When under pressure, reaching for help is often the wise answer.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Traci Park arrived in Paradise on Thursday morning for a tour of the town’s rebuild and for guidance on rebuilding in the Pacific Palisades, a community she represents and where 12 residents died and thousands of homes were destroyed by wildfire on January 7.
In a press conference in Paradise before her tour, Park said she hoped to discuss how to rebuild the infrastructure “in a way that is sustainable to support a modern community and the demands that we place on it.”
Park said, “We’re all now a part of an unfortunate but small growing, ‘this sucks’ club. So I’m here with a heavy heart, but I’m also here with a lot of hope.” The city of Paradise was destroyed by the 2018 Camp fire that killed 85 people and burned down 13,500 homes.
Park said she reached out to Paradise leaders immediately after the wildfire in Los Angeles. She said the town’s insight led to passing 24 motions by the Los Angeles City Council to lay a foundation for the recovery process.
“Much of that work was informed by (Paradise Mayor Steve Crowder) and (his) team, who were so kind and gracious,” she said. “That steady leadership you provided to me and my team during those incredibly traumatic days is something that was reassuring and provided a glimmer of hope.”
Park said she is now hoping to glean answers from Paradise for best practices — how the town was managed in the aftermath of the Camp fire and how to build a plan for tens of thousands in the Palisades who lost their homes and businesses.
Mayor Crowder said during the press conference that he seeks to help Park with a long-term rebuild plan for the Palisades.
“We want to help, we want to give comfort and knowledge that this is not the end of the city for them, this is kind of a new beginning,” Crowder said.
Crowder said the key to recovery is communicating with constituents. He said that 6 years into Paradise’s rebuild effort, residents still support the town’s mission to rebuild.
“We’re two different communities — that really doesn’t matter because we all suffered the same loss and we’re all feeling the same thing,” Crowder said. “The biggest thing the community wants is answers; they want assurances; they want accountability, and we owe them accountability.”
Park said she is in the process of creating an operational plan, that will include work being done through U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and private contractors, and will address utility work, ordering materials and supplies and other challenges, “so we can start thinking logistically about what lies ahead.”
“Here we are about to launch what is going be what is the largest construction zone in the city of Los Angeles’ history, on top of a rebuilding phase,” Park said. “I worry that If we don’t have a very detailed, well thought out strategic operational plan, the challenges we’ll confront on the ground can be a problem.”
Part of her goal is to simplify the rebuilding process, “especially in a bureaucracy as big and complicated and slow as the city of Los Angeles.”
Park also said insurance will be an inevitable challenge to make sure “everybody including those (under-insured) or uninsured have a viable pathway home.” Last summer, 1,600 homeowners in Pacific Palisades were dropped by State Farm, she said.
Park is seeking ways to bring the community together, and her description of the Palisades was similar to Paradise following the 2018 fire.
“One of the things that has been a challenge for me … is that overnight so many thousands of people were displaced and scattered, living in shelters and hotels and motels, sleeping on couches and staying with fiends,” Park said. “For us we’re really trying to find constituencies — whether that be through our faith communities, through our programming in (recreation) and parks, through our cultural and historical societies in within the community.”
Park said Palisades residents have been “very proactive,” with neighborhoods appointing block captains who conduct meetings and give Park’s team feedback and ideas.
Park was scheduled to attend a town hall meeting with Paradise leadership, visit construction areas, and visit a home built with improved fire building standards and certified by the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety.
“This is going to be an uncomfortable environment for a little while, while we get through these initial big pushes,” Park said. “We can do this.”