After the Ashes: A Beautiful Altadena Podcast

Episode 22: On Golf Courses and Lobbyists, Another CRD, and the Real Estate Roller Coaster

• Shawna Dawson Beer

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Housing chaos, policy puzzles, missing money, the one nonprofit you truly have to hear to believe, and will there be a 2026 Beautiful Altadena calendar—Episode 22 has it all.

We kick off the episode with the real estate roller coaster gripping our post-fire communities: homes in Altadena clocking in at $1,000 per square foot and the Palisades market sinking 40%. Whether rising or plummeting, the numbers tell a story of a housing market still trying to find its post-fire equilibrium. We break down this year’s extensive LA Times coverage—a series of articles that investigate what's going on but never quite name the larger systemic story lurking beneath. Next, we revisit the Climate Resiliency District (CRD) now being proposed for the Palisades. But unlike Altadena, where the CRD was effectively dropped from above, Palisades residents are at least getting a $300,000 exploratory committee to understand what they’re signing up for. We also dust off one of Steve’s classics from the AltaPolicyWonk Substack: the golf course debacle and the the big decisions that get made behind closed doors. And speaking of accountability… there’s a new investigation into the FireAid funds, and—spoiler alert—it appears very little of that money made its way to actual fire victims. 

And yes—this is our first shorter episode since October, and honestly, we’re proud of ourselves. You're welcome. 

Our Small Biz Shoutout this week may be the wildest yet: Only Philanthropy. Think OnlyFans, but every dollar raised goes directly to fire victims. Their tagline“Using the Male Gaze to Fight the Blaze” is as unforgettable as their mission. Learn more on their website or follow them on social at @onlyphilanthropy.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back to After the Ashes, the EBA podcast breaking down legislation and recovery and rebuilding or all the stuff. Lack thereof. Building. We are. It's happening. It's happening. This is your co-host, Shauna Dawson, here. This is episode 22.

SPEAKER_01:

It's an even number one, so they're yours.

SPEAKER_00:

I know. You just figured that out?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I know. It takes me a while.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm here with my co-host Steve Sacks.

SPEAKER_01:

Hi, everybody.

SPEAKER_00:

And um, you know, today we're gonna talk about a number of things. I think we were gonna title this episode um on golf courses and lobbyists.

SPEAKER_01:

I think there was a Substack titled that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, there was, because uh I was pulling from Steve's Substack, and we'll get to that. Um and we will probably retitle this later, but that's the working title for the moment. But um, you know, a lot of things to talk about.

SPEAKER_01:

Am I not good enough to do a Quippie title too? Or is it just you who has a monopoly on that one?

SPEAKER_00:

You, I believe, are the other king of the Quippie title from all of yours.

SPEAKER_01:

But five in the morning, it's not always a good one.

SPEAKER_00:

But there's a little bit more on uh in here than just lobbyists and golf courses. So we'll probably add a little bit just because there is. Um so this should be we're gonna keep this episode a short and sweet after multiple hour hour plus episodes. Um, we're gonna do our best to keep this one a little bit tighter.

SPEAKER_01:

We say that all the time.

SPEAKER_00:

I know we're gonna try really hard though. Then we realize we have so much to talk about. So I want to open this one just on, you know, again, we'd like to talk about kind of what's in the news, what's being talked about in our groups, what's in the in the uh out in the the ether, as it were. And one of the topics that's kind of floating around as things float around as we talk about real estate. Uh the as we talked about in the last episode, you know, homes being developed, even if they're prefab, homes are going up. And um thousand dollar square foot real estate. That's what we've got.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, let's see. That's what people are asking for.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I know. Let's see what it sells for. The market will dictate the market. But I think the uh the headline there is looking at some of these listings. Um, we've got uh the one of the first new builds that has gone up in Altadena um on a street called Arrowhead Court. It's a developer. They're going to build 15 homes. This is the first that they anticipate will be done or uh complete early next year. Um it's uh home that you know has nothing of a whisper of a backyard because it's been built out considerably larger than the home that sat there previously. Uh nothing wrong with that, but it does push to the boundaries of the property lines in ways that you know there's no more yard. And I think that becomes iffy, if only in the question of fire and how density impacts fire, right?

