PACIFIC PALISADES: Nearly four months to the day since wildfires ripped through four communities in and around Los Angeles, yet our city continues to suffer from failing leadership.
The city’s chosen language – calling this disaster recovery the “fastest in modern California history” – assumes it’s more prudent to measure the response against past disasters, rather than conducting what is really needed: a clear-eyed assessment of where the mistakes were, where management failed, and how a better process can be created so hard lessons can be learned. Their rearview mirror approach is like comparing apples to monkey wrenches because the scale and devastation of what happened in January is unprecedented, and the nature of the communities impacted are markedly different than any past examples. On numbers alone, the estimated cost of the Palisades and Eaton fires may be 15 times more than the Camp Fire , and these most recent fires destroyed 15,000 more structures than the Woolsey Fire . Rebuilding is still ongoing in Paradise and Ventura County after those fires over six years ago, which can’t be our barometer for success.
We’re at a tipping point. Instead of equating this to previous disasters, we need be forward-looking and reimagine the city’s response in a way that disaster recovery has never been done before with a focus on creativity, innovation, transparency, and accountability…