Palisades Recreation Center is where the Mayor’s press conference was held.
Photo: Rich Wilken
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass held a 9 a.m. press conference on March 6 in Pacific Palisades at the Rec Center, which has now been turned into a L.A. Department of Water and Power center that goes by the name: Unified Utilities Rebuild Operations Center.
“We opened this facility last Saturday,” Bass said. “Customers can come. We are here seven days a week.”
There is now Wi-Fi, heat and possibly air conditioning in the 1950s building that is/was used for youth. There is new carpeting on the small gym floor and the entire space has been turned into little cubicle offices. Instead of using the ADA inaccessible bathrooms at the Rec Center, port-a-potties have been brought in for workers to use.
This conference was called because the Mayor said there would be an exciting announcement.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass held a press conference at the Palisades Rec Center.
(Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
“As of tomorrow [Friday], the Do Not Drink order will be lifted for all standing structures in the Palisades and just to give you a comparison, in the tragic Camp Fire, it took 18 months. It was done here in two,” Bass said.
None of the reporters asked, “Where was the water on January 7, 8 and 9 to fight the fires?” But this conference was not about answering questions but to highlight all that Bass has done in the past two months, since the Palisades Fire killed 12 people, destroyed 6,837 structures – 5419 residences.
The CEO of DWP Janisse Quinones explained that before using the tap water, run it 10 minutes from all faucets.
(Will the water supply run out if everyone has it on at the same time – coming from all of the faucets, inside and out? Remember Palisades residents were initially blamed for the low water pressure that made fighting fires impossible because everyone was running garden hoses at the same time to try and put out fires.)
The DPW will give all people who still have water and electricity a $50 credit, so they don’t have to worry about running the water. Even though this year is a drought year, don’t worry about water conservation. All the water that was saved from not fighting fires, can be used to flush the pipes.
The interior of the small gym has been turned into individual offices.
Quinones also said, “We have decided to go fully underground with utilities.” She said that 4,000 feet were designed and ready for construction.
“Two days after the fire started, we started the restoration planning,” Quinones said. “A week after, we started the undergrounding planning for the rebuild of the area.”
The Mayor and Quinones were asked about the costs for undergrounding the utilities and where the money would come from.
Possibly grants, maybe FEMA but mostly likely added costs for rate payers. Reporters were told the cost to underground is $1 to $4 million per mile, but as Quinones explained “We know it’s NOW a high-risk area for wild fires, so it’s worth the investment.”
Reporters did not ask if the electricity had been turned off in the Palisades prior to the winds on January 7, nor did they ask if the toppled electrical poles could have contributed to the fires that resulted on January 8 and 9.
To watch the 30-minute video click here.
Do I understand this correctly? My house on Radcliffe is no longer, and is certainly not using water or electricity. Does the LADWP plan to bill be every 2 months for services I am no longer receiving?
The only announcement anyone wants to hear from Mayor Bass is her retirement. Her monument will be the two Manhattan-sized ash mounds she created while partying in Ghana while her fire department partied on the beach.