SPEAKER_01:

And um, you know, but it's yours for 1.89 million.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my gosh. So yeah, it's$900 a square foot that house. We we were looking at the math and couldn't believe it. But um looked at some other one of the first ones built in. Yeah, ooh. I'd rather own the home on your side of town.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um on Midlothian. Is it Midlothian or Midlothian? Okay, I've been saying that one correctly for once.

SPEAKER_01:

At least it's like Tannoble and Tannibal.

SPEAKER_00:

I know. I in my head I've been saying all of our street names wrong for the better part of two decades, but that that's another story.

SPEAKER_01:

But you digress.

SPEAKER_00:

I do digress. So on Midlothian is a gorgeous Spanish, that's about four million. But that one again shakes out to what was it, just shy of 900 a square foot. Yeah. And we've got another house, that um stunner up in Canyon Crest, that stunning craftsman with all the beautiful natural river stonework. Um, gorgeous, but it's a two-bedroom, two-bath, also north of three million dollars. And that one is over a thousand. That one's ten eighty-eight a square foot.

SPEAKER_01:

So that was what real estate was going for before the fire.

SPEAKER_00:

That's north of what real estate was going for before the fire. It's more.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So I mean, either these prices are out of sight and people are not really paying attention to what's going on, smoking something, so to speak.

SPEAKER_00:

I guess we'll see, right? As we say, like, you know, the market will dictate, right? The market's going to tell us what the market is willing to pay and what they're not. So I think we'll see uh how long it takes for these to sell, when they sell, and what they sell for. But it's a very interesting thing to watch, especially as in contrast, one of the issues that, you know, has been a major concern for the Palisades with their uh post-fire landscape is the reality of their plummeting property values.

SPEAKER_01:

So people know what the actual land is going for, right?

SPEAKER_00:

But people who bought, you know, for X number, X number of dollars and have a mortgage for X number of dollars and are financed and to the hilt to X dollar amount because that's what the property values were, those have dropped 40%. And so those folks are now in a situation, you know, that we were in, all of us, with the last housing crash, where you have numerous people significantly upside down on their properties. Well, and Sean up. And now they have no houses.

SPEAKER_01:

I I don't think we know exactly where the bottom is on the land here. No, we don't. So that that side of it hasn't been sorted out. We're just seeing, you know, look, when people when the fires hit, people were thinking they were gonna sell their lot for a lot more than they were getting now. And we have more lots going on the market. So let, you know, TBD. But the fact you bring up the Palisades is also interesting because the Palisades, it's about to follow in our footsteps, is it not?

SPEAKER_00:

They are. So another thing we're talking about is we've been talking to our, you know, our sister Fire City here in LA, um, the in the Palisades, where not surprisingly, you know, they are dealing with um a number of very similar issues, a very um uh a number of you know similar concerns. They're fighting similar battles. And it was very interesting to see um to be involved in a couple of conversations that are happening around incoming um policy conversations for them, um, which are guess what, our favorite letters.

SPEAKER_01:

C R D. They just don't have SRP in front of it.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

So they are now their uh legislators are looking at a um an exploratory committee to look into$300,000 to explore this to look at the possibility.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, exactly, to look into the possibility of developing a CRT, uh uh a climate resiliency district, which you know, for listeners, if you haven't go back and listen to our past episodes on this, we won't go into uh too far into it. But um, you know, uh long story short, it it's this is part of what was wrapped up in a 782 for all of us. And there are people now in the Palisades, you know, calling this out, going, hey, uh completely unrelated to us. These are people who have not listened to our podcast that we know of, not read the Substack that we know of that we know of. Um, but that are saying the same things that we did that like all this does is remove the protest vote. The the uh wait wait, say it again. I can't, I don't know anybody who said that the EIFD mechanisms already exist. They could have used this to fund months ago. What? No, and it's ultimately, you know, a trickle of the dollars that are needed when other financing mechanisms exist and aren't being taken advantage of. And I was like, holy shit, it sounds like it sounds like us, but it's not us. And they are like we're adapting like we just like us, they're being met with a lot of um uh what's the word I'm looking for? Um resistance skepticism. Skepticism. I want to say speculation because my brain was on speculative, speculation uh and developers. But um, yes, it is a lot of skepticism of like, oh no, this is good. All the right people want this. Why, you know, it has climate. Climate, we want to be climate resilient. You know, it's it's saying all the right things. Um, but you know, here we are.

