Latest news with #PalisadesFires
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Living in Los Angeles is a test of empathy
In Los Angeles, it's not uncommon to hear the buzzing of a police helicopter overhead. The sound is almost background noise in this city. A reminder that somewhere, something is happening, something you aren't a part of. It's out there, but it's not right here. But more and more, that sound has begun to jolt us out of our complacency. In the last five years, that sound has heralded the uprising over the killing of George Floyd and the devastation of the Eaton and Palisades fires. Instead of the usual – a high-speed police chase, a burglary or some other fodder for local news sensationalism – that sound means you are living on the doorstep of history once again. This last weekend reminds us that our city is under siege from a federal government eager for a fight. That our immigrant neighbors are being disappeared, apparently without due process. I've gotten texts from family and friends asking if I'm OK as this all transpires. Most people outside LA don't realize just how big this place is. That in these moments, it can feel like the events are happening in another world. You might see someone pouring a water bottle over their head on the sidewalk, trying their best to mitigate the damage caused by teargas. Google Maps shows you the 101 freeway is closed – a bright red line through your morning commute. Co-workers offer uneasy glances. After all, you have to go to work. You have to keep going. You can't stop for one second to truly reflect on what you're witnessing, or you might get washed away by the crushing demands of even the simplest life. During this year's fires, I had to move houses. The movers came and dutifully trudged up and down stairs, lifted boxes and drove back out into the red horizon. Some restaurants remained open, serving food despite the toxic air and general sense of dread that consumed the region. Many of those people, who did all they could to earn a living so we could approximate normalcy, were immigrants from countries like Mexico, El Salvador, Venezuela and anywhere in between. They were also the ones who kept restaurants open during Covid lockdowns or drove for Uber Eats, again, so I could feel normal in abnormal times. And they're doing it again, but the danger is even more immediate. People are being taken from their jobs, their homes, their schools – without warning and without their rights. For a lot of us in LA, it can feel like it's happening somewhere else. Downtown, the suburbs – but it is happening here. Within the arbitrary geographical lines that form the city of LA and the surrounding county. Those lines, like the ones that we created to divide us into nation-states, do matter, even if they aren't natural. They matter because they are how we identify, how we form communities. The world is not borderless, even though some of us might wish it to be. They exist, for better or worse. Right now, it does feel like it's for the worse. Donald Trump and his administration see those lines and they weaponize them; they use them to create fear and chaos in our cities. They grab human beings and toss them over those arbitrary lines, denying them their dignity – the dignity that is enshrined in our constitution for all peoples. In a moment like this, it's easy to curse the very notion of those arbitrary lines, as they cause so much misery. But those lines also create commonality. More than ever, those of us in LA should look at who and what is within our city limits. Not because we should fear what's outside, but because we should care about what's inside. We should always care, no matter where cruelty takes place, but even more so when the cruelty happens to those who share our home. LA might be the greatest empathy test humanity ever devised. A nearly 500-square-mile city, with close to 4 million residents spread out all the way to the ocean. To live in LA is to have the opportunity to live a fully internal life. I never saw the fires. I barely saw the smoke. The devastation was relegated to my TV screen, my smartphone. It's a city built on privacy, isolation and riddled with neighborhoods surrounded by gates and private security. Mike Davis's seminal history of LA urbanism, City of Quartz, built its narrative around the idea of LA as a panopticon fueled by greed, riddled with paranoia and beholden to the prison-industrial complex. It made such a mark on our city's culture because it's often true. This can be a dark, lonely place. But it can be a haven, too, if you look up from the ground, peer out from behind your own anxiety and believe in the idea that there is more out there than what is happening directly in front of you. This is a moment where we have the power to decide what kind of city we want to live in. We can cede our agency, our will and our community to brute force or we can live together. We can pass the empathy test and make it clear to the world that LA is not a bastion of unchecked individualism, but a city of communal spirit and diversity. I don't know what the solution to this crisis is. Governor Newsom is suing to repel the national guard order, but it will take time, and the president has not shown much interest in abiding by court rulings. All I know is that this will not end unless the city and its population stands firm on its values and morals. That it stands together even if it's so easy to see what's happening as just another reason for bad traffic. Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Thousands of wildfire victims are having tax refunds sent back - Here's how to get your money
