Two horrifying wildfires, four reconstruction committees, three or four consultants (so far) Until 2025, Southern California got the word that the Atmospheric River is heading in our direction.
If you don’t know whether to buy a dangerous suit or build an ark, that’s a bad start to the New Year. To escape the insanity, I began watching “Paradise” on Hulu and discovered that the TV series was set in a fictional underground city built to house survivors of the world’s catastrophe.
So it wasn’t as much of an escape as possible for Los Angeles. Under Santa Monica Mountain.
Steve Lopez
Steve Lopez is a California native who has been a columnist for the Los Angeles Times since 2001. He has won over 12 National Journalism Awards and is a four-time Pulitzer finalist.
Four independent civic groups have stepped up to raise funds and provide guidance on large-scale reconstruction projects, but a fifth civic group would be required to coordinate all these efforts. It may happen. And it’s fair to wonder if the offer of help might sometimes suggest a lack of faith in local leaders.
LA City was financially underwater before the disaster. The horrifying challenge of the homeless, a decade of sidewalk repairs have been awaited, and infrastructure improvements have run out in just three years since LA, where the 2028 Summer Olympics were held. Then a killer fire broke out.
The Ati River passes by, but dark clouds and big questions about leadership may remain for years.
Mayor La Karen Bass didn’t like himself to be on another continent when the fire broke out, despite warnings of serious danger from drought and insane winds. Then came questions about whether the Los Angeles Fire Department was properly funded or deployed properly.
Pasadena Jewish Temple and Centre will burn during the Eton Fire, held in Pasadena on January 7th.
(Josh Edelson via Getty Images/AFP)
Bass shook the jet lag and announced the employment of developer and civic leader Steve Soborov, the city’s chief recovery officer. You’d think one of several vice mayors might have been asked, but OK, Soborov lives in Pallisad and has the right background: longtime civic leader, real estate developer, Los Angeles Former president of the Police Commission.
But as my colleagues Julia Wick, Dakota Smith and David Zanizer reported, bass didn’t say what he was being paid and said it was covered by charity. , said he didn’t reveal which one. That’s a problem. Because if you haven’t heard of it, there will be a conflict of interest that will appear again and again in LA politics. And why is there a secret?
After that, Bass was clean and told The Times that Soboroff would be paid $500,000.
Three months of work.
500,000 dollars for 90 days?
It’s deaf tone and let’s do math. That amounts to just under $5,555 a day, just under $40,000 a week, and around $166,000 a month. Economic challenges. At that price, you’d think there could have been an agreement when it was safe to reopen Pallisard to the public, but somehow it was bangled.
LA City Councilman Monica Rodriguez called the $500,000 deal “indecent.” She added that it would be “furious” for the charity to cover its costs, and that while the fire victims struggle, they could pay another $250,000 for another developer they plan to report to Soborov. I did.
Meanwhile, Trump envoy Rick Grenell called a $500,000 “attack” on X. Some of his posts here are really important.
The next thing I knew was Bass changed course and said $500,000 was off the table. Soboroff was a volunteer. And she suggested that the scope of his duties could be reduced, but Soborov did not see it that way.
Even if the $500,000 deal was shelved, the damage could have been done. I remembered the title of Jimmy Breslin’s book about the 1962 New York Mets.
“Can’t anyone play this game here?”
It’s not surprising to anyone that Trump doesn’t care much about the blue region of California, or that he thinks that inappropriate Democratic leaders are the source of misery in all states. California needs the president and the federal government to fund the reconstruction of Pallisad and Altadena in the Pacific, so it would be wise not to give him more feed.
The two men stand in the middle of a burned house in Pallisard, Pacific Ocean on February 5th.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
That’s fair because California is often a major donor state and pays more in federal taxes than they return with services and programs. It’s now our turn, as part of that contribution is to save things like Florida after the hurricanes destroy their homes and businesses.
Meanwhile, despite Soboroff being in the saddle as Recovery Czar, the Bass administration wanted to hire a private disaster recovery company. But the search was “closed in secret” without public bids, as reported by The Times.
On February 7, Bass told Midwest company Hagerty Consulting that the contract “will provide full project management and coordinate all of the various private and public institutions.” However, the fees were not disclosed immediately, and Bass was still considering hiring additional contractors.
See, this is an unprecedented disaster, and going forward, we will test the best leaders, expose the weakest, and generate some new prospects.
There has been a lot of good work done so far, and by the way, yesterday the US Army Corps of Engineers began removing debris from the burning facilities in Altadena and Pallisard in the Pacific Ocean. But in the aftermath of Eton Fire, county officials who have responded so far quickly and powerfully have been required for years to make tough decisions to develop a sensible and fair recovery plan. The same applies to Bass and City Council in the Palisade fire.
It’s not easy to deal with insurance companies, utility companies, political hurdles, frustrated members, and lawmakers with multiple state and federal agencies. But the only way to go ahead is to be out of the way, unobtrusive, transparent, and by your words and actions, you place more victims of the fire than all other benefits. It’s to show.
Find out if someone here can play the game.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
Source link
