77. San Jose: mostly sunny, 80. Sacramento: sunny, 80. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

― Michael Connelly, “The Brass Verdict”

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints, ideas and unrelated book recommendations to Julia Wick. Follow her on Twitter @Sherlyholmes.

When Pilar Schiavo got word that a homeless housing project might be going up near her daughter’s school, Chatsworth Park Elementary, she went on the parents’ Facebook page “to ask some questions and get the facts.”

Four hours later, Schiavo logged off — still short on facts, and chastened by an online juggernaut of parents rallying to block the project.

Later that week, a protest over what would be the northwest Valley’s only homeless housing project drew dozens of Chatsworth residents to a vacant car lot on Topanga Canyon Boulevard proposed as a site for the complex.

It was a reprise of protests over homeless housing that have taken place in other communities: Venice, Koreatown, Sherman Oaks, San Pedro.

Chatsworth had always seemed to me like such a live-and-let-live place. Tucked up against the Santa Susana Mountains, it’s where my girls played soccer, our family hiked and rock-climbed, and I dabbled in horseback riding. So I headed for the early morning protest to see what the grumbling was about.

On this Wednesday morning, their protest drew dozens of Chatsworth residents to the shuttered car lot on Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

The project’s opponents massed on the sidewalk, waving “Protect Our Children” signs, buoyed by honks of support from cars and trucks crawling along the busy thoroughfare.

One block away, on the sidewalk outside the elementary school, Schiavo stood with a small group of parents and local activists willing to give the project a chance. They had signs too — “Moms Support Transitional Housing” — but nobody honked.

Schiavo had grilled the project developer and was passing out a fact sheet she composed “because parents just want to know more,” she said.

It won’t be a “shelter,” as protest signs proclaimed, but a building with individual apartments and resources like job training and drug treatment. It would have 63 tenants; six floors, not seven; and take three years to build.

“I’m inclined to support it if the services are reasonable,” Schiavo told me. “There are seniors and veterans and people who want to get off the streets. We can’t keep saying ‘not in my backyard.’”

But in this case “not in my backyard” literally is the project’s sticking point.

The six-story complex would dwarf everything around it; you can drive for miles in Chatsworth and not pass another building that tall.

From its rooftop terrace, residents would be able to see into the backyards of homes on the quiet street behind it.

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“We are all for helping everyone,” said Sajan Joseph, a Chatsworth resident. But he grew up in one of those houses, and his parents still live there. “That’s a lot to ask, for neighbors to give up their privacy.”

Privacy is part of the lifestyle that suburban privilege provides: “Would you want to be the homeowner looking up at a seven-story building in your backyard?” protester Marc Becker asked me.

To be honest, no, I would not.

****

Chatsworth is not a place where you’re stepping around sidewalk tent cities. But homeless people sleep in the parks or frequent the local library. Battered RVs line main streets. And folks in some neighborhoods complain that homeless people bed down on their lawns. Still, most tents come down in the morning, as the city requires. And most encampments are out of sight, on side streets in the sprawl of industrial parks or tucked away in brush-covered areas near the railroad tracks or along the wash.

The opposition here is more than a quality of life issue. It’s also a clash of values, rooted in an ethos of self-reliance that dates back to Chatsworth’s pioneer roots. Some residents bristle at what they consider the willful shiftlessness of people living on the streets.

“It’s like they’re some protected class,” Becker complained. “It’s not our fault that they choose to do nothing with their life.”

His Chatsworth is a mix of modest tract homes on quiet streets, ranches and rustic canyon cabins, and gated mansions on hills with million-dollar views. Some folks still ride horses and raise chickens. On its main drag, Les Sisters soul food restaurant sits across from the Cowboy Palace, a country music joint.

Many of the people I spoke to at the protest say they voted with the majority three years ago to tax themselves to build 10,000 units of housing for homeless people across Los Angeles.

Yet, their San Fernando Valley council district is the only one that hasn’t yet committed to building a single unit.

Some locals see the problem through a veil of resentment, filtered by stereotypes: They’ve worked hard to buy nice homes in safe neighborhoods, and they’re not going to bring their community down by hosting vagrants from around the country or coddling drug addicts.

