Mister Sachs Goes to Washington

No media roundup this episode. We jump straight into the issues.

With Steve in Washington, DC, we start with updates from the ground there, including the ongoing EDA push and Barger’s Rebuild Authority motion, and what those efforts signal about how recovery decisions are being shaped at both the local and federal level.

We also revisit the Governor’s race, Rick Caruso’s Steadfast LA, what’s currently unfolding in the Palisades, and how those dynamics may (or may not) translate to Altadena.

On Federal Funding & Control. We ask the big question. How will federal funding actually be implemented in Altadena? Can the County realistically serve as the manager of those funds after everything that’s happened, especially now, with new scrutiny following the Attorney General’s investigation? Do we need County and State oversight of federal dollars, or is there another path forward that doesn’t rely on the same systems that have already raised serious concerns?

Policy & Ongoing Issues. We get back into: 

 • More on Zone 0, and the practical reality of requiring a 5' defensible buffer around homes when many properties don’t even have 5' easements
• The word on the street Altadena Water Wars may be making a return. Are they, aren't they? We’ll believe it when we see it

A community reminder from Shawna that Beautiful Altadena Office Hours are happening weekly on Wednesdays from 11am–1pm at rotating local coffee shops. Bring your questions, your stories, your resources, and be with your people. 

This episode’s Small Business Shout Out goes to Parker and Hardy Californians— a local native plant specialist supporting Altadena’s recovery through soil bioremediation, specialty seed mixes, and now a full suite of native garden landscaping plans designed to complement a range of home styles. Learn more on their website and follow them on Instagram @hardycalifornians. 

Transcript

Shawna 0:02

Welcome back. It's After the Ashes, the Beautiful Alcedina podcast, looking at um our landscape post fire and our recovery through a public policy lens. Um I'm Shauna Dawson Beer.

Steve 0:18

Oh, I'm Steve Sachs. Sorry. I just it's not the same without you next week.

Shawna 0:22

I just love that this is all video recorded now. So when Steve's like glazed over, you all get to enjoy the same thing that I do. Welcome back. So we this is uh episode two.

Steve 0:34

This is we're gonna work our way through the new system here. Come on.

Shawna 0:38

I know, I know. This is season two, episode 10. We're recording on Tuesday, February 26th. And um we're gonna jump right into the issues. Um episode nine, our last episode, a very lengthy uh uh dive into media and updates because we you know we've been dark for a few weeks. There was a lot to talk about. For the this one, I think, you know, um uh I'm gonna say Mr. Sachs goes to Washington. We have some uh we have some fun things to talk about. You have some things.

Steve 1:11

I might be more successful than our governor is when he goes there.

Shawna 1:17

How much can you talk about, Steve? And how are there things that you can't talk about yet or shouldn't? Or anyhow, tell us what you can tell us.

Steve 1:25

All right. Well, I mean, look, those that are the avid readers, all six of you, because I think I have one or two more this week, um, you probably read the the iterations of this question about the EDA. The EDA is the economic development agency. So what does it all mean? I guess that's the real question. The Economic Development Agency is an older agency that puts out money through various groups or various um commissions and direct grants to cities and towns. Um they basically got shut down by Doge because there's a lot of overlap of what they do with some of the HUD housing and urban development money. But over the last couple weeks, we've had you know, the administration coming out here, we had discussions among the people in the Palisades because they get all the attention and we don't. This notion of creating a federally chartered um rebuilding authority or a county rebuilding authority. We'll go into that in a minute. But the bottom line is the the the the county or the the federal model would require uh congressional authorization, which is messy. It's getting anything through Congress these days is a cluster. So I was talking to some people about this, and you know, the county has its rebuilding authority motion that Secret uh Supervisor Barger put forth, and there were a lot of words in there that sounded very familiar, eh, Shauna?

Shawna 3:03

Right. Like as if specific language that Steve has been hammering home repeatedly in his Substack was lifted.

Steve 3:12

Copy and paste by my dad used to say, Don't let your hand get tired, hit uh patting yourself on the back.

Shawna 3:18

But um I don't think you needed we it's about backpatting, but I think it is really it's a fascinating scenario as we're full of flattery, right? Indeed, indeed. And we've we've said here many times like we are long past the world of coincidence, right? Um, so it is fascinating and insightful always to see verbatim language that no one else has used but you or even us on this podcast, and then all of a sudden it's turning up practically copy and paste in a county document, in a supervisor motion, in a media story. Um, it it is actually it's a fan, it is a fascinating process. Um you've said this before, we know who's listening. We know who's who listens to this.

