Let Them Eat Cake

We jump right into it with another Media Roundup, because there is still so much to discuss this week. 

• Los Angeles Times: Anger over Southern California Edison’s undergrounding work in Altadena boiled over as residents called for a temp halt to the project
• CalMatters: Californians continue paying some of the highest taxes in the nation, but for what?
• “Gavin Newsom’s Empire of Fraud” City Journal report and broader questions about leadership and spending in California
• LAist: California still hasn’t signed the Olympics bailout promise so where is Gavin? Has he quiet quit his job?
• LA County’s proposed $48.8B budget and the context of LA City $14.85B and the State $348.9B
• Edgar McGregor on County’s March 25 meeting on Eaton Canyon
• Multiple outlets report on federal investigations involving dead and missing scientists tied to Caltech and JPL 

And zoom out to the national picture: rising debt, extreme wealth concentration, billionaires becoming richer while ordinary people carry the burden, and the growing sense that we are watching history unfold in real time as class tensions rise.

Legislation Watch

There is a lot moving. We break down key bills. 

• AB 1642: science-based clearance before occupancy standards for standing structures, schools, and commercial areas (passed first committee)
• AB 1759: well-intended but flawed legislation that risks reinforcing bad policy
• SB 1076: insurance coverage for homes meeting wildfire standards (killed in committee)
• SB 1301: stronger protections against surprise non-renewals (headed to appropriations)
• SB 877 / SB 878: more transparency, delay penalties, and consumer protections (advanced, long odds)
• SB 982: climate damages bill allowing AG action against fossil fuel companies (failed)
• Congressman Vince Fong’s fire tax relief extension act
• LA County’s new Commercial Acquisition Fund
• Barger backing $9.9M and 44 new OEM hires — still too little, but why now?

Zone 0 & Land Use Convos

We cover new Zone 0 updates and the bigger land use questions shaping Altadena’s future. Shout-out to neighbor and listener Rich Rieber for hosting fire hardening workshops for La Crescenta neighbors. Spotlight major Altadena Land Use Committee conversations and invite members to join us on the podcast. Plus, SCE’s new rebuild hub on N. Fair Oaks

Projects discussed:

• Proposed Car Wash – 2185 Lincoln Ave
• Mobil Redevelopment + Car Wash – 15 W. Woodbury Rd
• Affordable Housing – 2214 Windsor Ave
• CORE Community Center – Lincoln Ave & Archwood

Small Biz Shout-Out

This weekend is Webster’s Centennial Celebration happening Saturday 4/25, 12–4pm featuring Rhythms of the Village, live music, artists, pet adoptions, kids’ activities, local food, and even 26-cent drinks. 

This episode was recoded on April 23.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:01

You're just gonna sit back and watch.

Shawna 0:04

Welcome back. It's After the Ashes, Beautiful Aldina's opinionated but well-informed podcast on disaster recovery through a public policy lens. Um, this is your co-host, Shauna Dawson Beer. It is Thursday, uh April 23rd, recording this, our second episode of the day. And I'm here with my co-host, Steve Sachs. Hi, everybody. Hi, everybody. And I think we're gonna jump we're gonna jump right into it with another media roundup because there's so much to talk about. Um I want to jump, I mean, gosh, there's so much stuff to talk about, but I'm gonna keep it hyperlocal for this one. This um yesterday, a story dropped yesterday in the LA Times about the Edison undergrounding and the Eaton Fire while you know, survivors' anger about SoCal Edison burying their electric lines in Altadina, and that it is, you know, boiled over on Tuesday with residents calling on government officials to temporarily halt the work because they just feel it's incredibly haphazard. There's no answers about how people are supposed to pay for this because you know, you're people are looking at anywhere from 10 to 40 grand to bring power from the street onto their properties and to their their new builds or to their existing structures. Um, they're talking about in some areas where people cannot afford with the standing existing homes uh to bring the lines up and trench and do that on an existing property that, oh, no big deal. We'll just do a combination of underground and poles. Um, there have been a lot of concerns that they are destroying the last few remaining healthy trees that we have, our old growth oaks and uh cedars and redwoods, because they are just, you know, no big deal, tearing up the root systems. Um, people are pissed, as they should be. And I just said, you know, to me. Can I ask a question? Can I ask you? Please ask a question. Yes, yes.

Steve 1:56

So this is the part that didn't make sense to me. First of all, cable and telephone or whoever, they're not good underground, they're gonna stay above ground. So not true. Well, that's what the article said, that there were still instances where it was gonna go that way.

Shawna 2:08

Some instances, but for example, Spectrum has been undergrounding all over the community, and I can tell you about this firsthand because I now have a Spectrum underground vault sitting at the very front of where my money for this undergrounding. You mean are they paying me for the under for the vault that's now sitting on my property?

Steve 2:24

No and but they didn't charge you for it. Correct. So Edison burns down our town. Or sorry, presumably they burns down our town.

Shawna 2:36

Oh, I think it's you it's safe to I think say this.

Steve 2:52

Oh yeah, and by the way, we're gonna pay for them to underground it so that they don't have to service those lines anymore.

unknown 2:59

Correct.

Steve 2:59

And have to deal with the work that involves when highway.

Shawna 3:02

Oh no, they know this is this is going to be profitable for them. They know it. They know it. This is going to make SCE more money. But we're paying for it. Like our settlements. Yeah, it's like our settlements and everything else. Don't you know that the subrogation only applies to all of us in the state of California, not the utility? It's insane. It is insane to me. So I just said, you know, maybe stars for me.

Steve 3:25

For me, it's very those words just came out of my mouth. I can't believe I just said what I said.

Shawna 3:30

Well, I will say, for me, how I'd put this very simply is um that everyone need clearly, no one should be paying a dime for this. And if you're not already, this needs to be on your lawsuit. Like, great. I need every penny that you want to charge me out of the lawsuit. Great. Because this should not cost anyone a dime.

Steve 3:54

How much would it cost them? I'm gonna do the math right now.

Shawna 3:57

What's oh, they said uh approximately, and and please we'll have to go back and verify that I remembered this correctly, but I believe it's four million dollars a mile.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

No, no, no, hold on. They're charging four thousand dollars or ten thousand dollars per house, right?

Shawna 4:10

No, no, no, it's not a per house, it's a matter of what it's gonna cost you, depending on the size of your lot, your proximity to the street, etc. Going to cost you to trench and bring the lines up from the street to your property and your home because that's your responsibility. What's what's beyond your private on your uh you know your lot?

Steve 4:29

But they but they already screwed that up and they destroyed the line that you had before that you had connected. Correct. So because they screwed up, they still have you still have to pay them for that.

Shawna 4:42

Yes. It's not that you're necessarily paying them, but it's your out of pocket for the process.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Shawna 4:47

Just like all the utilities. I have to pay to bring, like I've talked about this before. It'll cost me well north of six figures just to get utilities back on my lot to get my lot, you know, site ready before I lift a single hammer to rebuild a house. I will be a couple hundred thousand dollars in between surveys and lot cleanup, because again, incomplete army corps cleanup, significantly incomplete. And I'm one of the lucky ones who had more insurance dollars to pull to get that done. But you know, that's conservatively$30,000 for people. And then you've got, you know, the fencing walls, even just temporary fence fencing right now is a couple thousand dollars because we're having so much illegal dumping and other insanity. We have to have fencing up and security cameras, and then getting all of my utilities because there is no sewage, no water, no gas, no electric, nothing left on my lot. And mine is, you know, there's a lot of us like that. What's that?

Steve 5:46

You didn't create the mess. No, I did not have the legal precedent that they're supposed to be suing under is that they're correct, supposed to compensate you for what they took.

