Palisades Senior Lead Officer Brian Espin sent an email that there will be a community town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow, Thursday, January 16, regarding the Palisades Fire. It will be held at Sinai Temple 10400 Wilshire Boulevard, L.A. The seating capacity is 1000-1500, Espin said.
This editor asked who would be speaking. He was asked would participants be allowed to ask questions, such as why there were no fire trucks on scene – as reported by residents on the Alphabet Streets, on Via de las Olas, Radcliffe, Earlham and other streets?
Will officials explain why the town was allowed to burn, with no retardants sent to neighborhoods to save them as was done with the Mandeville Canyon – that could have saved the Alphabet Steets and the Via de las Olas Bluffs.
Will officials explain why there was a delay in sending firefighters to the scene?
Will officials explain why there were still fires burning in the community on Wednesday and Thursday?
Since about 28,000 residents are now homeless, and Los Angeles City has budgeted $1.3 billion for the homeless (and L.A. County $662.3 million), how much will each homeless resident receive?
And no, not all of the Palisadian homeless can afford hotels. We reached out to friends and relatives, who took us in – unlike the misfits on drugs, the mentally ill and the people who don’t want to follow rules. You know the ones, they light fires under freeways, on the streets and the parks that firefighters constantly have to put out.
We’re a different kind of homeless, we actually pay taxes. Some of the homeless money should now come back to us.
If this is a meeting so that we can join a lawsuit suing the city, that might provide some great information and not be a waste of resident time.
If this is a public hearing to explain incompetence, no need, we’ve witnessed that first-hand as our homes and family heirlooms have gone up in smoke. One resident told CTN the fire was a “String of Cluster Fucks” another called it a “Shit Show” and a third said it was a “Vicious Cycle of Shit.”
Or maybe this meeting will just be another rah-rah opportunity for officials to tell us that there was nothing that they could do, the winds were just so strong, but as a community we must come together and unite.
If Espin responds with a speaker list, I’ll update.
Fires were still burning Wednesday morning in the town. My home is on the left, my neighbor Kathy’s home is on the right.
You
Are doing an amazing job of reporting under the circumstances that we are all enduring.
Thank you so much
Love your headline about the vicious cycle of shit
Sue. well said! Bravo
I hope this meeting can be on zoom as well and recorded for posterity.
Here’s an agenda to explore the many breakdowns and utter failures in the “system” of public safety. This fire certainly wasn’t just “climate change” and an “Act of God”. Talk to us about:
1. Failure to patrol hillsides for encampmenta despite known risks, particularly after the Lachman fire a few days prior.
2. Failure to arrest known delinquents setting off fireworks and explosives despite public warnings and leads that were not followed up on.
3. Failure to staff first responder services even when solutions were provided to partner with private security and bring in global talent to address critical roles.
4. Failure to inspect fire fighting necessities. Like the reservoir that was empty … for years. Failure to create private public partnerships if budget was an issue. I imagine a lot of corporations would have helped bridge the gap, including insurance companies now looking at historic payouts.
Quite simply this is the most incompetent government that presumably fiddled while we burned.
Is LA City to big too govern? YES, by these morons.
Yay, Sue!!! I’m gonna frame your article on the Cycle of Shit and put it up on my wall. You deserve a Pulitzer prize for that one.
It will be another “rah-rah” meeting telling us we are “hashtag – Pal-Strong”.
We almost died, Bass and Newsom delivered us to hell.
As Dante points out,
Paradise is the ideal society in all its essential elements working harmoniously; Purgatory is a society in transition, moving from self-centeredness to concern for and commitment to others, but not yet organized within an effective structure. Hell reveals what society is when all its members act for themselves and against the common good. The souls here are condemned not just for their selfish motivations but also for the effects of their actions on others.
Dante’s point is that as civic beings, we are responsible not only for our actions, but also for their results. The people he presents were all men and women of prestige and/or power, people in a position to influence others either directly or by example, and in one way or another they all failed. The suffering, the violence, the anarchy of Hell are a result of their failure
LA Times should apologize for endorsing Karen Bass – she delivered Palisades to HELL.
Will this town hall be streamed? Or do you need to be there in person to listen to it?
Sue – this meeting was announced last night by Brad Sherman during his emergency telephone town hall. I don’t recall specifics as to who would be attending or format. His office might have details. I’d try John Alford – John.alford@mail.house.gov, or 818-501-9200. How you are functioning I don’t know, but thank you! You are in my thoughts.
Not one fire fighter in our Will Rogers Neighborhood. Our 84 year old neighborhood stayed back and with limited water pressure saved his home. Think if we had even one truck and decent water pressure what our neighborhood would look like today. We were abandoned.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEq7BkgRl2S/?igsh=NjZiM2M3MzIxNA==
Oh Sue, thank you for all your posts, but especially this morning’s (posted last night) as they provided many needed (not necessarily haha) LAUGHS!
I ate shit on the bluffs too, and don’t know how you’ve had the wits and brain power to write these helpful and articulate articles!
THANK YOU again!
Your blog is a cycle of shit. Your negativity is really not helpful at this time. Your anger and obsession with blaming someone and making this political is extremely toxic and not helpful and I don’t appreciate reading it.
Hi Sue, Thank you for writing our authentic feelings. The defunding of our heroes of Los Angeles has been unfathomable. I believe we have under 40 Park Rangers for 350 parks in Los Angeles. Pacific palisades (24.31 sq mi) is over 4 times the size of downtown Los Angeles (5.4mile). The entire city has enjoyed the beautiful public hiking trails for recreation. I have emailed and spoken for decades asking for more support on the El Medio Bluffs and Pacific Palisades. Now my house is gone and I am devastated. Thank you for your valuable reporting on our unfathomable loss.
Best, Leigh
Chris,
First you don’t need to read it.
Second you don’t have to agree with me that the city is responsible for not having firefighters, water and helicopters to save the town.
Third, you’re doing exactly what officials want Palisades to do, fight among themselves to that no one is held accountable for the lack of resources.
Sue
Thank you, Sue. You have my admiration and sincere gratitude. Howmany years have you been faithful to your neighbors in Pac Pal? I trust the Historical Society will continue somehow and we can collect stories of watching, getting involved and staying connected.
As of now my family is one of many watching and waiting to see the reality of the empty foundation that was our home, the blurred drive-by video is sad. As are the rest.
Our Palisades Presbyterian Church is gone, but members continue to meet in a friendly church in WLA. That has been such a blessing. That and our prayer team. With a future so uncertain keeping the connections we have keeps me sane. Love and blessings to you all.