This project has become a lens through which they view the ills of the big city: The developers are greedy, the mayor is grandstanding, city officials are inept and no one listens to them.

“This is a community where we watch out for one another,” Shannon Wetzel told me, as she handed out fliers urging protesters to voice their opinions before the plan goes to the L.A. City Council for approval. Chatsworth has been “handcuffed,” she said, to something that will only hurt them.

“I am not being insensitive to those people who ARE homeless, but me helping them should NOT be at the expense of MY lifestyle,” Wetzel complained in an email asking her councilman, John Lee, to get more involved.

“The silent majority HAS to speak-up in an educated fashion or we will get run-over!”

****

Kathy Huck runs a homeless outreach ministry. She lives in suburban Simi Valley, but she knows what it feels like to be stranded on the streets. Domestic violence had her on the run when she was young, until she was able to tap her military service benefits and earn her college degree.

Now she’s part of what she hopes is the true silent majority: churchgoers, do-gooders and everyday people who try to make things easier for people living on the streets.

Every month, Huck makes the rounds of homeless encampments in Chatsworth, delivering clothing, food, supplies and spiritual support. On the day of the protest, she showed up to answer questions residents might have.

“They told me, ‘We’re worried about how are we going to monitor what they’re doing?’” Huck said, shaking her head at the irony: As if homeowners are the only ones entitled to privacy.

“I understand their side,” she insists. They worry about trash, disorder, falling property values.

But the way she sees it, that’s not much different from what people thought 50 years ago, when her father tried to use his GI Bill to move their family into a suburban neighborhood near Chicago.

“No white family would sell to us,” she recalled. “They thought blacks would bring the neighborhood down. When I see that same resistance here to homeless people, it hurts me personally.”

Still Huck is hopeful, because she’s seen standoffs resolved. She shared the story of a nearby business owner determined to evict the homeless folks who camped on his property at night. “What he was really upset about was the trash they left behind,” she said.

She got the campers to promise to clean up after themselves. The business owner supplied a hose and every morning the homeless people washed the area down. They didn’t want to be a nuisance, and the business owner didn’t want to be unkind.

I understand the competing impulses in play when we’re trying to tackle an issue as complicated as homelessness. You want to help, but at what cost to yourself? The question of how much to sacrifice often depends on how worthy we consider those who need our help.

I paid a visit that afternoon to a few spots where homeless people were trying to camp unobtrusively. I heard stories of lost jobs, broken relationships, stubborn addictions. They struck me as people who could be lifted with the right help.

After all, homeless people settle in Chatsworth for the same reasons that others do: the open spaces, the clean, wide streets, the sense of safety, the orderliness.

“Everything is a struggle when you’re homeless,” said Jason Brackett, who’s been homeless for 11 years. He’s from Pasadena, but feels at home on the streets of Chatsworth. “This is so much better than skid row.”

It would be nice, he admitted, to have the sort of amenities a shelter would provide: a place to get a haircut, wash his clothes and charge his cellphone. But what bothers him most right now is something much easier to fix:

“People walk past me all the time. Nobody says, ‘Hi.’”

It’s hard not to scour the lived-in face of “Albanian Gangster” star John Rezaj for all the severity of experience he’s bringing to the role writer/director Matthew A. Brown has given him — of Leon, a volatile, substance-abusing hard case both respected and feared by his fellow immigrant hoods.

According to the press notes, Brown spent two years ingratiating himself with the Bronx’s notoriously guarded Albanian community to help authenticate an ambitious mob screenplay, only to meet real-life ex-con Rezaj and reshape the film into a partly improvised smash-and-grab indie built around his wiry, dangerous energy.

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Still struggling to reclaim a lost aura of invincibility after years behind bars, Leon lives with his mother (Rezaj’s real-life mom Maria), takes on an admiring protégé in Vinny (Nick Cinnante), and starts up a redemptive romance (Ashley C. Williams). But when the call for retributive violence arises, Leon’s not quite the shrewd criminal he once was.