Shawna 5:57

Yeah, isn't that true? And that is why, on so many levels, the offer, in my opinion, certainly for me, I know for some people they think it makes sense, but it's a joke. It's pennies on the dollar, and it's a joke. Okay, all right.

Steve 6:13

So here we are. I know. I'm sitting here the the the the ball.

Shawna 6:18

It's incredulous, right? Uh just the total. Well, no, how about the fact that our electeds continue to let them know he was collecting money from these guys? Correct. Sasha Renee Perez, same. Everybody, same. All of them are in these guys' pockets. It's why they sign off on the legislation to allow them to be able to do that.

Steve 6:43

No, but Sasha Renee didn't know what was in the legislation. She couldn't read it. She couldn't dump it into Chat GPT to get a summary. No, no. She couldn't use her staff that is extraordinarily.

Shawna 6:54

I was gonna say, doesn't she have one of the most seasoned staffs out there? Girl, please.

Steve 7:01

She doesn't know what she's doing. She is but the way that Sacramento moves, it's too fast and it's too overwhelming.

Shawna 7:06

And oh my god, you know for anyone listening, for anyone listening, Steve is not just being obnoxious. That is literally what the response was and what the justification was for signing off on legislation to have ratepayers like all of us fire survivors, uh, continue to fit foot the bill for what SCE is doing, including our own recovery. So, yeah, if you're not pissed, you should be.

Steve 7:38

I didn't know about it. We're so sophisticated that we can do all these things, but when we have to be sophisticated, we get taken. Oh, I didn't know, I'm just an innocent babe in the woods. Bullshit.

Shawna 7:48

So well, but also if you're that much of an innocent babe of the woods and it's moving too fast and you can't follow, correct. It's not for you. Step down, step down and let someone else come in and do the fucking job. Who's actually gonna do it and stand up for the constituents and not whatever this not whatever this gaslighting weird performative thing is because the media this is my frustration is the media lets them get away with it.

Steve 8:13

Yeah, the media just says, okay, sure, yeah. Sasha, let's put some great pictures of you. You're SRP, the AOC of the St. Gabriel Valley. Come on. It's I'm nothing against her.

Shawna 8:27

It's just it's the machine. It is the machine. No politician is perfect. Um you know, I'm not sure. You and I are correct. I was gonna say you and I are imperfect people. If we were in these shoes, you're good. I'm not, I'm not. Uh I call shenanigans. But if you and I were in these shoes, we would have missteps and we would make mistakes, and I sure hope that we would get out there and own them.

Steve 8:49

I would have said this is the choice I had to make to get what I needed to get my people. I have to do, I'm not gonna sit there and go, I didn't know. That's the part that's gone. It's embarrassing. It is. It's like I knew, but this was the choice I had to make to make the right decision for my constituents because it's the best deal I could cut. Sorry, guys. That's what it is.

Shawna 9:08

Like, this is it. Like, I have to play ball on some of these things to get this and this, and I don't like it either. But the way the machine is set up, this is the only way we can get anything done right now.

Steve 9:20

But she holds herself out as this like holier than thou, you know, transformative elector, elected. And it's like, no, you're not, like, you're just like the rest of them. Sorry.

Shawna 9:30

Yeah, I I no, you don't be sorry. I you know, I agree with you. It's incredibly frustrating. Um, I don't think I will ever get beyond what happened in Sacramento last year when we were up there fighting for 797 and doing all of that. And I don't think anyone, I'll share it right now for listeners because I suspect very few people have any idea what happened up there. And that in particular, she threw fire survivors, including myself, but not only me, under the bus when we raised issues and concerns. And she got up there and she was shaky and like she was shaking, she was so angry, she was red and shaking, and she got up on on you know their their dais and proceeded to say that we had no idea what we were talking about, and we had personal axes to grind, and we only cared about incorporation, and our commentary was irrelevant, and we absolutely spoke for no one. And none of that could have been further from the truth.

Steve 10:25

And um, how's that aging now?

Shawna 10:28

Yeah, how's that how's that working out now? How's the money, Sasha?

Steve 10:32

How much money exactly? But that was the same time that Liam Dillon was writing that article in the LA Times about Spencer Pratt trying to give him the you know, the the credit for killing Ben Ben Allen's bill. But yeah, you were in that hearing. There was nothing that didn't matter.

Shawna 10:49

That's not what happened. They didn't know he didn't know what the people were in that room. We were in that room and it didn't matter. It got killed because there was more political juice behind another bill, and they made it a deal to sacrifice one for the other.

Steve 11:02

That's it. Because the county and the city agreed on 782, they did not agree on 540.

Shawna 11:06

Correct. Correct.

Steve 11:08

That's all.

Shawna 11:08

And it ultimately came down to Bass being the one saying, hey, now we're not gonna do this.

Steve 11:13

And they said you guys pick which one do you want, right?

Shawna 11:16

Correct. Exactly.

Steve 11:18

It wasn't it's an expensive Pratt.

Shawna 11:20

No, it didn't, but um, I thought it was kind of yeah, I know we were talking about that at the time. Man, none of this shit is aged well, Steve. Well, it's just look at it and you see so many receipts.

Steve 11:33

And we we have it like that's the whole purpose of the Substack in some respects, is to say, we called it. We told you what this was, and yet everybody keeps repeating the lie. It's just again, back to what happened last week with Swalwell. They start, if you watched the progression, Sean. I mean, especially you and PR, you would have you should have loved what they did on Monday, the way they built in the they started the the the moat to try to build in the the base, and then by when they were testing out the ideas and seeing if those stories would hold and if anybody would push back and nobody pushed back. And then by Friday, they were able to like reinforce the moat and say, Well, you know, we were taken. This was this talented Mr. Ripley, and you know, we as politicians have to accept people at their word because you know, we are trusted and we have to trust come on, people and it's back to the same thing with Sasha. Like, it's our media in California does not hold our electeds accountable. I mean, other than one guy on the LA Times, and everybody knows who my favorite LA Times writer is on this, Mark Bearback, too. But I mean, generally, but he kind of went along with the machine on this one. But there's nobody out there calling balls and strikes.

Shawna 12:42

Nope.

Steve 12:43

Nobody.

Shawna 12:43

No, there's not. No, there's not.

Steve 12:46

Um it's just like, oh, here's my line. Okay, I'm gonna repeat it, write it, and therefore it is.

Shawna 12:52

Yep. I know. Yeah, I mean, we talk about it all the time. Like, who's actually representing us? Oh, that's right, no one. No one. Um, there's no one. There's no one. It's not right now. Correct. The the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, it's two sides of the same coin at this point. It's the same machine. It's just, you know.

Steve 13:10

Well, but the look, you've got the California Post out there now doing what the daily news used to do, which is, you know, bear. But the thing is, inside of the California Democratic machine, nobody cares unless Politico or the LA Times, or one, you know, maybe the New Yorker or the New York Times, or maybe the Washington Post says something. Because that's who actually matters in their ecosystem.

unknown 13:33

Right.

Steve 13:34

The California Post is a good place to dump stories. Like yesterday, they did a great job dumping something with Paul Mitchell, basically laying out the terms of if Becerra fails, we all know what's going to be. It's seemingly, it seems to be an organic increase. You know, beautiful words chosen purposefully. Because if it isn't organic, he could say, well, it looked like it was. But, you know, if he fails, you know, it was the message from the machine, and they dumped it in the California Post instead of the LA Times or Politico because they wanted to send the message. That's where those things exist. But the reinforcement of the Bacera machine right now is all LA Times and Politico. It's fascinating to watch.