Steve 4:03

Or yeah, or who's been reading. So what when we were looking at that, one of the questions that came up with the Aegeist uh investigation was if there's a lawsuit, what does that mean for the county and the rebuilding? And because again, the county being brought into this is because the federal government wants to bypass the state. They don't feel the state is a trusted actor. But to get the money from the federal government, the way it's being structured right now, it has to be a sovereign counterparty. What that means is it has to be a government to government, similar to what was happening with the water wars or the water money that was coming in, and the question that the the mutuals couldn't get the money direct from the uh the earmark, it had to go through a sovereign counterparty, which was the Foothill Water District, and then they could push it out, and how they could push it out, and we started coming up with some ideas there. So you start to have this build happening, and if the AG's investigation does turn up civil rights issues, and if those civil rights are a result of anything that had federal money attached to it, so if the disaster response system had federal grant money that was given to this county to you know execute its function, and it didn't, that triggers the Department of Justice being brought into this civil rights issue, which could really cloud the county's ability to be a counterparty because there it adds a different legal dimension to this. And so as that was happening, and as there was a question about whether or not a national story was going to come from the environmental issues, which the county is in you know directly responsible for the current um implementation of the rebuild, you know, not talking Army Corps engineers, we're talking about the after the fact and you know the the environmental concerns that have occurred after the Army Corps had left, does that then complicate the situation further? And the answer came back to this could be a complete cluster. And is the county the appropriate counterparty? Which you know, I said to you, Shauna, when the AG's investigation started, was that a question of being able to bring in the variable of kicking the state into the role of being the counterparty against the county? Now, again, obviously there was the civil rights concern, but is this a secondary uh plus one, so to speak, that the state gets from a political perspective? Then it really hit home because a week later, less than a week later, you had the county uh district attorney talking about uh criminal cases against SCE, which could then plunge one of the governor's biggest donors into bankruptcy, which now does that become a leverage point that they're having a little bit of a political dance in the background. We don't know. I'm just putting that out there for people to consider. But as this was all going on, and as you're watching the scorpions go at each other in my mind, between the county and the state, there was the question of, well, okay, this isn't solving Al Tadina's problem, right? This isn't getting us to where we need to go. And I said, Well, if the big hindrance right now is this sovereign counterparty model that exists, but what if there was a way around that? And I was talking to some people and I started thinking about the Alpa Appalachian, or I started thinking about Katrina and started thinking about like the Delta Authority and some of these commissions that we've set up. And I said, you know, I think California has a one of these regional commissions, like the Appalachian Regional Commission. And we do. And I said, Well, that's under EDA. And they said, Yeah. And I said, I we started doing some research and we said, does EDA require a sovereign entity to be the counterparty? And the answer is no. Does the EDA like to have capital stacking on its funds? So it's first in risk type funding. The answer is yes. When the CDBG money comes in, it's for infrastructure. So is EDA. Huh. That money can go through nonprofits, community-based nonprofits, community development corporations. We don't have to have the county or the state involved. I said, okay. And they said it's I kept asking more questions. And the answers came back, what about housing? Well, pre-development can be done with EDA money. It doesn't, you don't build the housing, but you can definitely do the pre-development, and especially for affordable housing, then we can layer on tax credits. And I started thinking about it and I said, this is the workaround. This allows the federal government to come in and do this in an already structured environment for an agency that's been effectively closed. And Bob's your uncle. We don't have to have the county, we don't have to have the state, we don't have to have a congressionally created model. We can do this tomorrow, and we can use all the tools like AB797. And it really hit me when I was told that the community develop or the disaster investment fund was not going to happen because the governor's office had no interest in bringing out capital solutions to our problems. And so the bottom line here is I am going to be having a discussion with hopefully some people next week about this so that we can help people understand that this is a model. We're done waiting around. And if we have to wait around for CDBG money, the HUD money to come, it could be years. This could be implemented tooth sweet, to put it in enfoncé. Like we get going now. So what are we waiting for? Oh, because the county and the state, let them fight with each other all they want, and maybe there'll be some money that comes in and it'll be a fraction of what the number is, and they could do whatever they want with their county rebuilding authorities or not. It doesn't matter because this can get us the money where it needs to be and done in the way that the federal government's been asking it to be done. It doesn't give them what the ultimate thing they don't get out of this is they don't get to be a state-run entity uh model. But by it we're already seeing the federal government coming in and saying, you know what, we're sick and tired of the way it's gone in here anyway. So maybe this is the answer. I don't know. All right.

Shawna 10:39

There's the it's a big question, right? And this is what we've been talking about since the beginning is how do we get the money here? And then how do you utilize the money here? How do you implement the money here? So, you know, I I I love that that is the conversation. And I love that despite what's happening here at our local government level, that this is still, you know, it's it's still a conversation. I think it's easy for us to forget in our highly polarized world in very divisive times. You know, we just had this, you know, joke of a state of the union. I won't even get into that propaganda bizarro thing. But, you know, the reality is when you get beyond that layer of the onion, or you know, you maybe you don't because it's hard to, but you know, we there are still mechanisms through which to work on bipartisan solutions. Um, even if we don't we don't talk about those things, because it's really tough to talk about those things given what's happening um at the federal level and what is being supported by too many people across the aisle and some on our side of the aisle. So, you know, I think I anyhow, I think it is important at times to reframe and reset and recall that you know there are some pathways um to get this done, you know?

Steve 11:53

Some well, the the answer is that there are options. Now, if it's not chosen, if it's not chosen, there's other reasons. I mean, one of the reasons I I was pointed to a story this morning in Politico about the Secretary of Commerce, EDA falls under falls under the Commerce Department, and you know, the knives are out. I think everybody right now in Washington and the cabinet is starting to, the the discipline is starting to break down a little bit because you know the pressure's building with the incoming or the upcoming midterms and you know the let's just say less than effective model that has been used. I mean, you look at Secretary Gnome and what's happened with her and how she's been a complete. I mean, it's it's it's set. And I know with so when they start sticking the knives in, how far this is gonna be. I mean, it's very different than Trump first term. In the first term, they were all at each other the whole time. This one they're a little bit they've been a little bit more disciplined, but is it starting to break down now that the situation is starting to become more acute and we're getting into the last two years? And they're not it the implementation of things is going to slow potentially. And the tariffs have been a disaster, whether they want to admit it or not, they did not get what they wanted out of it. I I know somebody who said this was probably gonna happen. Um and so what's the what what's gonna happen in DC will affect what we're doing here on the ground, unfortunately. And the the knives coming out for the Secretary of Commerce and saying that he likes to hog the deals and do the big deals, and you know, he's all talk and no action. You know, does that create a barrier for us to get this model implemented? Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. It's just we need something to change the status quo, Shauna. I mean, yeah, it's gotta happen.

Shawna 13:53

I mean, it has to happen at every level, right? I mean, we have to figure out how to break out of this nightmare that we are.

Steve 13:58

You can't look at California and say this is the model of good governance. I mean, I you could be the most ardent Democrat in the world. You cannot, with an honest, honest opinion, say this is working out well.

