A Rally “They Let Us Burn” Planned for January 7

Around 10:30 a.m. on January 7, a “They Let Us Burn” rally will be held on Antioch Street between Swarthmore and Via de la Paz and will be held after the remembrance ceremony on the Village Green prior to this event.

Organizer Jeremy Padawer noted this rally is demand accountability for the total breakdown in prevention, precaution and leadership – from the City of Los Angeles, State of California, LADWP, LA Fire Officials, California State Parks, California Natural Resources Agency, State / Local Agencies, Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass.

“This negligence, mismanagement and failure of critical local infrastructure ultimately resulted in the deaths of 12 Palisadians, destroyed over 6,500 local homes, blanketed neighborhoods of standing homes in toxic ash, and displaced almost 25,000 individuals – most still unable to return because of devastation, contamination and policies that stall rebuilding, and financial ruin,” Padawer said. “Despite promises of action, city and state leadership and agencies have delivered little real progress with limited vision or clear plan paired with great uncertainty.”

Padawer, whose home was destroyed in the fire, is joined by others who feel the  city and state stand to profit in billions of dollars as a result of this burn (disaster profiteering). “The fire and resulting devastation was preventable,” he said. “The city and state ignored warnings, ignored protocol, ignored lacking infrastructure, ignored its own firefighters, and today actively ignore the needs of a destroyed community.”

Speakers at the demonstrations will include homeowners who lost everything: Heidi Montag, Padawer, Elissa Ashwood, business owner Jaimie Geller, as well as experts addressing failures in fire preparedness Mike Kureth and Shawna Dawson Beer, and evacuation planning, insurance recovery, legal settlement recovery Alexander Robertson.

People in the Palisades know the devastation didn’t end when the flames were out. A year later, families are running out of rental coverage, and many are being pressured by insurers to move back into homes that still contain toxic contamination.

Many Palisadians have nothing to return to at all. Entire blocks remain as empty lots, some with rebuilds stalled and others with families unsure whether they can even afford to start. What began as a disaster has become a prolonged crisis, made worse by a lack of transparency, vision and limited / slow response from the state.

This protest isn’t politically motivated. This is a call for fairness, accountability and a vision for the rebuild.  Free T-shirts to first 500 attendees. Yard signs will also be available but feel free to print your own.

The Ten Imperatives Palisadians are Seeking: 1. No sales tax on rebuild state or city. (Disaster profiteering)

2. No permit fees (Disaster profiteering)
3. ULA Holiday for five years. (Disaster profiteering)
4. No property tax on dwelling until certificate of occupancy. (Disaster profiteering)
5. Police presence through a Palisades LAPD station
6. Brush Clearing clear plan from the state and County
7. Budget Transparency. We want to know what Palisades is putting into the system and getting out of it.
8. Electrical Undergrounding
9. Evacuation Planning
10. Insurance Planning and requiring insurance companies to pay policy limits and options for people who either were dropped with no insurance or forced to go on the fair plan, which did cover the cost of the losses. https://www.theyletusburn.comhttps://www.pacificpalisades.com