Shawna 14:18

It is fascinating because, you know, make no mistake, you've you've got everybody aligned with who they're aligned with. Um, that's a good segue into some of the stuff, the news stories that were a little bit more uh statewide. Um, and actually, this other piece that came out um that I was loving, Newsom's Empire of Fraud.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

There was um Oh, is this the City Journal?

Shawna 14:39

Yeah, the City Journal, the Manhattan Institute. Yeah, that did their whole thing, alleging that California Governor Newsom's administration has overseen at least 180 billion in fraud payments across various state programs from UI fraud, Medi-Cal fraud, homelessness fraud, failed oversight. And the report claims that systematic was, as they put it, quote unquote, systematic brazen fraud has compromised California's unemployment, health care, and welfare systems, largely during, of course, the pandemic, which I think we know, um, but that ultimately this all kind of stems from a culture of fraud. And you know, there was another piece that was in CalMatters also, you know, around the same time saying no matter how politicians frame it, um Californians are paying some of the nation's nation's highest taxes, right? We there's no question. Like we know this even when we go to the pump. But for what? Like, what do we? I mean, I know this is the county we're the question we're asking of county for us here in Altadena, like for what? Like we didn't pay for a fire response, water, any of that. It's not paying for infrastructure.

Steve 15:46

I'm gonna say it. Chad Bianco last night said it best, and I've said it a thousand times, and I'm not MAGA, but he's not wrong. California does not have a revenue problem, California has a spending problem. We can't account for where our money is going. We've said that a thousand times. Rufo's piece was interesting because there wasn't a lot of follow-up outside in the right in the mainstream media, right? There was a oh, he alleges 180 billion dollars, but where's the money? I don't know. Everybody denies it. Then what two weeks later, Rob Bonte has a record$260 million fraud case after the U.S. attorney was already starting this stuff. Oh, but it's not happening. We've got it under control. Now all of a sudden it's happening. Like, guys, where is somebody calling it calling bullshit on this? Like, where is somebody saying, guys, this is ridiculous? Your only reason why you're doing this now is because you're getting pressure because this is all political. And you know, look at look at go back to the homelessness. I mean, you had Weingard's CEO going down over the fact he was, you know, flipping properties, which they all do. I mean, sec step up on second, same thing. I mean, I've heard it from all these organizations. It's just those were the most brazen about it. Yeah, you know, why else did H Healthcare Foundation get into homeless housing and start buying up all those Skid Row houses? I they get all their money off of selling drugs that they get from the pharmaceutical companies at a discount price and then selling at full price to Medicare or Medicaid, and then use that Delta to fund whatever they want to fund. And then they became a huge player in homeless housing. Why? Makes no sense. Buying Skid Row houses and then not doing the work there? Come on, guys. Yeah, I'm just saying, like, where is the questions? Where are sorry, where are the questions? Where are those those inquiries? And you know, Barbach said it interestingly on Friday. They go, the the media at that point built in its total defense and said, We don't we don't traffic in rumors in the media. I'm like, tell that to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. How the hell else do they break that story? It was a rumor. It was a rumor that somebody broke in and what happened and started chasing down the rumors. Like all media is that the the fallacy of these things to say absolve themselves of the responsibility of taking on the job is beyond me. I get it. It is a lot out there, and the bigger the state, the bigger the opportunity, the bigger the the the and these frauds are not like a massive 180 billion dollars. It's uh 1800 million dollar frauds or 10 million dollar frauds that go under the radar, like the one at LAUSD, you know, that woman who got charged with you know setting aside those contracts, and you know, it was it wasn't any one big one, but when you add it all up, it becomes 20 million dollars. Add it all up. That's how you do it's a death by a thousand cuts. And to get to the heart of all this, you've got to get into it, you gotta get into the bowels of government. And that's the other thing so few people understand the nuance involved. Like, I grew up in this world, I grew up in procurement. I understand. Very few people understand where all this stuff goes. Even and you get me to the grant side, I don't, I mean, even that is like what? That's a whole it's its own unit, yeah.

Shawna 19:15

It's its own world for sure.

Steve 19:17

I mean, it's Italian and Spanish, right? It's close enough, but when you're wrong, it's way different, you know.

Shawna 19:24

Yeah, that is the truth. Um, you know, we're speaking as we're speaking about all of this, you know. I was also reading LES Tata story, and um LES just has so much great coverage, um, just in general. Great coverage of what's happening for for us, for the Palisades, great coverage for LA City, for the state. Um, but one of the stories on the radio, eh? I know, eh? Well, we I we can do that. We know we have the technology. We can do that. But uh so they they one of the stories that they dropped was that California still a decade later has not signed the Olympics bailout promise. So the the state is the back, the the state is the backstop um for stays in LA City after the city's first 250 million. Correct, correct. And a decade, a decade in and a couple years off of this thing, and it's not gonna happen under Newsome.

Steve 20:16

Nope. He's not gonna do it. He's gonna leave it for the next guy. I mean, that's the honest. They're gonna string it out, everybody will forget it.

Shawna 20:26

And that's it. It's just passing the buck, pass the buck, pass the buck. Nothing to see here.

Steve 20:30

Newsom doesn't want to be on the just like he wouldn't endorse, he's not gonna endorse anybody in the election. What he's gonna do is he's gonna indicate what he wants, and then his people are gonna kind of do the work because they're the ones that are gonna have to live with it. And when, as he said, he goes, I'll I'll support the democratic nominee when it happens in June.

Shawna 20:53

I'm just for anyone listening, I'm just shaking my head.

Steve 20:56

Uh, because that's what that that's the that's because then he's gonna take responsibility for it. He didn't choose his successor. So the failures that that successor is going to have do not blow back on him. Because he's gonna he's gonna leave the successor. I I'm thinking of the wire, you know, I'm thinking of the point where Kharketty comes in and he walks in and he walks into the schools in crisis, the police in crisis, he's got this plan, and he's just going from budget to budget to budget issue. And he's gonna this is what the next governor is going to have in California. Don't kid yourself.

Shawna 21:30

A mess. Inheriting a mess.

Steve 21:32

And Gavin has been what there was an article this morning about how he's been out of the state like more than 20% of his time this year. Yep, yeah. You know, he's he's he's checked out what's quiet quitting, they call it, you know, like yeah, he has quite quit his job.

Shawna 21:47

He has quite quit his job.

Steve 21:49

And like he puts through certain things, but the vast majority, like he doesn't want to own whatever this legacy is gonna be. And yeah, I you know, that's what this. Olympics is gonna be too. He's not gonna own the Olympics, he's gonna let the next person have to eat that one.

SPEAKER_03 22:08

Wow. Uh I'd be surprised.

Steve 22:11

Remember, I know we were sold that this Olympics was gonna make money because we already had all the venues in place. And then now we have to put two billion from the full party to that.

Shawna 22:23

Who knows? Maybe it will make money when they're you know uh basically printing money uh via what they're charging the locals for the tickets. That's with the 25% service tax. Yeah, exactly. It's insane. Insane. That's for us locals. That's our deal. It's crazy. People looking at, you know, tickets that were thousands of dollars for the ceremonies. It was just like it's nuts. None of the great sports even being up yet. Uh truly bananas. I actually just had an email for the um uh what was it? They're doing the um the second round. Like you can for LA28 is like registered now for the next uh ticket draw. I'm like, great, like with what budget? Like if I'm gonna spend that much money, I think I'd rather go to um you know a music festival in Portugal or Spain because it would cost less.

Steve 23:10

Yeah, but this is the Olympics. It's your it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Shawna 23:14

Yeah, great. I but let me tell you what I was planning to do before my house burned down rent my house out and go to Europe.