The Brief Thousands of victims of January's Palisades and Eaton fires are entitled to some money from Los Angeles County. County officials have started mailing checks, but many are getting sent back, because the mailing addresses are for destroyed buildings. Anyone who's eligible for money from the county should update their address on the LA County Assessor's website. LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. - If you lost your home in the Palisades or Eaton fires earlier this year, Los Angeles County may owe you some money. The county has started sending out checks, but thousands are being sent back. FOX 11 spoke with LA County Assessor Jeff Prang about how you can make sure you get your money. The backstory The Palisades and Eaton fires destroyed more than 16,000 structures between the Pacific Palisades, Pasadena and Altadena communities. After the fires, the Assessor's Office re-evaluated the value of properties in the disaster zones. Many properties saw their value lowered, entitling owners to tax refunds. SUGGESTED: California lawmakers announce new legislation supporting inmate firefighters Thousands of checks have already gone out, but fire victims can also apply for relief on the Assessor's website, Dig deeper The County Auditor-Controller has already sent out thousands of checks to those who are entitled to some money, but there's one big problem. In many cases, the address of record is the destroyed property, so the Post Office is sending the checks back, marking them undeliverable. SUGGESTED: PCH is back open, and Malibu businesses couldn't be happier Prang says they've already gotten some of the checks back, and he expects thousands more to follow. The fix is simple. All you have to do is update your mailing address on the Assessor's Office website at The Source Information in this story is from an interview with Los Angeles County Assessor Jeff Prang, the county Assessor's website, and City News Service.
NBC News
29-04-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Why LA County says it can't give raises to thousands of workers set to strike
While more than 55,000 unionized workers for Los Angeles County are set to strike Monday evening, county officials said there is simply no money to meet the employees' demands. The members of Service Employees International Union Local 721, including public works employees, library workers and mental health professionals, were expected to walk off the job for 48 hours, starting at 7 p.m. Monday, accusing the county of failing to negotiate a new labor contract fairly. 'We faced nothing less than disrespect at the bargaining table,' a union leader said during a rally, claiming the county's proposal was a 0% increase for cost of living. Although Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, acknowledged the financial hardships amid inflation, she said the county cannot afford cost-of-living increases to workers amid a massive budget hole. In addition to the unexpected costs related to the Eaton and Palisades Fires, the country had to pay $4 billion to settle decades-old youth sexual abuse claims as the result of state law that reopened the statute of limitation of such claims. 'Even the union knows that $4 billion has compromised our ability to negotiate,' Barger said. 'We need to be able to make sure when we write a check, you can cash it.' LA County's Chief Executive Office echoed the message in a statement, blaming 'unprecedented stresses,' which also include 'the potentially catastrophic loss of hundreds of millions or more in federal funding' from the Trump administration. 'Despite the severity of our fiscal outlook, the County has made fair and responsible counter proposals that we hope the union will seriously consider,' the statement said. The county CEO also recently released the budget proposal for the coming year, including 3% cuts to some departments and the elimination of more than 200 vacant positions. The strike is likely to affect critical services such as emergency health care and firefighting. County Library officials also said the strike will impact services and possibly force temporary closures of some library locations. Some non-urgent county clinics will be closed during the two-day strike, some beach restrooms may be closed, and there may be some delays in services provided by the medical examiner.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Los Angeles Q1 Shoot Days Continue To Plummet, Down By 22% Amid Wildfires
