Buildings on Via de la Paz are ready for construction. Across the street, the debris at Palisades Elementary has been removed and is ready for rebuilding.
On a social media platform one Palisades resident wrote “We moved back to our home [apartment] on Saturday and glad we did. Thanks to everyone that made it possible. FEMA, the EPA, the Corps of Engineers, LADWP and the Gas Company all worked really hard and did a great job, as did the contractors our owner hired to clean up the building. And our owner did a great job managing all of this so we could get in sooner rather than later. It’s a pretty day in Pacific Palisades.”
To which someone responded, “Looking forward to the day that some of the existing apartment buildings are ready to rent, so I can move back too. I want to come home.”
“I want to come home,” resonates with so many Palisades residents. Sure, the temporary places we’ve found to rent are adequate and even nice, but we “want to come home.”
This editor is usually in Pacific Palisades several times a week to check on the town’s progress Here’s my April 1 observation:
There is so much activity in Pacific Palisades that the excitement is contagious. Although the Via Las Olas Bluffs and the Alphabet Streets were almost totally decimated, there are areas where there are apartments and homes intact. There are areas in the Huntington Palisades, El Medio Bluffs and the Highlands where homes are standing.
Weekly, I’ve been with resident Jeff Ridgway at Vons at Sunset and PCH for grocery shopping. It’s been fun to watch the grocery store (and Starbucks) as they’ve added frozen food, bread, then produce, and then a few weeks later reopened the deli. Every week another aisle is fully stocked. The only remaining area to add food is the meat department.
Jeff’s “apartment building” at 850 Haverford is undergoing remediation now, and he’s impressed with how thorough the workers are with the cleaning, but also with the steps they’re taking with painting and covering the “popcorn” ceilings. Those apartments will be open to tenants soon, too.
Streets were closed around the town, such as on Alma Real, so workers could address debris removal at the library and the 881 Alma Real Building.
If people move back now into the Palisades they will be in some ways like pioneers. They will be there to watch the progress of a town being built – a new town – a shiny town, with mostly new buildings.
Now if only the Department of Water and Power were on board to dig up the streets and bury the power lines before new streets are built. Make no mistake, streets in Pacific Palisades, which were cracked and broken before the fire, will be in even worse shape after the heavy trucks have hauled excavators have traveled them. Streets will need to be repaved in the town.
Not burying the power lines is not an option. The Palisades is a very high fire severity zone. This editor has numerous photos of the poles that snapped and the wires on the ground after the fire. If an investigation is ever done on the power lines, it appears they snapped and could be responsible for the fire that took out the Via Mesa bluffs. Once the high winds kicked in, electrical power should have been shut off.
A LAPD officer this editor was speaking to today said that he was in the town immediately after the fire and it looked like a bomb hit. But he was impressed with what he saw today: the town was alive.
There are stores already open, such as Anawalt and Garden Café (which were packed), but also Chipotle and gas stations. Food trucks are doing heavy business as workers line up during lunch. Caruso’s Palisades Village is intact and so are the stores between Swarthmore and the City Parking Lot on Sunset.
Once the Highlands Plaza on Palisades Drive, which seem to be intact, opens, it seems like it might be a steady stream of business for K’s, Spruzzo, the pet store and Starbucks.
Some commercial buildings along Via de la Paz have had debris removal and the lots are ready for rebuilding.
Many people have wanted the Palisades to be open and no more check points, but if you’ve been up there, it is clogged with construction/hauling vehicles and flashing red lights.
Traffic is bad, but once the debris removal is finished, the town should be opened up again. Army Corp of Engineers’ Colonel Brian Sawser said during the April 1 Mayors update that they will approach a maximum for debris removal during April and May, “they will be the most decisive months,” he said. “It will probably be stressful for a couple of more months.”
This is a chance to be part of history and one of the most exciting rebuilds in the history of Los Angeles. Now if L.A. Mayor Karen Bass could figure out how to waive the permit and building fees, it could happen at record pace.
The American Legion building on La Cruz has turned into a place to meet, to receive FEMA and SBA information, food from the World Central Kitchen and to chat with other Palisades residents.
Thank you for shopping at the Vons on PCH & Sunset. We have missed them so much. The deli dept knew my teen daughter’s order by memory.
Loved your analysis printed on the front page of the LA times!
Awesome job , keep up the great work !
I had a nice conversation with a gentleman from the DWP at Wolfberg Park. He told me there had been a lot of damage to the infrastructure in the park and that it would reopen once everything is fixed. He was referring to electrical and irrigation lines. IMO, if one’s biggest problem is that they can’t access the park, they should count their blessings.
Exciting!
Michael,
It appears you should not believe everything you hear. I have an upcoming story.
Sue