SPEAKER_01:

It's very interesting to kind of see play out that the city decided to slow its role, do a little bit of research, do some time where the county plan was already ready to go before the bill was even passed. Correct. And signed. Or I guess it was passed and then it was signed.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, money at least buys you an exploratory committee.

SPEAKER_01:

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, you ponder that one, Al Tadina.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. Ponder indeed. So uh so there we are. So that's really interesting to see how this plays out and what's gonna happen for our neighbors. And um, if they end up with the same outcome, or if they can kind of jump on this train a little faster than than we did here and go, whoa, stop.

SPEAKER_01:

You mean like actually actually do something.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh I mean, we tried. We tried. I I, you know, I'm having the conversations with them going, like, hey, some of us went to Sacramento to try and fight this. We we were but screaming from the rooftops, you know, and no one wanted to listen.

SPEAKER_01:

No. So but nobody wants to listen to Al Tadina anyway.

SPEAKER_00:

Correct. We know so we'll see. We'll see, we'll see. But uh, that's an interesting one to to look out for and see how that plays out. Is they are also, you know, have the similar issues of wealth slash afford affordability as a number again, because of the property plum, the plummeting property values there now, as of now, until the market readjusts, you know, they're our people. Oh, they could have used a bill like 797, and the uninsured, right? They're really struggling too as to how to bring a lot of people back in the community, people who bought their properties for 500 grand or less in the 70s and 80s, and who, um, many of whom are older. Guess what? Same here as here. They can't, they don't have a way to come back.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, it it's uh it's amazing how similar it is. I mean, I guess I always say they're not apples and oranges or apples and oranges, they're both fruit, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Maybe they're like apple, we're up like apples and pears. I mean, we're close enough, and a lot of these problems are similar. We're not gonna solve them the same way. But hopefully they can learn from the mistakes that we had here where we didn't have a voice and everything was already baked. And to be honest, watch who's supporting it because those who are supporting it and think that you're gonna get a favor after this is all said and done, talk to the folks here and see how that's going.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

So, which brings us actually kind of around to the fire aid because you know that's where a lot of the money originated. Yep. And I don't know if you folks remember, but back in the summer, there was an article that was written in the LA Times talking about, so there was a little bit of a cut hubbub. Kevin Kylie up in Sacramento, who's a Republican freshman, trying to make a name for himself because he's running for re-election and he's about to get prop fifty out. Um he started making some noise and he was poking the bear with After the Ashes. Now, after the ashes came out of what? What which one was it the Paradise Fire up there?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, I think so.

SPEAKER_01:

And Kevin Kylie is the he was the assemblyman up there, and after the ashes had a whole diatribe on Facebook. There was a speech by the CEO that I was flabbergasted that she actually went on the record with it, you know, calling out Kevin Kylie saying, What are you doing? You know, we had this great relationship, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the bottom line was then Fox News had a big, oh, Fox News had called out after the ashes, Fox locally, the Fox 11, and said, You guys basically, you know, where's the where's the accountability on the money? You guys are one of the organizations that receive fire aid money. And has any of it gotten down to the people who were affected by this? And this is a big question that a lot of folks are asking now is where, you know, we've been asking.

