Los Angeles politicians are not to blame for the fires, but they are for the recovery

from Jim NewtonCalMatters

This comment was originally posted by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

As Los Angeles marks one year since the wildfires that destroyed large parts of Pacific Palisades and Altadena, it’s a good time to ask about the state of the recovery and consider the political implications of that work.

In short, is Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass doing enough to recover from the fires?

To answer the question, it is worth starting with an obvious but unusual fact: the Palisades and Eaton fires were in some ways identical, in that they exploded at the same momentin the same weather conditions and only a few miles apart.

But they are, in another important sense, opposites, since the Palisades are within the mayor’s jurisdiction and the Eaton fire is outside of it. That should help dispel one criticism of Bass, the argument that these fires could have been put out in their earliest moments if only for swift action by city leaders, or that Los Angeles was grossly unprepared.

If that were true, Altadena would still be standing, as it is outside the orbit of Los Angeles management. The devastating damage to two districts with different political structures proves that the political leadership is not to blame.

The same goes for the implausible argument that a reservoir that was offline for repairs near the Palisades would have saved the area from disaster. The real problem with fighting the fires a year ago was the high winds that grounded planes and helicopters, not the lack of water supplies – which was confirmed by response status analysis and by firefighters on site.

If the condition of the tank at the time of the fire did not contribute to the actual damage, it did offer the mayor’s critics a political line of attackwho seized them while the fires were still smoldering.

Rick Caruso, the developer Bass defeated in 2022, grasped the questionbut it was a mere grasping for advantage, and was—or ought to have been—beneath his intelligence. He continues his quest to be mentioned in the stories of the mayoral and gubernatorial campaigns, considering each even as the political tide recedes from him.

The forces of nature

LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong also tried to make hay out of it, only to be refuted by his own paper’s reporting on the matter. Soon-Shiong has since recused herself from commenting publicly on the fires and their aftermath; his audience the promise to create a Leadership Council disappeared without a trace.

Wind and bushes are forces of nature, not politics acquits Bass of responsibility for the fires. Karen Bass is no more responsible for the Palisades fire than former mayors Richard Riordan was for the Northridge earthquake or Eugene Schmitz for the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. They prove nothing more than that disasters are a fact of California history.

However, mayors and other political leaders can and should be held accountable for how those under their leadership respond in the wake of the disaster.

Again, comparing Altadena and the Palisades is illustrative:

A recent UCLA study concluded that 70% of homes were badly damaged in the Eton fire show no sign of moving to redevelopment, and while about half of the restoration permits submitted so far have been approved, more than 25% have been put on hold.

From the Palisades, meanwhile, the city has received more than 3,000 permit applicationsthere are plans approved for more than 1,700 and permits issued for about 1,400. As with Altadena, that leaves many still under review, about 1,200 in the city’s case.

Generally speaking, the city of Los Angeles issues permits in the Palisades slightly faster than county officials do for Altadena, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis that determine the average turnover of the city at 79 days and the county at 131 days.

In other areas, the city’s response failed to inspire much confidence. The city’s fire chief was quick to distance himself from the fire’s devastation, previously blaming others was fired by Bass last year.

Efforts to create a follow-up analysis of the event were undermined by reports suggesting it had been redacted softened some of the document’s language and conclusions. Some of the changes seem cosmetic, others more substantial.

Although the final report is “watered down”, it presented a menu of reforms to better prepare the city for the next outbreak. Some have already been fulfilled.

For Bass, then, the political challenge ahead is twofold: to convince voters that her early stumbles did not materially affect the city’s response, and to demonstrate that the city controls the process now.

In this sense, her administration is trying to present itself as transparent: The city made it public copies of the follow-up report and drafts which led to it, and a charts on the city website are progressing toward recovery with regular, sometimes hourly updates.

But reassurance is likely to be measured by optics as much as data. By fall, will the Palisades feel like a community that’s regaining its strength, or will it remain hollowed out and empty? This, more than anything else, may give the political verdict on this grave civil tragedy.

As for judgments of the story, they are mixed.

Mayor Reardon was widely praised for his response to the Northridge earthquake, and his dogged determination during those months helped shape his image as a practical and, at least occasionally, effective problem solver.

For Mayor Schmitz, the San Francisco earthquake left a different lasting impression. He ordered the police to shoot the looters on the spot and reached out to outside the government for leadership in rebuilding the city. The following year he was accused of corruption, and although he was eventually acquitted, he never regained his former position in the life of his city.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.