LA Mayor Karen Bass Hires ‘Outside Consultant’ to Rebuild after Historic Wildfire
As the recovery efforts continue, It must be noted that Los Angeles is a member of “C40” cities, which promotes the 15-minute city concept.
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Los Angelenos are bracing themselves for more wildfire recovery challenges as Mayor Karen Bass has announced plans to hire an outside consultant to manage the rebuilding of Pacific Palisades following devastating wildfires that destroyed over 5,500 homes.
The firm will represent the city’s interests in the wildfire recovery process, including performing damage assessments, monitoring air and water quality, interacting with various federal agencies and ensuring that the city gets as much federal reimbursement as possible, said Steve Soboroff, who was named by Bass as the city’s chief recovery officer.
The announcement came during a freewheeling half-hour walking tour in Pacific Palisades that Bass and Soboroff held for reporters and some residents Monday afternoon. The walk-and-talk was the first time Soboroff and Bass took questions together since she announced his role Jan. 17 in leading the first phase of the city’s recovery on Jan. 17.
Details about the scope of the forthcoming contract remain scant, but Bass said Monday that the city was in the midst of reviewing proposals from “major firms” and pledged to make a decision this week.
Breitbart’s Joel Pollack, an area resident who joined local officials during the recent roundtable with President Donald Trump to discuss the disaster and recovery efforts, indicates that Bass’ decision was made without any consultation with local residents.
Soboroff claimed that the consultant would represent locals — despite the complete lack of notice or consultation. He also suggested that the consultant would control the federal money entering California to deal with the fire damage.
Locals have had virtually no input into any of the decisions currently being made by city and state officials. Most were only able to access their property for the first time on Monday, after direct intervention by President Donald Trump.
Another troubling aspect is that Bass and Soboroff focused on “toxins” and environmental issues during the walkabout, as the discussion included a description of “Phase 1” of the recovery efforts.
Soboroff called this Phase 1 of the city’s recovery efforts. He couldn’t provide a specific timeline for this phase but suggested it could take one week to three months.
He also mentioned a soon-to-be-launched app that will clarify the process, including answers regarding resident’s properties.
“We’re not rebuilding to have this happen again,” Soboroff said during the walk-and-talk.
Bass added that once hazardous materials have been removed, homeowners will have two options for Phase 2: removal of the rest of the debris.
“Once the toxins have been removed, then the owner has a choice,” Bass said. “They can do it at no cost with the Army Corps of Engineers or they can do it themselves.”
As many unhappy Los Angelenos are discovering, “environmental concerns” are cover for government incompetence and graft.
The appointment of a ‘Recovery Czar’ comes as part of Bass’s efforts to expedite the rebuilding process and address the urgent needs of affected residents and businesses3. The mayor has faced pressure to accelerate the recovery, particularly after Trump suggested that residents should be able to return to their properties immediately to clear debris.
I would like to point out that one of the expedited measures is the rapid approval of multifamily housing in the area.
Across the city, 22 multifamily developments with a total of 1,400 units are awaiting final sign off from city inspectors before they can open to residents. Bass’ order tells departments to provide temporary certificates of occupancy at those properties so that those units will come online faster. The hope is to help meet some of the soaring demand for rentals in the wake of the fires.
Personally, I fail to see how this helps residents rebuild their single-family homes and restore their properties. But I will note that these developments concern broader plans for a green utopia Bass and her fellow climate cultists have planned.
Los Angeles is a member of an entity called “C40 Cities” and has been since 2006. The city is actively involved in C40’s climate action initiatives, including working on transitioning to a green economy and supporting frontline communities in climate transitions. The group’s visions also include “15-minute cities“.
C40 announces a partnership with NREP to fund a new Green and Thriving Neighbourhoods programme, deliver proof of concept for “15-minute city” policies and empower cities around the globe to implement ambitious net-zero and people-centred neighbourhoods.
The entire C40 mission is based on pseudoscience and climate cultism. Besides, during these historic wildfires, Los Angeles’s carbon emissions exceeded any target levels these eco-activists set because Bass and the city/county/state leadership failed to maintain their water infrastructure or properly support fire prevention and response efforts.
I reviewed the chilling aspects of the 15-minute city concept in a previous post.
For all these reasons, the use of an “outside consultant” must be suspect. I certainly hope Trump proceeds to assign his own “Recovery Czar” to oversee these developments.
And soon.