SPEAKER_00:

Where did our money go?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, we talked a little bit about it last week when we talked about the philanthropic stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And, you know, I know that there are members of the press that are looking at this in the media looking at this question and saying, what happened? And, you know, they've contacted some of us and asked that question. And, you know, I would say the big question that has to be answered is is how much of the fire aid money, where did the fire aid money go? Which is one issue. And the second is is how much of the philanthropic dollars outside of the fire aid money have been distributed. And did any of that fire aid money actually get down to the residence in which it was intended to? Because remember, people open up their checkbook in the expectation they were going to be giving money to victims of these fires. And in fact, that's the part that really upset everybody in the Palisades. They were the ones making a lot of the noise about this. And so as a result of this, I was in DC and we had had some conversations, some folks up there, and there were questions around this issue. And, you know, where is the fire aid money? Because if that wasn't stewarded well, what does that mean? And at the same time, there was a whistleblower uh lawsuit that came out that the LA Times wrote about it in one day, and it was up in Sacramento. It had to do with the previous fires, I think maybe the the Sonoma fire, but that the money wasn't being spent right. And this was on the heels of the allegations coming out about uh the the fire aid money and the the philanthropic leadership and stewardship of that money. And then there was so so when we were talking to folks on the hill, they were saying, Well, um, yeah, so what's going on there? And we found out that there were some people that were going up to DC and they had hired a lobbyist. And they hired a lobbyist without consulting anybody. This was a group that shall remain nameless, but they had taken it on themselves to hire out somebody to advocate, probably, I think at the time it would tie up well with the CDBG money getting into the housing bill that got taken out of the NDAA. But we said, What's going on here? Like, if you're gonna lobby, shouldn't you talk to the people on whose behalf you're lobbying? Exactly. And what are you lobbying for? Are you even aware of what matters to this community to the community in which you are effectively, ostensibly representing? And so what had happened was the LA Times put out the story, they had all this noise, and it looked like Latham Walken or Latham, I think, was doing a somebody was doing, I think it was Latham, doing an evaluation of the fire aid money, and they had done an early audit, they'd issued a preliminary uh clean bill of health, the the headline screen, clean bill of health.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Like we looked at it, everything's fine.

SPEAKER_01:

Everything seemed kosher.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

But buried deep down in there, because you gotta read for the, as my business partner likes to say, read the footnotes. He's a CPA, they love to read footnotes because then they don't have to look you in the eye. And he said it said deep down in the story, buried the lead, that they hadn't audited Annenberg, which is the vast majority of the money that was supposedly, you know, just the best distributor of the money. So they didn't really know full well what had where all that money had gone, and they only asked whether or not the money had gone to the organization which it was intended to, not that that organization had put it out into the community the way they intended to. So I said to myself, okay, this is interesting. And, you know, Shauna mentioned at the outset a post that I had written back around this time about golf courses and lobbyists. And she brought it up because, you know, it brought back memories for me. Because to be honest, this lobbying component and those that are representing Altadina, there's a lot of people that are out there doing it. But I think, you know, Shauna said to me, she she pulled that up just randomly and said, you know, Steve, this is really interesting. And I'll let her tell the story. But um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It is interesting. Um, and I wanted to get into details that um we're not gonna talk about on this podcast. But, you know, I think going back and revisiting, you know, what happened for those who've forgotten, the county controlled, you know, the cleanup, right? Uh they own it, even though yes, it was FEMA money and and we can well FEMA.

SPEAKER_01:

FEMA did the Stafford Act, which gave them a tremendous amount of authority, but it was the county that was executing everything. And anytime the county said it was FEMA's decision, FEMA pointed it back at the county because the county ultimately called the shots. That's right. FEMA worked on behalf of the county in Cal OES.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. And so it was ultimately, you know, LA County's public works department. Um, all of our favorite folks over there. So um, you know, for better or for worse, that was it. And as many will recall, you know, initially um the golf course was slated to be used um as an actual holding facility for all of this toxic material. Ultimately, they were able to um adjust that under tremendous community pressure to only be a processing center for quote unquote clean concrete. Now, as we know, following all of that, it was not so clean. The test results, the tests that they kept espousing and saying, hey, look at this, everything's fine. We're monitoring, everything is great, was incredibly limited and did not tell the full story. And it certainly didn't tell the story of what had been done to contaminate all of the homes surrounding that area. But it wasn't as disastrous as it could have been. Disastrous as it could have been.