The wildfires that ravaged the Los Angeles area in January also took a toll on the already-distressed local film and TV production sector. FilmLA reported today that overall shoot days in Greater L.A. were down by 22.4% during the first quarter, continuing a disturbing trend. The city and county film-permitting office said that all of the major filming categories it tracks declined during the period. Hardest hit was the TV production, which plunged by 30.5% to 1,670 shoot day for the quarter, but Feature Film production wasn't far behind, dropping by 28.9 percent to 451 days. They reflected the impact of global production cutbacks and California's ongoing loss of work to rival territories, FilmLA said. See charts below and read the full report here. More from Deadline California Lawmakers Call On Experts To Help Weigh Newsom's Expanded Film & TV Tax Credit Proposal: 'A Serious Fiscal Matter' Los Angeles Sound Stage Occupancy Declined Again In 2024 To 63% — Report New Fire Hazard Severity Zone Maps For L.A. Released Two Months After Wildfires FilmLA noted, however, that the wildfires that devastated the Pacific Palisades and Altadena communities had only a small effect on L.A.-area filming. A recent analysis by the group determined that combined, those areas had hosted 1,405 shoot days during the past four years – or roughly 1.3% of all regional filming. About 545 unique filming locations fell within the fires' burn zones, which at the order of Los Angeles City and County, remain off-limits. Greater L.A. TV production peaked in 2021 at 18,560 annual shoot days. With the 7,716 days logged in 2024, the sector's annual production declined by 58.4% in just three years. RELATED: . FilmLA defines a 'shoot day' as one crew's permission to film at one or more defined locations during any 24-hour period. 'Loss of filming opportunity in no way compares to the cost of the Eaton and Palisades Fires in terms of loss of life, resident displacement and property damage,' said Philip Sokoloski, VP Integrated Communications at FilmLA. 'The fires sent many productions scrambling to reschedule shoots and displaced hundreds of industry workers from their homes. But their impact on local filming levels appears to have been temporary.' Best of Deadline Everything We Know About Netflix's 'Ransom Canyon' So Far 'The Last of Us' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out? 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery
Associated Press
08-04-2025
- General
- Associated Press
IBHS releases Resilient Rebuilding: A Path Forward for Los Angeles, a blueprint for survivable and insurable homes and communities
LOS ANGELES and RICHBURG, S.C., April 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety ( IBHS) today released Resilient Rebuilding: A Path Forward for Los Angeles, a blueprint for rebuilding a more survivable and insurable Los Angeles after the devastating Eaton and Palisades Fires. IBHS calls on local leaders to take regulatory action to ensure critical structural and defensible space requirements and specific mitigation actions needed to make the next generation of Los Angeles homes and communities more wildfire resilient are taken during this historic rebuilding. 'We are at a critical point for rebuilding in Los Angeles – one where the survivability and insurability of the next generation of LA's homes and communities is decided,' says Roy Wright, CEO of IBHS and a member of the LA County Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action & Fire Safe Recovery. 'Research-based fire mitigation actions can meaningfully reduce the risk of wildfire now and in the future.' Offering a play-by-play sequence of actions, IBHS addresses the exact wildfire mitigation actions and critical retrofits to strengthen survivability and insurability for homes and communities. The paper provides specific regulatory actions to make these recommendations a reality. IBHS calls on Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles to: Extend Chapter 7A requirements and develop a Zone 0 standard for the entire Eaton Fire footprint. (Zone 0 is the zero-to-five-foot area immediately surrounding a structure that must be free of vegetation and any combustible items.) Develop and apply a Zone 0 standard to the Palisades Fire footprint. Enhance Chapter 7A requirements with additional mitigation actions as required by the IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home Plus standard. Enact local defensible space requirements addressing Zone 0 across all at-risk communities within Los Angeles. Use setbacks to maximize the spacing between structures to the greatest extent possible. Use local planning and financial resources to establish and maintain fuel breaks along the periphery of communities in highest hazard zones. Develop plans to retrofit all surviving homes with baseline wildfire protections, through requirements, incentives and financial support. Resilient Rebuilding: A Path Forward for Los Angeles and additional IBHS wildfire research, including recent reports on the LA County fires, are available at About the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) The IBHS mission is to conduct objective, scientific research to identify and promote effective actions that strengthen homes, businesses and communities against natural disasters and other causes of loss. Learn more at