Currently, Bass’ approval rating is at 37%. If she continues with the tone-deaf approach, that number is likely to be a high-water mark and recall will become inevitable.
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Comments
Feng shui???
What homeowners envision,
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d5/81/af/d581af0492d7c4472d1a5304136015ba.jpg
What Democrats will be giving those homeowners,
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/AYR0JG/many-soviet-era-apartment-blocks-in-city-of-petropavlovsk-kamchatsky-AYR0JG.jpg
Toxins? Oh, boy, here comes the gravy train. If a normal homeowner openly removes an underground storage tank, lead paint or asbestos flooring, a team of moonsuit clad hucksters arrive charging a king’s ransom. The savvy get midnight Charlie to remove the tank and the undocumented for the rest. Here, there is no hiding. The mayor immediately focuses on scam number 1. The Army Corps takes years to do just the preliminary paperwork.
“ensuring that the city gets as much federal reimbursement as possible, said Steve Soboroff, who was named by Bass as the city’s chief recovery officer.”
This is what bothers me, our tax dollars should not be used to support California’s gross folly. Their building code are costly. One guy building a shipping container house was charged $75,000 for permits. People outside California should not be footing the bill.
How does a homeowner with a mortgage clear and then rebuild his home? That would take almost double the amount of money they have already spent. My sister had a rental house that burned down and it cost almost $10,000 to clear the lot. I foresee many residents declaring mortgage default and allowing the banks to claim the properties. If that happens a lot there will be nothing but multi-family homes built.
That’s what the residents want to see: Urban blight.
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My bet is that at least 3/4 of the people once living there will never return to a rebuilt home in the same location. The cost (including being under-insured, or not at all), as you note, will be a key factor. The years it will take will be another. Another issue will be what do parents with school age children do, with their schools burned down? Next, who will want to bet that their government will take the necessary remediation steps to prevent recurrence. Finally, the emotional devastation will prevent some from even considering it.
If they are insured under the CA FAIR plan then as I understand it that IN plan doesn’t pay for housing costs in the interim.
The chickens are definitely coming home to.roost for CA leadership mal administration of the IN market.
Delay, delay, delay to allow time for the control freak environmentalists wackos to regroup. Meanwhile, the people who want to rebuild are confounded.
Not to worry they have ‘Top Men’ working on it.
Following links in the article led me to the 15-minute city concept. This sounds great in theory – everything a person needs is within walking or biking distance, including shopping, worshiping, and their job. Only problem is, it removes personal choice. What if my job, my church, or my doctor is fifteen *miles* away?
The whole idea reminds me of the Warsaw ghetto. “Well, if everything you need is only a fifteen minute trip away, we’ll just keep you there. And you will be just fine.” That’s a road the Marxist central planners want to force us to go down and they don’t care if we object on the basis of personal liberty.
The Bride and I grew up in a small semirural town, population around 5500 in the sixties. It’s true I could hop on my bike and be almost anywhere in the town limits in 15 minutes but many of the people there worked in the closest city, population around 200K, that was minimum twenty minutes away. For them the concept would break down.
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Karen – what you really need to do is this – Suspend all zoning, permitting, environmental impact analysis, etc requirements and let the property owners deal with their own land without interference from you. In fact, make the suspension permanant and fire all the officials responsible for it. The area will soon the flourishing.
Then go and expand the program to cover the rest of the city.
Then have the rest of the state follow suit.
Then apply the same principle to areas other than real estate.
California will stop being a *bleep*hole in no time flat.
Looks more like a carp…
Job one, get rid of Bass and her team at city hall. Then replace the fire dept chief and all the others responsible.
Federal money coming in? That’s been decided? How much? Or is the sky the limit? So with all the money LA has, they need to gravy train consultants to get this job done? Isn’t that always the way? This will be like rebuilding Ukraine. America is on the hook for that as well, i.e., if you break it, you own it.
Also, as has been pointed out, the rich people, movie stars and the like, should not get one thin dime. The less rich, the ones who bought their places in the 60s for $33K, a place now worth $4.6 million–and no, they didn’t keep paying the higher insurance rates–they’re doomed.
They can’t afford to rebuild at today’s prices. As to whether Americans who don’t live there should write each and every one of them a check for $5 million, again, we do need to do some hard talking. Maybe the fools in Washington will be cutting checks for $25 million for the hard-hit movie stars.