Shawna 14:14

Yeah. I mean, again, it's it's so we we've talked about this in the past, and it's um, you know, again, I'll repeat myself for the thousandth time and saying, you know, the call is coming from inside the house, right? It's it's so hard. We don't have anyone to blame but ourselves here. And um You get what you're thinking about. Yeah, I mean, well, I I would disagree. Actually, on that point, I entirely disagree. You know, we have so many people are like, oh, but you keep voting for this because there's no better option. It's two sides of the same coin. At least, you know, at least this this side of the coin is not espousing hateful uh divisive rhetoric that is going to get your neighbors snatched off the street. Okay. So, but you know, uh it's it's brutal. It is brutal that we don't have better options, it's brutal that we don't have accountability, we don't have any means to stop the corruption. We don't have, I mean, it that is everywhere. I think that that is the biggest statement in all of this is that in California, where we are arguably doing better than the majority, okay? We are. We are the better example. It's still a disaster. Okay. It's like we're better, but it's still terrible. And these all of our electeds are still in these pockets. All of our electeds, especially here in Altadina, who are like, oh, we support you. You're so we're we're here for Altadena, we're doing all these things for Altadena. And in the same breath, passing legislation that allows, you know, our abuser, so to speak, uh, SCE in this case, to continue to get away with this shit, to continue to be allowed to uh raise rates and have us pay for our own recovery, have us pay for our own fire, you know, disaster settlements, have us continue to pay now for our the undergrounding, right? It's insane. We're not just paying for the undergrounding and watching SCE decimate the very little that's left of our, you know, historic centuries old uh or century-old tree canopy. We're now looking at like if you have, if you were so lucky, and I say lucky in air quotes because those who know know, and we've talked about this, that those with standing homes are not lucky. They they have their own unique nightmares, you know, separate of those of us who are a total loss. But while different are equally nightmarish. And um, you know, those folks, if you have a standing home, the it's more expensive for you than someone like me who lost it all to now have to pay because yes, you have to pay to bring your the power lines from the street back up onto your property. And the estimates for that have been for many people$40,000 to$50,000. So on top of everything else, they are looking, you know, people now, if you have a standing home that you're trying to remediate, you're trying to do all of this, insurance isn't paying for anything, you're fighting to the nail. Now, on top of that, you have the added insult to injury of, oh yeah, here it's gonna be, oh, we under we did undergrounding on your street, isn't that great? P.S. We took out the last few trees that you know were standing because we didn't decide we we it wasn't worth it for us to plan around that. Could be avoided, but they just don't care. And then two, you're gonna pay for the privilege. And then three, oh yeah, we were also too lazy and too cheap to underground the transformers, which is done in you know other communities, but not in ours. We we're looking at these massive transformer vaults, like huge boxes that are set in the easement square, like square smack dab right in front of someone's new home or their existing home. It's um it's beyond shameful what this corporation, and that's what this is, it's a for-profit business, is allowed to get away with here, just as we are seeing, you know, the corporate uh machine take over where they've already taken over the entire country. Well, you know, that's it. It's like profits and shareholders over everyone else. Fuck everybody else. It's so disturbing, Steve.

Steve 18:08

The irony is is this is why people are six out of ten people are looking at the billionaires tax. It's because yeah, what's the alternative? The alternative is corrupt. And yet at the same time, is that the right answer? No, it's just a it's a knee-jerk reaction.

Shawna 18:24

Bullshit. It is the right answer. If you are a billionaire and we are now looking at an emerging trillionaire class, where do you think that money's coming from? They're they're just squeezing every bit of blood out of the people.

Steve 18:36

I get it. You know, I get it, I get it. But my uh my they should pay their share. They and I'm not against that. However, I would also say that wealth taxes are taking, and that is a different level. There's a different I do I believe that they should be able to use the money that they get for free if they borrow against it because it's cheaper to pay the interest on the principle that they're borrowing against their assets to be able to fund their lifestyle? No, I think that that's something that needs to be addressed. But do I believe that wealth should be taxed? No, I don't think that that works.

Shawna 19:10

I think it's complicated, I think it's messy, I think it's I think that when you get into this realm, when you get into this, because again, we've talked about this, it's really hard for most people to even conceptualize how much money this is and how much money these people have extracted out of this country. And I say that because that's what it is. Like that that they didn't just get rich off of their, you know, ingenuity. No, they're getting like you look at Amazon, look at Bezos, you know, it it is a sickness. It again, it is the monkey hoarding all of the bananas while the other monkeys starve. That is a that's that's a sickness.

Steve 19:43

I I agree. And I think that they should, but I do not believe that giving that money for the purposes that people are talking about is going to serve the purpose that's gonna solve the problem. We also have a fucking major problem in this state and in this country, it's a spending problem. The state in particular.

Shawna 20:01

And but do we do we have a do we have a do we have a spending problem or do we have a problem with money finding its way into the into too many pockets on the way to solving the issues?

Steve 20:12

That's the cost side of the ledger. Like nobody's going there, everybody's focused on the other things, and nobody is focused on the why are we even talking about more taxes? And are we even doing this right? And what do we do? We're just giving more and more and more and more. So what do we do? We distract everybody by vilifying billionaires and saying, you know what, they yes, they are a shit show, and yes, I believe that we have to deal with that, but no, that is not the answer because we have some serious problems in this state, and they are attaching them is distracting you from the reality that we have more money than ever coming into this state, and we are spending it more than we've ever spent it, and we are not getting shit for it. And where the hell is it going? Where is the 160 million dollars in charitable money that was put out to fire victims? Where has that gone? That is a a fraction of a fraction of this problem. You've heard me say trickle-down economics.$24 billion we've spent from this state, not even the federal matches for homelessness. What the fuck? We haven't taken that number down. And I'm sorry, I'm swearing, but I'm like, we spend more on students today, and we have more money coming into our schools than ever. And yeah, we are less than ever, and less funding than ever students ever there, and they can't even read, they can't even write, talk to professors at university, talk to colleagues.

Shawna 21:46

You know, in relation to our our own, you know, personal experiences. But the reality that this generation of kids, you know, that that you know, you and my peers have had, um, it is the first time ever. That they are under performing compared to the last generation. Every generation is improved, improved. Like that is the goal. You want every generation, right? Like your kids should should have better than you did, right? That's always the goal. We know that that you know, on so many levels, that has not been the case for the for the last generation and the next one, right? It's it's that's just it. Like these kids, God for I don't know how the hell they're ever gonna buy homes. But you know, outside of that, or even like cobble together a living, even but now baby boomers leave.

