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Will They Rebuild Los Angeles?
A westward view of the Hurst Fire on January 7. Wikimedia Commons
I’ve watched a lot this week of the tragic events resulting from the wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
This has increased my awareness of some of the details related to the destruction. It appears there has been total mismanagement of the fire prevention capability by federal, state, and local governing authorities. The big state-related issue is the lack of water positioned to fight the fires, and there are also questions about equipment and the actual competency of officials, including those elected at state and local levels.
I have gained an impression over the recent years that environmental and other requirements make garnering permits to build very complicated. Now I understand that insurance companies are refusing to insure homes for fire hazards.
With all these factors operating against the process, why would people actually rebuild homes in these areas, especially in view of the fact that they have a very high risk of fire and no competent government service to respond to that risk? The high taxation for those who reside in California is another factor working against rebuilding.
Published in General
There will be a small window where they will attempt to rebuild. If the bureaucracy delays, even a little bit, they will move. But there’s not that many uber-rich.
The rich who have sunken costs into properties they can barely afford will probably be stuck. They might stick around a little longer and fight, especially if they don’t have insurance.
But a progressive tax system that California has is sensitive to rich people who leave and no longer pay.
As Adam Corolla recently talked about the California Coastal Commission, which will he says will be agency that will be in charge of approving permits to rebuild, and he expects will want to take this opportunity to make the coast line “pristine.”
I looked it up, the commission is governed by 12 members, and it looks like they are all appointed by a mixture of the governor, and the two houses of the state legislature.
When I looked up specific commissioners, I saw one that serves at the pleasure of the governor, and some that serve for a fixed 4 year term. Oh, and there are alternates too.
Though the commission was originally established by referendum in the 1970’s, it was limited to 4 years. It was the legislature that extended it permanently, which means the legislature could dissolve it. I suppose it could also be dissolved by referendum.
The legislature could also limit its powers, and it has accrued quite a few over the years, often by the state courts instead of statute.
The jurisdiction of the Coastal Commission runs from 3000 feet to 5 miles inland.
While the commission is quasi-independent, if the legislative and executive unite, they could take it down entirely or partially.
They might do it their campaign doners threaten.
The amount of red-tape in LA/CA is going to make the rebuild a long and tiresome process.
People in Paradise area and in Lahaina were either physically blockaded from the route away from the fires and forced to take windy twisty roads downwind from the fires, as in Paradise.
In Lahaina, people got to the downtown area and were physically stopped by police officers from getting away from the fire.
The Paradise vids were all taken down by Youtube. Several of the most alarming and revealing had testimony of the tow truck drivers, recorded on film.
But Lahaina vids are still up and running: go to youtube and put the channel “hawaii real estate” in the search box there. On Edit: I’m trying to find the longer video that this is part of. In the longer version, the speaker in this “short” is identified and most people in Lahaina know him:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9FSq6f2G1qo
This man is not the only one who knows this, as some other people in the cars where people were told to remain stopped due to Orders by police, finally left their cars and found shelter as the fire approached. Often the only shelter people discovered was the ocean. It is believed many people who did this drowned.
If they burned in their cars, where are the bones.
I’d say 1/3 to 1/2 of the Democrat big dollar donors have been effected. I’d say (hope) democrat fundraising is dead for the next decade.
To make the grim observation – even the middle and working class is now more mobile than ever. IF everything you’ve owned has been burned – its now cheaper than ever to move. Just buy a 1 way ticket to your new city of choice and you’re gone. No moving vans required.
Ive heard in the past Adam Corolla complain that it takes 3 years of paper work and approvals to get anything built. Elon Musk has said similar things in the past as well. So if for example, John Goodman or James Woods is still waiting to start construction in 3 years… They’re gone. They can buy a house or even a luxury mansion in any other state for far less than even a regular house costs in LA. (I would bet)
And think how desperately California will try to tax them on the way out. This is an awful tragedy but what an incredible demonstration of the utterly helpless vapidity of modern progressiveism.