Steve 23:20

Well, then just go to Europe.

Shawna 23:23

Exactly.

Steve 23:25

It don't cost less settlement that that's lost revenue that you would have otherwise been able to take.

Shawna 23:29

You know, that is actually a great point. Yes, yes, I could have uh let my house for a month and now I can't. Yep. Thank you, Edison. Yeah, thanks again, Edison, for fucking up our plans in every way. Um, so another another story. The LA Times was covering LA County's$48.8 billion budget. And you know, the degree to which there's not a lot of transparency. We've we've talked about this before. Like LA City has a city controller who a Mejia who is awesome and and should be following the city.

SPEAKER_03 24:00

They're trying to get rid of it.

Shawna 24:01

I know they are because he's doing his job and he's doing it really well for the people. And they are like, nope. Now we got to pass a motion to eliminate his role. That's what they're trying to do.

Steve 24:11

Democratic politics works. We pass a motion to control things, and then we pass a motion when it doesn't work the way we want it to.

Shawna 24:17

Correct. You got it. So it's it's been really fascinating to watch that play out. But I think you know, it's a great opportunity here talking about this for people to have a little context that you know. So the LA County budget is$48.8 billion. The state's budget for for context,$348.9 billion. Just think about that for a second. What a huge chunk of the entire state budget we control. LA County.

Steve 24:44

We have 20% of the population.

unknown 24:47

Yeah.

Steve 24:47

Almost 30%. And we have about 30% of the budget.

Shawna 24:50

Yep. And then that's how big we are. We are huge. And then we're we're bigger than all the seven states. Oh, I know. LA City's budget is 14.85 billion. Yep. Um, and the top line item. 2.1. Yep. The top line item, though, still is police. Police is still, you know, law enforcement, be it county sheriff or LAPD, that is still the number one line item. That's where the uh lion's share of the budget goes. So, you know, here we are. Um, the county also announced there too, Shauna. I know, I know, I know. County um announced, uh, and so's fire. Uh County announced a plan for Eaton Canyon. That was back on March 25th, but it didn't get a lot of coverage. It's worth looking at. Um, you know, it is a delicate balance of how to manage that resource, but also making make it open and available to all because it needs to be. Um, but you know, with hopefully better management so that we aren't dealing with what we've been dealing with prior to the fire, with people like literally eaten uh below the waterfall and even down, you know, in the um in the canyon, there would be like dirty diapers floating in that water because people were just like changing everything. They we had people, we had vendors actually up on the trails selling, you know, dot hot dogs and and merch. I was just like, holy shit. I mean, on one hand, okay, great, it's become a kind of a tourist attraction, but also, you know, we don't have any trash cans. We don't have any, there's just no management of any of this resource. Um, that of course we now lost, you know, largely to fire, but that ecology and that environment, it'll come back. You know, it's used, it's it's not uh it's cyclical when it burns like this. But it it does speak to the fact that there's a big job ahead that hopefully the county does a hell of a lot better job than they did. They won't before. Uh, but I'm not holding my breath. But I'm not holding my breath. And there was another little kind of a story yesterday. I shared this with you, Steve, because it caught my eye. The um LA Times picked this up, and then so did the locals, passing in and now, passing a star news, um, talking about the federal investigation into dead scientists from Caltech and JPL.

Steve 27:01

Yeah, my wife to me. She's like, Well, you have Steve.

Shawna 27:04

I'm like, I I know, me too.

Steve 27:06

I heard about the dude in the Analog Valley, but I didn't know there were others.

Shawna 27:09

So there's at least four so far. And but it looks like, you know, one the way the family spoke was like, hey, there were ongoing health issues, like nothing to see here. Um, but you know, it'll be interesting to see those dots connected. Of course, the the feds are looking at this as like, hey, is this a national security matter? Um, what's going on? Like, is there any connective tissue to these, their work, these people and their work and what they're working on? Um, I'm trying to remember, gosh, I just read this piece. One of them was working on um shoot, oh, on the uh long-range asteroid tracking, which is which is an area that you know one of our neighbors who I know pretty well is working on over there. So yeah, it's that one just kind of caught the the again. I was like the dog doing the the head tilt, like what?

Steve 27:56

What's going on? I also heard, well, I'm sure you also picked up that it looks like there's gonna be some major budget cuts to JPL too.

Shawna 28:04

Again, again, more major budget cuts. Well, of course, because don't forget, you know, per Trump moon mission. Correct. Per well, per Trump, the only thing that the federal government should be doing is military and military spending. He literally said, like, oh, the federal government should have nothing to do with Social Security, Medical. I'm sorry, Medicaid, well, in in our cases Medicaid, but Medicaid, social security, Medicaid, health, all health care, childcare, human welfare. They were like, no, that's all the state's responsibility. Feds do none of this. We should only be doing government spending, uh sort of specifically for the military and protecting, you know, the America and now more money, need more money, need more military money. Because of course, his war is costing at least a billion dollars a day. And we don't have it. Because as we've already covered, the country's insolvent for our own treasury department. We have significantly more debt than assets at this point. Good times.

unknown 29:03

Yep.

Shawna 29:04

So speaking of the national speaking of I know, speaking of the I know isn't it the Republicans who are like less government? What did what happened? Where did that go?

Steve 29:15

They can't fight against Social Security and Medicare, which are the two biggest drivers of the budget. Jesus. The two biggest drivers of the deficit.

Shawna 29:22

What a mess. Speaking of a mess, and the mess that our country's in.

Steve 29:26

By the way, it's not like progressives aren't just about, hey, let's spend more money, because that's what we want to do. Spend more money. So it's all the same.

Shawna 29:33

It's everybody again, two sides of the same coin, but the Republican Party is doing the same thing, printing money like it's going out of style.

Steve 29:39

Because people don't want to lose. Once you get a benefit, they aren't willing to give it up. Look at the fights you're getting just over. But it's it's not only that, though, it's to cut back the shit that came out with COVID. Okay, but again, Steve.

Shawna 29:51

Steve, we have enough money here for all to do all the things and choose not to do it because we allow the billionaire, soon to be trillionaire class to continue to execute this grift, defrauding the and robbing the entire country. I mean, that they are literally robbing everyone from their pockets. I think if every American would just wake up and stop paying taxes, maybe we could get somewhere. Like literally everyone. Just nope, we're not paying until we fix this shit. Enough. Okay.

Steve 30:22

Look, I I I've written on this. I have put my words on paper about what I think the billionaires and trillionaires should do. I think it's ridiculous that you have Elon Musk about to be a trillionaire. You're never gonna spend that much money. Get over your ego. I'm not saying that, but I'm also saying that.

Shawna 30:39

Well, it's not that there was a great piece in the I think I want to say it's the Atlantic. The Atlantic had a really great story, and I'm sorry if it wasn't. Oh, it may have been the cut. I think it was the Atlantic. Did a good piece, regardless of who the source, on the disconnect from reality that exists within the billionaire class, and that what they are ultimately uh affording themselves is not any more money or influence because they already have more money than they could ever spend in their lives. They any asset they want, they can have. Like that, if they lose an asset, it's inconsequential. Correct. What they are buying ultimately is freedom from consequence. That's it. They have bought themselves impunity, like it just they don't end introspection. None of them even think about what they do because it doesn't matter because nothing can happen to them.

Steve 31:30

I literally wrote this a month ago and I said, and guess what? That's what the case was. In fact, somebody just liked it today on my website on my website. They that there's there's seen these groups that sometimes go in and find my old stuff. And literally, I said, they didn't care until the barbarians knocked at the gate. Now all of a sudden, in their enclaves, the the billionaires are like, Oh shit, what's gonna happen? But I know.