Steve 22:29

I know that but that we are about to see the number of people owning homes to go down dramatically because the baby boomers are gonna be gone and our prices are gonna crater. Yep. Like this is the whole thing is that we're treating the symptom, not the problem. And what I've always tried to do when I address policy issues, and my readers will know this is I'm trying to address the problem. Don't get distracted by the symptom because the symptom is not the issue. And if you're being distracted by the symptom, that means the people who are benefiting from the problem will continue to do so. And that that has happened here in Altadena, that's happening in our state, that's happening in our city, that's happening in our country. And if you really believe that you want to fight the power, then you need to get beyond the symptom. Do not fall for the bullshit. And too many people are doing that. Yeah, and I'm saying that on the left, and I'm saying that on the right, and I'm saying that the second stop falling for the victim and stop falling for the villain because it's not real. It's it's designed to dumb you down. Yep, and it it's so fr like we saw it with Prop 50. Trump, trump, trump, trump, trump. And no, no, no.

Shawna 23:44

Exactly.

Steve 23:46

I just I I don't know what to do with the story.

Shawna 23:50

I know. No, I know. I mean, I was I share your frustration because you know, I had a very different belief system prior to this fire, right? I mean, I say often that like uh none of us are the same people after the fire for a hundred reasons. We're we're not. And um it's like you have to kind of reorder your reality and you know, we change. Like people, like we are literally not the same people after the fire. And it's not just because of what we'd had to do. It's it's there's so much, there's so many layers to that. But um, my point was just that, you know, uh, you know, um, I am very much, you know, a blue voter. I'm a Democrat. And um, you know, more often than not, my some of my policy, I have some, you know, fiscal things that that lean a little more, what we call moderate Democrat. Um, maybe, you know, decades ago would have even been, you know, touching into Republican territory. But for the most part, especially on socialist issues, especially on um, you know, uh anything around welfare for individuals, for cities, um, I definitely lean practically, you know, democratic socialist, progressive, what we call progressive today. And even with that, you know, I it's it's impossible to ignore all the problems in our own party. It's impossible. And it's like once, you know, I I liken what the experience that we've all had to have, um, those of us who, you know, like myself, like you, other community organizers and leaders, you know, I'll use Jane Lawson at EFRU as uh an example, Eaton Fire Residents United, who's been working really um hard um uh herself, you know, as a grassroots organizer, um, and also now, you know, working on on legislate legislation for um uh some sort of baseline guidelines for uh contamination issues and and basically a way to get insurers to do their job and pay um when people have standing homes after a disaster that have that they can't return to safely um and shouldn't be forced to, which is what's happening in our community. But I use that as the and she's working, I should, I gotta add legislation with with your guy, with your boy, with your boy John, right? So your boy.

Steve 26:03

So I can everybody go to Pete at 12 to 1:30 on Sunday and sign his paperwork for him being re-elected. Yeah, running again.

Shawna 26:14

Yep. So um actually, so the yes, that's our assemblyman, John Harabidian, to get on the ballot. They need signatures, and he's hosting an event at Pete's Coffee. Which Pete's Coffee, Steve? The one on South Lake at on South, okay, South Lake and California and Pasadena, um, uh this Saturday, right? The 28th.

Steve 26:34

Yeah, you see, I don't do the plugs like you do.

Shawna 26:36

Yeah, well, we have to give people the input something about the plug. This is like, you know, go do your civic duty. If you want candidates that are at least trying, um, no, there's no perfect candidate. There, there's no perfect candidate, there's no candidate that's gonna make all the right policy calls. Uh, I've learned, you know, again, from the inside out, the half the candidates don't even understand half the issues themselves until, you know, they they have it very clearly explicitly explained to them by people in the community. And it's incumbent upon us to get those issues in front of them and do this work. But um, anyhow, my my point with all of this was just that, you know, for the all of those of us who are on the inside or have found ourselves on the inside of these issues because we have to, um, speaking for the community because we have no leadership doing it right for us, um the education has been uh quite, you know, quite the revelatory, right? Where you really, where you I feel like I keep saying it's like, you know, going peeking behind the curtain at Disneyland, you know, it's like uh for anyone who ever watched South Park, like there's some really great South Park episodes about Disneyland and and Mickey Mouse, like Mickey Mouse is like, you know, the like Bob Iger, like the the I like the big bad, right? It's like you see behind the scenes, Mickey's like beating the boy bands, like you know, and screaming at everyone and is right, Mickey Mouse. Oh, why didn't you do what you're supposed to do? You little assholes. Oh, I taught you what to do. Anyhow, it's fucking brilliant. And I feel like that is like behind the curtain of the Democratic Party in this state. Like, holy shit. Like, I I actually really, you know, Gavin Newsom, imperfect. Okay, imperfect candidate, imperfect man. Like everyone else, okay. Show me anybody who doesn't have skeletons. Literally everyone does, right? Everyone. Now, then the best that you can do is acknowledge that shit, you know, actually try and learn from it, try and be better, do better, and um, you know, move forward, right? That's it. But when you get into it, then you really do start to understand the corruption and how much is how many decisions are made just to continue to consolidate that power and control and maintain, which is what we're seeing play out here in County, right? Oh my gosh, it's so disturbing.

Steve 28:47

It's everywhere. This is power and it's so disturbing.

Shawna 28:51

Yeah, these folks are drunk with power and then they just want to keep it. They're like they're in toxic. It becomes the game.