SPEAKER_01:

It could have been a super fun site.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, we are already a supervisor. I know, I know, but it's it could have been even worse. A secondary super fun site. We could have had two.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But yeah, it's um it's disturbing. It's I don't know how else to phrase it. Well, it goes. As to how this all works. This is what disturbs me the most that the county ever thought that was okay to do that to our community. They didn't give a good thing. And to me, that's what I'm gonna say. That to me, that tells me everything I need to know about this entire year. They don't give a fuck about us. Well, not even a little. We are nothing but a paycheck. We are a cash cow for LA County. And um well, when you hear these things, I mean But that story Can you imagine this in in Catherine Bar in San Marino and Catherine Barger's neighborhood?

SPEAKER_01:

It never would have happened.

SPEAKER_00:

Of course. It would have never happened, but it almost happened here.

SPEAKER_01:

But it almost did. And I think that that's the story is that, you know, I got the phone call from a good friend of ours, and they said, Hey, Steve, you know, you do government stuff. What are you gonna, what's gonna happen here? You know, they're gonna try to set up this this this you know processing site on the golf course, and they're gonna take all the asbestos, all the lead, everything from all of these locations, and create this massive transfer station to try to efficiently, you know, execute. And I called up the electeds, and the elected said, there's nothing we can do, and the other friends of mine that I have. And honestly, Shauna, like that was a dark, dark time, right? Everybody was in the midst of this, it was like February, right? Yeah, and we were all sitting there trying to wonder, like it just the hits kept coming, and everybody was just telling us, there's nothing you can do. You're done, you're over, it's a fate accomplished. Like, this is done. The deal is done, the county's gonna do what it wants. And fortunately, I have a really good friend that you know does a lot of research about things, and she told me, you know, they were looking to do the private cleanup on their lot, and they said that they have to sort the the uh the debris on the lot before the the private contractor could take it out. And you know, I I was talking to this friend of mine who was an attorney at the time, and I said, Look, is there a way we can fight this? Like, can we just file any kind of court case? Let's get this out in the open. Let's, you know, let's do something, anything, because we can potentially expose the contract and find out how much the counties really have authority on this and how much they don't, you know, because it's a government contract that has a whole different level of you know scrutiny that we can bring it into district court. We can use Sequa or some other environmental thing. Is this California? You know, and there's got to be some contingency attorney out there that want to be the next max Mike at Levant at. Avantae or whatever his name is, you know, taking on Trump and making a name for himself. I mean, we were left alone. And so I contrast that so that think about how dark and day, you know, desperate we were at the time. And where were all those people who are sitting there advocating on our behalf that are going around trying to make all these decisions for us? Where were they standing up saying, holy shit, we're going to have this complete cluster? This the all these families are going to be that are coming back to their homes, are going to be kicked out. You know, we're trying to rebuild this community. We can't. We have a school, we have schools, you know, within a half a mile or two of there that are going to have asbestos in the air. You got parents that are concerned about all this. We're just trying to stand this thing up and we're unnecessarily burdening everybody with a requirement because they want to do it the easy way and the cheap way instead of the right way. And where were all of those organizations that are funding these community groups? Where was anybody standing up and saying something?

SPEAKER_00:

This is what we continue to ask. Um, I think in a lot of ways, well, I don't want to make excuses, but I think for some, they're just deeply in their own trauma, deeply in their right days. But I'm fair with that. But there was early days, and we're all trying to find our way.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm not looking at the people, I'm looking at the organizations. The organizations. I'm looking at the people that are out there hiring lobbyists in Washington to tell us that they can speak on our behalf. But when we needed them most, they were nowhere to be found. That's right. You know, the media did a story here and a story there, but there was no consistency, there was no depth to it. It was just, oh well, too bad. You know, they had a couple people get in front of a camera and that was it. And it was a dark time, and you know, nobody knew what to do. And fortunately, there are people in this community that knew how to get it done. And those are your true lobbyists. It's not the people who are being paid using grant money that's being bestowed on them by others that are supposed to be going to wildfire victims, asking for things that have no relevance, stopping things that should be relevant.

