Political leaders aren’t to blame for LA fires, but what about the recovery?

As Los Angeles marks the one-year anniversary of fires that destroyed large chunks of the Pacific Palisades and Altadena, it’s an opportune moment to ask about the state of the recovery and to consider the political implications of that work. 

In short, is Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass doing enough to rebuild from the blazes?

To answer the question, it’s worth starting with one obvious but unusual fact: The Palisades and Eaton fires were, in one sense, identical, in that they erupted at the same moment, under the same weather conditions and just a few miles apart. 

But they are, in another important sense, opposite, in that the Palisades lie within the mayor’s jurisdiction and the Eaton fire outside it. That should help dispense with one critique of Bass, the argument that these fires could have been throttled in their earliest moments if only for swift action by city leaders, or that Los Angeles was singularly unprepared. 

If that were true, Altadena would still be standing, since it lies outside the orbit of LA’s leadership. The devastating damage to two areas with different political structures proves that political leadership was not to blame.

The same is true for the specious argument that a reservoir that was offline for repairs near the Palisades would have saved the area from disaster. The real problem with fighting the fires a year ago was high winds, which grounded planes and helicopters, not a lack of water supply — which was confirmed by a state analysis of the response and by firefighters on the ground. 

If the reservoir’s status at the time of the fire did not contribute to the actual damage, it did offer the mayor’s critics a political line of attack, which they grabbed even as the fires still smoldered. 

Rick Caruso, the developer whom Bass beat in 2022, latched onto the issue, but it was just a grasp for advantage and was — or should have been — beneath his intelligence. He continues his quest to be mentioned in stories about the campaigns for mayor and governor, considering each even as the political tide moves away from him.

Forces of nature

LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong also tried to make hay of it, only to be contradicted by his own newspaper’s reporting on the issue. Soon-Shiong has since retreated from public commentary on the fires and their aftermath; his public pledge to create a Leadership Council disappeared without a trace. 

Wind and brush are forces of nature, not politics, and absolve Bass of responsibility for the fires. Karen Bass is no more responsible for the Palisades fire than former mayors Richard Riordan was for the Northridge Earthquake or Eugene Schmitz for the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. They prove nothing more than that disasters are a fact of California history.

That said, mayors and other political leaders can and should be held accountable for how those under their direction respond in the aftermath of catastrophe. 

Again, comparing Altadena and the Palisades is illustrative:

A recent UCLA study concluded that 70% of homes badly damaged in the Eaton fire show no signs of moving toward reconstruction, and while about half of rebuilding permits filed so far had been approved, more than 25% were on hold. 

From the Palisades, meanwhile, the city has received more than 3,000 permit applications, has approved plans for more than 1,700 and issued permits for about 1,400. As with Altadena, that leaves many still under review, some 1,200 in the case of the city. 

Broadly speaking, the city of Los Angeles is issuing permits in the Palisades somewhat faster than county officials are for Altadena, according to an analysis by the Los Angeles Times, which pegged the city’s average turnaround at 79 days and the county’s at 131 days. 

In other areas, the city’s response has failed to inspire much confidence. The city’s fire chief was quick to distance herself from the fire’s devastation, laying blame on others before being fired by Bass last year. 

And efforts to produce an after-action analysis of the event have been undermined by reports pointing to editing that softened some of the document’s language and conclusions. Some of the changes appear cosmetic, others more substantive. 

Despite the ultimate report being “watered down,” it presented a menu of reforms to better prepare the city for the next flareup. Some have already been implemented. 

For Bass, then, the political challenge ahead is twofold: to persuade voters that her early stumbles did not materially affect the city’s response and to demonstrate that the city has command of the process now. 

In that vein, her administration is attempting to present itself as transparent: The city has made public copies of the after-action report and the drafts that led up to it, and a city website charts progress toward rebuilding with regular, sometime hourly, updates. 

But reassurance is likely to be measured by optics as much as data. By fall, will the Palisades feel like a community regaining its strength, or will it remain hollowed out and empty? That, more than anything, may deliver the political verdict on this grave civic tragedy.

As for the judgments of history, they are mixed.

Mayor Riordan was widely praised for his response to the Northridge quake, and his steady resolve in those months helped fashion his image as a practical and, at least occasionally, effective problem solver. 

For Mayor Schmitz, the San Francisco quake left a different lasting impression. He ordered police to shoot looters on sight and reached outside the government for leadership in rebuilding the city. He was indicted the following year for corruption, and though ultimately acquitted, he never regained his former standing in the life of his city.