Shawna 31:53

Did you sorry? Did you hear? Um no, no, but I just you reminded me there was like a really great um, oh my gosh, what wasn't it? It was like the CEO of Chase of Chase Bank, World Chase, and um the CEO of Chase said he said the uh quiet part out loud. And he said, It's time for all of us to start paying taxes and paying our fair share. Or the people are coming with pitch pitchforks, they're coming. Well, no shit.

Steve 32:16

Look at Tom Styers. Oh, I I you know, I I I'm a billionaire who wants to have taxes, and then he writes he paid no taxes last year. And everyone's like, Well, what are you doing with that money? Oh, he's spending it on his governmentorial campaign. Yeah. The bottom line, and again, they didn't hit him on that, that's what they should have done. But again, I'm not the electeds here in those environments. But look, I think Matt Mahan has it right. Unfortunately, the messenger is not as good as the message. That, you know, the fact billionaires or wealthy people are able to borrow against their assets and use those that borrowing to basically pay interest on as opposed to paying tax on it, is really ridiculous. If I should if I'm paying 8% interest to borrow a hundred billion dollars, 100 million dollars, it's cheaper than me paying 35 or 40 percent of the government. Like, if you're monetizing the asset, if the asset's not monetized, that's one thing. But if you're monetizing the asset, you have to pay tax on it. Like, that's the reality of it. You're basically turning an asset into an income and not paying tax on it. That that I think in in Mahan has said that. Like, that is the thing that needs to change. And if that changes, then that equalizes the playing field far more than anything else. To the extent that, you know, the the reality is yes, the the people are knocking at the gates and they're saying it's time you cannot run from it anymore. And I think that this is the message that the billionaires in California need to understand. The frustration may be starting here and it might be boy bubbling here, but it's gonna come to you in Florida. It's gonna come to you in Texas, it's gonna come to you wherever you run to, because if it works here, the Federals are going to do it when the Democrats take over. It's coming.

Shawna 34:03

That's right.

Steve 34:04

And even Trump has talked about it. Because for Trump, he realizes that there's no other, they gotta get alternate sources of revenue. And if you're taking trillions of dollars off the table, then you got a problem. Yeah, get smart. This is what I said, but I've said this a thousand times. I'm like, guys, stop fighting it, come up with a solution. My answer would be I'm donating this to the community as a nonprofit because I'm gonna take the tax return on it. I'm gonna keep a couple billion for myself, but I'm gonna control where the money goes instead of giving it to the people who are gonna use it and plunder it. Because if I'm Elon Musk, I probably could do more things than any of the government employees could ever come up with. So if you're so smart, you're so great, then do it that way.

Shawna 34:52

Well, but you know, ultimately they don't need to be because they're in their own bubble living in their own reality that they think is that is, you know, power takes impenetrable.

Steve 35:02

You can't you can't buy it all eventually, they're gonna take it. Just like in Rome. They came and the the government changed and they came and took all the senators' land. I mean, correct. It's happened a thousand it's happened throughout history.

Shawna 35:14

I think the class war is already starting. If you followed some of these other national headlines of uh, you know, like for even right here in Ontario, right in our backyard, um, what happened at the King Kimberly Clark warehouse, where you have this video of one of the employees lighting the toilet paper and the warehouse on fire as he burned down the warehouse. And what he's saying is, all you had to do was pay us enough to live. That's it. All you had to do was pay us enough to live. Meanwhile, they were giving their shareholders more and more money, record dividends, and cutting employee benefits and salaries left and right. And people have just had it. Well, Sean, this has happened in history.

Steve 35:49

This is nothing.

Shawna 35:50

Uh again, that's what I'm saying. We're watching it, we're we're get watching it get to that tipping point again, where you know, let them eat cake is, you know, we know where that ends.

Steve 36:01

Uh look, I I it to me, you get out in front and you fix the problem before you give people the reason for it. I think the billionaire tax fails on the legal grounds anyway. But this is the warning shot.

Shawna 36:14

Yeah.

Steve 36:15

And the answer is you guys better figure this out because the next time they come, they're not gonna miss.

Shawna 36:22

No, they're not.

Steve 36:23

And they're not and they're not stopping. Like this is the problem. So figure out what your price is that you're willing to, you know, give up and move on.

Shawna 36:32

Yeah, exactly. Um, I will say this the last thing is we talk about the national mess because it's been a small source of uh entertainment for me. Um, because it's also, you know, it's quite uh quite a statement when um quote unquote propaganda, or as they're calling it out of Iran, slopaganda, um, is more accurate than our national news.

unknown 36:59

Oh shut up.

Shawna 37:00

Um you watched these videos because they are kind of amazing, but the takeaway that I want to talk about beyond the videos, and some of the tunes are really catchy, that like the AI MM is actually really good, is the fact that one Lego, when you when you talk about this kind of brand IP, these guys could have this stuff wiped from all internet history overnight with their IP lawyers. Um, Lego's like, oh, well, nothing to see here. Why? Because Lego is uh owned by a Swedish parent company that has primary offices in Greenland. Okay.

Steve 37:36

Um the whole world's Danish, not Swedish. It's Danish.

Shawna 37:39

Is it Danish, not Swedish? Are you sure?

Steve 37:42

Positive. I was at Lego growing up.

Shawna 37:45

Well, no, it comes. This comes from my, you know, gaming gaming person. Greenland is part of Denmark anyway. Correct, correct. Anyhow, the point is they could shut this down very fast and they're not. And the artists could also shut this down very fast and they're not. And I think that says everything. The the whole world is united in their disgust. And what's playing out here locally, you know, what what is playing out here locally is very indicative of what's playing out, you know, on a federal and national and global scale, and vice versa, right? Which is what we talk about all day here.

Steve 38:19

Shauna, yes, but I can also say that there are things that are being things there, there are changes that need to be made to the system, and the way it's being done is absolutely inappropriate. But the the message is being lost among the messenger.

Shawna 38:36

So well, should we jump into a legislative roundup? Because oh my gosh, so much legislation.

Steve 38:43

Well, it's that time of year.

Shawna 38:45

Tis the season. So quick and dirty. We have uh your boy John, your boy. My boy John Harabidian, your boy, uh John Herabidian, his uh assembly bill AB1642 with EFRU, the Eaton Fryer Residents United, um, working for science-based standards for clearance before occupancy. That's their big tagline, clearance before occupancy for all standing structures. So that's not just science-based um standards before insurance companies force people back into smoke damaged homes or landlords force people into uncleared um rentals, but also commercial structures and schools. Schools are really the big critical missing piece. There are kids in dirty schools right now. So good times. I'm I really am I couldn't be more supportive of that bill, and I hope that they get it through. Well, it's the truth. I think there are a lot of parents that are freaked out. I was speaking to one of our community leaders in the nonprofit world who was sharing that like she has no doubt that the daycare that her two-year-old's going to is lead contaminated, and she doesn't really have a choice, though, to go anywhere else. So great. You know, that's uh that is the reality that we are living.

Steve 39:54

I grab a pay of protection money to our mafia to run this place and take care of us.

Shawna 39:59

Yep. It's getting crazy out there. So there is an opposing bill that was being kind of called a Trojan horse bill from uh Mike Gibson, AB 1759, that was described as well intended, but with too many gaffes that would just reinforce existing bad policy for those left with standing structures after a fire. So everyone was really trying to push to shut down AB 1759 and support AB 1642. Um, separately, we've got um Ben Allen's bill, SB 1301, which is um another insurance-related bill requiring better protections when it comes to unexpected non-renewals. So basically, you know, this one of the situations we saw play out here is that when that fire hit January 8th, you have people who had just had their insurance canceled December 31st and hadn't even received notice in the mail yet. Holy shit. So people, you know, in our community were faced with this reality that, oh, everything just burned down and I was uninsured and didn't even know this yet, and had no notice and no ability to get secure alternate coverage, and now I'm just left hanging out in the wind.