SPEAKER_00:

Can we talk about orgs that got that money? So, can we give the the spoiler? As this audit and this investigation is is ongoing, you know, that there's no like full report to point to, but the stuff that's coming up and that is largely public, and you can go dig this up yourself is that you know, a lot of this fire aid money, a lot of it went to organizations that have nothing to do with fire recovery, and organizations that were not here and are very peripheral.

SPEAKER_01:

Are you saying that the philanthropic community steered it to their cronies?

SPEAKER_00:

To their own.

SPEAKER_01:

I would say not cronies, but there's an ecosystem that's involved. And I would say that that ecosystem was fed so that other money could go to other groups to further certain missions. Take a look at Prop 50, folks. Take a look at who publicly put themselves out there as a donor into the yes campaign. That was money that could otherwise have gone to Al Tadena.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh fire victims, where it was supposed to go.

SPEAKER_01:

So where are you in exposing this?

SPEAKER_00:

So all of these people who, you know, in good faith picked up the phone during those those telethons and die and you know dialed and donated money that they felt was going to fire victims, were funding all manner of things, including a vote yes on Prop 50 campaign.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's not yes, but they were able to move money around so that other interests can be furthered.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It's um and that's the part is that when it doesn't go directly to the victims, the hands that touch it can slow it down. And there look it, there are many organizations that did good and helped us in those, in those, you know, in the wake of those of the fires. And but there are a lot that weren't. And you know, the problem is, and this I was talking to somebody in the media about this yesterday, is for every good, there are multiple not good. Yeah, and every time you go after to try to get to the bottom of it, you get labeled anti-this and anti-that. I had to go fight through back in my days in DC, organizations that were advocating employment for people with that with disabilities. And it wasn't that I was against employment of people with disabilities, I was in against the way that they were being exploited in that model. And I it was against the statutory and regulatory requirements that the state that the government had, the federal government. And I said that I'm all for it, but I want it done the right way. And everybody labeled me, you're anti-disability. It's not about that. I'm not anti-charity, I'm anti when the charity doesn't meet the mission.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

And you know, when you say you're gonna do something, and again, I don't believe that, you know, every dollar that goes into a charity has to go there, have to be good people to run it. Exactly. And there's a cost associated with that. I'm perfectly fine with that. But do your mission.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. Just do your job. And so that's the refrain everywhere. Just just do your job.

SPEAKER_01:

But it goes back to, but the minute you attack them, it's you're anti this and you're anti-that, and they hide behind the rhetoric. It's like the old Catholic Church in the Reformation or sorry, in the Middle Ages, where if you attacked them, you're an anti, you're an antichrist, or you're against God, or you're an atheist. And it's not about that. It's about saying, guys, we can think about this a little different. Martin Luther changed the world when he posts his thesis on the door. And all of a sudden people go, you know what? Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

And maybe we're getting closer to that point. And that's why I go back to that story about the golf course because if from the start, Shauna, we've been on our own. From the start, we've had to pull in relationships that we have to enable it to get done. It's not the people that are purporting to say they're gonna do it, it's the people who are quietly doing it.

SPEAKER_00:

There's so much of that, and I hope at some point those stories will come out and speak for themselves. But suffice to say, dear listener, um, the people who are actually doing good for the community are doing it very quietly behind the scenes. Um, and it has nothing to do with any of the organizations that we're hearing about or any of the names in the news or anything else. And we likely will not hear any of that ever. Um but that is the reality, and some of it has saved us from absolute disaster. Disaster upon disaster. Um, do we want to talk any more about this fire aid investigation into the money? Can we say anything more at this stage? Or no, I don't think we can say anything.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't think we can. I think we all know what's gonna happen. And I think we all can expect what the report's gonna look like in January. It's gonna be a McCrystal type, you know, not get to the heart of the issue. Yeah. Like most of the accounting that we've had here. You know, I and I guess that's the part is I look at a year, and you know, I I while we were messing around because we had a little bit of a break between our our our our recording sessions, sorry, and I chat GPT'd LA Times stories regarding wildfire and other government failures, just because I wanted to chronicle it. Because I think like somebody at some point's gonna have to chronicle all the stories that have been written over the last year of just the abject failures that we've had, and not just on the fire side, you know, not just uh we have homelessness, we have Measure G. I mean, let's not forget that the people who wrote Measure G screwed it up and we may have to go back to the ballot again. I know. I mean, unbelievable. And, you know, it's just one thing after another, then to the scandals around the governor, the person closest to the governor being investigated by the Department of Justice for fraud, waste, and abuse.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And on a coming to it from a whistleblower on a pay-to-play scheme. I mean, like, you start to add this stuff up. Somebody somewhere has got to be able to put it all together and say, 2025 has been a year, you know, and the governor is riding high right now at 56%. But guys, think about this. Look at it. And so, Shauna, like we're gonna see more of the same unless we demand something different.

