Live updates: Brush fire burns in Pacific Palisades as Santa Ana winds blast Southern California - Live video at link

Fuck Bankers said:
Fires getting close to Brentwood
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Think they're at the ridge to the left of this map, so basically 99% mansions of people who probably voted for Newsome.

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L.A. City Council hangs up on phone-in public comment​

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Dakota Smith, with an assist from David Zahniser.

(Also, apologies for landing in your inbox a bit late. We’ve been chasing fire news during this devastating disaster.)

The agenda for Tuesday’s Los Angeles City Council meeting contained the usual mix of topics — zoning changes, legal settlements and measures to fight homelessness.

Still, something was missing.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, aside from a brief hiatus, the council had allowed residents to comment by phone during public meetings. The call-in instructions were displayed prominently in boldface type at the top of the agenda and the second page.

Those instructions did not appear on Tuesday’s agenda.

Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson confirmed after the meeting that he had done away with the call-in option. During the meeting, none of his colleagues objected.

Public comment during government meetings is a key feature of American democracy, giving residents a chance to weigh in on the critical issues of the day.

At City Hall, a handful of commenters also regularly deliver bigoted messages. Councilmembers have increasingly voiced their disgust at comments — both in person and via phone — that are racist, sexist, homophobic or antisemitic.

As Harris-Dawson sought the council presidency last year, he took feedback from his fellow council members. An item that kept coming up, he said, was their desire to spend more time in their districts working on constituent issues.

One way to achieve that: shorter council meetings.

After Tuesday’s meeting, which took place just as the Palisades fire broke out, Harris-Dawson briefly discussed the decision to do away with call-in comments, saying he wants the council to return to the pre-COVID way of doing things.

“People who come to the council can give public testimony,” he told The Times. “If you want to give testimony without showing up, you’re free to do that in writing or in other ways.”

Asked why he made the change, he said: “We just wanted to move back to regular order. We wanted to pivot and give the city an opportunity to heal from that time period and move into the future.”

Critics denounced the move, particularly in light of devastation and displacement caused by the fires that broke out across the region, leveling neighborhoods in Pacific Palisades, Altadena and elsewhere and killing at least 13 people.

A call-in option allows people who live in far-flung areas of the city, or can’t otherwise get to City Hall for meetings during daytime hours, to weigh in on issues big and small, those advocates said.

Rob Quan, an organizer at the good-government group Unrig LA, said the council should reconsider the decision and reinstate phone-in public comment.

“It’s just valuable generally,” Quan said. “But under an emergency like this, it couldn’t be more important.”

Eric Preven, a watchdog and regular at City Council meetings, had a stronger message, calling the change “outrageous.”

“Marqueece Harris-Dawson is waging an all-out assault on public participation,” he said.

During the pandemic, city leaders also had allowed phone-in comments for the council’s committee meetings. But that practice ended once in-person meetings resumed.

Last year, Unrig LA asked some candidates running for City Council about their position on the issue. Councilmembers Nithya Raman and Ysabel Jurado supported the restoration of phone-in comment at council committee meetings.

“Not every resident has the ability to attend public comment in person,” wrote Jurado, who won her seat in the Nov. 5 election, in her response to Unrig LA. “We should make public comment more accessible and giving people the option to join remotely will ensure we are granting wider access to residents to be able to speak up.”

Councilmember Adrin Nazarian, while running for his seat, had a similar message, telling Unrig LA that he would “advocate for the restoration of remote public comment at committees to ensure broader public engagement, accessibility, and inclusivity in the decision-making process of the LA City Council.”

State of play​

— RUNNING DRY: Crews battling the Palisades fire faced a massive challenge after scores of fire hydrants stopped or slowed their water flow due to the immense demand. Gov. Gavin Newsom called for an investigation into the hydrants, as well as the decision to keep a reservoir in the Palisades that holds 117 million gallons of water offline this month for maintenance.

— LEFT IN THE DARK: Power shutoffs intended to reduce the risk of additional fires have left hundreds of thousands of people across the Southland in the dark this week. With more strong winds forecast for next week, expect more outages.

— UNPACKING THE BUDGET: Mayor Karen Bass has been under fire for reductions in staffing, and overtime, at the fire department. But a Times analysis found that the agency’s overall budget will actually grow this year, thanks to a package of firefighter raises approved in November.

— FIRE CHIEF MEDIA BLITZ: Fire Chief Kristin Crowley caused a jolt Friday, embarking on a media tour where she criticized the city over its handling of fire department funding. Bass met with Crowley after Crowley told Fox11 that the city had failed her agency. At one point, a news outlet even reported that Crowley had been fired. The fire department responded by saying the chief remains “in full command of the LAFD.”

— FALSE ALARMS: The emergency alert system that sends out evacuation warnings to Los Angeles County residents was something of a train wreck this week, with false alarms repeatedly going off on cellphones, creating more panic in a region already on edge.

— OUT OF AFRICA: Bass was out of the country on a diplomatic mission in Ghana when the Palisades fire broke out — and was making her way back to the U.S. as the blaze grew and others erupted. Real estate developer Rick Caruso, her opponent in the 2022 election, said Bass should have been in the city during the emergency. Bass said she was in “constant communication” with public safety officials during her journey home. She returned Wednesday.

