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Tag: traci park

  • Pacific Palisades Residents Blast LAFD Report

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    The arrest of a suspected arsonist did little to assuage the fury of Pacific Palisades residents who continue to grapple with insurance company stonewalling and other issues connected to their devastating losses that came with LAFD missteps

    The announcement that an arsonist was responsible for starting a fire a full seven days before her home – and nearly 6000 others – were destroyed in the Pacific Palisades, the coastal neighborhood where Allison Polhill has lived for three decades, did little to bring her any answers about why her house burned.

    “It gave me a pit in my stomach,” Polhill told Los Angeles on Wednesday, the day that federal prosecutors announced charges against a 29-year-old former short-term Pacific Palisades resident who “maliciously” set brush ablaze in Topanga State Park in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day. “It didn’t bring peace, it opened a wound because him setting that fire is not an explanation as to why my house burned down.”

    Those answers, Polhill and other residents who surrounded City Councilwoman Traci Park at the Palisades Village Green, the eerie hull of a smoke-stained foundation of a Romanesque building that anchored the downtown area behind them a stark reminder of the devastation the community suffered, lie with the city of Los Angeles and missteps, the LAFD has now acknowledged in an After-Action Review Report released hours after the arrest of Jonathan Rinderknecht was announced.

    The report details the department’s challenges with staffing and communication — and acknowledges a lack of readiness among the seasoned veterans of the LAFD. The report found that inadequate resources were dedicated to the initial firefight and that evacuation orders were delayed, causing roads to be clogged with abandoned vehicles left behind by fleeing, panicked residents.

    Mayor Karen Bass – who was criticized for being on an overseas junket on behalf of former President Biden when the inferno began to rage, leveling 6800 homes in one of L.A.’s toniest zip codes and killing twelve – said the LAFD has begun to implement changes for the department, while highlighting the “relentless heroism of firefighters responding to the blaze.”

    Among those changes, Bass says, is “strengthened interagency coordination, upgraded communications technology, enhanced wildfire training and evacuation drills and improved pre-deployment protocols.”

    Still, thousands of families are still displaced, like Polhill’s. Park said “It’s a start, but not closure,” adding that the report raises even more questions. The LAFD After Action Report released this afternoon raises more questions.

    “I intend to get those answers,” Park said. “I’ll keep fighting for every resident to have a path back home.”

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    Michele McPhee

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  • LA Council Bans “Disaster Tourism” in Pacific Palisades

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    Amid reports of “Disaster Tours” taking place in Pacific Palisades, the Los Angeles City Council decided to bar the operations of tour buses in the affected areas.

    Charred ruins of homes and palm trees line the Pacific Coast Highway after the Palisades Fire
    Credit: Courtesy of Ada Guerin

    The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a resolution barring the operation of “disaster tours” or any bus tours from operating in the 16-mile area of the Pacific Palisades that were affected by wildfires in January. 

    The resolution states that the restrictions are necessary to successfully rebuild and preserve public safety. “In an area within a declared emergency when construction activities to repair roadways, stabilize hillside slopes, repair utilities, reconstruct homes, and rebuild business,” all of which often occur on narrow winding roads.

    After the vote this week, the Department of Transportation is set to install signage in the area about tour bus restrictions in the affected areas. 

    Tour bus restricted areas outlined
    Credit: Courtesy of the Department of Transportation

    If a tour bus driver drives through the restricted areas outlined, their employer could be criminally charged. The driver would not be held responsible, but the employer or “operator of the tour bus company” would be, as stated by the Department of Transportation. 

    The resolution was first introduced back in July by councilmember Traci Park, whose district includes the Pacific Palisades. 

    Over the summer, her office had received reports about commercial tours operating in the Pacific Palisades area since the neighborhood opened to the public. “These are people who are looking to profit off of destruction and other people’s losses,” said council member Park. 

    The Palisades fire was a series of highly destructive wildfires that displaced tens of thousands of residents and left many without their homes. The fire destroyed close to 7,000 structures and killed 12 people.

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    Tara Nguyen

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  • Los Angeles cracks down on copper wire thefts, warns of more arrests

    Los Angeles cracks down on copper wire thefts, warns of more arrests

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    Several people have been arrested and tens of thousands of pounds of copper recovered as part of a crackdown by Los Angeles police and staff on thieves and rogue recyclers that at times have left the city paralyzed and dark in the last few years, officials announced at a Tuesday news conference.

    Flanked by members of the Los Angeles Police Department and Caltrans, City Council President Paul Krekorian announced that 16,000 pounds of copper wire valued at $40,000 has been recovered during a recent two-month crackdown.

    “The consequences to the taxpayers of Los Angeles are far, far greater than that,” he said of the copper’s value. “The cost of repairs to replace that copper wire are estimated to be over a half-million dollars already.”

    As part of the push in enforcement, LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said eight East Valley recyclers have been fined and arrests made, but he did not provide details on how many or for what charges. Police also made arrests at other facilities on suspicion of theft, failure to report and receiving stolen property.

    “We are aware of and have observed some of our businesses being less than honest brokers,” Hamilton said, adding that some area recyclers have been purchasing stolen wire from outside the city as well.

    Krekorian’s office said at least two people were arrested at a North Hollywood recycler on June 19, followed by more arrests, including a manager, three days later at another North Hollywood recycler.

    “We have refocused our efforts on the most egregious individuals and businesses that we’ve identified through our tracking system as continually having involvement in this illegal activity,” Hamilton said.

    Hamilton said that one time, the California Department of Transportation incurred a $150,000 loss from a single individual.

    “If you just multiple that over the course of a year, that can be very expensive for the taxpayer,” Hamilton said.

    More arrests are expected, the deputy chief said.

    Over its last three North Hollywood operations, the LAPD has reclaimed 1,668 pounds of stolen copper wire, along with hundreds of pounds of aluminum cable and backup batteries for roadway safety systems, it said. In late July, the city announced it had made 82 arrests and recovered 2,000 pounds of wire.

    City Councilmembers Kevin de León and Traci Park attributed the efforts to the city’s copper wire task force, a partnership between the LAPD and the Bureau of Street Lighting.

    In November, Krekorian acknowledged that copper wire theft had been seen “too often” as “a minor crime” despite recent spikes that left neighborhoods “darker and more dangerous.”

    That day Krekorian announced the city would target “unscrupulous” metal recyclers — the “upstream part of the problem” — who were not checking identifications of vendors or material provenance.

    City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto eventually sent letters to 600 recyclers throughout the city warning them they were subject to searches and inspections.

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    Andrew J. Campa

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