Breitbart editor (who lives in the Pacific Palisades area) writes:
Joel Pollak
@joelpollak
A brief, factual thread about the POLICY issues around the Palisades fire. I will stick to what I know personally. I am covering for @BreitbartNews and available to help @FoxNews, @MSNBC, or anyone needing information and ideas, including the incoming Trump administration. (1/9)
1:34 PM · Jan 8, 2025
FOREST MANAGEMENT: This is an issue in California generally, but I will say in this IMMEDIATE area I have personally witnessed brush clearance on the trails in the mountains where the fire began. Any hurricane-force wind pushing a fire will be destructive, despite clearance (2/9)
RESERVOIRS: The Santa Ynez Reservoir near the fire outbreak was empty as of Sunday (I was up there). There are 10,000-gal water tanks in the Temescal Canyon for hydrants; don't know if they were full. After outbreak, I doubt whether water could have stopped the blaze anyway (3/9)
WATER: California generally does a terrible job of water management. L.A. (reclamation) and esp. San Diego (desalination) do better with new methods. I don't know if it's practical to divert surface water for firefighting, as some have suggested. But more supply is needed. (4/9)
PLANNING: Shockingly bad. The Highlands, near the fire, is an area with only one road in and out -- that's the road where people abandoned their cars and ran. There are erosion-prone hillsides with big developments that, to me, don't make sense. Rebuilding must change this. (5/9)
EMERGENCY RESPONSE: With greatest respect to those protecting us at great risk there were not enough police to direct traffic and fire authorities could have called evacuation sooner. Blame elected leaders who cut police budget in 2020 (BLM), and fire budget more recently. (6/9)
PUBLIC BEHAVIOR: Residents rose to the challenge; not one death in Palisades (yet). But outsiders have been shooting fireworks in our neighborhood for years, smoking pot in the dry mountains, etc. California has little public education about fire (as I've noted for years). (7/9)
FIRE INSURANCE: Democrats used socialist price controls to cap rates; the result is a shortage of insurance as companies leave or cancel policies. This was discussed on local Nextdoor in Dec. New "forced coverage" regs will make the problem worse. Need creative solutions. (8/9)
POLITICS: Mayor Karen Bass was in Ghana for no good reason. Governor Gavin Newsom thanked her for literally phoning it in. Our (effectively) one-party system fails to provide public accountability. Developer Rick Caruso (who lost to Bass) saved his mall. Only thing standing (9/9)
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Re what he said about insurance:
Justine Bateman
@JustineBateman
A couple of years ago, insurance companies put in the necessary requests to the state of California to raise their rates. They were denied. So most of them pulled out of CA. It has been extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get house ins here since then.
Many of these now destroyed houses may be uninsured because CA wouldn’t let the companies raise rates to compensate for past fires, etc.
10:59 AM · Jan 8, 2025