Working at times in a semi-documentary style in which Rezaj and other Albanian non-professionals in the cast speak to their history of cultural survival in America, Brown is after something more grittily matter-of-fact than most glimpses into subcultural underworlds. And until on-camera violence is depicted, the less-seasoned viewer might even assume this was nonfiction, or at least the pilot for a proposed reality show about Albanian thugs. But that raw looseness is too often just sloppy filmmaking, and the gangster clichés ultimately win out over even Rezaj’s roiling, ripped-from-the-streets vitality.

Somewhere between a splash and a belly-flop is the French comic-drama “Le Grand Bain,” which instead of getting translated as “The Big Bath” for American audiences has been retitled “Sink or Swim,” ironically a more accurate reflection of how one regards each scene in this choppily assembled male-crisis story. (They mostly sink.)

When out-of-work suburban family man Bertrand (Mathieu Amalric) trades his all-day bathrobe for swim trunks, it’s to see if joining a municipal pool’s men’s synchronized swimming team will restore his pride. But it’s a depressive/foolish bunch of participants, including a hotheaded dad (Guillaume Canet), a never-was rock musician (Jean-Hugues Anglade) and a failing businessman (Benoit Poelvoorde). Even the group’s younger, former-pro female coach (Virginie Efira) has self-care issues.

Veering between sentimental and salty, philosophical and goofy, writer/director Gilles Lellouche’s Gallic stab at a “Full Monty”-style uplifter is too waterlogged with the genre’s well-worn staples (training comedy, bite-sized humiliations) and too uninterested in story/character details (turning paunchy mopers into athletic competitors) to offer anything truly refreshing about the solution to middle-aged dejection. The irony is that the men’s final performance at the championships in Norway is touching enough that the lack of attention to how these misfits could have realistically gotten there makes “Sink or Swim” all the more frustrating.

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SERIES

Young Sheldon Ed Begley Jr. reprises his role as Dr. Linkletter on a new episode of this “Big Bang Theory” spin-off. With Iain Armitage and Annie Potts. 8 p.m. CBS

Superstore “Saturday Night Live’s” Heidi Gardner guest stars as Dina’s (Lauren Ash) nemesis on a new episode of the workplace sitcom. With America Ferrera and Ben Feldman. 8 p.m. NBC

Supernatural All the souls in hell are released and are free to rampage as this supernatural drama starring Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles kicks off its 15th and final season. With Misha Collins. 8 p.m. The CW

Grey’s Anatomy Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano from the original “Charmed” series guest star on the medical drama as ABC’s “Cast From the Past” week continues. 8 p.m. ABC

The Unicorn Betsy Brandt (“Life in Pieces”) guest stars as the head of a support group in this new episode of the Walton Goggins comedy. 8:30 p.m. CBS

Mom “Criminal Minds’” Paget Brewster guest stars as Christy’s (Anna Faris) new boss on a new episode of the sitcom. Allison Janney also stars. 9 p.m. CBS

Legacies This spinoff of “The Vampire Diaries” returns for a second season. With Danielle Rose Russell and Matthew Davis. 9 p.m. The CW

A Million Little Things Drea de Matteo (“The Sopranos”), Melora Hardin (“The Office”), James Tupper (“Big Little Lies”), Jason Ritter (“Joan of Arcadia”) and Jerry Ferrara (“Entourage”) all guest star in this new episode of the drama. 9 p.m. ABC

Evil “Smallville’s” John Glover guest stars as a high-strung theater producer, and Dascha Polanco (“Orange Is the New Black”) plays his assistant, on a new episode of the mystery drama. With Katja Herbers and Mike Colter. 10 p.m. CBS

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit The squad seeks a serial predator targeting gay men in a new episode of the procedural drama. Curtis Armstrong (“New Girl”) and Zuleikha Robinson (“Lost”) guest star. 10 p.m. NBC

Activate: The Global Citizen Movement Uzo Aduba (“Orange Is the New Black”) travels to Nigeria to promote the cause of clean drinking water in the finale of this docu-series. 10 p.m. National Geographic Channel

Temptation Island Four new couples who find themselves at a crossroads mingle with 24 single men and women at a Hawaiian resort as a new season of this rebooted unscripted series gets under way. With host Mark Walberg. 10 p.m. USA