Alternative headline: Destitute Seaside Village Annually Ravaged by Wildfires Cannot Afford its Own Municipal Planning / Procurement / Construction Personnel Hires Outside Consultant Firm to
Offer Pennies on the Dollar to Burned Out HomeOwners in order to TerraForm 15 minute cities per New World OrderHelp Rebuild Homes in Wake of yet Another Annual Wildfire – because they’re really swell people.Consultants! Hilarious. All this Commie slag has to do is get out of the way, along with all the alphabet soup agencies, and the areas can rebuild themselves. In other words, Karen the Cretin, YOU are the problem along with Newsolini.
So she lied straight to the President (we knew that when she said it last week).
Hers is the typical bureaucrat response – who have once again proven their galactic ineptitude but somehow convince themselves they are brilliant, doubling-down post disaster by adding MORE process and “consultants” (aka ‘their pals’) on top of an asinine Mt. Everest-sized regulatory mess…to build a dwelling ON YOUR LAND.
Love to see residents band together and tell these idiots in charge to go pound sand and git’ er done. What will the do-nothing “officials” blocking progress do then, call the police to arrest them, or levy fines under some “you rent from us” zoning/building ordinance? Good luck with that. Time to eliminate heavy government involvement in private property, including the theft that is property taxes.
Ric Grennell and Joel Pollack are not stupid. Joel will publicize Bass’ every move on Breitbart. LA is about to get the most significant synthetic tariff under Trump possible. No Federal government recovery money unless full compliance.
Long Beach is a port of entry. The consultant is likely Chinese-approved. What walk fentanyl across the Rio Grande when you can ship it directly to LA and cut the cartel out of the deal.
@Cal_OES posted video of a EPA hazardous waste removal crew at the ashy remains of someone’s home:: two men wearing white-paper suits carefully, gingerly, poking around in the ash with tiny spades/hoes.How tiny you ask? Not longer than 24 inches.
One was carrying a geiger-counter looking device (remains of smoke detector cells?) The other had an aerosol spray paint can supposedly pulled from the debris in hand- how did that aerosol can survive the fire with its plastic fluid nozzle intact? Because it’s a staged photo op.
https://x.com/Cal_OES/status/1884420984847098000
It’s moronic…come in with a backhoe (or a D9 and do and entire side of the street at a time) and clear the debris to dirt then take it to the landfill (which is EPA regulated). Done in a day….per property. Operators can wear their preferred PPE…or not.
This is the massive differential between working folks who make the world happen and bureaucrats who – most, not all – do nothing productive and somehow manage to always get in the way while charging the working folks in the process.
BTW, waiting to hear “we’re working with an abundance of caution”. Gag me with a pitchfork.
“Rebuild” is a false description. “Unburdened by the past” the government will create a socialist utopian vision of DEI so that all can share with equity the benefits of living in areas once excluded to many deserving underserved members of the community. Fairness and social justice will right the wrongs of economic injustice. The barriers have been removed to progress.
To do what waste tax dollars? Everyone knows the regulation will keep many from rebuilding even if they have the money.
And once the area is cleared and rendered safe from toxic individual freedom influences, it can be rebuilt in planet-friendly multi-story multifamily boxes and renamed
Cabrini Green.
Only fitting, since they got rid of CG in Chicago years ago. They were a complete mess.
Watch the money. There’s big cash in developing these areas for multi-family housing, and even bigger cash if the city ‘confiscates’ the property for the developer. These kind of favors don’t come cheap, so expect cash to be paid under the table, relatives ‘hired’ for no-work jobs, etc…
Hire arsonists to do forest management.
Hiring too many could lead to redundancy fires.
Well, at least we’d know they’d actually “:go to the office” as a government employee…altho, they could “clock in”, set the fires, then leave to their other “secret” job as a Starbucks barista. Double-Dipping, the Federal employee mantra.
Bass is doing this without input because she would be shut down immediately. All people affected no matter their political view must be upset that Bass has done this. Further this is stopping the Federal actions that Trump outlined because he had specific requirements that are being blocked by Bass and Newsom.
If they follow their black DEI hearts creating huge multi-family buildings for the under privileged, they may create a wonderful opportunity for the future expulsion of illegal aliens.
“the consult would control any federal money…”. Ha…
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Did those yards miss that news conference where Trump tore them a new one with Ric Grenell sitting right there? They somehow think the old rules still apply which is precious
I think it will be delay delay delay until the Chinese can come in and buy it up cheap.
From the headline it sounded like Bass was looking to sub out her problem-solving to a contractor who actually knew how to mayor.