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Column: Recovery will be tempered by hard decisions and, if we aren’t careful, inequality
Los Angeles Times ^ | Jan. 12, 2025 3 AM PT | Anita Chabria

Posted on 01/12/2025 3:27:19 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

As firefighters slowly start to control the flames that have decimated too many of the hills and valleys that surround Los Angeles, talk of recovery is already underway.

For those whose beloved homes are now reduced to slanting chimneys and ash, it may provide comfort to hear these pledges from our president, governor, mayor and other powers-that-be to support and streamline help for survivors of this heartbreaking tragedy. And certainly, there should be no message more important than one of hope and solidarity.

But as a journalist who has wandered the aftermath of more than one fire , I feel compelled to offer a caution: What comes next is not easy, and worse, often not fair.

It’s a caution meant not to pour salt on wounds, but because having seen it too often, my hope for L.A. is that we can do better. But that better has to start with a hard truth that many don’t want to accept: Fire will again hit these same places, maybe in our lifetime.

That means we can’t just build back what was lost, or else we are setting the stage to repeat tragedy.

“Anyone who thinks that this isn’t going to happen again is fooling themselves,” Jeffrey Schlegelmilch told me. He’s the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Columbia Climate School. Like virtually all of the climate scientists I spoke with, he’s not trying to be a downer.

But the facts are the facts...


(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Political Humor/Cartoons; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: california
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...having seen it too often, my hope for L.A. is that we can do better.

The only way to "build back better" is to destroy what went before, further proof that the wildfires were part of a plan.

Everybody involved in that plan should live out the rest of their lives in solitary confinement in an 8'x12' Supermax prison cell.

1 posted on 01/12/2025 3:27:19 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

2 posted on 01/12/2025 3:30:10 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

LA Times, nothing but sympathy for millions of their illegal low wage servants.

It never ends...


3 posted on 01/12/2025 3:32:05 PM PST by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Along with their assets confiscated.


4 posted on 01/12/2025 3:38:18 PM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: BenLurkin

My thoughts exactly.


5 posted on 01/12/2025 3:38:28 PM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Rebuild ALL of the house like a chimney....


6 posted on 01/12/2025 3:55:15 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Rebuilding a city requires a reasonable consensus of values and goals. It is highly unlikely that such a consensus exists or will come to exist. Many people there want the manmade debris removed and the land revert to nature. Those who want to rebuild even on the heavily taxed land they own will find it extremely difficult and expensive to do so.


7 posted on 01/12/2025 3:55:31 PM PST by allendale
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Article:

“Gardeners, cleaning ladies, cooks, even nannies”

How many were illegal aliens?


8 posted on 01/12/2025 3:56:15 PM PST by cgbg (It is time to pull the Deep State out of the mass media--like ticks from a dog.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“Gardeners, cleaning ladies, cooks, even nannies are now without work, but still have rent due. How do we include them in recovery?”

1. Liquidate all of LA Times’ assets.
2. Redistribute the proceeds.

Not what they had in mind?


9 posted on 01/12/2025 3:57:49 PM PST by rightwingcrazy (;-,)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Just because you house is now a pile of ashes does not mean you can skip on your property taxes. Your property is still there, therefore and you need to pay your fair share.


10 posted on 01/12/2025 4:02:59 PM PST by usurper (AI was born with a birth defect.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Anita, I didn’t graduate from college, but I know what decimate means.


11 posted on 01/12/2025 4:12:51 PM PST by AloneInMass (You'd think there would be more similarity between "chain letter" and "chain mail".)
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To: usurper

Yup—you need to pay those property taxes to keep the fire department up and running—in case the rubble that used to be your house and contents starts to burn some more.

Lol.


12 posted on 01/12/2025 4:18:33 PM PST by cgbg (It is time to pull the Deep State out of the mass media--like ticks from a dog.)
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To: cgbg

Schools, libraries, Police and Fire Depts. can find another source of financing other than property taxes.


13 posted on 01/12/2025 4:21:05 PM PST by Captain Peter Blood
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To: usurper

Sorry I don’t see taxpayers across America paying to subsidize the rebuilding of overpriced over appreciated in value mansions unless they paid for by their own insurance coverage. Yes they need public help to recover communities but that doesn’t mean all USA taxpayers should make them whole.

California property has been vastly overvalued for years and yet they touted how every homeowner in CA was a multi millionaire when it sat on major risk of fire and earthquake. While the CA government failed to be proactive. The owners needed to protect their investment. The insurance companies apparently had enough of too much risk.

Some of this reminds me of Bernie Madoff investers that made in paper outrageous returns but then wanted the public to make them whole when the scam turned to dust.


14 posted on 01/12/2025 4:21:34 PM PST by apoliticalone (We need real justice not fictitious SOCIAL JUSTICE & DEI that is politics & propaganda, not justice.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

FEMA showed us the way forward in NC.


15 posted on 01/12/2025 4:42:37 PM PST by freepersup (“Those who conceal crimes are preparing to commit new ones.” ~Vuk Draskovic~)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Now that sounds like a conspiracy theory, so chances are that it’s true.


16 posted on 01/12/2025 5:00:29 PM PST by Eleutheria5 (Every Goliath has his David. Child in need ofand there we a CGM system. https://gofund.me/6452dbf1. )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Not one cent too any illegal worker, even if under a fake SSN paid into any federal system.

Not one cent to any American who worked under the table.

It’s life. It’s hard, and it’s miserable at times.

I am hoping, so hoping the COVID payments to keep people not working has awaken the American tax payer.

One can still hope.


17 posted on 01/12/2025 5:13:39 PM PST by Notthereyet (Not There Yet)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

This is intentionally hilarious.

Liberals LOVE bashing the rich. They are the cause of all the evils. Especially evyil white rich people. But now... The rich don’t have their houses and yards for the Nannie’s, gardeners, maids, etc so all those exploited serfs are out of work (illegal aliens).

So what is it? Are the rich exploiting the poor or are they providing jobs?

I know I am suppose to be feeling sorry for the whole situation but what good will feeling bad do? I don’t feel anything. The political hay the democrats are trying to make from this is hilarious. They are truly evil corrupt and genuinely stupid marxist cult members.


18 posted on 01/12/2025 6:51:45 PM PST by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: usurper

If your property is burned, I wouldn’t think you’d have to pay taxes on anything but the land. With the mess these fires has caused, I should think it would be very hard to collect taxes, utility bills, rent or anything else that no longer exists. What are they going to do? Jail all these folks that don’t have a pot to pee in or even a window to throw it out of?


19 posted on 01/12/2025 9:32:26 PM PST by oldtech
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To: usurper

If your house is burnt down, the only property left would be a pile of ashes & the land they lay on. How would your fair share be figured in such a case?


20 posted on 01/12/2025 9:35:14 PM PST by oldtech
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