SPEAKER_00:

That's right, which we say all the time.

SPEAKER_01:

And we're just two voices.

SPEAKER_00:

We're just two. It needs to be the C, it needs to be everybody. Um and hopefully a journalist will kind of start to piece this together. I think that was really interesting looking at a compendium of everything that has been written, you know, just on by one publication, the LA Times, who arguably has done a fantastic job. They have um of keeping uh our issues relevant and highlighted and digging deep and and doing some very real investigative reporting and getting that out into the universe for all of us. But when you put all of those pieces together and pull all those threads together, it's the same story that we've been telling for a long time. It's interesting. It's total government failure.

SPEAKER_01:

And ChatGPT pulled up an article by Joel Klotkin or Kotkin back in January. And the question really sets the tone for the year is is Los Angeles governable?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And the answer is yes. The answer is a thousand percent. We just need to have people to govern us.

SPEAKER_00:

That's true. Which is why people need to run. I was saying this in in my group, I will say it again, like, you know, um it's we need better candidates, and that means finding ways for people who have the right motives to get into those positions and in those roles, um, and who are not paid for and you know, are not beholden to special interests and uh to get to get out there and be disruptive. And so I hope that we see a lot of new candidates um in the field in 26 and in 28, but especially in 28.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, the hope is that the the the story here, you know, this story is not over by any stretch of the imagination.

SPEAKER_00:

No, it's not, it's writing itself right now.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's you know, I as I said in a post this week, and I've said it here, you know, the substack is the rough draft. And, you know, we said it last week on this, you know, the I think it was in the Washington Post. They said that, you know, journalism is the first draft of history. And we're continuing to write it, and we need to continue to write it. We need to continue to fight to shape it.

SPEAKER_00:

It's true, we do. Should we try and um keep our word on a shorter, tighter episode and jump into our small biz shout-out for this episode? Because Steve is so excited about this.

SPEAKER_01:

I well, I mean, people might take that the wrong way. I so I have a buddy and I got a text um get up at five o'clock this morning, and there it is. It says, You suck. This is way better than anything you've ever come up with, basically. Um, and I'm thinking, you know, you're a lawyer, you should be billing these hours right now, not sending me this. But it was a charity that, and I if you saw my post this morning, you saw it. I call it skin in the game.

SPEAKER_00:

Um no, I'm gonna refrain from making any skin flute jokes, but please continue. And I think I just did. Sorry, I didn't remember.

SPEAKER_01:

And so it's what's it called? Only charity?

SPEAKER_00:

Only philanthropy.

SPEAKER_01:

Only philanthropy.

SPEAKER_00:

Like only fans, but only philanthropy. You can find them on Instagram at only philanthropy or um online at only philanthropy.com.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's like, what is it, the male gaze to help recover from the blaze?

