Community Council Meeting Scheduled: Officials to Answer Questions

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This editor had two books on hold at the Palisades Library.

A special Palisades Community Council Meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, January 23, via Zoom.Meeting ID: 882 8310 1185 Passcode: 553444

Link to Join Zoom Meeting click here.

The Agenda is brief it will be a discussion/Q&A re the Palisades Fire –

Special Guests:

Mayor Karen Bass

U.S. Representative Brad Sherman

State Senator Ben Allen

State Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin

County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath

City Councilwoman Traci Park

District Attorney Nathan Hochman

Please note: there will be an opportunity for extended questions and comment from community members/the public in attendance.

Here are a few items this CTN editor would suggest be covered.

  1. Please do not tell us how sorry you are that are homes have burned to the ground. Instead of heartfelt sympathy, give us something useful, such as gift cards to housewares stores, clothing stores – and oh, yes maybe a card so we could all get a new pair of shoes. Throw in a carrot peeler.
  2. Don’t ask how we are doing. How do you think we’re doing after spending more than a week with relatives, friends and in other situations? Couch surfing when you’re 20 might be fun, but by the time one is 50 or older it gets tiring.
  3. How can you help us? I never thought you’d ask, gift cards and cash. I’m sure I’m not the only homeowner that still has to pay mortgage on a home that is no longer standing. I’m sure we’re not the only people eating out three meals a day because there’s no kitchen and maxing out the credit cards in the process.
  4. Don’t give us your refugee clothing that was donated because someone was cleaning out their closet—which brings us to underwear. I packed two pair. Yes, we’re back to gift cards or cash.
  5. Don’t drag out the environmental process, a good share of the homes in Pacific Palisades have been remodeled, which means no asbestos, no lead paint. We probably breathed the worst of the fire trying to escape the inferno that might best be subtitled “Let the Palisades burn.”
  6. Then if you’re in the mood to answer questions – why was the fire not stopped immediately? Everyone had been warned the winds could be deadly. Why were their no fire trucks on any of the streets? Why was there no water for the few trucks that had come up from Long Beach for example? An air response could have been mounted in the morning, the winds did not come up until late in the afternoon—and as firefighters will tell you, once a blaze is going it makes its own wind.
  7. Why was retardant not sprayed on several neighborhoods, like Rick Caruso did on his Village and was done in Mandeville?

The area needs to be rebuilt or well on its way before the World Cup. Otherwise, this will be an area that everyone wants to drive in and tour.

Destruction this massive is a spectacle and people will pay to see it. Please don’t tell me how sorry you are—we’re all sorry. Now we want to know what caused this – and how it could be prevented in the future. No one should have to go through trauma.

This was a home on Radcliffe on January 9.

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5 Responses to Community Council Meeting Scheduled: Officials to Answer Questions

  1. Dana Dalton says:

    Steve Soboroff should not lead this.
    He backed / endorsed Karen Bass who clearly was NOT qualified
    To be Mayor
    MOVE OVER STEVE
    Let RICK CARUSO DO THIS

  2. Patricia Murray says:

    Sue, is this meeting limited to residents of the city? Sunset Mesa as you may or may not know is half Pacific palisade City and half unincorporated LA county. I live in the unincorporated part and we are having a very hard time getting information specific to our area since we do not fall under the city jurisdiction. We have the same county supervisor but nobody else beneath her such as mayor bass and the LA City infrastructure to get us information and help us move forward. Most of us up here consider ourselves part of the Palisades but we are feeling very lost. Who is in charge of this meeting so we can see if we can get added on to the agenda?

  3. Sue says:

    Patricia,
    Everyone can go to the zoom link and participate – Horvath, the supervisor will be on the call. If you have not been to the disaster center on Pico in the old Westside Pavillion building–I urge you to go. The county has reps there.

    Sue

  4. Anifaye Korngute, Palisades Resident says:

    I have SO many questions:

    Our Santa Monica Canyon homes are Green tagged to go back (the 90402 community) but there are no answers about our water that’s deemed undrinkable — toxic even!! The only answer we get from DWP is where to go get bottled water! None of us are interested in going home without having safe drinking water … (and why is going to a home with toxic water considered green tagged ).

    We need “real” Answers please- when we can expect to have safe drinking water in the 90402 area code?? (& the 90272 zip as well for that matter)! is this a street by street toxicity? Is it something that will be resolved? Is this something were expected to live with like the people of Paradise?? We should not have to test our own water! And- we should not have to pay DWP for water that’s toxic.

    We keep trying to clean our homes, but there’s no clear instructions HOW to clean especially when we cannot use hot water or use our dryer cause the water has VOC’s in it!?? (did you know we’re not supposed to use the dryer because the heat will release the VOCs— are we supposed to dry our sheets outside when Ash is still flying around?)

    There’s nobody helping to clean the streets which are full of ash and debris and gardeners are still using leaf blowers so any cleanup we happen to do, is meaningless. Those of us with asthma, elderly & young children are particularly loathe to return. We also fear the air quality once debris cleanup, in our neighboring 90272 begins.

    There are blocks of our community that are not going back because the water is not safe to drink…but you’ve green tagged our homes & opened our streets to looters and we don’t have much recourse except for hiring private guards, which is a financial hardship.

    Help please!!!

    our beloved Alphabet community is gone… now what:

    I understand CalRecycle (?) is in charge of hazardous waste, asbestos, & debris removal without the need for homeowners to pay OR give approval because we are under state of emergency?? Can you elaborate on this and how this all works ??

    Apparently, we homeowners will need to give signed approval for debris removal to clean up our property at some point ? (Maybe??) And also we’re allowed to be there while it’s done…
    Right??

    What’s the timeline for this?
    Where do we sign?
    When do we sign?
    Where do we find the paperwork to sign?

    What are the problems if we have you all clean up? Why wouldn’t everybody just have you guys clean up? It’s free — right?

    Why would somebody want their own private person to do cleanup? Is it gonna take that long if “you guys” do it?

    and what guarantees will you give us that the hazardous waste/asbestos etc would be cleaned up properly on our property?

    Where are all these details and when does all this start?

    -when can we visit our red tagged homes and community in the alphabet streets? (one day we were allowed in and the next we weren’t— some people were let in and some people weren’t)

    – how to visit the site safely (proper gear for visiting our homes? ), and how to clean that garb afterwards so we don’t have to keep buying new?? Or is the city supplying tyvek suits, goggles and booties for us?

    —what to and what not to do when we visit our homes? If there’s hazardous waste there how is it people can just walk around and sift through their stuff looking for memorabilia?

    – when can we bring in our Insurance inspectors? We need that money to get the process rolling!

    -we have many beloved trees on our property. That’s one of the things that makes the Palisades so amazing is all the trees and greenery . Many arborist say that a lot of the trees will come back !! Do we homeowners get to consult with an arborist about those trees staying or being removed? And when does this happen?

    Can the city rebadged for tree lined streets once again?

    Rebuilding:
    – Will there be a task force to support us more financially modest Palisades homeowners for building?? Many of us are retired & just had our insurance dropped & our property tax already off the charts. Will the palisades keep moving towards exclusion? Or can us retired folks possibly afford to rebuild & return?

    – will there be there any financial assistance with architectural plans for homes that will be more fire resistant 

    – what about building materials (yikes)

    – and will we be able to get insurance again!?  (especially if we build for better fire protection)

    It’s a LOT!!

  5. Sue says:

    I’m also posting this as a story, because there are questions that need to be answered.

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