Steve 41:06

There was uh did they fix that problem?

Shawna 41:10

No, no, they did not.

Steve 41:12

There are people that are still living in limbo.

Shawna 41:14

Correct. Many, many. So that is uh that is part of you know of what this bill is from Ben Allen uh trying to correct is you know, how how do we get create some mechanisms to protect people from being in that kind of situation again? Yep, right. Um, we've got you know, SB, uh we got a pair of bills.

Steve 41:35

Um actually we got a quite we got a slew from our our favorite person, uh SRP, um, which are not all 787, 777 or 8778. Yeah, 877 and 877. Which one do you want to jump in first? 77, 78. Those are Joy's bills. Those are the insur the consumer watchdogs.

Shawna 41:53

Yep. Well, they're they're Sasha Renee Perez's bills, but yes, those are the insurance ones, and they're kind of long shots, but you know, it'll be uh I fully support these if they can get them through.

Steve 42:02

So but they were supposed to try to get that through regulation, and they obviously got nowhere with Lara.

Shawna 42:08

Yep, correct. So SB uh 877 helps consumers challenge claims under payments with greater transparency, and 878 would strengthen existing laws on claim delays by applying a 20% interest penalty. I don't think either of those will pass. Nope, uh neither will pass, but I wish they would because they need to. And then the other one from uh Sasha Renee Perez is uh SB 1076, another insurance related that is to require insurers to cover homes that meet wildfire standards. So if you've done everything that you're supposed to do, uh to fire harden, you should be zone zero. Well, yes, which we'll talk about a little bit uh in a minute. I think we've got that on here. Did we not? Was that did we miss it in our last episode? Anyhow, we can talk about it a little bit. No, I think we do have it.

Steve 42:57

It's topic three.

Shawna 42:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So getting back to it to this, we also have um SB 982, which is a new version of Scott Weiner's bill that didn't pass last year seeking to blunt rising insurance costs by allowing the California attorney general to sue I know to sue fossil fuel companies for damages if it are connected to a climate disaster like ours.

Steve 43:20

Um again, ours was not a climate disaster. It was a it was a man-made climate-fueled unnatural disaster. That this one would never have happened had Edison not maintaining.

Shawna 43:35

Oh no, you you'll get you get zero disagreement from me. SCE started the fire, climate change propelled that fire. Maybe maladministration is what burned down the whole fucking town.

Steve 43:47

This is this is this is I I yeah, I this would not I mean this type of stuff I think is what this is the kind of legislation that gets us in trouble in California.

Shawna 43:57

Well, to your point, it's not gonna go anywhere.

Steve 44:01

It's just the point that it's even taking up oxygen. Like it shouldn't be.

Shawna 44:04

Yeah. Yep.

Steve 44:05

Well, it's we're talking about reality, which was this was a totally man-made government fuck-up that created this problem.

Shawna 44:11

Correct. With a decommissioned tower that was standing decommissioned, inoperable for 50 years. That tower went up the year that I was born. Or sorry, that tower was.

Steve 44:22

That tower had that bill to get rid of these things.

Shawna 44:24

Correct. That tower was decommissioned in 74. And that was the year that it was supposed to have been. There was what was it? Like they had like a two or five year max limit based on standing law to remove it. Nothing done. Nothing. No reinforce. No enforcement of our existing laws. Nothing. I I've had people say, why isn't there a law to remove it? Well, there is a law to remove it. We just are doing it.

Steve 44:48

And that gets back to the point. You can pass all the laws you want. If you don't enforce the laws, correct won't go anywhere. Who cares?

Shawna 44:55

Yep.

Steve 44:56

So back informative.

Shawna 44:58

I agree. So back to this, we've got Congressman Vince Fong. Uh he's reintroduced what is now being called the Doug Lamalfa Protect Innocent Vis Victims of Taxation After Fire Extension Act. So for anyone who's not already familiar, the um the folks from Paradise after the campfire and losing their town worked really hard to create legislation that would eliminate federal taxes on disaster settlements because why should the government be enriched enriching themselves on money that we need every penny of after a disaster like this? So that bill did pass, but it is set to expire. They are pushing now to have that extended. And the person who was pushing that forward was Doug Lamalfa, who very unexpectedly passed away in the middle of that work. So uh Congressman Vince Fong has picked that up, and uh Doug Lamalfa's name is now attached to it, which I think was a nice nod. Um, and finally, um, in other news, a little less legislation oriented, but did you see the LA County Commercial Acquisition Fund?

Steve 46:01

Yeah, you told me about this. I threw it in my mouth.

Shawna 46:04

Yeah. I know. But it's worth noting and seeing following what they're up to, as well as Barker's announcement of 199.9 million and 44 new staff for OEM. And if you're wondering why now, oh, I know why, because they are being heavily investigated by the attorney general uh based on the disparate response um in this civil rights investigation. So I think that they are doing hard what they can to get ahead of it because they know they're in deep shit.

Steve 46:34

44 million out of a 49 billion dollar budget. Come on. That's all.

Shawna 46:38

I know. And 44 new staff. Like it's I know, I know. To as usual, too little, too late, but here we are.

Steve 46:45

They just I know.

Shawna 46:48

Shall we move on? Shall we move on? I just wanted to give everybody a top line of what's happening in their name because make no doubt, make no mistake, have no doubt, make no bones about it. This is all being done in the name of fire survivors. And some of it's good, some of it's bad, some of it's ugly, some of it is, to Steve's point, just highly performative. It's legislation that everyone knows does not stand a chance, it'll never make it through. But we do these big dog and pony shows to say we did it because this is how our electeds are like, look at me, I'm doing the things for the people.

Steve 47:20

But think about if they if they use these performative tactics to do something like the disaster investment fund or 797, you know, at least you know, bringing it back, at least it's there. At least we're keeping it front and center. That shit went right away. There nobody wants to touch that. Nope. No, no, we're gonna do the stuff that doesn't really move the needle and actually change anything.

Shawna 47:42

Right. So the other thing we wanted to talk about today um were some zone zero updates that dropped last week. Um, for those who uh may not recall, zone zero is the um are the new standards that are being applied in the uh the highest risk fire areas. So our northern for us in Altanina, our northernmost streets um in the Palisades. It's the entirety of the Palisades. Um those updates were based on a significant amount of of uh resident pushback and feedback. And it was really nice to see that happen because there's a little bit more common sense. Like now they're potted trees and potted plants are permitted, and there were a number of other um things that were updated. And when I should get do our show notes, I'll be sure to link back on this so people can go read this to the for themselves. But I'm gonna give a shout out to one of our listeners, uh Rich Rever, because uh Rich is awesome. And Rich is awesome, and he's uh one of our local JPL guys or JPLers, because they are certainly not all guys. Um, but you know, Rich and I had a conversation the other night, and he said, you know, Sean, I had a little bit of a bone to pick with you because I felt that some of your anti um zone zero commentary was based in some, you know, highly publicized, you know, inaccuracies. But actually, and I said this to Rich in person, I'll say it for for the listeners. I stand by all of that because it wasn't it wasn't fear-mongering. It was what was in there. It was in the and unfortunately, it was this absurdity that came up of like no no climbing plants, like as if the bogambia took us out, or as if the trees surrounding our homes took us out. That's not the case. We know that those, you know, those things with water in them are protective, those trees are protective where we have clusters of homes and whole pockets and swaths of the community that survived. It was protected by the trees. Look at Christmas Tree Lane. So I will die on that hill, Rich. You won't be surprised. But I also want to shout out the amazing work that Rich has been doing because he likes so many community members who will who no one will ever know about or ever hear about, have stepped up in so many ways in so many different uh corners of of our community to so to work on various things. So one of Rich's things that he's really been working hard on is fire hardening and how people can fire harden their homes and the reality that, like, yeah, we're gonna do this in Altadena, but it's really not for us. It's for all everyone out there in other towns who are going to need this. So, you know, he and his family are displaced. They are currently living in La Crescenta. And, you know, this week they were hosting at their La Crescenta rental a whole workshop um with experts for their La Crescent neighbors, getting them organized and getting them to understand the realities of what's going to come for them and how they can protect their families and their homes and their properties. And um, it's pretty awesome. So shout out to Rich and everyone else in the community doing the work because it's critical work.