SPECIALS

Equality Town Halls on CNN Democratic presidential candidates taking part in a series of forums on issues affecting the LGBTQ community include Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), 4:30 p.m.; former Vice President Joe Biden, 5 p.m.; Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-South Bend, Ind.), 5:30 p.m.; Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), 6 p.m.; Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), 6:30 p.m.; former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), 7 p.m. CNN; Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), 7:30 p.m.; former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, 8 p.m.; and billionaire Tom Steyer, 8:30 p.m. CNN

Torn Apart: Separated at the Border This new documentary from Oscar- and Emmy-winning filmmaker Ellen Goosenberg Kent follows the story of two immigrant mothers, each of whom was separated from her children for months after fleeing danger in her home country to seek asylum in the United States. 9 p.m. HBO

Taken at Birth This three-night docu-series about a small-town doctor who sold or gave away hundreds of babies in Georgia in the 1950s and ’60s continues. 9 p.m. TLC; also Fri.

TALK SHOWS

CBS This Morning Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). (N) 7 a.m. KCBS

Today Steals and deals; Today Food with Katie Lee. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC

KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA

Good Morning America Penelope Ann Miller; chefs Jamika Pessoa, Richard Blais, Jean-Paul Bourgeois and Michael White. (N) 7 a.m. KABC

Good Day LA (N) 7 a.m. KTTV

Live With Kelly and Ryan Ted Danson; Elizabeth Olsen. (N) 9 a.m. KABC

The View Paul Shaffer; Naturi Naughton and La La Anthony. (N) 10 a.m. KABC

Rachael Ray Ted Danson; Chris Colfer (“Glee”). (N) 10 a.m. KTTV

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The Wendy Williams Show Ja Rule. (N) 11 a.m. KTTV

The Talk Kristen Bell. (N) 1 p.m. KCBS

The Dr. Oz Show Medium Anna Raimondi investigates a house where a family says it’s been plagued by spirits. (N) 1 p.m. KTTV

The Kelly Clarkson Show Adam DeVine; Amy Brenneman; beat boxer; unnecessary inventions; a kid prays for a local cop. (N) 2 p.m. KNBC

Dr. Phil A man’s execution is scheduled for Nov. 20, but he insists he’s innocent. (Part 1 of 2) (N) 3 p.m. KCBS

The Ellen DeGeneres Show Michael Douglas. (N) 3 p.m. KNBC

The Doctors Dog saves man’s life; premature birth; compounding pharmacies; spider living in woman’s ear. (N) 3 p.m. KCOP

The Wendy Williams Show Paula Abdul. 4 p.m. KCOP

The Real Michael Ealy (“Stumptown”); guest co-host Tisha Campbell. 5 p.m. KCOP

Amanpour and Company 11 p.m. KCET, midnight KVCR, 1 a.m. KLCS

The Daily Show With Trevor Noah Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). (N) 11 p.m. Comedy Central

Conan Eva Longoria. 11 p.m. TBS, 12:30 a.m. TBS

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Priyanka Chopra Jonas; Questlove & Tariq; Rex Orange County performs. (N) 11:34 p.m. KNBC

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert John Oliver; Amy Sedaris; Paul McCartney; Big Thief performs. (N) 11:35 p.m. KCBS

Jimmy Kimmel Live! Regina King; Nat Wolff; Jimmy Eat World performs; cast members from “Zombieland: Double Tap.” (N) 11:35 p.m. KABC

The Late Late Show With James Corden Aaron Paul; astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson; Sara Bareilles performs. (N) 12:37 a.m. KCBS

Late Night With Seth Meyers Sam Rockwell; Lucy Boynton; Les Savy Fav performs. (N) 12:37 a.m. KNBC

Nightline (N) 12:37 a.m. KABC

A Little Late With Lilly Singh Former professional wrestlers Nikki and Brie Bella. (N) 1:38 a.m. KNBC

SPORTS

Football The New York Giants play the New England Patriots. 5 p.m. Fox

Women’s baskeball The Connecticut Sun and the Washington Mystics meet in a fifth and deciding game of the 2019 WNBA Finals. 5 p.m. ESPN2

Preseason basketball The Clippers host the Denver Nuggets. 7:30 p.m. FS Prime

Customized TV listings are available here: latimes.com/tvtimes