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by Hilift 333 days ago
This is an absurd diversion from how poorly LA leadership is performing.

Six months on, and no permits have been drawn for the Palisades/Malibu reconstruction. There are 7,000 destroyed homes, in the most bureaucratic municipality for a permitting and development process. This will be particularly true for anything that requires Coastal Commission oversight. Their job is to get you to leave.

LA city sold $1 billion in bonds this year, not for strategic efforts, but to keep the lights on and water running. They basically punted and said part of the DPW is a project and we want to sell $1 billion in bonds.

In previous years, LA city annual spend includes $700+ million for homeless, and $350+ million for liability payments. It's basically a giant pot of money for a huge feeding frenzy.

Sure, the fire department has an insufficient budget, but no-one talks about 30% of all fires are started by the homeless, and why are they allowed to live under an interstate overpass anyway?

Some of those 7,000 homeowners displaced by the fire may give up and leave. Those that remain are going after LA leadership in court. LA will see massive lawsuits from homeowners and businesses, possibly the state government.

3 comments

> why are they allowed to live under an interstate overpass anyway?

Genuine question because you seem passionate about it and I don’t have a good answer for this, I wrestle with it often.

Where should they put themselves instead? Or where should the state allow them to be?

https://www.nfpa.org/news-blogs-and-articles/blogs/2023/11/1...

"...sources with knowledge of the incident have told news outlets that it appears to have been intentionally set and that the storage of wood pallets and hand sanitizer under the overpass contributed to the intensity of the blaze. Both wood pallets and hand sanitizer are known to fuel fires."

Why was there bulk pallets and hand sanitizer? It's basically kindling, with a napalm icing. Look at the photo. It is likely this product was stored there due to it was removed from somewhere else where it was illegally stored. And it was likely to be a business operating illegally, without the proper licenses and permits. Or they needed to dispose of the product and simply did not want to pay for it.

Governor Newsom has already acknowledged this was and is a failure of governance.

Was this meant to be a reply to a different comment?
It might seem logical to connect the number of fires and the fire department budget, after all, it's right there in the name! But in reality, most fire departments spend almost none of their time putting out fires. It's mostly first-responder/EMT work.
Is that 30% by calls, firefighter hours, or damage arising? I can imagine if you count every illegal campfire it would distort the picture.