Steve 50:48

Indeed.

Shawna 50:49

You know, um, a couple other little news bits that are worth mentioning. Um, SCE has a new hub in Altadena. SCE, um, while they're doing the undergrounding and all the other fun things that they do in our community. Oh yay, SCE has um a new hub on North Fair Oaks, just adjacent Fair Oaks Burger. Uh, they've left the one-stop shop where um all the other resources were located to have their own space. So now when you go in to talk to them about a permit or anything else, they can also pressure you to take their offer. Uh I got a laugh because of the absurdity of it. Um yeah. Um, and another thing that if anyone missed it, because the survey is still open and it's never too late to uh to to provide feedback. Um, a couple of weeks ago, we had a really heated Altina town council member as some proposals. It was actually not a town council, but a land use committee, the land use committee that I used to sit on. And it was um, which I arguably I'd say this because it's arguably the truth, that it's like that is the most important committee that does actually um have a meaningful say and has prior to the fires, that land use committee, um, as they weigh in on zoning and development and and how what happens in the community and how our CSD is or is not utilized. And it's the community that developed the CSD. So what came up were the multiple projects that were slated um for certain areas of Altadena um that kind of left you with like a oh whoa, this is happening. Um and it was a lot of in part, it was a lot of um car washes. The theme was car washes. So we have an existing car wash that everybody knows about at uh Woodbury and Fair Oaks, and we did have another one on North Fair Oaks, though I hear that that one is unlikely to come back. The gentleman who owned it was a um retired uh fireman, and it sounds like he is not going to reopen. But all of that said, um, there are now multiple car washes slated. So the Joe's mobile station, Catacorner from that existing uh station at Ferroaks, sorry, car wash at Fair Oaks and Woodbury. He was doing his major tank maintenance, which you've probably heard about or read about in my group because we watched some of that dirt go to places it absolutely should not have in our community. But that I digress, that's the story for another time. Dirty dirty soil. And other course. Yep. And um, however, uh, which I think is important to add, the owners of the gas station had absolutely no knowledge of and probably still don't know happened. And you know, this is no reflection on them. They are Joe is lovely. So, what Joe is trying to do is actually um he's got a you know uh CUP request in to uh change up his station, completely rebuild it, uh, and with that add a new convenience mini market and a new car wash. Okay, so that's another new car wash. Now we're being asked to also clear a car wash at the former gym site. Gym. So to remind people that is across the street from the McDonald's and the 24-hour fitness, that is on the Lincoln Corridor. It is Lincoln and Woodbury. It is a major thoroughfare and arguably the West Side's interest to the entrance to the community. That gym's landmark has been a really important property. And there's also, you know, one of our last existing standing schools that is still open is right there. And you have a lot of community members and you know, residents that live right there in standing homes that survived. And what they want to bring is this like pink and purple garish car. It's unreal. Like I was I rarely do I have a strong opinion, but I was like, I have to agree with the neighbors that don't want this. This is not NIMBY, this is just bad. And the irony is that the community before the fire shut down the proposal from Starbucks to open a Starbucks there. And it's like, I cannot begin to get into how much better a Starbucks would have been there. Like, if it was a Starbucks, guess what? The Starbucks would be reopened. Starbucks have reopened, and if they didn't come back to the community, it would have been newly built, beautiful retail kitchen space ready to go for another small business.

Steve 55:01

Well, I'm sure, I'm sure all the coffee shops along Lincoln would probably want no Starbucks there. Believe it or not.

Shawna 55:10

So believe it or not, Steve, believe it or not, that's not always the case. The Starbucks customer is a different customer, but it brings foot traffic. If you ask small business owners, and this is the case in Sierra Madre, where you would think that they would hate on that Starbucks being in that little tiny shopping district, but they love it. It brings foot traffic, it brings people, it brings safety and security. They are generally positive for that business mix when you allow too much corporate, too much chain. What's the one highlight that customers you have highlight, you have Stumptown, which is corporate. Well, Stump Town, but Stumptown is not small business. Stumptown is black money.

Steve 55:50

I get it. It's like Starbucks Light. I get it. It's not, but it's not and then you got um unincorporated up the street.

Shawna 55:58

Correct. But again, different customers. Very different customers.

Steve 56:02

Well, I I mean that that space has been vacant for a while, and it would be nice to have something there.

Shawna 56:07

Yeah. Um Yeah, it would. They ironically, that that got shut down when the family that was running gyms uh lost their kitchen to a fire and then didn't have enough insurance money to reopen, which is very sad.

Steve 56:20

So what are they gonna do there, Shauna?

Shawna 56:23

I don't know, but I don't think it's gonna be a car wash. I think the community's gonna come out pretty strong against that from what I saw so far. Yeah, maybe we'll see. I don't know, huh? I don't know either.

Steve 56:39

So yeah, that was that was kind of uh crap about commercial businesses in Al Zadina. So if somebody wanted to do it, turn that into like affordable housing, then it'd be all over. Yeah.

Shawna 56:51

I would agree. And I don't think people the people, I mean, some people have uh some some frustration with that, but I think for the most part, you know, that would be a positive thing, right?

Steve 57:01

Well, you couldn't stop it because SB9 would stop it. So I mean, or whatever.

Shawna 57:05

And there is, by the way, there are there were two other projects that land use was hearing, and one was an affordable housing project. It's the one at 2214 Windsor. So the uh west side of town, uh closer to JPL Windsor is that, you know, another kind of primary on and off ramp of the 210 into Aldadina. Um, that's it's it's right there just behind that um that uh service station um at again.

SPEAKER_01 57:32

Behind Gordy's garage.

Shawna 57:33

Yeah, exactly. Gordy's garage. Thank you. I couldn't remember the name of it. So it's right there. And that, you know what? That that was that already in the works before the fire. And I think, you know, arguably we need this. I my only thing would be hey, prioritize Altadina, prioritize all of those locally who are low income, remain unhoused, have no mechanism back into the community. Those are the people those units should be for, period. Um, and the other project is a core community center, core being a um uh local nonprofit doing a lot of work, and that is at Lincoln Avenue in Archwood. So I think we're not seeing so much uh pushback at that, but definitely some pushback on the proposed car wash at 2185 Lincoln and even the uh mixed feelings about Joe's Mobile getting another car wash at 15 West Woodbury across the street from a car wash, because how many car washes does our tiny town need?

Steve 58:23

Like a gas station car wash, it's not gonna be a car wash, car wash.

Shawna 58:25

It is, it is, but nonetheless, you know how much car wash do we need? Four car washes?

Steve 58:31

Well, I mean, look, it'd be nice to get your car washed considering all the dirt and all the construction we're gonna have.