SPEAKER_00:

I like to say file this one under you can't make this shit up. It was it was clever. It's actually really well done. It's only philanthropy, and yes, it is using the male gaze to fight the blaze. So this org, um shout out of them. I'm sorry, but shout out women, shout out to these ladies, you know, working with the good lord gave us. I've they are doing drops um of images. Okay, there we are. A la only fans, but photos, you can even get um actual physical Polaroids if that's your jam sent discreetly to you. But their first drop raised 170 grand in four days to fully fund housing, medical care, and equipment for a single mom of three, one of whom had uh cerebral palsy after she lost her home to the wildfire. If you follow their Instagram, that was a family that was supported by My Tribe Rise. So one of our great, you know, local orgs boots on the ground doing the work with Heavenly Hughes. So um they've uh they did another campaign that brought in 350 grand in one week that provided um immediate relief to dozens of disabled families displaced by the Eaton Fire. So, you know, my hat is off to this, or perhaps my bra is off to this, maybe even my panties. Um because I'm I'm so I find it's just, you know what, we gotta do whatever we have to do in the absence of any.

SPEAKER_01:

It breaks up to a million dollars.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep, in the absence of real leadership, in the absence of money. And you want to know what I love the most about this, Steve, that you probably didn't read this deep to find out. They are deliberately not a nonprofit so that they can say, fuck all of that noise, fuck all of that overhead, and give the money directly to victims. Good. So um, with that, I'll be contemplating um what types of photos I might take of myself and what market to sell them to because I'm sure there's someone out there. Some fans out there. I I have some fans and some haters. I bet the haters would spend even more money than the fans to get those photos.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you know, if it helps the community, that's what I mean.

SPEAKER_00:

In the name of charity, we can we'll take it on. Thank you, Steve.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that you don't want to save it.

SPEAKER_00:

Should we do an after the ashes calendar?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm not I'm not a fireman. I am definitely not a fireman.

SPEAKER_00:

I know because you you tried you tried to save your community. I couldn't help myself. That was not a shot at all of our environment out there. By the way, and you know you're angry at the industry and the powers that be, not with our individual thoughts.

SPEAKER_01:

Not the people that did it. I mean, the sheriffs and the firefighters, you guys are doing the gods work.

SPEAKER_00:

And we've always supported those folks, always does.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, they were there, and you know, even after the fire, securing our house homes as much as they can. I mean, this is a massive, massive story here. But yeah, anyway, back to is deep. Yeah, and so thank you to all of you who have done this. Um, I think Shauna's frustration, if you ever hear it, is not a with you, it's with the powers that be in.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm sure it's that's the case for everyone, you know, everyone in the coalition, all of that. Now, some people do feel differently, and and you know suffice to say, some people do feel differently. But I do think it's important to differentiate the individual first responders, including those who ultimately, and I'm sorry, I'm gonna say it, did not do their jobs that night because they were not directed to or were given commands to do otherwise. Um, and so they did in that sense do their job. They did what they were told to do.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But, you know, I don't again, if you understand how your sheriff's department and your fire departments work, it's a lot like a military organization. And these guys have commands.

SPEAKER_01:

It is like the military organized in battalions and units they take, they take direction from leadership and from command.

SPEAKER_00:

And that is who failed all of us, including them. And um, needless to say, we are still fighting for that justice. And um anyhow, stay tuned for that um 2026 um uh beautiful Altadena after the ashes. You're not getting mine. It's it's happening, it's happening. It's not, it's not here.

SPEAKER_01:

This dad bodies, this dad bod doesn't do it.

SPEAKER_00:

But you think I don't have I have perimenopausal middle-aged bod. Okay, I don't want to hear it. On that note, guys, I hope we've left everyone with a laugh. Um, I'm Shauna at Beautiful Altadena. You can find me online on Instagram, Substack.

SPEAKER_01:

And maybe somewhere else soon.

SPEAKER_00:

Perhaps, you know, perhaps only philanthropy if they'll have me. I don't know. I gotta reach out.

SPEAKER_01:

Um the mayor of Altadena. It's a whole new spin on that.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, you can find us online. As always, you can drop us a note at beautiful altadina og at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_01:

And of course, you can find me at the um and uh maybe running on the street, but you won't see me without my shirt on.

SPEAKER_00:

No.

SPEAKER_01:

And to those that send in the uh the suggestions, thank you. Because today got a you know, we got a good chuckle out of it.

SPEAKER_00:

We did. Yep. The the suggestions are are they welcome. Send them our way. All right, folks, until next time.

SPEAKER_01:

Take care, have a good one.