Gelson’s grocery store on January 9, 2025.
The one thing this editor learned after the Palisades Fire is that everyone wants to lead the recovery through their own Palisades nonprofit: each proclaims to have superior knowledge on how to proceed.
Last week, a group of people came together to give a list of recovery wants/needs to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. A day later, another group met with Governor Gavin Newsom at the Legion to tell him problems with recovery.
CTN was reprimanded for not naming names in the Governor meeting or reporting on the prior meeting.
This editor, although living in this town for 30 years and probably hearing more stories about the fire and recovery than anyone, was not invited to either meeting. I discovered one because I went into the Legion to use the bathrooms.
This last week, some Palisadians have now demonstrated their belief in closed doors, lack of transparency and a total disregard for fellow residents by keeping everyone in the dark.
There has been enough jockeying to see which Palisadians are the most important because of the meetings they attend. Instead, we should all be asking what does the town really need?
A grocery store. Both Ralphs and Gelson’s are looking at a five-year-time line to return.
All you “important people” get a grocery store – help the rest of us plebes.
The Business Improvement District is sending a letter urging the two stores to return faster. The Pacific Palisades Community Council could also send a letter to Gelson’s and Ralphs urging them for a speedier open. We might need the Councilmember and Mayor’s intervention, too.
It has been estimated that more than 7,000 people, about a third, are already back. They live in the Highlands, Huntington, Castellammare, Rustic Canyon and Riviera sections of the Palisades.
CVS and Vons have been the sole places to pick up milk and cereal. It is simply unacceptable that the people who have moved back don’t have a grocery store in town.
Palisades nonprofits, we’re looking at you – enough with festivals of hope and Zoom meetings – provide us something tangible – a grocery store.
One reader wrote that some steps that could be taken is to get numbers to present to stores:
1. Block captains could report back how many currently live in their neighborhoods and how many they know are coming back in the next few years (they probably have an idea).
2. Check to see how many permits had been issued, and how many applications.
3. Add in Pali high, Marquez, Calvary students and parents who are already in town and add construction workers to the numbers.
4. Corpus and St. Matthews are set to open in the fall of 2026, which will also increase numbers.
“I think the grocery store reps would be shocked as to how many people are already here, and how many are currently in the process of coming back,” the reader said. “If they started soon and had a grocery store open by late 2027, there would be plenty of people.”
The reader concluded: “How can we get this done? I think it’s imperative.”
Every single nonprofit, group and person in town needs to lobby for a grocery store.
If Caruso chose, he could open up Erewhon sooner than August to at least provide a place to get fresh produce. It seems he wants to make his Village perfect and have everything open at once, that is understandable.
But a town grocery store is a necessity.
This is what was left of Ralph’s supermarket on January 9.