I thought that in this topic I mentioned the tow truck drivers hired by Office of Emergency Services whose job it was to clear away the incinerated cars. Maybe I didn’t mention it in this topic by another one.
On Edit – Oh wait – I put it right here in the comment you were replying to: “The half dozen tow truck drivers hired after the Paradise blaze who went on the record of a local guy’s podcast explained the experiences they had while pulling out the frames of hundreds of cars found burnt up and on the road. Their experiences were extremely depressing. Their reports focused on how in vehicle after vehicle, there were mounds of ash in the driver’s seat and often in the passenger seats or on floorboards. After a few months of exposure, then YouTube pulled all that content.” As far as piles of ashes on car seats, I should have explained that the ashes were on what had once been car seats.
I’ll see what I wrote earlier. But did you listen to the “short” that I linked to. You were incredulous over the true statement that people being evacuated would be misdirected by officials. So I offer a citation and then you ignore it because …
It is not just taxes that will go up but utility rates for everyone in the state. Because after every fire in Calif, that is what happens!
No, I’m incredulous at the idea that people would sit in their cars and somehow have their bodies reduced to “a pile of ash” by a fire, rather than exiting their cars and fleeing, regardless of what “misdirection” they were given by officials.
I’ve heard stories of the California tax department “adjusting” tax returns of people years after they’ve left California. They’ll keep coming in perpetuity it seems.
They’re probably still trying to get money from Musk. “Well, you WOULD HAVE been here if you hadn’t LEFT! So, YOU OWE US!”
Movement from California by the middle class has slowed in recent years because they had lower mortgage interest rates locked in, and moving would have required them to pay current interest rates.
There will be issues with credit ratings if they’ve lost everything and don’t have insurance. But the mortgage interest rate issue will no longer restrain them.
Provided they had fire insurance. IF they didnt aren’t they still on the hook for the mortgage?
Let them foreclose. :-)
Sure. But getting new loans to buy a new house will be problematic, wherever they move.
I guess they’ll have to rent, at least for a while. Which is likely to be the case anyway, since they probably won’t have a job immediately upon moving.
Fire devastation, and empty reservoirs:
Is there a more blatant example of criminal negligence creating the (excuse the pun) perfect firestorm?
I am not even sure the democrats can count on the illegal immigrant vote, at this point.
Especially considering how many voting locations have probably been lost.
But a homeowner can still be held liable for any deficiency between what the ruined property brings at a foreclosure auction, and the total amount still unpaid on the mortgage plus all the foreclosure costs. Many may have no option but bankruptcy. Government ineptitude and neglect leading to real people suffering catastrophic losses.
Right. But bankruptcy would be cheaper than rebuilding, especially without insurance but maybe even with insurance.
Maybe, but a bankruptcy stays on and dramatically affects credit reports for several years, even when the loss resulted from circumstances beyond the debtor’s control.
The main issue is, a lot of those people may not really have a choice. They’ll likely be defaulting regardless, whether or not they declare bankruptcy after that is the option.
Fires can move very fast. I can easily imagine someone thinking that a car might offer some protection.
Fun fact.
New California law says if you take more than 2 years to rebuild, you lose your property tax basis, and it resets to the new full value of the property. For anyone who has owned their property for a long time, thats going to be ridiculously expensive.
I was listening to people who stated that after a recent wild fire it took more then a year to get a permit to simply clean up the debris from the property .
The “Karens” will have a field day if you try to do anything without all the permits and approvals.
But doesn’t that still fit within the dem rulebook:
Fake, but accurate
It’s the seriousness of the charge
Interesting to note that one house remained standing on Iliff Street in Pacific Palisades and it is thought that adherence to “passive design” principles, along with a low concrete perimeter wall and a gravel-based landscape, had something to do with its staying power. It might well be that luck was involved in this house being spared, but the question arises as to whether it would be possible to design fireproof homes.
That’s why you never do cash-out refinances on appreciated value.
DEI personnel always make the best building inspectors.