Shawna 58:37

So, should we bring one of these car washes to your side of town? Just curious, because just in it's in case it's lost on anyone, all of this is in West Altadena.

Steve 58:45

All of it. That's where the commercial corridors are.

Shawna 58:48

I know you've got one on Allen.

Steve 58:51

Yeah, but you can't put a car wash unless you're gonna go into the place where they put the handbag store store.

Shawna 58:55

Yeah, fair enough, fair enough. But you get my point. You know, it's like all of this gets pushed to us.

Steve 58:59

I think you're being catty.

Shawna 59:01

I think the community could should uh of West Altadena deserves more than just, you know, agreed.

Steve 59:07

I think that West Altadina deserves a compete a complete commercial plan. And I think that that is something that's critical to the future of Altadena. And I think if anything about our community needs to be done, like that's where there should be leadership, and there is no economic development plan. And if you're gonna play, we talk about this all the time. Like again, I'm not saying car wash or no car wash, I'm saying we need to have something that works, and we need to have our commercial corridors have an organized methodology in which they're being organized, you know, developed, and they're not there is nothing. So I'm with you. My son would love to see a commercial corridor along Allen. He's like, Dad, how do we do that? I'm like, it's just there's too many residents residentials along there.

Shawna 59:50

Yeah, there are.

Steve 59:52

I mean, it it would be nice to see Lake become the town center up there around where Barbetsy and Betsy are become. Yeah, no, I agree. That that entire Mariposa central town, like a village almost like a before the fire.

Shawna 1:00:08

So I'm gonna, you know, we're about to run over. I don't want to go too long, but before the fire, we there we talked quite a bit about um oh my gosh, is it Santa Clarita? I gotta see where it was, but it's another unincorporated county town that had a main drag like ours that also had an incline, and uh that they had pedestrianized it, they had done all of this tree planning, all of these bump outs, changed up the parking. Um, and it was beautiful. And with that, they did incentive incentives for businesses to open and created the most beautiful central town space that again, how now post-fire is there nothing like that happening for us?

Steve 1:00:46

How look, I've been arguing. You know, I've written multiple pieces on this, and I think that that could be you know mixed use. I think we can have research and technology up there. I think we can become an outpost for Caltech and JPL. Like, I think that there's so much that we could be doing with that area, and we're not, it's a travesty, especially because we have that window to raise the money, but now we're down to we got two more years to do it. Yeah, and arguing. Finally, finally they're listening. Finally, they're hearing the words banks involved in this rebuild for the first time ever. Truly being used. Except you know, no longer these token initiatives, like that has to be a part of it. In the Oval Office, people, whether you like it or not, that's where the power is in this country, and finally people are starting to use those words, including our supervisor slash mayor.

Shawna 1:01:36

Yeah, she's not the mayor. We've got a we've got a handful of mayors, and she's not one of them.

Steve 1:01:41

Well, unfortunately, yeah, 100%.

Shawna 1:01:47

Yeah, that she is. No one's debating that, but she's not the mayor. She has a lot, but she doesn't have our people.

Steve 1:01:53

No, no, no. This is a it's a fallacy. It's a it's a it's a travesty. But anyway, keep going.

Shawna 1:01:59

Yeah, it is, it is. Well, small bus shadows. Shall we wrap it up?

Steve 1:02:03

Please. We gotta go. Okay.

Shawna 1:02:07

So this weekend is uh Webster's Pharmacy Centennial. Wow. They are celebrating a hundred years. Yeah, it's a wow. So um, that is this Saturday, April 25th from noon to four. Um, there's gonna be live music, community artists, pet adoptions, kids' activities, local food, 26 cent drinks, which is what they were when they opened 100 years ago. Um, sadly, they're not in their original location, as we know, post-fire.

Steve 1:02:34

The old Quiznos, uh now formerly known as Quiznos.

Shawna 1:02:37

Exactly, in a much smaller space, but they are still holding out and still there. So that is the you know, the Websters community pharmacy that once upon a time they had Websters had that whole block that they had to leave. But once upon a time, Websters had the whole block. It was like a gifts and stationery, a toy store. I remember the liquor store and ice. Well, people who aren't in our community or who are newer to the community may not remember. It was really amazing. And even when I came to Altina in 2010, most of that was still alive and thriving, or not necessarily thriving as it had, but it was still alive and and and open. And I loved it and spent a lot of time and money there. I was really sad when it sold and downsized and largely, you know, became had suffered the fate that retail uh has, brick and mortar retail has suffered everywhere. But you know, this weekend celebration is really it's fantastic. Please come out and um and support that. There is also at the same time, um, a concert, uh, rhythms, uh, rhythm of the village is doing a concert that day um support that is also in association with this Webster's Centennial. So everyone should get their booties out and um celebrate what we're gonna do. I think it will and celebrate what's still standing in the community. We've lost so much, but we still have so much um here that we want to preserve and support and ensure is here for many years to come.

Steve 1:03:59

Shauna, you're you are a treasure to our community for continuing to be the glue that keeps this all going. And no, I was not paid to say that. I promise you.

Shawna 1:04:10

I know. I I I'm always like, no, Steve, no, Steve. But there there are there's lots of us. I did this conversation with someone else at the um Eat and Fire Collaboratory this morning, um, the REFC and uh related to our LTRG, the long-term recovery group, and that that's it. Like we all have a part to play. We all have, and we are so lucky in this town, we have so many people working so hard in their various corners to do anything that we can to save what's left of this town before it's it's too late. So I'm happy to be one of those people.

Steve 1:04:40

And thank you for doing it.

Shawna 1:04:42

Yeah, and you too, Steve. You got your part too.

Steve 1:04:44

Well, mine's easy to do.

Shawna 1:04:46

It's true. Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone demures. So don't forget, you heard it here first.

Steve 1:04:54

I'm Sean. What was the other thing? Is something about bots? Hang on.

Shawna 1:04:58

Oh my gosh, I was gonna say, email us. Yes, if you'd like to. Oh my gosh, this is we have to wrap on this. If you want to uh say, you know, join us as a guest. And by the way, we were talking about guests, and um uh I will issue an open invitation to anyone from the town council to come and join us um as a guest on here because I think that those are important conversations. Really? Exactly.

Steve 1:05:22

Any elected, but we you and I were talking about senator, including our assembly. 100% 100.

Shawna 1:05:28

We were talking about this though in the context of even like our town council members, and we have some really awesome new town council members, and you know, it's fun to hear those voices and and perspectives and bring those folks on. But um Steve and I just got like an entire series of um pitches from like what was clearly AI for guests on this podcast.

Steve 1:05:51

I was like, these are the most well written things. Like, how are they called?

Shawna 1:05:54

I know because it's AI.

Steve 1:05:56

I know it's a hundred percent AI because it's all the same thing.

Shawna 1:05:59

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, I know I'm still laughing about it. Um, I don't know. I may we may have to write some substacts about them, but also I don't want to give them any air, but it's so funny. So, yes, uh, if you have a suggestion, a comment, um, a query, um a guest that you want to suggest, um, anything, you know, you can always drop us a line, beautifulaldadina og at gmail.com, beautifulaltadina og gmail.com, the OG is official group. But um, yeah, you can find us there. And um, but not if you're a bot.

Steve 1:06:35

They'll find you first.

Shawna 1:06:38

Uh no shit. So, anyhow, until next time.

Steve 1:06:41

See you later. Have a good weekend. Enjoy. And maybe we'll be up again next week, eh, Shauna?

Shawna 1:06:48

Hey, stranger things have happened.

Steve 1:06:50

All right.

Shawna 1:06:51

All right, we'll close it out there. Thanks everyone for listening. Bye.