Steve 28:58

It becomes the game. I anybody who reads my Substack notices that I use, I capitalize the word power because it's it's more than just the a let you know lowercase POWER. I mean, it is it is the currency, it is not money at all because money follows the power. I've said that a thousand times and I will continue to believe that. You know, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine from back when I was dealing with these lawsuits back in DC. You know, I was reading through my um my book that I wrote about it. I haven't published it, but I wrote it. And it's weird that that's all coming back this week and all this stuff is starting to happen federally again. And um it was he called me out of the blue. I hadn't talked to him in over a year since the fires, and he had a guy on the call with him. They both were probably the other guy was probably in his 80s. And I was talking telling somebody that they called up and I spoke with them, they go, the old guys just don't want to like go, it's it's the game. It's recovery, they call them recovering politicians because it's an addiction, it's a drug. And I think that that's something that people don't understand is that once you get into it, it's different than any it once you it touches you, once it's around you. I've written you know numerous pieces on that over the last year. You know, I've talked about some of the people in our community that are going to be touched by it and what happens when it goes away and how they you know they they have you you start chasing that dragon, so to speak, as they say about heroin, right? Like the idea of you're trying to replace that high that you had and you can't replace it. And so you you you're like a gambler at the table. And once you start to lose, trying to get back to zero, you make bigger and bigger stretches. And you know, that's when you see electeds or people in the public sphere taking positions, you're going, you you think they're jumping the shark, so to speak, you know. Like where did that come from? Yeah, because you can't let go once you're there, once you have the accolades, once you have the the media calling you and getting those quotes, and you're getting on TV and you're you're you're in a room and everybody's sidling up to you, and they're inviting you to parties, and they're inviting you to these events, and you know, coming up to you and all the great, you know, the the act, you know, the wow, thank you so much for all you're doing. Like you get every day, Shana. You know, like once do you get that? Losing it is hard. Once you're in the game, it's hard to step away.

Shawna 31:28

I think it's hard if that's why you're doing it. Right?

Steve 31:32

But like I get it, I think you lose the the thread.

Shawna 31:35

Well, that's I don't know. You get that. I suppose some do.

Steve 31:39

It's like I think it's very easy to get caught up in it.

Shawna 31:42

I mean, yeah, no, I'm sure I'm sure it is. I mean, we've we've had this conversation around, you know, some of our community, you know, organizers, right? People who've who've inserted themselves into the space and and inserted themselves as you know, speaking for survivors, et cetera. And that, you know, it's like you you see it when the conversation and the talking points, you know, that are being leveraged in the media are very clearly not sound and very clearly all about just keeping those people in the media and keeping the machine going because now they're taking money, they have a fiscal sponsor, they have to keep it going, they have to have something.

Steve 32:21

And um but they can't solve it.

Shawna 32:24

Correct.

Steve 32:24

Well, you have to have an unsolvable problem.

Shawna 32:27

Yes, exactly. It has to be an there, it has to be an unsolvable problem because otherwise you can't just keep it going and keep getting funding. And um it is wild, you know, it's been wild to watch that process and watch that play out with, you know, some of these folks. And um, yeah, you know, it's it's this is again, it's like it's a hard call not to take money. I very much under it's not a luxury I will have forever. It's not a luxury that most will ever have um to do that. But while I can, it's why I do it, because you know, none of that comes without strings, without, you know, even if they're subtle strings, they they are there. You know, you you their expectations, you have to keep it going, you have to, you know, hit all of your benchmarks, do all the things, and also toe the line for whomever is funding you. It's it's whether that is spoken or unspoken, that is the reality.

Steve 33:23

Well, and again, I I think it it's when you aren't used to it, or when you're not in the game, so to speak, and you get brought into the game, you don't understand how to operate in that environment, and that becomes very dislocating for a lot of people, it becomes very disorienting. And you know, I think in sociology, I remember my first year of sociology class, they had some Emile Durkheim had a theory called anime, anime or something like that. It's a French word. And it we we we talked about in the context of like movie stars, right? When you go from having you go you like when your life changes dramatically in a very short period of time, you be you lose perspective because it your context is all off. And I think that that's what happens is that you know, to get into the public sphere and to be in the political game, to be writing legislation, to be in those meetings, to be you know, doing things that you've never been able to do and influencing things on a very high level. If you don't if you're not taken into it gradually, if it's just like thrust on you and then you're in that position, it becomes very disorienting for people because they don't understand what happens, and then it just what what does it do to you and how does it change you? And right. I it's just it's a fascinating, as you said, it's fascinating to watch it happening in front of us.

Shawna 34:50

Mm-hmm. It is fascinating. It's been fascinating, you know, to see all of this. I keep saying in so many ways, um this is like a giant social experiment, right? I say this about my group all the time and um and and the Substack and Instagram, I mean, all of it, what we've gone through with, you know, Algena for accountability and seeing how that's played out and and how how polarizing the things that should not have been polarizing, things that are so basic that have been made polarizing. And then to, you know, to have um that experience of you know, people not wanting to publicly support, not publicly sign on, not publicly anything. And then watching that that evolve to where other people, including some of our electeds, started to use our talking points around investigation because it suited them to do so. And they realized that you know they were up against something they couldn't really combat. So instead, they sort of started to take up our talking points, but without really doing anything meaningfully. And you know, I love John, but even John, you know, switched up his language from audit to investigation. And it's not really an investigation, it's an audit. But that was very convenient to then take that language and tie into this, you know, the this, you know, momentum that we had built. And now that we have accomplished this, that we have the attorney general investigation underway, that we've done the work that, you know, this group that started out before me working on this for a year, and then many months of of our little tight strategy team that was a part of this group, you know, that made this happen and was in person in that meeting with the attorney general, you know, I will never stop singing everybody's praises. Everyone has has worked so effectively and passionately um to get to get that done. And um I'm so proud to work with that group of people. But um now to see other organizers that were that was crickets, it was crickets. And now they're all, oh, you know, look at like look at this investigation, look at this, oh, look what we did. We and I'm like, we, we, what, what we we who that happened to us with our lawsuit.

Steve 36:57

Like nobody was there until they won it. It's shameless. It's the way they do it. Yeah, what is it? What did I tell you earlier? Victory as a thousand fathers, defeat is a vo an orphan.

Shawna 37:08

Yeah.

Steve 37:10

You know, everybody claims parentage of the victory, but they only do that after the victory takes place.

Shawna 37:16

After others, on the backs of others, after other, and in this case on the backs of, you know, largely, you know, black women, um, which made it particularly I'm just gonna use the word distasteful.