— BALLOONING RENTS: Rents in the L.A. area are likely to rise following the displacement of thousands of homeowners and tenants, while those rebuilding their homes will face intense competition for contractors, experts say.

— I WANT MY TVC: The City Council voted unanimously to approve a plan by Hackman Capital Partners to expand and modernize its 25-acre Television City site near the Grove and the Original Farmers Market. Both Caruso, who developed the Grove, and A.F. Gilmore Co., which owns the Farmers Market, had joined with neighborhood groups in opposing the project. Critics say it’s too big and, without changes, will worsen traffic.
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AnOminous said:
I've broken down twice in Tennessee, and despite the fact I and the people I was traveling with were obviously freaks and weirdoes, some random guy stopped both times and obviously thought we were idiots but helped us anyway.
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The one time I got in meaningful car trouble in Dixie, I had accidentally gone nose first into the ditch (long story) and my RWD car couldn't get traction to back out. This was nowhere in particular in the middle of the night. Within ten minutes a passing good ol boy had my car hooked up to the hitch on the back of his truck and pulled me out.
 
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Wait, the fires are still going? LMAO
How fucking useless is the LA goverment? They already got a massive check from Biden since LA is a democratic stronghold, and they still can't do shit? How did they fuck up so bad that they ended up in this situation?
Also, why do americans build their houses out of wood and cardboard? That shit sucks balls bro.
 
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Philier said:
Wait, the fires are still going? LMAO
How fucking useless is the LA goverment? They already got a massive check from Biden since LA is a democratic stronghold, and they still can't do shit? How did they fuck up so bad that they ended up in this situation?
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They are going to pick up again too. A strong High Pressure system is moving into the Great Salt Lake basin. Its going to drive winds up to 70 MPH again around Monday.
 
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Pacific Palisades Fire: Correcting Misinformation About LADWP’s Water System​

Our hearts are with all of our customers whose lives have been devastated by these wildfires. We are here to support them and the firefighting efforts.

This was an unprecedented hurricane wind-driven wildfire in an urban area. Our crews and our system were prepared, but overwhelmed by the massive demand as firefighting continued.

We want to correct misinformation in order to assure you that our focus has been and will always remain providing safe and reliable water and power to our customers.

Any assertion that fire hydrants in the Pacific Palisades were broken before the Palisades fire is misleading and false. LADWP works with LAFD who is responsible for inspecting fire hydrants citywide. LADWP repaired every hydrant needing repairs as reported by LA Fire Department inspectors. LADWP’s fire hydrant repair list was current and updated, and all reported fire hydrants were fully operational in the Pacific Palisades and in L.A.’s Westside communities prior to the fire.

No power was lost to LADWP pump stations during the fire, and water supply remained strong to the area. Water pressure in the system was lost due to unprecedented and extreme water demand to fight the wildfire without aerial support. This impacted our ability to refill the three water tanks supplying the Palisades causing the loss of suction pressure. This impacted 20 percent of the hydrants in the area, mostly in the higher elevations. As soon as LADWP identified the risk of losing water in the tanks and water pressure in the system, we immediately deployed potable water tankers to sustain support for firefighting efforts.

LADWP was required to take the Santa Ynez Reservoir out of service to meet safe drinking water regulations. To commission the support and resources to implement repairs to Santa Ynez, LADWP is subject to the city charter’s competitive bidding process which requires time.

The water system serving the Pacific Palisades area and all of Los Angeles meets all federal and state fire codes for urban development and housing. LADWP built the Pacific Palisades water system beyond the requirements to support the community’s typical needs. As we face the impacts of climate change and build climate resilience, we welcome a review and update of these codes and requirements if city water systems will be used to fight extreme wildfires. LADWP is initiating our own investigation about water resiliency and how we can enhance our posture to respond to the impacts of climate change.
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WelperHelper99 said:
Trump is doing this and you are a fool to think he won't.
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The problem is there are now 4 major states, with a lot of political power, who's citizens and cities were left in ruins. FEMA walked away because they might be Trump voters. This week they were just tossed out of their temporary housing in the face of a massive winter storm, because California is Burning, and their needs must be met instead of the Red states. Joe Biden just promised to fully fund California. The victims in NC, SC and Tennessee got $350. The ones in Florida got bypassed in act of corrupt governmental institutional racism. How many votes will be needed in the House or Senate to fully pay for Cali? Can they do it without the Southern Red states? And this isn't politics or tribalism of hate. The Southern States are still waiting for Federal Aid. All they got was "We don't have the budget for you. We blew it all on illegal immigrants"
 
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obsdj said:
For fuck’s sake. LA should never be allowed to host the Olympics, but in an election year? After Trump’s second term? At the height of the shitshow that will be the primaries? Not to mention this whole, you know, devastating fire stuff that will take years to recover from? Whose brilliant idea was this?
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Apparently it was to be the first city to host it 3 times. Pretty sure the idea was not to build anything for it, but to be sustainable (brag about not needing to spend like other cities because they already had everything.)
Idea isn't looking all that great right now.
 
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