Opinion: L.A.’s huge investment in recovery should benefit many Angelenos, not just a few

Even as the Eaton and Palisades fires still burned, Angelenos were showing amazing generosity and support for those who lost homes or possessions. Neighbors have donated money, restaurants have set up kitchens dispensing free food, volunteers have collected and delivered supplies, and national organizations have joined local efforts to care for fire victims.

These efforts are commendable, but we will need much more from our government to fully recover. Experts are estimating economic losses at around $250 billion. In response, local, state and federal agencies are scrambling to provide relief: Gov. Gavin Newsom put forth a slate of emergency orders, including streamlining building in burn areas, suspending green energy mandates and pledging $2.5 billion toward recovery. Mayor Karen Bass has also issued an executive order to streamline rebuilding. And, before leaving office, former President Biden freed up $100 million in federal disaster aid to benefit fire victims.

Comparisons to other U.S. disasters have abounded: “This is your Hurricane Katrina” has been one of them. But unlike Katrina, which killed 1,392 and displaced 30% of New Orleans, the majority of whom were low-income Black residents, Los Angeles’ fires have affected a particular subset of Angeleno: the homeowner. Most structures lost were single-family homes; prior to the fires, the average Pacific Palisades home value was $3.4 million, and in Altadena it was $1.3 million. And while Altadena, in unincorporated L.A. County, historically has been home to a large community of working-class residents, neighborhoods burned in the Palisades had median incomes of at least $150,000, some much higher.

This is not to say that these communities haven’t suffered terrible losses — they have. Many other Angelenos can empathize, because they already live in a perpetual state of loss. Los Angeles is not an overwhelmingly rich area; 13.7% of the county lives in poverty, and in the city that percentage is 16.5%. The region is also grappling with a severe homelessness crisis, with 45,252 unhoused residents in the city and 75,312 in the county.

This is why we must be especially careful that we do not redirect scarce and desperately needed public resources to infrastructure projects designed largely to protect sparsely populated, high-risk enclaves from fire. The state has found that 70% of the areas that burned in L.A. County were at a high risk of fire, and those risks, caused by climate change, are not going to improve anytime soon.

This has not kept critics like political opportunist and mayoral also-ran Rick Caruso from insinuating that the fires would have been fought more effectively if more public resources were invested in preparing for disaster in Pacific Palisades. In addition, many have blamed the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for not having more water available to fight the fire, a problem the utility attributes to unprecedented and extreme water demand.

These critics seem to feel the Pacific Palisades was — and now is — entitled to a water system that could meet unprecedented demand in the case of fire. Such a system would almost certainly be paid for by the public through increased utility rates. In fact, we should be thinking twice about how much public money we are willing to spend to support people who want to live in very risky places. Such investments do not benefit the majority of Angelenos, certainly not the neediest.

Officials have pledged millions of dollars to the recovery effort, and those dollars will be needed by fire victims who have been left with no housing, savings or income. They will be needed to help workers who have been left without jobs, and they will be needed to ensure that surviving neighborhoods are safe from the toxic aftermath of fire and fire suppression. And they will be needed to ensure new construction adheres to green building standards that help mitigate the effects of climate change.

But as we look to shore up public infrastructure and utilities in the wake of these fires, we should spend carefully and with the bigger picture and the greater good in mind. Angelenos are a generous people, and we should not take advantage of that generosity but rather show that it is warranted and will not be subject to exploitation or neglect.

As we rebuild, we must direct public resources toward those who need them the most, and toward the places where they will do the most good.

Cynthia Strathmann is the executive director of Strategic Actions for a Just Economy.