Steve 37:29

Um when you're in the public sphere, this is what happens, and you have to be prepared for it because this is what they do to you.

Shawna 37:38

Yeah. And it's like, you know, no one, I don't think anyone is like, oh, you know, we need credit, we need this, we need this. But like no, but you want acknowledgement.

Steve 37:46

You want a little bit of like have a little class. Like, hey, you did the work, good job. We appreciate what you did.

Shawna 37:54

Like, like, feel free to, you know, to ride that and to share it and to, you know, be part of that celebration, but not without acknowledging the people who did that work and got it to got it there.

Steve 38:04

I have a friend, you know, he's now a business partner. Um, he was in the military. The military had a saying, credit is indivisible. So why don't you just give it? It doesn't cost anything to give people credit, and you can give it to as many people as you want. Why do people try to hoard it? And he was always having trouble in the civilian world trying to understand why civilians can't just give credit. Like, who cares?

Shawna 38:33

Exactly. Like, how hard is it to just to give credit to people where it's due? Like, I don't know. I I um I realized years ago, you know, working with teams, um, you know, that I uh wasn't always the best about that, even for myself. Like, I was the worst about doing my own PR, the worst, and talking about, you know, our my accomplishments personally with my various businesses and uh and things. But I did I made it like a concerted, once I was really aware of that, I made a concerted effort always to assign credit where due. Like I will give you an example. Like every time I even use like a catch for like a phrase, and I've I've done it on this podcast that like came from Mr. Beer, right? You know, Marcus and I are very separated at this point, but also very much still, you know, very friends and close and we talk regularly. Every time I use something of his, I'm like, I'm quick to add that like it came from him because I feel like attribution is important and I don't want to be a ripoff merchant. Um and if I catch myself, I correct it because I think it's shitty and weird not to do it. So you know, I don't know. I don't know.

Steve 39:39

Well, also, what is it to do?

Shawna 39:40

Maybe we just haven't all learned that lesson yet.

Steve 39:42

And no, and because to me, it shows whether you're secure or not. And to the people that are really in the background, that really understand the game, who are the real power brokers, they'd understand it too. And when they see people taking attribution of other people's work, they know what that means. And they know that if you're not willing to share the credit, what is that gonna say about you? I mean, it's the old once a cheater, always a cheater model. And so that's what it means. And the irony too is that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, you know, like you're doing it by not saying it.

Shawna 40:19

Yeah.

Steve 40:19

And if you're imitating something, then it means that you must be doing something right. I mean as we all know, it's been cut more and more of the words that are written on the sub stack and said here are starting to show up. So it'd be nice to have a little attribution, but it's fine.

Shawna 40:39

Yeah, yeah. Again, I don't think anyone's in it for like, oh, we need credit, but at the same time, we're gonna talk about it. You gotta you can't talk about it without acknowledging the people who who who do the work. Yeah, you know, it's it's again, to me, it's just like the most fascinating sociological experiment um to see what all is going on, right? And how this is all played out and what's gonna continue to happen. And I think we've already seen a number of things that I know that you called specifically have have come to play and come to pass, come into play and come to pass. And uh it's the same, you know, on all of this. So, anyhow, you know, it's a fascinating thing. I'm gonna jump us into another topic since we've talked about, you know, the EDA push, bargainers rebuild authority motion, you know, how that where this money is gonna flow and how it's gonna flow if it's gonna flow at all. Um the federal money that may or may not.

Steve 41:32

It's it's not a question of if, it's a question of when.

Shawna 41:34

It's it's when, right? It's gonna get here. So it's gonna be a fascinating thing. Yeah. In one form or another. So it's gonna be a fascinating thing to continue to watch, and we will continue to watch and talk about it. But another thing that's happening here locally um in Altadena, and I believe this impacts the Palisades as well, but it's especially, you know, here um is the the zone zero topic. So to refresh the memories of anyone who isn't familiar, the zone zero um is a proposed highly contested five-foot ember buffer zone zone around homes, which requires you to basically have moonscape five feet around your house, like no climbing vines. Like this was that whole, like, oh no, the Bogan Villa took out the town. Yeah, it fucking didn't. Okay. Like the zone, this is why the zone zero thing is highly contested and is kind of laughable in a lot of ways, is that, you know, what saved our homes, ironically, were those of us who had trees really close to the house. That's what saved the house.

Steve 42:28

Especially Diodors.

Shawna 42:30

Correct. So it's like, you know, oh no, let's take out the trees around the house. No, dummies. Like, that's actually what saved us. Not to mention we need the trees for a hundred other reasons. Um, which I welcome everyone to Google in the context of climate change and understand we need these trees, like desperately need these trees. But by all means, let's, you know, see how many we can let SCE kill and then let take out the rest with stupid policy. Oh man, I hate dumb policy, re dumb reactive, reductive policy, which is what this is. So they want to, you know, um, they think it they think it, I you know me. I'm so subtle, never and such a wallflower.

Steve 43:06

Sort of like a sledgehammer.

Shawna 43:07

Oh man. Um, so you know, the they were like saying that um uh you know that there's all this debate around this and and the fact that, you know, well, can this help? Well, what won't it, will it not? And you know, the the criti the critique of this, you know, the opposition is that, you know, very simply that the strict rules are expensive, um, they harm local ecology, the well-watered green vegetation was undeniably, indisputably a fire barrier. Go look at Christmas Tree Lane, where it looks like the fire didn't happen. Um, and that was because the cedars uh saved the street. Just that's it, period. End of story. So um it's it's really tough to to look at this and um and not not feel some sort of way about it for all of us in Altadena. Um and this is back now. They're trying really trying hard to push this through despite all this this uh foot pushback. And the thing about this that struck me the most that isn't really being talked about is that like this is you know a requirement around your five foot easement. What five foot easement? What fucking five foot easement? Okay.

Steve 44:16

So we historically the houses that are being built like right up on the fence lines.

Shawna 44:20

Oh, we're gonna we're gonna talk, we're gonna talk about it for a minute, okay? So yeah, for context for the listener, you know, again, you know, uh the like down the casino at at Orkista, and you'll see it.

unknown 44:34

You'll see.

