Palisades: Government AWOL as residents rebuild if they can

Take Sunset Boulevard into the Pacific Palisades today, and you’ll encounter a flurry of construction activity.More than 21 months after the January 2025 fires that incinerated the LA neighborhood, the skeletons of new houses are rising on burned-out lots, and the whirring of heavy machinery punctuates the air. But there are many empty lots, and the burned-out hulk of the Business Block — once the centerpiece of the commercial district — stands as a stark reminder of how much remains to be done, and how much remains stagnant.

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So while there are encouraging signs, almost all of the progress is self-directed — pursued by wealthy residents, charities and LA developers like Rick Caruso.Though the rebuilding is a triumph of the resilient American spirit, the American government has gone AWOL. Local, county and state governments have been supremely unhelpful to the victims of the Palisades fires.

Back in April, LA Mayor Karen Bass visited the White House to discuss fire recovery for both the Palisades and the community of Altadena, but little has come of her visit. The federal government helped initially.Back in January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to fast-track rebuilding permits. But in September, funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the Disaster Case Management (DCM) program, which helped survivors work with the federal emergency reimbursement process, ran dry. The funding drought is a victim of Gov.

Gavin Newsom’s self-serving grandstanding against President Trump, including authorizing $50 million in lawsuits against the administration.This lawfare occurred all while Newsom was simultaneously asking the feds for $40 billion in recovery funds, an absurdly outsized r...