Steve 44:35

Let's get a little background. Let's get let's get a little background before we get into the hotel.

Shawna 44:40

Yeah, I know the hotel that is going up, and yes, exactly. And the the standing cur existing home is like literally shadowed by this massive behemoth of a new structure. But um, you know, uh it's important to have a little context here and understand, you know, what we're talking about and what the where where the commentary and and frustration comes from. Um the reality is for us in Altadena, um, we had a lot of like we we lost 9,000 structures, right? And um predominantly 9,000 historic structures. And, you know, things were built, you know, like my house, my community was 100 plus years old. Um, and things were built in a very different way. I I had to go through quite a bit of back and forth with the county when I did my uh not long ago, when I did my solar and my battery install, because you were supposed to have a five-foot easement between you and the next, you know, neighbor. And that didn't exist. You know, we had a barely a two-foot easement, not even. Okay, that that's the distance between me and the home next to me. There's no question that um our community burned the way it did because of that density. Again, you know, like even the massive oak tree on my property didn't make it simply because it was sandwiched between so many structures. Um, the heat of those structures took out the tree. Otherwise, the tree would have been protective. Um, but in this case, it was the heat of the structures that took out the tree, not the tree itself catching fire. It was the other way around. The tree went up after the structures were well underway, under fire on fire. So, with that, you know, understanding, um, you know, we didn't have those easements. And so people who are rebuilding what they're calling like for like, where you're effectively building the same thing or similar enough in square footage, in number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and footprint, not necessarily exterior style or style of the home, or even square, you know, you have a little leniency on your square footage, but what qualifies under the like for like, you can be grandfathered into the old easement that may have only been, you know, like me, barely two feet, right? Um, but if it is a new build, you are not so that you're supposed to have to follow the current requirements, which give you that five-foot easement. Except that's not happening. So just like County told us that they would follow our CSD, which is our community standards district, gives you, you know, guidelines for what you can and cannot build. Um, that got tossed out the window, and SB9 has been allowed, you know, they they rolled the red carpet out for SB9. And again, listeners, you know, uh, if you're listening for the first time or you don't recall this, you missed that episode, you can do a quick uh search of our show notes and look for the episodes where we've talked about the CSD and SB9, and you will find those things uh and to get some more context and background. But, you know, again, the reality is those easements aren't happening. So, you know, how the heck are we talking about like, oh, let's reduce vegetation because the vegetation is the problem. When because our number one objective here, and I say our meaning county in this rebuild is to increase the tax base. They want like it's it's like build, it's like, you know, drill, baby, drill. It's it's build, baby, build, build bigger, everybody. Um, we've talked about what's happening on a number of streets. We we in our last you know episodes before we took the break, we went over some of that reality of like what was happening in one little stretch of Maiden Lane alone, um, uh of massive development of new homes and parcel splitting um that was uh evidenced by uh water meter requests, right? We're now seeing it for real. One of my neighbors around the corner on Santa Anita, north of Altadina Drive, said, Shauna, you gotta come look at this. This is like a 25-inch easement, if that. And then this building that's supposed to be like for like is so significantly larger and taller than what was there previously. You know, you have your the wall between their properties here, and the eaves are over. The eaves of the 80 of the ADU, which is like a behemoth, is like over that. I mean, there's another property that I've been following because it's one of the many that a an unscrupulous developer has buried some very, very contaminated earth material on. And so I've been like documenting and videotaping and watching everything that they've been doing. And they just marked out for the foundation. So they've buried contaminated soil, capped it with clean soil, marked it uh for a new foundation. And if you measure the foundation to the wall and the property line, it's like barely two feet. And you have to go like, how is this happening? How is this happening?

Steve 49:16

All the inspections, great, great management by the county.

Shawna 49:20

Oh my gosh, it's it's unreal. They only care about parcel. They really don't care. I know they don't care. I hate to say that they don't care, but they really don't care.

Steve 49:28

And um it's just about getting the revenue in right now.

Shawna 49:32

Yeah, yep. So as we talk about accountability or the total lack thereof, um, as we round out this episode, um our friend, our mysterious friend at Altadina Water Wars. I think we've had some word, some word that Altadina Water Wars might return. And I find that very interesting because boy oh boy, that that drama hasn't sizzled down, uh summered down at all. It's still sizzling. Um Las Flores Water, which is happens to be my water uh municipal, who's had um, or mutual rather, who's had a lot of issues. They're the least solvent, they're the most financially, you know, at risk, least assets, fewest number of customers, highest number correct, the wells destroyed, highest number of uh customers, you know, not in service, like myself, because we had such a significant, you know, density of uh of places just completely destroyed. Um, so who won't be back for years? So they're in the worst shape. Well, if you recall, you know, we'd had the in-person meeting that was followed by the Rubio Canyon mutual meeting and then the Lincoln Water uh mutual meeting, um very without any commentary, without any additional conversation or notification, Las Flores passed that rate hike. They just did it. So it'll be um, I would expect that Rubio and Lincoln will do the same. And it's gonna be very interesting to see how this all plays out. And I very much hope our friend at Al Tina Water Wars does return because there's a there's a lot to uh talk about, and I'm very, very curious.

Steve 51:18

Well, they gotta figure out how the hell they're gonna rebuild.

Shawna 51:23

Yeah.

Steve 51:26

Tens of millions of dollars to be not.

Shawna 51:31

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So we're gonna see how it goes. So with that, um, I'm gonna take us into our um kind of our community shout out, um, small biz and you know what's going on. Um so something we I I I you and I talked about this a while back. Um that, you know, uh community is in so many respects the greatest act of resistance, right? And that like to know your neighbor, the the importance of relationships with people who are very different of from us and being reminded that the fire, you know, is effectively like super glue for our community, right? And um I've been thinking, I kept thinking about that. And, you know, uh people who knows know our group know that we've always had, you know, we had a book club, we had a a cook, uh cook's club that had, you know, cookbook meetups and had potlucks and um various, we had in-person happy hours at various spots. Like we there were a lot of, you know, we've been doing this a long time, right? Like this is this is a pre-fire thing. Um, but really trying to figure out how to do it in a meaningful way, post-fire, how to have, you know, and we have various groups and gatherings, but what we started doing um a couple of weeks ago were regular weekly BA, beautiful Altadina office hours. So we've been on Wednesdays from 11 to 1. We have been going from, you know, rotating coffee shops. We were at unincorporated coffee one week. We were at uh yesterday, we were at um highlight coffee on Lincoln, which I love Frank. And if you go to highlight, try the um pineapple lime espresso tonic. Like it's life-changing. I didn't think I was into that thing kind of thing. Oh my gosh, it's so good, Steve. It's like the most delicious espresso drink ever. I think I've in fact I'm gonna try and I'm gonna try and make one myself at home and see how it goes. Um, it's so good. Um, so you you we were there next week. We will be at Lavender and Honey, which technically is Pasadena, but for those who don't know, is owned by um an Al Tadena uh female business owner who sadly lost her home, like so many of us. And um, yeah, so it's it's it's been really fantastic and it's been a great time for community. We get people come out, they get to connect with one another. They're sometimes sharing rebuild stories, sharing remediation stories, sharing displacement stories, and just sharing, you know, um, you know, shooting the shit with people who get it, because I don't, I don't think anyone other than all of us who've experienced this could possibly understand what this is like, you know, short of talking to people fire survivors from other towns. And um, you know, I I want to add to that that, you know, we keep talking about like finding the joy wherever you can, right? I've talked about this before. It's like this whole thing is taking so much from everybody that you have to find the joy where you can. Kind of like every time that I know for me, every time I am with our people, so to speak, like every time I go to grab a coffee in Al Tedine after I'm at my lot, anything like that, um it I like I say it like it feeds my soul, right? To like be with our people. So we've now created that opportunity weekly. It's the BA office hours, come every week. And back to that, looping back to what I was saying of like finding the joy. Um, I met a woman who was not there for the BA office hours, but then knew uh knew of our group and was like, she's like, Oh, this is perfect, Kizmet. I'm so happy to be here. And then she started to share with me her story of how she, because of the evacuation, met her fiance, met he's her fiance now. They met on January 11th and they were engaged last December.

SPEAKER_02 55:10

That's great.

Shawna 55:11

And there are so many of those stories that are just so positive, and it's nice to be reminded. Um, you know, I'm not a silver linings person. I think that's the wrong way to frame what's happened to all of us. But um we have to be reminded that there is still joy, that there is still life, that there are still positive out things, you know, and take the pleasure that we can from that. And sometimes it's as simple as coming out and talking to your neighbors and sharing a coffee, um, and and having, you know, a minute to be reminded of that, that you are not alone because we are not. Yeah.

Steve 55:47

Thank you for doing what you're doing, and thank you for doing it.

Shawna 55:50

Yeah. Well, it's it's it's nice to be with with everyone. So uh I'm gonna shout out one other local that that's like our thing. And I want to make sure that people know about that and can, you know, there's an RSV, you can find a link with information and um RSVP on our Instagram and in our private group. But um RSVP is not well not necessary. It's 11 to 1 people can drop in um anytime. You can drop in for half an hour, stay for the whole two hours. We've run long both the last couple of weeks because people have just lingered and wanted to hang out and talk. Um, but I want to give another proper business shout out to Parker at Hardy, California. So, those um who don't recall, um we actually did a beautiful Altadena thing with um with Parker when we were doing a couple, we did a few, you know, kind of like info sessions and round tables, and he was talking about soil remediation. So for those who don't know Parker, I met Parker a few years ago when I started doing all this reno, um, you know, kind of like sensitive historic renovation of my property, my my hundred-year-old Jane's cottage. And I really wanted to do um um, I had a I have a huge front lawn, like a big slope hill, and I wanted to do all natives and like get rid of my grass. And it became a running joke because I stopped watering my St. Augustine grass for years, like, oh, I'll let it die and then I can remove it. It never died. I always tell people, people are like, oh, with your, you know, like I'm like the asshole using all the water for my green lawn. I'm like, I'm not, I haven't watered this in years. This is just like if you want to have a drought-friendly lawn, uh established St. Augustine grass, okay, I'll leave it at that. But if you want to do what most of us want to do and have natives, um Parker at Hardy Californians is fantastic. He's they have a um, you can buy by the pound, a bioremediation native flower um plant seed mix. That's what I personally put on the front of my lot after I did that six-inch scrape and capped it with clean earth and all that. I dropped a little bit of um, you know, fresh soil and then put the seeds out before we had all those heavy rains. And I can see lots of little plant sprouts, and I'm super excited to have just like a big field of um native flowers soon. But what they are doing separately, and what I wanted to talk about um for all of us here on the podcast is um they are doing um plans. Just like the foothill catalog is having pre-approved plans for homes, they now have plans that they're getting pre-approved and are kind of ready to go for a native garden. So you can just like pick a look and um take it and do that and replicate it and have it be um significantly less expensive than it would be if you were trying to do it, you know, on the fly or custom. But they're really beautiful. So for anyone who's curious, go check out Parker at Hardy Californians, check out their plants, check out their bioremediation seed mix, and um, you can also go see them in person in Sierra Madre where they have a local spot. So there we are.

Steve 58:40

Awesome. All right. So two for two, eh, Sean?

Shawna 58:43

Two for two.

Steve 58:45

All right, lunchtime. Blood sugar. It's lunchtime.

Shawna 58:48

Thanks, thanks everyone for listening. Um, thanks for joining us. As always, I am Shauna Dawson Beer, beautiful Altadina. I'm here with Steve Sachs, the Alta Policy Geek.

Steve 58:57

I mean Alta Policy Walker.

Shawna 58:59

Yes, he's all the things. Um, you can find us both um on Instagram. And I'm sorry, you can find us both on Substack, you can find me on Instagram, you can find our private groups on Facebook, you can find us um actually on Slack as well. So until next time, thanks for listening. Talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_02 59:17

Thank you.